Institute of High Pressure Physics

Scientists from MBE Laboratory NL14 at the Institute of High Pressure Physics PAS (IHPP PAS, Unipress), in collaboration with groups at Cornell University (CU), have published the results of their recent study in Nature in a paper "Using both faces of polar semiconductor wafers for functional devices" by L. van Deurzen, E. Kim, N. Pieczulewski, Z. Zhang, A. Feduniewicz-Zmuda, M. Chlipala, M. Siekacz, D. Muller,  H.G. Xing, D. Jena, and H. Turski.

Demonstrated device is the first monolithic integration of a light source (light-emitting diode, LED) and a transistor (high electron mobility transistor, HEMT) on opposite sides of the same bulk semiconductor substrate. Therefore the authors introduce a term "dualtronics" to describe this concept and differentiate it from previous solutions.

By using a polar bulk GaN substrate - recognized as the highest-quality bulk GaN substrate available, also grown at Unipress - they were able to amplify the advantages of the devices by utilizing the built-in field inherent in the material. The monolithic integration of both devices on the same crystal enables the full utilization of the substrate's surface area and allows for denser packing of LED pixels.

Bulk crystal growth, surface preparation, dual-side epitaxial growth (schematically shown in the figure below), and initial characterization were all performed at IHPP PAS. Meanwhile, the dual-side processing of the LED and HEMT, microscopy characterization, and monolithic modulation of light emission from the LED by the HEMT were carried out at CU.

This work represents a promising starting point for the broader development of dual-side integrated optoelectronic and electronic devices, not only within the III-nitride material system.