Stimulated Emission at 258 nm in AlN/AlGaN Quantum Wells Grown on Bulk AlN Substrates

Abstract

AbstractWe report on observation of stimulated emission at 258 nm in AlN/AlGaN multiple quantum wells. The structures were grown over Al-face single crystal bulk AlN substrates. AlN/AlGaN structures with 50% of Al in the well material were grown using low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition. Characterization by using X-ray, AFM, SEM, and photoluminescence techniques indicated high structural quality of the structures. The stimulated emission was measured using the variable stripe length method under excitation by 4-ns-long pulses of the fifth harmonic of Nd:YAG laser radiation at 213 nm (5.82 eV). The stimulated emission exhibited a characteristic superlinear dependence of emission intensity on the pump intensity as well as an exponential increase of the sample-edge emission intensity with increasing stripe length up to ∼430 μm and the intensity saturation beyond this range. The observation of stimulated emission at 258 nm is very promising for the future development of III-nitride-based deep-UV laser diodes on bulk AlN substrates.