ZnO UV-Blue Light Emitters on High Quality ZnO

ZnO has many inherent advantages over current materials used to fabricate UV LEDs and lasers. It is a highly efficient light emitter due to the excitonic nature of the emission. The recent development of p-type doping enables many devices to be fabricated based on ZnO. The availability of conductive ZnO substrates enables more efficient, longer lasting LEDs to be developed. Uniquely, this project will utilize the high purity, high quality, 2-inch diameter ZnO single crystals developed by ZN Technology as substrates on which to epitaxially grow Zn(Mg)O/Zn(Cd)O multiple quantum well LEDs by MBE and MOCVD for blue and UV emission. Because the substrate is both conductive and transparent, the LEDs will be much simpler to build and have a higher efficiency. In addition to LEDs, the unique properties of ZnO will enable the construction of very low threshold diode lasers. For this reason, lasing in Zn(Cd,Mg)O quantum well structures will be investigated. ZN Technology and Rutgers University have teamed to also explore the use of ZnO nanotips to increase the light output of the ZnO LED. Nano-scale ZnO LED structures will also be investigated.