Institute of High Performance Computing

ZnO MOCVD growth: From doping engineering towards the application in LEDs and Laser diodes

ZnO MOCVD growth: From doping engineering towards the application in LEDs and Laser diodes

THE PROJECT

UV/blue LED has a predicted market value of US$3 billions in 2010 driven primarily by the demand for display, solid state lighting, optical data storage, lighting for decoration and entertainment, food storage, and UV cleaning of clinical utensils. In fact, there are applications for ZnO-LEDs whenever short-wavelength or UV light source are preferred.

This project embarks on the frontier research from doping engineering of zinc-oxide (ZnO) towards the applications of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). The main objectives of the project are as follows:

• Metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth of ZnO materials and LEDs/LDs layered structures.
• Attain high carrier concentration and low resistivity of p-type ZnO thin film doped by phosphorous source.
• Fabrication and demonstration of high efficiency of ZnO homojunction LEDs and possibly LDs in the ultra-violet (UV) and blue wavelengths at room temperature.
• Theoretical modeling and simulation to predict the growth conditions to achieve the growth of p-type doping in ZnO.
• Studies and possible fabrication of ZnO-based alloys, heterostructures and quantum wells for LEDs/LDs.

Combining our DFT and thermal theoretical simulation, we predicted the dopant choice for the fabrication of p-type ZnO. Meanwhile, we also figured out experimental growth conditions as well as fabrication process parameters. Starting from first-principles theory simulation not the trial and error, our developed models also can be used in other semiconductor to guide the fabrication processes.

Representative Publications

Zhi Gen Yu, Hao Gong, and Ping Wu, “Dopant Sources Choice for Formation of p-Type ZnO: Phosphorus Compound Sources” Chem. Mater. 17, 852-855 (2005). DOI: 10.1021/cm0482176

Zhi Gen Yu, Ping Wu, and Hao Gong, “Control of p- and n-type conductivities in P doped ZnO thin films by using radio-frequency sputtering” Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 132114 (2006). DOI: 10.1063/1.2192089