III-nitride materials have attracted considerable attention in the last decade due to their wide applications in solidstate light devices with their direct wide band-gaps and higher quantum efficiencies. InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well is important active region for light-emitting diode, which can be tuned according to indium composition in the InxGa1-xN alloy system. Owing to difficulty in fabricating bulk materials, GaN thin films are heteroepitaxially grown on latticemismatched and thermal-expansion-mismatched substrates, such as sapphire (Al2O3), Si and SiC, which subsequently results in a mass of threading dislocations and higher residual strains. On the one hand, dislocations and defects existing in GaN epifilms trap the carriers as scattering centers in the radiative recombination process between electrons and holes, and play an important role in drooping the internal quantum efficiency. On the other hand, higher built-in electric field induced by residual strains existing in GaN epifilm could make the emission wavelength red-shifted.It is common knowledge that temperature is one of the important factors in the growth process of epitaxial films, as a result, further research on thermal expansion behaviors is needed. Based on the above analysis, an in-depth study of thermal expansion behavior of wurtzite GaN epitaxial film is of vital importance both in theory and in application.In this study, we investigate the thermal expansion behaviors of wurtzite GaN epitaxial films by using temperaturedependent Raman scattering in a temperature range from 83 K to 503 K. According to the physical implication, Gruneisen parameter is almost a constant (Gruneisen parameters of all phonon modes are in a range between 1 to 2 for GaN) that characterizes the relationship between the phonon shift and the volume of a solid-state material. More importantly, Gruneisen parameter is relatively insensitive to temperature and suitable for building the connection between the phonon shift and thermal expansion coefficient. Therefore, the linear relationship between the phonon shift and temperature is built and utilized to calculate the thermal expansion coefficient according to the physical implication of the Gruneisen parameter. Conclusions can be obtained as follows. (1) The thermal expansion coefficient of GaN epifilm can be calculated in a certain temperature range by measuring the phonon modes of E2 (high), A1 (TO) and E1 (TO) through using temperature-dependent Raman scattering when the corresponding Gruneisen parameters are determined. (2) The calculated thermal expansion coefficients of GaN epifilm are consistent with the theoretical values.Conclusions and methods in this paper provide an effective quantitative analysis method to characterize the thermal expansion behaviors of other III-nitride epitaxial thin films, such as AlN, InN, AlGaN, InGaN, InAlN etc., which can be of benefit to reducing the dislocation density and improving the luminescence efficiency of light emitting diode. Therefore, research on thermal expansion behaviors of epifilms using temperature-dependent Raman scattering has a direction for further studying the latter-mismatch and thermal-expansion-mismatch between the epitaxial film and substrate.

In this paper, we measure the emission transition mechanisms in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LED) using low-frequency current noise from 0.1 to 10 mA. According to the characteristics of the low-frequency current noise and the emission mechanisms of InGaN/GaN LEDs, we study the relationships between low-frequency current noise and current flows through the LEDs. Conclusions indicate that the low-frequency current noise is increased with the increasing current from 0.1 to 10 mA. With a lower current (I10 mA) it is the 1/f noise that dominates in LEDs, so there exists an emission transition mechanism in InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs between 0.1 and 10 mA, showing that the mechanism of the carrier recombination changes from non-radiative recombination to a stable fluctuation of carrier numbers. Conclusions of this paper provide an effective method to characterize the emission transition mechanisms, optimize the design of LED so as to improve the quantum efficiency for InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs.

During the past two decades, GaN-based light-emitting diode has been used as a high-quality light-source. Low-frequency noise as a diagnostic tool for quality control and reliability estimation has been widely accepted and used for semiconductor devices. Understanding the origin of efficiency-droop effect is key to developing the ultimate solid-state light source. Various mechanisms that may cause this effect have been suggested, including carriers’ escape, loses due to dislocations, and the Auger effect. In this study, we investigate the low-frequency noise behaviors of GaN-based blue light-emitting diode with InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells. The measured currents range from 0.1 mA to 180 mA. According to the characteristics of power spectral density of current noise and the generation-combination mechanism between electrons and holes in the active region of light-emitting diode (LED), we adopt the well-known model of low-frequency noise to fit the relationship between power spectral density of current and frequency, and find that there exists a transition between generation-combination and 1/<i>f</i> noise when the light-emitting diode begins to work. In other words, it can be derived that the low-frequency noise behaviors are dominated by generation-combination noise when the currents are between 0.1 mA and 27 mA; with the current gradually increasing, the origin source of low-frequency noise in blue/violet-light LED will transit to the 1/<i>f</i> noise. Through the analysis of the transport and recombination mechanism of the carriers, and combination with the model of low-frequency noise, we analyze the corner frequency of the generation-recombination noise. The results of this paper provide an effective tool and method to study the conversion of light-emitting diodes.