Raman spectra for a series of Mg-doped GaN films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition and annealed in N2 ambiance at different temperatures have been investigated. Some local vibrational modes related to hydrogen were observed, showing drastic changes with the annealing temperature. The spectra show clearly that H impurities incorporated in as-grown films, which passivate Mg acceptors, are released from the Mg–N bonding at above ∼600 °C, and diffuse in the film to form new chemical bondings. We have also observed a local mode related to activated Mg acceptors. This mode is conveniently used as a probe of the activation process of Mg acceptors.

Raman spectra from p-type GaN have been systematically studied in the hole density range of 5×1016–1×1018 cm−3. Contrary to the case of n-type samples, spectral profiles of the LO-phonon-plasmon coupled mode in p-type show no remarkable change with the hole density. Thus, precise evaluation of electrical transport parameters such as carrier density and mobility from the coupled mode profile is difficult. However, a continuum band has been observed in the low-frequency range of the spectra, becoming intense with the increase of the hole density. This band has been attributed to the inter-valence-band transition of holes, and the intensity can be used as a good measure of the hole density.

The effects of slight misorientation from c-plane (0001) sapphire (α-Al2O3) substrates on GaN surface morphologies and electroluminescence (EL) properties were studied. The GaN layers were grown using a two-step growth method under atmospheric pressure by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). When using around 0.17° misoriented sapphire substrate tilted toward both <1120> and <1100> directions, a small step-type morphology appeared. On the other hand, using c-plain substrate or substrates with the misorientation angle larger than approximately 0.25° from the c-plane, a scale-shaped morphology appears. We also found that the misorientation of the substrate significantly affects the uniformity of the EL image. On the other hand, the light output powers of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated on the substrates with different misorientations were almost the same in spite of the different surface morphologies.

Self-pulsating InGaN laser diodes with a p-type InGaN saturable absorber (SA) layer are demonstrated. The SA layer consists of a 1-nm-thick p-type InGaN well surrounded by 2-nm-thick p-type In0.02Ga0.98N barriers. The lower barrier of the SA is located on the 18-nm-thick p-type Al0.3Ga0.7N evaporation-prevention layer of the active region. Self-pulsation is demonstrated for output powers in the range 4 to 22 mW with corresponding self-pulsation frequencies in the range 1.6 to 2.9 GHz. Results indicate that the position of the SA layer in the structure has a strong influence on the carrier lifetime and is responsible for the observation of self-pulsation in these devices.

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