Using the epitaxial lateral growth technique, we compared the crystallinity and relaxation ratio of 3-µm- and 200-nm-thick Al0.5Ga0.5N on an AlN template and AlN grown by epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO-AlN), both of which were grown on a sapphire substrate. Although the relaxation ratios of 3-µm-thick Al0.5Ga0.5N were almost the same, the misfit dislocation density at the interface and the density of threading dislocations reaching the surface of Al0.5Ga0.5N were significantly different. Also, the increase in the density of newly generated misfit dislocations was found to be highly dependent on the quality of the AlN underlying layer. We also discuss the difference in the initial growth mode of each Al0.5Ga0.5N sample.

We investigated dislocation density dependence on stimulated emission characteristics of AlGaN/AlN multiquantum wells (MQWs: emission wavelength of approximately 285 nm) on AlN templates with various dislocation densities. We found that the stimulated emission characteristics of the deep UV MQWs were strongly dependent on the dislocation densities. A reduction of the dislocation densities is very important in order to realize good stimulated emission characteristics of deep UV MQWs. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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