Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Studies on the optically active rare earth (RE) ions doped III-nitrides QWs and SLs are very scarce, however available data indicates significant improvement in the PL intensities of Eu and Er doped AlGaN/GaN superlattices. Despite encouraging initial results, the mechanism for transfer of excitation from electrons and holes produced by electron or photon pumping in such structures is still not entirely clear. As demonstrated by GaN laser diodes, light emitting diodes (LED), and GaN based electronic devices, all GaN based devices must take advantage of quantum well (QW) structures such as GaN/AlGaN, InGaN/GaN and GaN/AlN. In order to optimize the device design using RE-doped III-nitrides, it is necessary to study and understand the physical properties of RE doped nitride QWs and SLs as well as the QW structural effects on the device performance.