A violet laser diode (LD) structure is grown on a free-standing c-plane GaN substrate and 4 μm×800μm ridge waveguide LDs are fabricated. The electrical and the optical characteristics of LDs under different facet-coating and chip-mounting conditions are investigated under pulse mode operation. The active region temperatures of p-side up and p-side down mounted LDs are calculated with different injection currents. The calculated thermal resistances of p-side up and p-side down mounted LDs are 4.6 K/W and 3 K/W, respectively. The threshold current of the p-side down mounted LD is much lower than that of the p-side up mounted LD. The blue shift of the emission wavelength with increasing injection current is observed only for the LD with p-side down mounting configuration, due to the more efficient heat dissipation.
High-quality and nearly crack-free GaN epitaxial layer was obtained by inserting a single A1GaN interlayer between GaN epilayer and high-temperature AlN buffer layer on Si (111) substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. This paper investigates the effect of AlCaN interlayer on the structural properties of the resulting CaN epilayer. It confirms from the optical microscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy that the AIGaN interlayer has a remarkable effect on introducing relative compressive strain to the top GaN layer and preventing the formation of cracks. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analysis reveal that a significant reduction in both screw and edge threading dislocations is achieved in GaN epilayer by the insertion of AlGaN interlayer. The process of threading dislocation reduction in both AlGaN interlayer and GaN epilayer is demonstrated.