In this Letter, we report on deep UV laser emitting at 249 nm based on thin GaN quantum wells (QWs) by optical pumping at room temperature. The laser threshold was 190 kW/cm2 that is comparable to state-of-the-art AlGaN QW lasers at similar wavelengths. The laser structure was pseudomorphically grown on a c-plane sapphire substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, comprising 40 pairs of 4 monolayer (ML) GaN QWs sandwiched by 6 ML AlN quantum barriers (QBs). The low threshold at the wavelength was attributed to large optical and quantum confinement and high quality of the material, interface, and Fabry-Pérot facet. The emissions below and above the threshold were both dominated by transverse electric polarizations thanks to the valence band characteristics of GaN. This work unambiguously demonstrates the potentials of the binary AlN/GaN heterojunctions for high-performance UV emitters.

Motivated by the goals of fabricating highly reliable, high performance, and cost-efficient self-powered photodetector (PD) for numerous scientific research and civil fields, an organic-inorganic hybrid solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) PD based on PEDOT: PSS/exfoliated β-Ga2O3 microwire heterojunction was fabricated by a flexible and cost-effective assembly method. Benefiting from the heterojunction constructed by the highly crystalline β-Ga2O3 and the excellent hole transport layer PEDOT: PSS, the device presents a high responsivity of 39.8 mA/W at 250 nm and a sharp cut-off edge at 280 nm without any power supply. Additionally, the ultra-high normalized photo-to-dark current ratio (> 104 mW-1cm2) under reverse bias and the superior detectivity of 2.4×1012 Jones at zero bias demonstrate the excellent detection capabilities. Furthermore, the hybrid PD exhibits a rapid rise time (several milliseconds) and high rejection ratio (R250/R365: 5.8 × 103), which further highlights its good spectral selectivity for solar-blind UV. The prominent performance is mainly ascribed to the efficient separation of the photogenerated carriers by the large built-in electric field of the advanced heterojunction. This flexible assembly strategy for solar-blind UV PD combines the advantages of high efficiency, low cost and high performance, providing more potential for PD investigation and application in the future.

We have demonstrated a record short wavelength lasing at 244.63 nm with TE dominant polarization from GaN quantum wells (QWs) at room temperature (RT). The optical threshold of 310 kW/cm 2 is comparable to state-of-the-art AlGaN QW lasers at similar wavelengths. The sample was grown on the AlN/sapphire template pesudomorphically. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows unambiguous higherorder satellite peaks indicating a sharp interface amid the active region. The excitonic localization was revealed and studied by the photoluminescence (PL) and timeresolved PL (TRPL) spectroscopy at temperatures ranging from 15 K to RT. At 15 K, the multiple-component PL decay curves with the decay time varying from 62.6 to 2.77 ns at different energies confirmed the localized excitons. The peak energy of the temperature-dependent PL spectra exhibited the "S-shape" behavior; and the weak exciton localization with a small localization energy of 14.3 meV was observed. Therefore, even in the low temperature region, the escape possibility of excitons increased as the temperature rose. As a result, the fwhm of the emission spectra changed significantly when the temperature was below 150 K. Above 150 K, the PL decay shape changed from the two-component exponential decay to the single exponential decay, indicating complete delocalization of excitons. The work demonstrates the weak localization and thus smooth interface in the GaN/AlN active region, which are desirable for DUV lasers operating at RT.