Thermally stable radiative recombination centers within trench structures of red multi-quantum wells

Abstract

High-Indium (In)-content multi-quantum wells (MQWs) are generally thermally unstable due to poor crystal quality resulting from low-temperature growth. In this study, red emission was achieved by modulating trench structures using dual-color MQW structures. Impressively, the red MQWs inside deep trenches showed excellent thermal stability despite being grown at low temperatures. After high-temperature annealing at 950 °C for 30 minutes, the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of red MQWs exhibited a significant reduction of 91.9% outside trenches, while it dropped by only 9.3% inside trenches, as confirmed by confocal PL mapping. Transmission electron microscopy results show that massive In-rich phases and stacking faults appeared in the MQWs outside trenches after annealing. By contrast, the red MQWs inside deep trenches remained intact in lattice arrangement without being significantly damaged. The superior thermal stability of red MQWs inside deep trenches was mainly attributed to the low-defect-density epitaxy of InGaN layers in strain-relaxed states.