Quasi-van der Waals Epitaxy of a Stress-Released AlN Film on Thermally Annealed Hexagonal BN for Deep Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes

The heteroepitaxy of high-quality aluminum nitride (AlN) with low stress is essential for the development of energy-efficient deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV-LEDs). In this work, we realize that quasi-van der Waals epitaxy growth of a stress-released AlN film with low dislocation density on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)/sapphire suffered from high-temperature annealing (HTA) treatment and demonstrate its application in a DUV-LED. It is revealed that HTA effectively improves the crystalline quality and surface morphology of monolayer h-BN. Guided by first-principles calculations, we demonstrate that h-BN can enhance lateral migration of Al atoms due to the ability to lower the surface migration barrier (less than 0.14 eV), resulting in the rapid coalescence of the AlN film. The HTA h-BN is also proved to be efficient in reducing the dislocation density and releasing the large strain in the AlN epilayer. Based on the low-stress and high-quality AlN film on HTA h-BN, the as-fabricated 290 nm DUV-LED exhibits 80% luminescence enhancement compared to that without h-BN, as well as good reliability with a negligible wavelength shift under high current. These findings broaden the applications of h-BN in favor of III-nitride and provide an opportunity for further developing DUV optoelectronic devices on large mismatched heterogeneous substrates.