Investigation of indium gallium nitride facet-dependent nonpolar growth rates and composition for core–shell light-emitting diodes

Core–shell indium gallium nitride (InGaN)/gallium nitride (GaN) structures are attractive as light emitters due to the large nonpolar surface of rod-like cores with their longitudinal axis aligned along the c-direction. These facets do not suffer from the quantum-confined Stark effect that limits the thickness of quantum wells and efficiency in conventional light-emitting devices. Understanding InGaN growth on these submicron three-dimensional structures is important to optimize optoelectronic device performance. In this work, the influence of reactor parameters was determined and compared. GaN nanorods (NRs) with both {11-20} a-plane and {10-10} m-plane nonpolar facets were prepared to investigate the impact of metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy reactor parameters on the characteristics of a thick (38 to 85 nm) overgrown InGaN shell. The morphology and optical emission properties of the InGaN layers were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and cathodoluminescence hyperspectral imaging. The study reveals that reactor pressure has an important impact on the InN mole fraction on the {10-10} m-plane facets, even at a reduced growth rate. The sample grown at 750°C and 100 mbar had an InN mole fraction of 25% on the {10-10} facets of the NRs.