A room temperature polariton condensate realized in a microcavity with embedded GaN quantum wells emits linearly polarized light at threshold with the plane of polarization pinned to one of the crystallographic axes. With increasing pumping power, a depinning of the polarization is observed resulting in a progressive decrease of the polarization degree of the emitted light. This depinning is understood in terms of polariton-polariton repulsion competing with the static disorder potential effect. The polarization behavior differs from that of conventional lasers where the polarization degree usually increases as a function of pumping power.

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The main emission characteristics of electrically-driven polariton lasers based on planar GaN microcavities with embedded InGaN quantum wells are studied theoretically. The polariton emission dependence on pump current density is first modeled using a set of semi-classical Boltzmann equations for the exciton-polaritons that are coupled to the rate equation describing the electron-hole plasma population. Two experimentally relevant pumping geometries are considered, namely the direct injection of electrons and holes into the strongly coupled microcavity region and intracavity optical pumping via an embedded light-emitting diode. The theoretical framework allows the determination of the minimum threshold current density J thr,min as a function of lattice temperature and exciton-cavity photon detuning for the two pumping schemes. A J thr,min value of 5 Acm −2 and 6 Acm −2 is derived for the direct injection scheme and for the intracavity optical pumping one, respectively, at room temperature at the optimum detuning. Then an approximate quasi-analytical model is introduced to derive solutions for both the steady-state and high-speed current modulation. This analysis makes it possible to show that the exciton population, which acts as a reservoir for the stimulated relaxation process, gets clamped once the condensation threshold is crossed, a behavior analogous to what happens in conventional laser diodes with the carrier density above threshold. Finally the modulation transfer function is calculated for both pumping geometries and the corresponding cutoff frequency is determined.

To assess the impact of random alloying on the optical properties of the InGaN alloy, high-quality InxGa1−xN (0 < x < 0.18) epilayers grown on c-plane free-standing GaN substrates are characterized both structurally and optically. The thickness (25–100 nm) was adjusted to keep these layers pseudomorphically strained over the whole range of explored indium content as checked by x-ray diffraction measurements. The evolution of the low temperature optical absorption (OA) edge linewidth as a function of absorption energy, and hence the indium content, is analyzed in the framework of the random alloy model. The latter shows that the OA edge linewidth should not markedly increase above an indium content of 4%, varying from 17 meV to 30 meV for 20% indium. The experimental data initially follow the same trend with, however, a deviation from this model for indium contents exceeding only ∼2%. Complementary room temperature near-field photoluminescence measurements carried out using a scanning near-field optical microscope combined with simultaneous surface morphology mappings reveal spatial disorder due to growth meandering. We conclude that for thick high-quality pseudomorphic InGaN layers, a deviation from pure random alloying occurs due to the interplay between indium incorporation and longer range fluctuations induced by the InGaN step-meandering growth mode.

Using cathodoluminescence spectroscopy directly performed in a scanning transmission electron microscope at liquid helium temperatures, the optical and structural properties of a 62 InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well embedded in an AlInN/GaN based microcavity are investigated at the nanometer scale. We are able to spatially resolve a spectral redshift between the individual quantum wells towards the surface. Cathodoluminescence spectral linescans allow directly visualizing the critical layer thickness in the quantum well stack resulting in the onset of plastic relaxation of the strained InGaN/GaN system.