Emission mechanisms of a device-quality quantum well (QW) structure and bulk three dimensional (3D) InGaN materials grown on sapphire substrates without any epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN base layers were investigated. The InxGa1−xN layers showed various degrees of in-plane spatial potential (band gap) inhomogeneity, which is due to a compositional fluctuation or a few monolayers thickness fluctuation. The degree of fluctuation changed remarkably around a nominal InN molar fraction x=0.2, which changes to nearly 0.08–0.1 for the strained InxGa1−xN. This potential fluctuation induces localized energy states both in the QW and 3D InGaN, showing a large Stokes-like shift. The spontaneous emission from undoped InGaN single QW light-emitting diodes (LEDs), undoped 3D LEDs, and multiple QW (MQW) laser diode (LD) wafers was assigned as being due to the recombination of excitons localized at the potential minima, whose lateral size was determined by cathodoluminescence mapping to vary from less than 60 to 300 nm in QWs. Those structures are referred to as quantum disks (Q disks) or segmented QWs depending on the lateral size. Blueshift of the emission peak by an increase of the driving current was explained to be combined effects of band filling of the localized states by excitons and Coulomb screening of the quantum confined Stark effect induced by the piezoelectric field. The lasing mechanisms of the continuous wave In0.15Ga0.85N MQW LDs having small potential fluctuations can be described by the well-known electron-hole-plasma (EHP) picture. However, the inhomogeneous MQW LDs are considered to lase by EHP in segmented QWs or Q disks. It is desirable to use entire QW planes with small potential inhomogeneity as gain media for higher performance LD operation.

GaN and its alloys with InN and AlN are materials systems that have enabled the revolution in solid-state lighting and high-power/high-frequency electronics. GaN-based materials naturally form in a hexagonal wurtzite structure and are naturally grown in a (0001) c-axis orientation. Because the wurtzite structure is polar, GaN-based heterostructures have large internal electric fields due to discontinuities in spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization. For optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes and laser diodes, the internal electric field is generally deleterious as it causes a spatial separation of electron and hole wave functions in the quantum wells, which, in turn, likely decreases efficiency. Growth of GaN-based heterostructures in alternative orientations, which have reduced (semipolar orientations) or no polarization (nonpolar) in the growth direction, has been a major area of research in recent years. This issue highlights many of the key developments in nonpolar and semipolar nitride materials and devices.

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Excitonic absorption was observed in a transmittance spectrum of AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN single quantum well structure with a well width of 5 nm at room temperature. The total internal electric field strength in the well was about 0.73 MV/cm, which was estimated from the absorption peak position based on a simple calculation, neglecting excitons. The observation is clearly due to the quantum-confined Stark effect. While excitonic absorption was clearly observed even in such a high internal field, no light emission was detected under a He-Cd laser excitation at temperatures ranging from room temperature to T = 10 K. Light emission accompanied by a blue shift of the emission peak and an increase of emission intensity was observed under higher excitation power density. The obvious conclusion in the present case is that the presence of a high internal electric field in the well is a disadvantage for light emission.