Comparative study of HVPE- and MOCVD-grown nitride structures for UV lasing application

We studied and compared the emission properties of optically excited (Al)GaN structures grown by two different techniques: hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). We successfully achieved stimulated emission (SE) in an HVPE-grown GaN epilayer and a GaN/AlGaN double heterostructure at 10 K and room temperature. We found that the SE threshold and photoluminescence efficiency of the HVPE-grown samples are similar to those of high-quality MOCVD-grown structures. Photoluminescence measurements from 10 to 300 K show that the HVPE GaN has a high density of non-radiative recombination channels, especially those activated below 100 K. This study represents the first demonstration of SE in HVPE-grown (Al)GaN heterostructures.