Aug 14 2013
Topics Covered
Description
Applications
Chemical Properties
Recent Developments
Description
Indium gallium aluminum nitride is generally prepared by epitaxial methods such as pulsed-laser deposition and molecular beam epitaxy. Addition of indium to gallium nitride to form a light-emitting layer leads to the emission of ultraviolet and visible light. The introduction of the quaternary InGaAlN system using a two-step growth process has led to the production of high-quality GaN.
Applications
Indium gallium aluminum nitride finds applications in the following areas:
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Opto-electronics applications, often in blue laser diodes and LEDs
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Photodetectors.
Chemical Properties
The chemical properties of indium gallium aluminum nitride are provided in the table below:
|
Chemical Properties |
|
Chemical Formula |
InGaAlN |
|
Group |
Indium – 13
Gallium – 13
Aluminum – 13
Nitrogen - 15 |
Electrical Properties
The electrical properties of indium gallium aluminum nitride are provided in the table below:
|
Electrical Properties |
|
Electrical Resistivity |
10-4 - 106 Ω cm |
|
Intrinsic Carrier Concentration |
2 x 1020 cm-3 |
Recent Developments
Group III nitrides including aluminum gallium indium nitride are technologically important semiconductors that absorb and emit light over a wide energy range from the UV to IR wavelengths. Hence, they serve as a basis for commercial products such as LEDs and blue laser diodes.
One-dimensional nanostructures based on III-nitride semiconductors have recently gained importance for their enhanced performance in sensing, photovoltaics and optoelectronics. Wang GT et al (2011) fabricated ordered arrays of high-quality AlInGaN-based nanorods with controllable diameter, pitch and height using a new top-down approach. This top-down method was found to allow construction of nanorods of high quality and arbitrarily doped films grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition using standard, optimized conditions.
Krames MR et al (2003) designed an aluminum-gallium-indium-nitride-based LED by using a thick multi-layered epitaxial structure that improves the light extraction efficiency of the device by increasing the amount of emitted light that escapes the device through the sides of the epitaxial structure.
The LED includes a sapphire substrate with a textured surface and a buffer layer. The textured surface allows an increased amount of emitted light to escape the LED as output light.