Event Details

Ultrawide bandgap semiconductors for UV optoelectronics and high-power electronics by Dr Naresh Gunasekar, Cardiff University

Abstract

Optoelectronics is a crucial technology that converts and controls electrical and light energy using semiconductor devices. The current generation of these devices vastly employs materials with a bandgap lower than 4 eV. There is an increasing drive for the next revolutionary optoelectronic devices using ultra-wide bandgap materials such as aluminium nitride and gallium oxide, especially those operating in the ultraviolet (UV) spectral range have immense applications in healthcare, defence, and secure communications. Gallium oxide is a new promising contender set to dominate the compound semiconductor industry due to its ultra-wide bandgap of 4.9 eV with a huge breakdown electric field of > 6 MV/cm and transparency to wave-lengths below 280 nm make them attractive to high-power electronics and deep UV optoelectronics applications.

In my talk, I will discuss about the progress made in AlGaN based deep UV micro LEDs for optical communications [1] and gallium ox-ide wafer technology for deep UV photodetectors and the role of Sn alloying on the UV photodetector characteristics [2]. The current status of power electronic devices’ reliability and the need for reliable failure analysis methods [3] for ultra-wide bandgap materials and devices will also be discussed.

References

[1] Shan et al., IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 58 , 1 (2022)

[2] Mukhopadhyay et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 111105 (2022)

[3] Naresh et al., Journal of Applied Physics 131, 075303 (2022)