JP2011044596A - Nitride semiconductor element, method of manufacturing the same, and semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a nitride semiconductor element capable of increasing the emission efficiency. <P>SOLUTION: A nitride semiconductor laser element 100 (the nitride semiconductor element) includes a GaN substrate 10 with a grown main surface 10a, and an active layer 14 formed on the grown main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 and having a quantum well structure including a well layer 14a and a barrier wall layer 14b. The grown main surface 10a is constituted of a surface having an off angle in an a-axis direction relative to an m-surface and the barrier wall layer 14b is made of AlGaN which is an Al-containing nitride semiconductor. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a nitride semiconductor element, a manufacturing method thereof, and a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a nitride semiconductor element including a nitride semiconductor substrate, a manufacturing method thereof, and a semiconductor device including the nitride semiconductor element. .

  Nitride semiconductors typified by GaN, AlN, InN, and mixed crystals thereof have characteristics that they have a large band gap Eg and are direct transition type semiconductor materials compared to AlGaInAs semiconductors and AlGaInP semiconductors. Yes. For this reason, these nitride semiconductors constitute semiconductor light emitting devices such as a semiconductor laser device capable of emitting light in a wavelength range from ultraviolet to green and a light emitting diode device capable of covering a wide light emission wavelength range from ultraviolet to red. It is attracting attention as a material, and is widely considered for applications such as projectors, full-color displays, and environmental and medical fields.

  In recent years, research institutions have attempted to realize semiconductor light emitting devices (green semiconductor lasers) that emit light in the green region by increasing the emission wavelength of semiconductor light emitting devices using nitride semiconductors. It is done vigorously.

  In a semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor, a hexagonal GaN substrate (nitride semiconductor substrate) is generally used as a substrate, and its c-plane ((0001) plane) is the growth main surface. Has been. A nitride semiconductor light emitting device is formed by laminating a nitride semiconductor layer including an active layer on the c-plane. In addition, when forming a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor substrate, an active layer containing In is generally used, and by increasing the In composition ratio, the emission wavelength is increased. Is planned.

  However, since the c-plane of the GaN substrate is a polar plane having a polarity in the c-axis direction, when a nitride semiconductor layer including an active layer is stacked on the c-plane, there is a disadvantage that spontaneous polarization occurs in the active layer. is there. In addition, when a nitride semiconductor layer including an active layer is stacked on the c-plane, the lattice strain of the active layer increases as the In composition ratio increases, and a strong internal electric field is induced in the active layer due to piezoelectric polarization. There is also an inconvenience. This internal electric field reduces the overlap of wave functions of electrons and holes, reducing the rate of recombination and light emission. For this reason, when the In composition ratio is increased in order to realize light emission in the green region, there has been a problem that the light emission efficiency is remarkably lowered as the light emission wavelength becomes longer.

  Therefore, in recent years, in order to avoid the influence of spontaneous polarization and piezoelectric polarization, a nitride semiconductor layer is laminated on the m-plane ({1-100} plane) which is a nonpolar plane instead of the general c-plane. A nitride semiconductor light emitting device has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Patent Document 1 describes a Fabry-Perot type semiconductor laser diode capable of reducing the threshold current. The semiconductor laser diode (nitride semiconductor light emitting device) includes a GaN substrate having a nonpolar plane m-plane as a growth main surface, and includes a nitride semiconductor including an active layer on the growth main surface (m-plane). Each layer is laminated. The active layer has a multiple quantum well structure, and the barrier layer of the active layer is made of GaN.

  Since the m-plane of the GaN substrate is a crystal plane orthogonal to the c-plane, by laminating each nitride semiconductor layer including the active layer on the m-plane, the c-axis serving as the polarization axis becomes the plane of the active layer. Contained within. For this reason, the influence of spontaneous polarization or piezo polarization is avoided, and a decrease in luminous efficiency is suppressed.

JP 2008-226865 A

  As described above, by using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an m-plane as a growth main surface, a nitride semiconductor light-emitting element in which a decrease in light emission efficiency due to spontaneous polarization or piezoelectric polarization is suppressed can be obtained.

  However, even when the conventional active layer structure described in Patent Document 1 is used, the light emission efficiency is not sufficiently high, and there is still room for improvement of the light emission efficiency.

  In addition, when the light emission efficiency (light emission by current injection: EL (Electro-Luminescence)) of a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an m-plane as a main growth surface was measured, the In composition of the active layer As the ratio increased, a phenomenon was observed in which the light emission efficiency rapidly decreased. Therefore, as a result of intensive research conducted by the inventors of the present invention to elucidate the cause, the cause of the decrease in luminous efficiency is the bright spot of the EL light emission pattern (in-plane light distribution when light is emitted by current injection). I found out that it was in the state. That is, it has been found that as the In composition ratio of the active layer increases, the EL light emission pattern changes to a bright spot shape as shown in FIG. Further, the bright spot-like EL light emission pattern becomes more prominent as the In composition ratio of the active layer increases. In particular, the vicinity of the green region (the In composition ratio of the active layer (well layer) is 0.15 or more). ) Showed a tendency for a bright spot-like EL emission pattern to appear remarkably. In addition, wavelength unevenness that is considered to be caused by the difference in current injection density within the surface was also observed. When the In composition ratio is further increased, the number of luminescent spots that emit light (light emission area) decreases. Thus, a strong correlation is observed between the bright spot-like EL emission pattern and the In composition ratio, and the phenomenon that the EL emission pattern becomes bright spot-like is caused when the In composition ratio of the active layer is increased. It has been found that this is a cause of a decrease in luminous efficiency. Note that the bright spot-like EL light emission pattern described above is a phenomenon that appears prominently in a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor substrate having a nonpolar plane, particularly an m plane as a main growth surface.

  Thus, unlike a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a c-plane, a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an m-plane as a growth main surface differs from the luminous efficiency due to spontaneous polarization or piezoelectric polarization. However, it has been found that there is a problem that the light emission efficiency is lowered due to the brightening of the EL light emission pattern. Such brightening of the EL light emission pattern is a serious problem because it prevents the light emission wavelength from being increased in the nitride semiconductor light emitting device using the m-plane. In particular, in a semiconductor laser element, a decrease in light emission efficiency causes a decrease in gain, which is a serious problem.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and one object of the present invention is to provide a nitride semiconductor device capable of improving the light emission efficiency, a method for manufacturing the same, and a method for nitriding the nitride semiconductor device. A semiconductor device including a physical semiconductor element is provided.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a nitride semiconductor device capable of improving device characteristics and reliability, a method for manufacturing the same, and a semiconductor device including the nitride semiconductor device.

  The inventors of the present application conducted various experiments paying attention to the above-mentioned problem, and as a result of intensive studies, by setting a surface having an off angle with respect to the m-plane as a growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate, It has been found that it is possible to suppress the formation of bright spots in the EL emission pattern. Further, the inventors of the present application have found that a dark line may be generated in the light emission pattern when a GaN layer or an InGaN layer is used as the barrier layer in the above examination. And in order to suppress generation | occurrence | production of such a dark line, it discovered that it was very effective to comprise a barrier layer from the nitride semiconductor containing Al.

  That is, the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a nitride semiconductor substrate having a growth main surface, and a quantum well formed on the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate and including a well layer and a barrier layer. And an active layer having a structure. The main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, and the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, as described above, a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used as a growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate, so that Bright spot formation can be suppressed. That is, with this configuration, the EL light emission pattern of the nitride semiconductor element can be improved (bright spot light emission, in-plane wavelength unevenness, etc. can be suppressed). Thereby, the luminous efficiency of the nitride semiconductor device can be improved. In addition, a nitride semiconductor element with high luminance can be obtained by improving luminous efficiency. One of the reasons why the bright spot-like light emission suppression effect as described above can be obtained is that the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate has an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane. This is presumably because the direction of atomic migration changes when a nitride semiconductor layer including an active layer is grown on the main surface.

  In the first aspect, the EL light emission pattern can be made uniform by suppressing the brightening of the EL light emission pattern, so that the drive voltage can also be reduced. In addition, by suppressing the bright spot light emission, an EL light emission pattern with uniform light emission can be obtained, so that the gain can be increased when the nitride semiconductor laser element is formed.

  In the first aspect, as described above, the use of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al for the barrier layer can almost completely suppress the occurrence of dark lines. Thereby, the fall of the luminous efficiency resulting from generation | occurrence | production of a dark line can be suppressed.

  Furthermore, in the first aspect, since the barrier layer can be made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the flatness of the barrier layer can be improved. Therefore, the well layer is formed on the highly flat barrier layer. As a result, the in-plane distribution of the In composition in the well layer can be suppressed from becoming non-uniform. In addition, the crystallinity of the active layer (well layer) can be improved. Thereby, luminous efficiency can be improved more.

  Thus, in the first aspect, the light emission efficiency can be significantly improved by configuring as described above. In addition, since the device characteristics and reliability can be improved by improving the light emission efficiency, it is possible to obtain a highly reliable nitride semiconductor device with excellent device identification.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, preferably, the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, Ga, and N. If comprised in this way, while the flatness of a barrier layer can be improved easily, generation | occurrence | production of a dark line can be suppressed easily.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the barrier layer is preferably made of AlInGaN.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the barrier layer may be made of AlGaN. Thus, even when the barrier layer is made of AlGaN, the same effect as when the barrier layer is made of AlInGaN can be obtained.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the active layer may include a plurality of barrier layers. In this case, at least some of the plurality of barrier layers can be made of AlInGaN.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the absolute value of the off angle in the a-axis direction is preferably greater than 0.1 degree. With this configuration, it is possible to easily suppress the brightening of the EL light emission pattern and the in-plane wavelength unevenness while suppressing the generation of dark lines.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the well layer is preferably composed of a nitride semiconductor containing In, and the In composition ratio is preferably 0.15 or more and 0.45 or less. In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, even when the In composition ratio of the well layer is 0.15 or more, which is a condition in which a bright spot-like EL light emission pattern appears remarkably, the bright spot of the EL light emission pattern. Therefore, the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission can be remarkably obtained. Further, when the In composition ratio of the well layer is set to 0.45 or less, the In composition ratio of the well layer becomes larger than 0.45, so that many dislocations are generated in the active layer due to strain such as lattice mismatch. It is also possible to suppress the inconvenience of entering.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, when the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the well layer is preferably made of InGaN.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the active layer preferably has a quantum well structure having two well layers. If comprised in this way, the suppression effect of a bright spot-like light emission and the suppression effect of a dark line can be acquired, and a drive voltage can be reduced easily. For this reason, the device characteristics and reliability can be improved also by this.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the active layer may be configured as a quantum well structure having one well layer. Even when configured in this manner, the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission and the effect of suppressing dark lines can be obtained, and the drive voltage can be easily reduced.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the nitride semiconductor substrate is preferably made of GaN.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, preferably, a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is formed on the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate so as to be in contact with the growth main surface. With this configuration, a good surface morphology can be obtained, so that the in-plane layer thickness distribution of the nitride semiconductor layer can be made uniform, and also in the semiconductor layer stacked on the nitride semiconductor layer In-plane layer thickness distribution can be made uniform. In addition, by improving the surface morphology, variation in element characteristics can be reduced, so that the manufacturing yield can be improved. Thereby, an element having characteristics within the standard range can be easily obtained. In addition, the device characteristics and reliability can be further improved by improving the surface morphology.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, preferably, a pair of guide layers sandwiching the active layer vertically is formed on the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate, and the guide layers include In. It consists of a nitride semiconductor. If comprised in this way, since light confinement can be performed effectively, luminous efficiency can be improved further. Also, with this configuration, the light emission efficiency can be further improved, so that the gain can be further increased when the nitride semiconductor laser element is formed.

  In the nitride semiconductor device according to the first aspect, the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate may have an off-angle in the c-axis direction in addition to the a-axis direction. In this case, it is preferable that the off angle in the a-axis direction is larger than the off angle in the c-axis direction. If comprised in this way, generation | occurrence | production of the luminescent spot of EL light emission pattern, in-plane wavelength nonuniformity, and generation | occurrence | production of a dark line can be suppressed effectively.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a nitride semiconductor device comprising: preparing a nitride semiconductor substrate including a growth main surface comprising a surface having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to an m plane; Forming an active layer having a quantum well structure including a well layer and a barrier layer on the growth main surface of the semiconductor substrate by using an epitaxial growth method. The step of forming the active layer includes a step of forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al.

  In the nitride semiconductor device manufacturing method according to the second aspect, as described above, by using a nitride semiconductor substrate whose growth main surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the EL It is possible to obtain a nitride semiconductor device in which the luminous pattern of the light emission pattern is suppressed. That is, with this configuration, it is possible to obtain a nitride semiconductor element in which the EL light emission pattern is improved (bright spot light emission and in-plane wavelength unevenness are suppressed). Thereby, a nitride semiconductor device with high luminance and improved luminous efficiency can be obtained.

  Further, in the second aspect, since the EL light emission pattern can be made uniform by suppressing the brightening of the EL light emission pattern, the driving voltage of the nitride semiconductor element can also be reduced. In addition, by suppressing the bright spot light emission, an EL light emission pattern with uniform light emission can be obtained, so that the gain can be increased when the nitride semiconductor laser element is formed. Further, with the above-described configuration, it is possible to suppress the formation of bright spots in the EL light emission pattern and to form nitride semiconductor layers with high flatness, so that the light emission efficiency can be improved. Thus, device characteristics and reliability can be improved. That is, it is possible to obtain a highly reliable nitride semiconductor device with excellent device identification with high yield.

  Further, in the second aspect, as described above, since the barrier layer is formed of the nitride semiconductor layer containing Al, generation of dark lines can be suppressed almost completely. The resulting decrease in luminous efficiency can be suppressed.

  Furthermore, in the second aspect, since the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the flatness of the barrier layer can be improved. Therefore, the well layer is formed on the highly flat barrier layer. As a result, the in-plane distribution of the In composition in the well layer can be suppressed from becoming non-uniform. In addition, the crystallinity of the active layer (well layer) can be improved. Thereby, luminous efficiency can be improved more.

  The method for manufacturing a nitride semiconductor device according to the second aspect includes a step of sequentially stacking an n-type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a p-type semiconductor layer on a growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate. preferable. In this case, the p-type semiconductor layer is preferably formed at a growth temperature of 700 ° C. or higher and lower than 1100 ° C. As described above, even when the p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a high temperature of 1000 ° C. or higher, blackening of the active layer (well layer) occurs by forming the barrier layer of the active layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al. Can be suppressed. For this reason, since the p-type semiconductor layer can be formed at a high temperature of 1000 ° C. or more, the effect of reducing the driving voltage can be effectively obtained by forming the p-type semiconductor layer at a high temperature. Further, when the p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature of 700 ° C. or higher, the p-type semiconductor layer is disadvantageously increased in resistance due to being formed at a growth temperature lower than 700 ° C. Can be suppressed. For this reason, the device characteristics and reliability can be improved also by this. Note that by using a nitride semiconductor substrate having a growth main surface provided with an off-angle with respect to the m-plane, p-type conduction can be obtained even when a p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature lower than 900 ° C. Can do.

  In this case, the n-type semiconductor layer is preferably formed at a growth temperature of 900 ° C. or higher and lower than 1300 ° C. Thus, the layer surface of the n-type semiconductor layer can be planarized by forming the n-type semiconductor layer at a high temperature of 900 ° C. or higher. For this reason, by forming the active layer and the p-type semiconductor layer over the planarized n-type semiconductor layer, it is possible to suppress a decrease in crystallinity in the active layer and the p-type semiconductor layer. Thereby, a high quality crystal can be formed. Further, by forming the n-type semiconductor layer at a growth temperature lower than 1300 ° C., the surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate is re-evaporated at the time of temperature rise due to being formed at a growth temperature of 1300 ° C. or higher. It is possible to suppress the inconvenience of causing surface roughness. Therefore, with this configuration, it is possible to easily obtain a highly reliable nitride semiconductor element having excellent element characteristics and high yield.

  Furthermore, in this case, the active layer is preferably formed at a growth temperature of 600 ° C. or higher and 800 ° C. or lower. As described above, when the active layer is formed at a growth temperature of 800 ° C. or lower, the active layer is formed at a growth temperature higher than 800 ° C. (for example, 830 ° C. or higher). It is possible to suppress the disadvantage that the layer is blackened. In addition, when the active layer is formed at a growth temperature of 600 ° C. or higher, the atomic diffusion length is shortened and the crystallinity is deteriorated due to the formation at a growth temperature lower than 600 ° C. Can be suppressed. Therefore, with this configuration, a highly reliable nitride semiconductor device with excellent device characteristics can be obtained more easily and with a high yield.

  A semiconductor device according to a third aspect of the present invention is a semiconductor device provided with the nitride object element according to the first aspect.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily obtain a nitride semiconductor element capable of improving the light emission efficiency, a manufacturing method thereof, and a semiconductor device including the nitride semiconductor element.

  Further, according to the present invention, a nitride semiconductor element capable of improving element characteristics and reliability, a manufacturing method thereof, and a semiconductor device including the nitride semiconductor element can be easily obtained.

It is a schematic diagram (a figure showing a unit cell) for explaining a crystal structure of a nitride semiconductor. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the first embodiment of the present invention (a view corresponding to a cross section taken along the line AA in FIG. 6). 1 is an overall perspective view of a nitride semiconductor laser device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the off angle of a board | substrate. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the active layer of the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a plan view of a nitride semiconductor laser device according to a first embodiment of the present invention (a view of a nitride semiconductor laser device viewed from above). FIG. 1 is a perspective view for explaining a method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor laser device according to a first embodiment of the present invention (a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing a substrate). 1 is a perspective view for explaining a method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor laser device according to a first embodiment of the present invention (a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing a substrate). 1 is a perspective view for explaining a method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor laser device according to a first embodiment of the present invention (a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing a substrate). FIG. 6 is a plan view for explaining the method for producing the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the first embodiment of the present invention (the drawing for explaining the method for producing the substrate). It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention (figure for demonstrating the manufacturing method of a board | substrate). It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the manufacturing method of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. 1 is a perspective view of a semiconductor laser device including a nitride semiconductor laser element according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of the light emitting diode element produced in order to confirm the effect of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 1st Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is a micrograph (micrograph of an EL light emission pattern observed in a confirmation element) of an EL light emission pattern of a light emitting diode element manufactured to confirm the effect of the nitride semiconductor laser element according to the first embodiment of the present invention. is there. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a nitride semiconductor laser device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view for demonstrating the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser element by 3rd Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a light emitting diode device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating the example of the other structure of the active layer in 1st-5th embodiment (sectional drawing which showed an example of the active layer of a SQW structure). It is the microscope picture of the dark line observed in EL light emission pattern. It is the microscope picture of the dark line observed in PL light emission pattern. It is a microscope picture of PL light emission pattern of the light emitting diode element which comprised the barrier layer from AlGaN. The surface morphology when a GaN layer is formed on the growth main surface with a thickness of about 1 μm using a GaN substrate whose main surface is an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is an optical microscope. It is the microscope picture observed using. Using a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with a surface having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, a GaN layer is formed on the growth principal surface with a thickness of about 0.1 μm, and then on the GaN layer. It is the microscope picture which observed the surface morphology when forming an AlGaN layer by thickness of about 0.9 micrometer using the optical microscope. Using a GaN substrate having a growth main surface that has an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, an AlGaN layer is formed on the growth main surface with a thickness of about 0.2 μm, and then on the AlGaN layer. It is the microscope picture which observed the surface morphology when forming a GaN layer by thickness of about 0.9 micrometer using the optical microscope. Using a GaN substrate whose growth principal surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, an AlGaN layer having an Al composition ratio of 5% is formed on the growth principal surface with a thickness of about 2 μm. It is the microscope picture which observed the surface morphology at the time using the optical microscope. Surface when an AlGaN layer is formed with a thickness of about 1 μm on the main growth surface using a GaN substrate whose main growth surface is an off-angle of +0.5 degrees in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane It is the microscope picture which observed the morphology using the optical microscope. The surface when a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with a surface having an off angle of +0.5 degrees in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, and a GaN layer is formed on the growth principal surface with a thickness of about 1 μm. It is the microscope picture which observed the morphology using the optical microscope. It is a microscope picture (microphotograph of the EL light emission pattern observed in the element for a comparison) which shows a bright spot-like EL light emission pattern.

  Prior to describing specific embodiments of the present invention, knowledge obtained by various studies by the inventors will be described.

  As described above, the inventors suppress the formation of bright spots in the EL light emission pattern by setting the surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane as the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate. Found that it is possible to do.

Here, when a light emitting element is formed using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an m-plane as a main growth surface, the active layer is usually composed of a multilayer film including a well layer and a barrier layer. In this case, conventionally, a well layer of In _a Ga _1-a N (0 <a ≦ 1) and an In layer are used for the purpose of effectively performing optical confinement and alleviating strain generated in the active layer. _b A barrier layer of Ga _1-b N (0 ≦ b <1: a> b) has been generally used.

  However, when the conventional active layer structure as described above is used, as the In composition ratio of the active layer (well layer) increases, the dark emission as shown in FIG. The present inventors have found that lines may occur.

  Further, the inventors of the present application have found that when an InGaN layer is used as the barrier layer, dark lines are significantly generated. In this case, it has also been found that dark lines become more prominent as the In composition ratio b contained in the barrier layer increases. Furthermore, even when a GaN layer was used as the barrier layer, it was found that when the In composition ratio a of the well layer was increased, dark lines were generated due to differences in growth conditions and structures.

  Further, the above-described dark line is observed not only in the EL light emission pattern but also in the PL light emission (in-plane light distribution when light is emitted by light excitation) pattern as shown in FIG. The generation of such dark lines is not preferable because it reduces the luminous efficiency of the device. In addition, dark lines generated when the In composition of the active layer is increased are generated in the c-axis direction (<0001> direction) of the m-plane. The dark line is presumed to be generated by defects such as misfit dislocations generated from the difference in lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient between GaN such as the substrate and the InGaN layer of the active layer. In the c-plane (0001) that has been generally used so far, such dark lines did not occur with the increase of In. For this reason, the occurrence of such dark lines is considered to be a phenomenon peculiar to a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor substrate having a nonpolar plane, particularly an m plane as a main growth surface.

  Thus, unlike a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a c-plane, a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an m-plane as a growth main surface differs from the luminous efficiency due to spontaneous polarization or piezoelectric polarization. It was also found that there is a problem that the light emission efficiency is lowered and the light emission efficiency is deteriorated with time due to the occurrence of dark lines, although the decrease in the light emission is suppressed. The occurrence of such dark lines is a serious problem because it hinders an increase in the emission wavelength of a nitride semiconductor light emitting device using the m-plane. In particular, in a semiconductor laser element, a decrease in light emission efficiency causes a decrease in gain (gain), which is a serious problem.

  Further, the bright spot light emission can be observed in the EL light emission pattern, but cannot be observed remarkably in the PL light emission pattern. For this reason, it is considered that bright spot-like light emission is mainly caused by a phenomenon caused by nonuniform current injection. In particular, when the current injection amount is small, for example, when the current is gradually increased and light emission starts, the diameter of the p-side electrode is about 220 μm, which is very remarkable in the range of current injection density of about 50 mA. Even in a large current region, the luminous efficiency is suppressed, which is not preferable. For this reason, it becomes a problem when a light emitting diode element (LED) which is often driven at a low current density is manufactured. Another problem arises when a semiconductor laser element (LD) that is driven at a high current density is manufactured.

  On the other hand, the dark line is remarkably observed in both the PL light emission pattern and the EL light emission pattern. This indicates that bright spot-like light emission and the occurrence of dark lines are different causes and are caused by different mechanisms.

  Therefore, as a result of intensive studies by the present inventors based on the above knowledge, a dark line is formed by configuring the barrier layer of the active layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, AlGaN, AlInGaN, AlInN, etc.). It has been found for the first time that it is possible to suppress the occurrence of. That is, it has been found that by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the generation of dark lines can be suppressed almost completely as shown in FIG. As the nitride semiconductor layer constituting the barrier layer, the AlGaN layer and the AlInGaN layer are most preferable, and the next preferable is AlInN. In addition, the effect can be obtained with any nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.). Furthermore, when a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.) is used for the barrier layer of the active layer, the well layer of the active layer is preferably made of InGaN. When a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is used for the barrier layer, the effect of suppressing the occurrence of dark lines can be obtained if it is a nonpolar surface such as an m-plane.

  Further, it was found that when the barrier layer is made of AlInGaN, the amount of In taken into the well layer formed on the barrier layer is increased as compared with the case where the barrier layer is made of AlGaN. For this reason, it is preferable to form the barrier layer from AlInGaN because the range of growth conditions can be widened. Moreover, AlInGaN obtained by adding In to AlGaN can easily form a film having good crystallinity even when grown at a lower temperature. Therefore, even when the barrier layer, which is often formed at a relatively low growth temperature of about 600 ° C. to 800 ° C., is made of AlInGaN, the crystallinity is maintained even when the barrier layer is formed at a relatively low temperature as described above. It is preferable because a good barrier layer can be obtained. In addition, it is preferable to use AlInGaN as the barrier layer because the strain applied by the barrier layer to the well layer can be reduced. It is more preferable that the strain applied to the well layer is smaller because the rate at which the light emitting element deteriorates during driving becomes slower.

Note that FIG. 28 described above is a micrograph of dark lines observed in the EL light emission pattern, and the EL light emission pattern in FIG. 28 uses a GaN substrate (m-plane just substrate) having an m-plane as the growth main surface. The EL light emission pattern of the light emitting diode element produced in this way is shown. In this light emitting diode element, the well layer is made of In _0.2 Ga _0.8 N, and the barrier layer is made of In _0.02 Ga _0.98 .

Further, FIG. 29 described above is a micrograph of dark lines observed in the PL light emission pattern, and the PL light emission pattern of FIG. 29 uses a GaN substrate (m-plane just substrate) having an m-plane as a growth main surface. The PL light emission pattern of the light emitting diode element produced in this way is shown. In this light emitting diode element, the well layer is made of In _0.2 Ga _0.8 N, and the barrier layer is made of In _0.02 Ga _0.98 .

Further, FIG. 30 described above is a photomicrograph of a PL light emission pattern of a light emitting diode element having a barrier layer made of AlGaN. In this light emitting diode element, the well layer is made of In _0.25 Ga _0.75 N, and the barrier layer is made of Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N. Further, an m-plane a-axis off-substrate (off-angle in the a-axis direction: 1.7 degrees, off-angle in the c-axis direction: +0.1 degrees) is used as the nitride semiconductor substrate.

  On the other hand, the inventors of the present application use a nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, and a GaN layer (not intentionally doped) on the main growth surface When a non-doped GaN layer or an n-type GaN layer intentionally doped with an n-type impurity) was formed with a thickness of about 1 μm, it was found that the in-plane layer thickness distribution was greatly deteriorated. The layer thickness distribution at this time is very poor compared to the layer thickness distribution when a GaN layer is formed with a thickness of about 1 μm on an m-plane GaN substrate having no off-angle in the a-axis direction. It was. As described above, when a GaN layer having the same composition as the substrate is formed on the substrate by using an epitaxial growth method such as MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Deposition), the phenomenon of causing a large layer thickness distribution in the plane is It is considered to be a very unique phenomenon.

  FIG. 31 shows a surface morphology when a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used and a GaN layer having a thickness of about 1 μm is formed on the growth principal surface. It is the microscope picture observed using the optical microscope. FIG. 31 shows the surface morphology in a state in which each nitride semiconductor layer is stacked at the beginning of the GaN layer on the main growth surface. As shown in FIG. 31, very strong wavy irregularities are seen on the surface of the semiconductor layer in the direction parallel to the a-axis direction. In addition, the nitride semiconductor layer of FIG. 31 has a layer thickness distribution of about 200 nm to 400 nm, and it is very difficult to form an element in the semiconductor layer in which the uniformity of the layer thickness distribution is impaired. It becomes.

  Until now, in general, a semiconductor layer having the same composition as the substrate is formed so as to be in contact with the substrate surface (main growth surface), thereby improving the flatness of the layer surface and the crystallinity of the semiconductor layer. An element is formed on the substrate. For example, if the substrate is a GaN substrate, first, a GaN layer is formed on the substrate. As a result, the composition of the substrate and the composition of the semiconductor layer (GaN layer) formed on the substrate surface (growth main surface) are the same, so there is no difference in lattice constant or thermal expansion coefficient, and distortion occurs. Is suppressed. By doing so, it is known that a semiconductor layer with high flatness and good crystallinity can be formed. In fact, when a nitride semiconductor substrate (for example, a c-plane GaN substrate) having a c-plane as a growth main surface is used and crystal growth is performed on the growth main surface, the above-mentioned is usually performed. It has been broken. In this case (when a GaN layer is formed on a c-plane GaN substrate), a very clean surface morphology is obtained. This is considered to be a normal phenomenon.

  However, as described above, the surface morphology of the nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane may deteriorate the surface morphology. I understood for the first time.

  Therefore, as a result of intensive studies by the inventors of the present application, it was found that the layer thickness of the GaN layer is involved in the deterioration of the surface morphology. That is, in a nitride semiconductor substrate having a growth main surface with an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the surface morphology is significantly deteriorated by forming a thick GaN film having a thickness of about 1 μm. As a result of this study, it was found that the surface morphology becomes unique as shown in FIG.

  The present inventors have also found that the surface morphology deteriorates as the total layer thickness of the GaN layer formed on the growth main surface increases. The total layer thickness means the thickness of the GaN layer when there is one GaN layer, and when there are a plurality of GaN layers, the total thickness of the GaN layers is accumulated (total Means the layer thickness. Therefore, if a GaN layer with a large thickness is formed before the active layer is formed, the surface morphology deteriorates. If an active layer is formed on the surface of the deteriorated layer, the active layer is affected by the deteriorated surface morphology. Thus, in the plane, the region is divided into a region with a large In composition and a region with a small In composition. Thereby, it was found that an in-plane distribution of the composition occurred. Further, it was found that not only the in-plane distribution of the composition of the active layer but also the crystallinity of the active layer is deteriorated, so that the emission intensity is also reduced.

  As a result of further studies by the inventors of the present invention based on the above knowledge, the surface morphology is reduced by reducing the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate and the active layer to 0.7 μm or less. It has been found that it becomes possible to improve. The total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate and the active layer is more preferably 0.5 μm or less, and further preferably 0.3 μm or less.

  Further, when a nitride semiconductor element is formed using a nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, as much as possible until the active layer is formed. It has also been found that it is preferable not to form a GaN layer.

  As described above, by forming the nitride semiconductor layer so as to satisfy the above-mentioned condition that the total layer thickness of the GaN layer is 0.7 μm or less, the surface morphology can be improved and the layer surface can be flattened. It becomes. In addition, by forming an active layer (a well layer which is a nitride semiconductor layer containing In) on the surface of the planarized layer, the in-plane distribution of the In composition can be suppressed and the light emission efficiency can be improved. It becomes possible.

  From the viewpoint of improving the light emission efficiency, the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate and the well layer that is a nitride semiconductor layer containing In is preferably 0.7 μm or less. When a plurality of well layers are formed, the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the well layer on the most substrate side and the nitride semiconductor substrate can be 0.7 μm or less. The total layer thickness of the GaN layer formed between the other well layers and the nitride semiconductor substrate may be 0.7 μm or less.

FIG. 32 shows a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, and after forming a GaN layer with a thickness of about 0.1 μm on the growth principal surface, It is the microscope picture which observed the surface morphology when an AlGaN layer was formed in the thickness of about 0.9 micrometer on a GaN layer using the optical microscope. FIG. 32 shows the surface morphology in a state where each nitride semiconductor layer is stacked on the main growth surface starting from the GaN layer. The composition of the AlGaN layer is Al _0.05 Ga _0.95 N. Further, in FIG. 32, the total thickness of the GaN layer and the AlGaN layer is set to about 1 μm so that the total thickness of the GaN layer and the AlGaN layer is the same as the thickness of the GaN layer in FIG. ing. That is, in FIG. 32, instead of forming a GaN layer having a thickness of about 1 μm, a GaN layer having a thickness of about 0.1 μm and an AlGaN layer having a thickness of about 0.9 μm are formed.

  As shown in FIG. 32, the surface morphology when a GaN layer with a layer thickness of about 0.1 μm is formed is very good, compared with the case where a GaN layer with a layer thickness of about 1 μm shown in FIG. It can be seen that the flatness of the layer surface is remarkably improved. Thus, as the layer thickness of the GaN layer is increased, the surface morphology is deteriorated. In contrast, by reducing the thickness of the GaN layer, deterioration of the surface morphology is suppressed. Also, if the surface morphology deteriorates due to the formation of a thick GaN film, even if an AlGaN layer is subsequently formed, the surface morphology once broken does not improve much, and the layer thickness of the semiconductor layer to be stacked It was also found that the surface morphology deteriorates with increasing.

Further, as a result of this study, in the case of using a nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the semiconductor layer in contact with the main growth surface is made of In _y Ga _{1 -y N (0 <y ≦ 1} ), Al x Ga 1-x N (0 <x ≦ 1) or _{Al a In b Ga c N (} a + b + c = 1) also preferably constructed from I understood.

In the case of In _y Ga _1-y N (0 <y ≦ 1), 0 <y ≦ 0.1 is more preferable as a condition for keeping the surface morphology better, and the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate The layer thickness of the layer in contact with is more preferably 0.7 μm or less. When the semiconductor in contact with the growth main surface is InGaN, the film is formed at a low growth temperature of about 700 ° C. to 900 ° C. In the case of using a nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the substrate temperature before film formation is increased to a temperature exceeding about 1100 ° C. In this case, depending on the atmosphere in the furnace (conditions such as gas flow rate and pressure), N (nitrogen) or Ga (gallium) may evaporate from the substrate surface before growth, thereby causing surface roughness of the substrate. It has been found that this surface roughness does not occur at a substrate temperature of 900 ° C. or lower. For this reason, since InGaN can be formed at a low temperature (about 700 ° C. to 900 ° C.), surface roughness of the substrate surface can be effectively suppressed, which is preferable.

Also, in the case of Al _a In _b Ga _c N (a + b + c = 1, 0 <a ≦ 1, 0 <b ≦ 1, 0 ≦ c <1), low temperature film formation is possible when In is included. Therefore, the same effect as in the case of InGaN can be obtained. Also in this case, the layer thickness of the layer in contact with the growth main surface of the substrate is more preferably 0.7 μm or less, the Al composition ratio a is 0 <a ≦ 0.1, and the In composition If the ratio b is 0 <b ≦ 0.1, it is more preferable from the viewpoint of surface morphology. That is, when a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al and In is used as a semiconductor layer in contact with the main growth surface, it is more preferable from the viewpoint that a film with high flatness can be easily formed in low-temperature growth.

  Even in this case, as described above, the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate and the active layer (well layer) is preferably 0.7 μm or less.

FIG. 33 shows a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, and after forming an AlGaN layer with a thickness of about 0.2 μm on the growth principal surface, It is the microscope picture which observed the surface morphology when the GaN layer was formed in the thickness of about 0.9 micrometer on the AlGaN layer using the optical microscope. FIG. 33 shows a surface morphology in a state where each nitride semiconductor layer is stacked at the beginning of the AlGaN layer on the growth main surface. The composition of the AlGaN layer is Al _0.05 Ga _0.95 N.

By making the semiconductor layer in contact with the growth main surface an AlGaN layer, a good surface morphology can be obtained in the AlGaN layer. However, by forming a GaN layer having a thickness of about 0.9 μm exceeding 0.7 μm on the AlGaN layer, the surface morphology is deteriorated as shown in FIG. That is, it was found that even if an AlGaN layer (Al _0.05 Ga _0.95 N layer) is formed between the substrate and the GaN layer, the surface morphology deteriorates if the thickness of the GaN layer is large.

Even when an AlGaN layer or the like is formed between a plurality of GaN layers (for example, a four-layer structure of GaN layer / AlGaN layer / GaN layer / AlGaN layer), the total thickness of the GaN layer is larger than 0.7 μm. It was also found that the surface morphology deteriorated. For example, even when a GaN layer is formed with a layer thickness of about 1 μm on the main growth surface of the substrate, and then an AlGaN layer (for example, Al _0.05 Ga _0.95 N layer) is formed with a layer thickness of about 1 μm, the GaN layer The surface morphology deteriorated by forming the film did not recover, and the surface morphology similar to that of FIG. 31 was obtained.

  As a result, the surface morphology is determined by the total layer thickness of the GaN layer formed on the substrate (between the substrate and the active layer (well layer)), so that the active layer (the nitride semiconductor layer containing In) It was found from this examination that it is necessary to prevent the total thickness of the GaN layer from becoming too large before forming a certain well layer.

  In the case of using a nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the layer structure (layer structure of the light-emitting element) stacked on the substrate is used. Although it is preferable that the GaN layer is not included as much as possible, a GaN layer can be used as the light guide layer in order to perform light confinement. Also, a very thin GaN layer is formed into a superlattice with AlGaN, AlInGaN, or InGaN (AlGaN / GaN / AlGaN / GaN..., AlInGaN / GaN / AlInGaN / GaN..., InGaN / GaN / InGaN / GaN, etc.), the total layer thickness of GaN can be increased while suppressing deterioration of the surface morphology. The superlattice structure can be used as a light guide layer and a light cladding layer. By using the above structure, a relatively good layer can be formed using a thin GaN layer. In this case, the thickness of the thin GaN layer used in the superlattice structure is particularly preferably 1 nm or more and 50 nm or less. However, even in this case, the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate and the active layer (well layer) needs to be suppressed to 0.7 μm or less.

  Further, in order to obtain a light emitting element or an electronic device having excellent characteristics, as described above, the layer structure laminated on the substrate does not include a GaN layer, and these layer structures are converted into InGaN, AlGaN, InAlGaN, InAlN. It is preferable to use a semiconductor layer having a composition different from that of GaN.

  Furthermore, according to this study, a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al or In (for example, an AlGaN layer, an InGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.), unlike a GaN layer, even when formed with a layer thickness exceeding 1 μm, It was found that deterioration of surface morphology was suppressed. For this reason, when an LD structure is manufactured using a nitride semiconductor substrate having a growth main surface that has an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, as an optical cladding layer, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN It is preferable to use a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al, such as a layer. Alternatively, a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al and In is preferably used. It is also preferable to use a nitride semiconductor layer containing In, such as an InGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, or an AlInN layer, as the light guide layer.

  When a nitride semiconductor substrate having a non-polar surface is used, when the nitride semiconductor layer containing Al or the nitride semiconductor layer containing Al and In is used for the barrier layer of the active layer, the strain of the active layer is reduced. For the purpose of suppressing the generation of dark lines, a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al and In, such as an AlInGaN layer or an AlInN layer, is preferably used as the optical cladding layer. Further, as the light guide layer, a nitride semiconductor layer containing In, such as an InGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, or an AlInN layer, or a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al and In is preferably used. Of course, the same can be said for the case where a nitride semiconductor substrate whose growth main surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used.

  In FIG. 34, a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with a surface having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, and an AlGaN layer having an Al composition ratio of 5% is formed on the growth principal surface with a thickness of about 2 μm. It is the microscope picture which observed the surface morphology when forming by thickness using the optical microscope. FIG. 34 shows the surface morphology in a state in which each nitride semiconductor layer is stacked on the main growth surface starting from the AlGaN layer. As shown in FIG. 34, it can be seen that the surface morphology when the nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is formed as a thick film is very good. From this, it was found that even when the nitride semiconductor layer containing Al or In is formed as a thick film, deterioration of the surface morphology is suppressed. By making the semiconductor layer in contact with the substrate surface (main growth surface) a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al or In, it is considered that the growth mode is changed and the flatness and crystallinity are improved.

  As described above, the semiconductor layer in contact with the substrate surface (growth main surface) is a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al or In (for example, an AlGaN layer, an InGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.), so that the surface morphology Is significantly improved. Such a phenomenon is a characteristic phenomenon in the case of using a nitride semiconductor substrate whose growth main surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane. This is the first knowledge obtained from the examination of

  For reference, a GaN substrate having a growth main surface that is a +0.5 degree off-angle in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, and an AlGaN layer having a thickness of about 1 μm is formed on the growth main surface. FIG. 35 shows a micrograph of the surface morphology as formed using an optical microscope. Also, when a GaN substrate having a growth principal surface with a surface having an off angle of +0.5 degrees in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used and a GaN layer having a thickness of about 1 μm is formed on the growth principal surface FIG. 36 shows a photomicrograph of the surface morphology observed using an optical microscope. FIG. 35 shows a surface morphology in which each nitride semiconductor layer is stacked on the main growth surface at the beginning of the AlGaN layer, and FIG. 36 shows a state in which each nitride semiconductor layer is stacked on the main growth surface at the beginning of the GaN layer. The surface morphology of is shown.

  As shown in FIG. 35 and FIG. 36, both have poor surface morphology, and no significant change is observed between them. Normally, there is no significant difference in the surface morphology between the case where the GaN layer is formed (when the GaN layer starts) and the case where the AlGaN layer is formed (when the AlGaN layer starts). For this reason, it has been found that a nitride semiconductor substrate whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane exhibits such a unique phenomenon as described above.

  From the above, when a GaN layer is formed on a nitride semiconductor substrate whose growth main surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the active layer (growth main surface) to the active layer ( The total layer thickness of the GaN layer formed up to the well layer which is a nitride semiconductor layer containing In is preferably 0.7 μm or less, and more preferably 0.5 μm or less. Further, it is more preferable if the total thickness of the GaN layer is 0.3 μm or less. If the total thickness of the GaN layer is 0.5 μm or less, the surface morphology will not be greatly deteriorated. Therefore, it is possible to form a plurality of GaN layers on the substrate by forming an AlGaN layer thereafter. is there. However, it is necessary to satisfy the condition that the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate surface (growth main surface) and the active layer (well layer) is 0.7 μm or less.

  A nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al that has good flatness and crystallinity (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.) The inventors of the present application have revealed that this is a nonpolar substrate that is very suitable for film formation. Then, using the substrate having such characteristics, the barrier layer of the active layer is formed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, AlGaN, AlInGaN, AlInN, etc.), thereby generating the above-described dark line. In addition to the suppression effect, it has also been found that the effect of improving the flatness and crystallinity of the barrier layer can be obtained, and the luminous efficiency can be greatly improved.

  Of the m-plane nitride semiconductor substrates, the nitride semiconductor substrate having an off-angle in the a-axis direction has a surface when an n-type GaN layer or a non-doped GaN layer having a thickness exceeding 1 μm is formed as described above. Morphology deteriorates. However, in the p-type GaN layer intentionally doped with impurities to be p-type, even when the film is formed with a thickness of about 0.5 μm, the surface morphology is not deteriorated (that is, the n-type GaN layer and the non-doped GaN layer). If the total layer thickness was 0.7 μm or less, the surface morphology was not deteriorated even when the p-type GaN layer was formed to a thickness of about 0.5 μm. For this reason, it is sufficiently possible to use a p-type GaN layer for the contact layer. However, when a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.) is formed, the surface morphology is improved, so that the contact layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al. Preferably formed. Thereby, the surface morphology is improved and the in-plane distribution of the layer thickness is further improved, so that the uniformity of current injection is improved. Thereby, the improvement of the light emission efficiency by the improvement of the light emission pattern and the effect of reducing the voltage can be obtained, which is preferable.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments embodying the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following first to fourth embodiments, examples in which the present invention is applied to a nitride semiconductor laser element which is an example of a nitride semiconductor element will be described. In the following fifth embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a light-emitting diode element which is an example of a nitride semiconductor element will be described. In the following embodiments, “nitride semiconductor” refers to a semiconductor composed of Al _x Ga _y In _z N (0 ≦ x ≦ 1; 0 ≦ y ≦ 1; 0 ≦ z ≦ 1; x + y + z = 1). means.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a crystal structure of a nitride semiconductor. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an overall perspective view of the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 4 to 6 are views for explaining the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. First, the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser element 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The nitride semiconductor constituting the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment has a hexagonal crystal structure as shown in FIG. In this crystal structure, a plane (upper surface of the hexagonal column) whose normal is the c-axis [0001] of the hexagonal crystal that can be regarded as a hexagonal column is called a c-plane (0001), and each side wall surface of the hexagonal column is an m-plane {1 -100}. In the nitride semiconductor, since there is no symmetry plane in the c-axis direction, the polarization direction is along the c-axis direction. For this reason, the c-plane exhibits different properties on the + c axis side and the −c axis side. That is, the + c plane ((0001) plane) and the −c plane ((000-1) plane) are not equivalent planes, and have different chemical properties. On the other hand, since the m-plane is a crystal plane perpendicular to the c-plane, the normal of the m-plane is orthogonal to the polarization direction. For this reason, the m-plane is a nonpolar plane with no polarity. As described above, since each of the side wall surfaces of the hexagonal column is an m-plane, the m-plane has six types of plane orientations ((1-100), (10-10), (01-10), ( −1100), (−1010), and (0−110)), these plane orientations are plane orientations equivalent to crystal geometry, and hence are collectively referred to as {1-100}. Show.

  In addition, the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment includes a GaN substrate 10 as a nitride semiconductor substrate, as shown in FIGS. The main growth surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 is a surface having an off angle with respect to the m-plane. Specifically, the GaN substrate 10 of the nitride semiconductor laser element 100 has an off-angle in the a-axis direction ([11-20] direction) with respect to the m plane. In addition to the off-angle in the a-axis direction, the GaN substrate 10 may have an off-angle in the c-axis direction ([0001] direction).

  Here, the off angle of the GaN substrate 10 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. First, two crystal axis directions of an a-axis [11-20] direction and a c-axis [0001] direction are defined with respect to the m-plane. These a-axis and c-axis are perpendicular to each other, and are also perpendicular to the m-axis. Further, when the crystal axis vector of the GaN substrate 10 matches the normal vector of the substrate surface (growth principal surface) (when the off-angle becomes 0 with respect to all directions), the a-axis direction and the c-axis direction The directions parallel to the m-axis direction are defined as an X direction, a Y direction, and a Z direction, respectively. Next, consider a first surface having a normal in the Y direction and a second surface having a normal in the X direction. The crystal axis vectors that appear when the crystal axis vector is projected onto the first surface and the second surface are defined as a first projection vector and a second projection vector, respectively. At this time, an angle θa formed by the first projection vector and the normal vector is an off angle in the a-axis direction, and an angle θc formed by the second projection vector and the normal vector is an off-angle in the c-axis direction. The off-angle in the a-axis direction has the same characteristics in the + direction and the − direction because the + direction and the − direction have the same surface state in terms of crystal. For this reason, it can describe with an absolute value. On the other hand, the c-axis direction is a + direction and a − direction, and there are cases where the Ga polar surface becomes stronger and the N polarity surface becomes stronger, and the characteristics differ depending on the direction. Separately described.

  Thus, the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 according to the first embodiment is a surface inclined in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane {1-100}.

  In the GaN substrate 10, the absolute value of the off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is adjusted to an angle larger than 0.1 degree. However, since the amount of In taken into the active layer (InGaN layer such as a well layer) tends to decrease as the off-angle in the a-axis direction increases, the off-angle in the a-axis direction from the viewpoint of raw material efficiency. The absolute value of is preferably 10 degrees or less. Note that film formation is possible even when the off angle in the a-axis direction is an angle of 10 degrees or more. When the c-axis direction also has an off-angle, the off-angle in the c-axis direction is preferably adjusted to an angle greater than ± 0.1 degrees. The off angle in the c-axis direction is preferably adjusted to be smaller than the off angle in the a-axis direction.

  In the above case, it is preferable that the off angle in the a-axis direction is adjusted to an angle greater than 1 degree and 10 degrees or less. It is more preferable that the off-angle in the a-axis direction is adjusted to be in such a range because the effect of reducing the driving voltage is increased and the effect of improving the surface morphology is obtained.

  The nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment is formed by laminating a plurality of nitride semiconductor layers on the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 described above.

Specifically, the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment has an n-type GaN having a thickness of about 0.1 μm on the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10, as shown in FIGS. Layer 11 is formed. On the n-type GaN layer 11, a lower cladding layer 12 made of n-type Al _0.06 Ga _0.94 N having a thickness of about 2.2 μm is formed. A lower guide layer 13 made of n-type GaN having a thickness of about 0.1 μm is formed on the lower cladding layer 12. An active layer 14 is formed on the lower guide layer 13. The GaN substrate 10 is n-type. Further, the lower guide layer 13 may be non-doped.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the active layer 14 has a quantum well structure in which well layers 14a and barrier layers 14b are alternately stacked.

Here, in the first embodiment, the active layer 14 is made of AlGaN whose barrier layer 14b is a nitride semiconductor containing Al. Specifically, the active layer 14 includes a quantum well in which two well layers 14a made of In _x1 Ga _1-x1 N and three barrier layers 14b made of Al _x2 Ga _1-x2 N are alternately stacked. (DQW; Double Quantum Well) structure. More specifically, in the active layer 14, the first barrier layer 141b, the first well layer 141a, the second barrier layer 142b, the second well layer 142a, and the third barrier layer 143b are sequentially stacked from the lower guide layer 13 side. It is formed by being. Each of the two well layers 14a (the first well layer 141a and the second well layer 142a) is formed to a thickness of about 1.5 nm to about 4 nm. The first barrier layer 141b is formed to a thickness of about 30 nm, the second barrier layer 142b is formed to a thickness of about 16 nm, and the third barrier layer 143b is formed to a thickness of about 60 nm. ing. That is, the three barrier layers 14b are formed to have different thicknesses. With this configuration, it is possible to effectively suppress the occurrence of dark lines.

  The first barrier layer 141b is preferably formed with a thickness of 8 nm or more and 50 nm or less, and more preferably formed with a thickness of 10 nm or more and 40 nm or less. As described above, if the first barrier layer 141b is formed to a thickness of at least 8 nm, the flatness of the first barrier layer 141b formed after the growth of the lower guide layer 13 can be easily improved. Is possible. Further, if the first barrier layer 141b is formed to a thickness of 50 nm or less, carriers can be efficiently injected. The second barrier layer 142b is preferably formed with a thickness of 8 nm or more and 30 nm or less, and more preferably formed with a thickness of 10 nm or more and 20 nm or less. As described above, when the second barrier layer 142b is formed to a thickness of at least 8 nm or more, the flatness of the second barrier layer 142b formed after the growth of the first well layer 141a having a high In composition ratio can be easily achieved. Furthermore, it becomes possible to make it better. In addition, if the second barrier layer 142b is formed to a thickness of 30 nm or less, carriers can be efficiently injected. Furthermore, the third barrier layer 143b is preferably formed to a thickness of 8 nm to 100 nm, and more preferably 10 nm to 80 nm. In this way, if the third barrier layer 143b is formed to a thickness of at least 8 nm or more, it is formed after the growth of the second well layer 142a having a high In composition ratio and before the growth of the carrier block layer 15 described later. The flatness of the third barrier layer 143b to be formed can be easily improved. Further, if the third barrier layer 143b is formed to a thickness of 100 nm or less, carriers can be efficiently injected.

  In the first embodiment, the number of well layers is two. However, when the number of well layers is greater than two (for example, three or four layers), the first barrier is provided. The layer can be defined as an initial barrier layer formed on the lower layer side (substrate side) of the well layer closest to the substrate. The second barrier layer can be defined as a barrier layer sandwiched between well layers. Furthermore, the third barrier layer can be defined as a barrier layer formed on a well layer (final well layer) farthest from the substrate. By defining the first barrier layer, the second barrier layer, and the third barrier layer in this way, even when two or more well layers are formed, the preferable layer thickness conditions of the barrier layer described above are applied. Is possible. And if such conditions are satisfied, the above effects are obtained, which is preferable.

  The barrier layer may be made of AlInGaN in addition to AlGaN. In the case of a barrier layer containing Al and In, there is an advantage that a film having high flatness can be easily formed at a low temperature. Further, when the number of well layers is two or more, if the GaN layer is not used for the barrier layer sandwiched between the well layers (the second barrier layer in the first embodiment), the barrier layer may be AlGaN / AlInGaN, A two-layer structure such as AlInGaN / AlGaN, or a multilayer structure such as AlInGaN / AlGaN / AlInGaN, AlInGaN / InGaN / AlInGaN, and AlGaN / InGaN / AlGaN may be used. Furthermore, when the number of well layers is one, it is preferable that the upper layer in contact with the well layers (the side opposite to the substrate, the second barrier layer) is an AlInGaN layer. By forming the barrier layer in this way, it is possible to effectively suppress the generation of dark lines.

Moreover, in 1st Embodiment, In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a which comprises the active layer 14 is comprised 0.15 or more and 0.45 or less (for example, 0.2-0.25). The barrier layer 14b of the active layer 14 is made of AlGaN (Al _x2 Ga _1-x2 N), and the Al composition ratio x2 is, for example, 0 <x2 ≦ 0.08. Thus, by making the Al composition ratio x2 of the barrier layer 14b made of AlGaN (Al _x2 Ga _{1 -x2} N) 0.08 or less, light confinement can be performed efficiently. In addition, by forming the barrier layer 14b from AlGaN, it is possible to improve the light emission efficiency as compared with the conventional case where the barrier layer is formed from GaN or InGaN. In particular, when the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a is not less than 0.15 and not more than 0.45, the tendency to improve the light emission efficiency is high.

  This is because, when the In composition ratio of the well layer is high, a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al as a barrier layer (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, etc.) is used to form a nitride semiconductor substrate having an m-plane as a growth main surface. It is possible to suppress dark lines that are specifically observed with a light-emitting element using the light-emitting element, which is considered to improve luminous efficiency.

  Here, in general, the well layer is often set to a thickness of about 3 nm in a region where the In composition ratio is large (x1 ≧ 0.15). However, when a barrier layer made of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, AlGaN) is formed on a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the thickness of the well layer is 4.0 nm. It is also possible to set as described above. The reason is considered to be that the effect of suppressing the generation of dark lines and the effect of protecting the active layer are obtained. Furthermore, the use of the GaN substrate 10 improves the flatness of the layer surface and makes the In composition very uniform in the plane. For this reason, even when the thickness of the well layer is large, it is difficult to form a local region having a high In composition. For this reason, it is considered that the well layer can be made thicker.

  Moreover, when the thickness of the well layer is larger than 8 nm, many misfit dislocations may occur. For this reason, the thickness of the well layer is preferably 8 nm or less. Further, it is preferably set in the range of about 2.5 nm to about 4.0 nm.

  For the same reason, when the thickness of the well layer is set in the range of about 1.5 nm to about 4.0 nm, the well layer is formed by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, AlGaN). The number of layers can be increased. For example, when a conventional active layer structure is employed in a nitride semiconductor laser element, the light emission efficiency is significantly deteriorated by forming three or more well layers. On the other hand, by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al, even when five well layers are formed, deterioration of light emission efficiency is suppressed. Further, in the light emitting diode element (LED), by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al, deterioration of the light emission efficiency is suppressed even when eight well layers are formed. The light-emitting diode element has a thickness smaller than that of the semiconductor laser element, and the thermal damage given to the active layer during the formation of the p-type semiconductor layer is smaller than that of the semiconductor laser element. However, the active layer (well layer) can be easily multi-layered.

  Note that the well layer of the active layer is intended to be a quantum well, and as a result, the layer thickness may fluctuate within a range of several nm or less, or may be locally doted. Including.

  The reason why the light emission efficiency is improved when the barrier layer 14b is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, such as AlGaN or AlInGaN, is considered as follows. That is, in a nitride semiconductor substrate having a growth main surface that has an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m plane, as described above, a GaN layer is formed on the growth main surface with a layer thickness exceeding 1 μm. As a result, the surface morphology tends to deteriorate. On the other hand, when a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, or the like) is formed, the surface morphology is improved. For this reason, a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al having good flatness and crystallinity (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc. It can be said that this is a non-polar substrate that is very suitable for film formation. For this reason, the barrier layer of the active layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.), thereby improving the flatness of the barrier layer and having a high flatness. It is considered that the crystallinity of the well layer is improved by forming the well layer thereon. In addition, by forming the barrier layer in this way, it is possible to effectively suppress the generation of dark lines.

  When the barrier layer of the active layer is composed of a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.), the well layer is preferably composed of InGaN as described above.

  In the first embodiment, as described above, the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 and the active layer 14 (well layer 14a) is 0.7 μm or less. It is comprised so that it may become. Specifically, between the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 and the active layer 14 (well layer 14a), as described above, there are two GaN layers (n-type GaN layer 11, lower guide layer 13). Is formed. The total layer thickness is about 0.2 μm (= about 0.1 μm + about 0.1 μm). The total thickness of the GaN layer is more preferably 0.5 μm or less, and even more preferably 0.3 μm or less. Furthermore, the total of the GaN layers formed between the substrate surface and the well layer which is a nitride semiconductor layer containing In (when a plurality of well layers are formed, preferably the well layer on the most substrate side). The layer thickness is preferably 0.7 μm or less, and more preferably 0.5 μm or less. More preferably, it is 0.3 μm or less.

  In the first embodiment, the semiconductor layer in contact with the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 is a GaN layer.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a carrier block made of p-type Al _y Ga _1-y N (0 <y <1) having a thickness of 40 nm or less (for example, about 12 nm) is formed on the active layer 14. Layer 15 is formed. The carrier block layer 15 is configured such that the Al composition ratio y is 0.08 or more and 0.35 or less (for example, about 0.15). An upper guide layer 16 made of p-type Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N having a convex portion and a flat portion other than the convex portion is formed on the carrier block layer 15. The upper guide layer 16 is configured so that the Al composition ratio is smaller than that of the cladding layer. An upper cladding layer 17 made of p-type Al _0.06 Ga _0.94 N having a thickness of about 0.5 μm is formed on the convex portion of the upper guide layer 16. A contact layer 18 made of p-type Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N having a thickness of about 0.1 μm is formed on the upper cladding layer 17. The contact layer 18, the upper cladding layer 17, and the convex portions of the upper guide layer 16 form a striped (elongated) ridge portion 19 having a width of about 1 μm to about 10 μm (for example, about 1.5 μm). ing. As shown in FIG. 6, the ridge portion 19 is formed to extend in the Y direction (substantially c-axis [0001] direction). The p-type semiconductor layer (carrier block layer 15, upper guide layer 16, upper clad layer 17 and contact layer 18) is doped with Mg as a p-type impurity.

  Here, the contact layer can be sufficiently composed of GaN, but by being composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, AlGaN, AlInGaN, AlInN), the surface morphology is improved and the layer thickness is increased. The in-plane distribution of is improved. For this reason, as described above, the contact layer is preferably composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, the distance h between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a (the well layer 14a (142a) closest to the carrier block layer 15) is the efficiency of carrier injection into the well layer 14a. In order to improve, it is set to about 60 nm. In the first embodiment, the distance h is the same as the thickness of the third barrier layer 143b.

  Note that if the distance h between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a is 200 nm or more, the current spreads when carriers diffuse from the carrier block layer 15 to the active layer 14, so that bright spot light emission occurs. Slightly suppressed. On the other hand, if the GaN substrate 10 having the growth main surface 10a having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, the distance h between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a is 200 nm or more. Even if not, bright spot light emission can be effectively suppressed. For example, even when the distance h between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a is shorter than 120 nm, bright spot light emission can be effectively suppressed. A shorter distance h between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a is preferable because the injection efficiency of carriers into the well layer 14a is improved. Therefore, the efficiency of carrier injection into the well layer 14a can be improved by making the distance h between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a shorter than 120 nm.

In the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, insulating layers 20 for current confinement are formed on both sides of the ridge portion 19. Specifically, from SiO ₂ having a thickness of about 0.1 μm to about 0.3 μm (for example, about 0.15 μm) on the upper guide layer 16, the side surface of the upper cladding layer 17, and the side surface of the contact layer 18. An insulating layer 20 is formed.

  A p-side electrode 21 is formed on the upper surfaces of the insulating layer 20 and the contact layer 18 so as to cover a part of the contact layer 18. The p-side electrode 21 is in direct contact with the contact layer 18 in a portion covering the contact layer 18. The p-side electrode 21 includes a Pd layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 15 nm, a Pt layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 15 nm, and a thickness of about 200 nm from the insulating layer 20 (contact layer 18) side. It has a multi-layer structure in which Au layers (not shown) having layers are sequentially stacked.

  On the back surface of the GaN substrate 10, an Hf layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 5 nm and an Al layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 150 nm are sequentially stacked from the back side of the GaN substrate 10. An n-side electrode 22 having a multilayered structure is formed. On the n-side electrode 22, a Mo layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 36 nm, a Pt layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 18 nm, and a thickness of about 200 nm are sequentially formed from the n-side electrode 22 side. There is formed a metallized layer 23 having a multilayer structure in which Au layers (not shown) having layers are sequentially stacked.

Furthermore, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment includes a light emitting surface 30a from which laser light is emitted and a light reflecting surface 30b facing the light emitting surface 30a. A pair of resonator surfaces 30 is included. On the light exit surface 30a, for example, an exit side coating film (not shown) having a reflectance of 5% to 80% is formed. On the other hand, for example, a reflection side coating film (not shown) having a reflectance of 95% is formed on the light reflecting surface 30b. The reflectance of the exit side coating film is adjusted to a desired value by the oscillation output. The emitting side coating film is, for example, aluminum oxynitride film or nitride film of AlO _x N _1-x (0 ≦ x ≦ 1): film thickness 30 nm / Al ₂ O ₃ (in order from the emitting end face of the semiconductor. The reflection side coating film is composed of, for example, a multilayer film such as SiO ₂ or TiO ₂ . For example, a dielectric film such as SiN, ZrO ₂ , Ta ₂ O ₅ , or MgF ₂ may be used as a material other than the above. As the film configuration on the light emitting surface side, AlO _x N _1-x (0 ≦ x ≦ 1): film thickness 12 nm / SiN which is a silicon nitride film (film thickness: 100 nm) may be used.

As described above, the cleaved end face (c face in the first embodiment) of the m-plane nitride semiconductor substrate, or the etched end face etched by vapor phase etching or liquid phase etching is made of an aluminum oxynitride film or nitride film. By forming a certain AlO _x N _1-x (0 ≦ x ≦ 1), the ratio of non-radiative recombination at the interface between the semiconductor and the emission side coating film can be greatly reduced, and the level of COD (catalytic optical damage) is increased. It can be improved significantly. Further, AlO _x N _1-x (0 ≦ x ≦ 1) which is an aluminum oxynitride film or nitride film is more preferably the same hexagonal crystal as the nitride semiconductor. Furthermore, it is more preferable to crystallize with the nitride semiconductor aligned with the crystal axis because the ratio of non-radiative recombination is further reduced and the COD level is further improved. In order to increase the reflectance on the light emitting surface side, a silicon oxide film, an aluminum oxide film, a titanium oxide film, a tantalum oxide film, a zirconium oxide film, a silicon nitride film, A laminated film in which these are laminated may be formed.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment is about 300 μm to about 1800 μm in a direction (Y direction (substantially c-axis [0001] direction)) perpendicular to the resonator surface 30. (For example, about 600 μm) and a length L (chip length L (resonator length L)) in a direction along the resonator surface 30 (X direction (approximately a-axis [11-20] direction)), It has a width W (chip width W) of about 150 μm to about 600 μm (for example, about 400 μm).

  In the first embodiment, as described above, the surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10, thereby making the EL light emission pattern a bright spot-like surface. The wavelength unevenness inside can be suppressed. That is, with this configuration, the EL light emission pattern can be improved. Thereby, the light emission efficiency of the nitride semiconductor laser element can be improved. In addition, a nitride semiconductor laser element with high luminance can be obtained by improving the luminous efficiency. The reason why the bright spot-like light emission suppression effect is obtained is that the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 has an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, so that the growth main surface 10a It is considered that when the active layer 14 (well layer 14a) is grown, the direction of migration of In atoms changes, and aggregation of In is suppressed even under conditions where the In composition ratio is high (In supply amount is large). . In addition, since the growth mode of the p-type semiconductor layer formed on the active layer 14 also changes, the activation rate of Mg, which is a p-type impurity, is improved, and the resistance of the p-type semiconductor layer is reduced. It is thought that. In addition, since the p-type semiconductor layer has a low resistance, it becomes easy to inject a current uniformly, thereby making the EL light emission pattern uniform.

  In the first embodiment, since the EL light emission pattern can be made uniform by suppressing the brightening of the EL light emission pattern, the driving voltage can also be reduced. It should be noted that by suppressing the bright spot light emission, an EL light emission pattern with uniform light emission can be obtained, so that the gain can be increased in the formation of the nitride semiconductor laser element.

  In the first embodiment, the use of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al for the barrier layer 14b can almost completely suppress the occurrence of dark lines. Thereby, the fall of the luminous efficiency resulting from generation | occurrence | production of a dark line can be suppressed.

  Further, in the first embodiment, the flatness of the barrier layer 14b can be improved by configuring the barrier layer 14b from a nitride semiconductor containing Al. For this reason, by forming the well layer 14a on the highly flat barrier layer 14b, the in-plane distribution of the In composition in the well layer 14a can be suppressed from becoming non-uniform. In addition, the crystallinity of the active layer 14 can be improved. Thereby, luminous efficiency can be improved more.

The barrier layer 14b formed below the well layer 14a (on the GaN substrate 10 side) is composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, Al _x2 Ga _1-x2 N), and its Al composition ratio By setting x2 to 0 <x2 ≦ 0.08, in addition to the effect of suppressing the occurrence of dark lines and the effect of protecting the active layer 14, the effect of improving the flatness of the barrier layer 14b can also be obtained. Thereby, since the light emission efficiency of the well layer 14a can be improved, a semiconductor laser element having high element characteristics and high reliability can be obtained.

  Thus, in 1st Embodiment, luminous efficiency can be improved significantly by comprising as mentioned above. In addition, since the device characteristics and reliability can be improved by improving the light emission efficiency, the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 with excellent device identification and high reliability can be obtained.

  In the first embodiment, the growth main surface 10a to the active layer 14 (well layer 14a) are formed on the GaN substrate 10 having the growth main surface 10a as a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane. When the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the layers is 0.7 μm or less (about 0.2 μm), the surface morphology can be greatly improved, and a good surface morphology can be obtained. Thereby, the in-plane distribution of the layer thickness in the GaN layer (n-type GaN layer 11 and lower guide layer 13) can be made uniform, and also in the semiconductor layer formed on these GaN layers, the layer thickness surface The internal distribution can be made uniform. That is, the in-plane distribution of the layer thickness in each nitride semiconductor layer formed on the GaN substrate 10 can be made uniform. Further, by improving the surface morphology, variations in device characteristics (for example, IL characteristics, IV characteristics, far field patterns, wavelengths, etc.) can be reduced, so that the manufacturing yield can be improved. it can. Thereby, an element having characteristics within the standard range can be easily obtained. In addition, the device characteristics and reliability can be further improved by improving the surface morphology.

  Further, in the first embodiment, by making the absolute value of the off angle in the a-axis direction larger than 0.1 degree, it is possible to easily suppress the brightening of the EL light emission pattern.

  When the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 also has an off-angle in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the off-angle in the a-axis direction is set larger than the off-angle in the c-axis direction, so that the EL It is possible to effectively suppress the formation of bright spots in the light emission pattern. That is, by configuring in this way, it is possible to suppress the inconvenience that the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission is reduced due to an excessively large off angle in the c-axis direction. Thereby, luminous efficiency can be improved easily.

  In the first embodiment, the drive voltage can be easily reduced by configuring the active layer 14 of the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 in the DQW structure. For this reason, the device characteristics and reliability can be improved also by this. Even when the active layer 14 has a DQW structure, it is possible to suppress bright spot light emission of the EL light emission pattern.

In the first embodiment, the Al composition ratio y of the carrier block layer 15 made of p-type Al _y Ga _1-y N is configured to be 0.08 or more and 0.35 or less, so that the carrier (electrons) is reduced. Since a sufficiently high energy barrier can be formed, it is possible to more effectively prevent carriers injected into the active layer 14 from flowing into the p-type semiconductor layer. Thereby, it is possible to effectively suppress the formation of bright spots in the EL light emission pattern. Further, by setting the Al composition ratio y of the carrier block layer 15 to 0.35 or less, it is possible to suppress the increase in resistance of the carrier block layer 15 caused by the Al composition ratio y becoming too large. In the region where the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a is large (x1 ≧ 0.15), when the Al composition ratio y of the carrier block layer 15 formed on the active layer 14 is 0.08 or more, the carrier block layer It becomes very difficult to grow 15 well. This is because as the In concentration of the well layer 14a increases, the surface flatness of the active layer 14 deteriorates, and it becomes difficult to form a layer having a high Al composition ratio y with good crystallinity. However, when the GaN substrate 10 having the growth main surface 10a as a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, the In composition ratio x1 of the active layer 14 (well layer 14a) is 0.15 or more and 0.00. Even in the case of 45 or less, the carrier block layer 15 having an Al composition ratio y of 0.08 or more and 0.35 or less can be formed on the active layer 14 with good crystallinity. Thereby, it is possible to effectively suppress brightening of the EL light emission pattern and make the EL light emission pattern uniform.

  It is more preferable that the barrier layer (for example, the third barrier layer in the first embodiment) between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a is a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al and In. Since the carrier block layer is formed with an Al composition ratio larger than that of the barrier layer, the stress from the carrier block layer is applied to the well layer. For this reason, stress can be relieved by configuring the barrier layer between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a to contain In. Further, the barrier layer between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a may be configured to include AlInGaN in part. Further, the barrier layer between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a has a two-layer structure of AlGaN / AlInGaN, AlInGaN / AlGaN, AlInGaN / InGaN, AlInGaN / AlGaN / AlInGaN, AlInGaN / InGaN / AlInGaN, AlGaN / InGaN / A multilayer structure such as AlGaN may be used. Further, the barrier layer between the carrier block layer 15 and the well layer 14a may be InGaN from the viewpoint of stress relaxation. By forming the barrier layer in this way, the generation of dark lines can be effectively suppressed.

  Further, by using the GaN substrate 10 having the growth main surface 10a provided with an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the well layer 14a is a condition under which a bright spot-like EL light emission pattern appears remarkably. Even when the In composition ratio x1 is 0.15 or more, the formation of bright spots in the EL emission pattern can be effectively suppressed. For this reason, when the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 is set to 0.15 or more, the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission can be remarkably obtained. Further, when the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a is set to 0.45 or less, the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a becomes larger than 0.45, so that the active layer is caused by strain such as lattice mismatch. It is possible to suppress the inconvenience that a large number of dislocations enter 14.

  Further, when AlInGaN is used for the barrier layer 14b, the light emission efficiency can be improved as in the case where AlGaN is used for the barrier layer 14b. In addition, from the viewpoint of the semiconductor laser element, there is an advantage that light confinement is improved. Also, by forming the well layer 14a on the barrier layer 14b made of AlInGaN, the efficiency of In taken into the well layer 14a can be made very good. For this reason, even when the gas flow rate of In is reduced, a high In composition ratio can be maintained. As a result, the In incorporation efficiency can be improved. As a result, it is possible to increase the wavelength more effectively. Further, since the consumption of the source gas (for example, TMI) can be reduced, there is an advantage in terms of cost.

Incidentally, the barrier layer 14b, the case of using _{AlInGaN (Al s In t Ga u} N (s + t + u = 1)), Al composition ratio s is preferably set in a range of 0 <s ≦ 0.08. In this case, the In composition ratio t is preferably set in a range of 0 <t ≦ 0.10, and more preferably set in a range of 0 <t ≦ 0.03. By setting in such a range, the AlInGaN barrier layer can be formed more flatly. Even when the well layer 14a made of In _x1 Ga _{1 -x1} N having a high In composition ratio x1 (for example, x1 is 0.15 or more and 0.45 or less) is formed on the flat barrier layer, it is more effective. In addition, the occurrence of dark lines as shown in FIGS. 28 and 29 can be suppressed. A suitable thickness when the barrier layer 14b is made of AlInGaN is the same as a preferred thickness when the barrier layer 14b is made of AlGaN.

  Here, the effect of suppressing dark line generation obtained by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al, and nitridation with a plane having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane as the growth main surface This effect is completely different from the bright spot-like light emission suppression effect obtained by using a physical semiconductor substrate. That is, when a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is used for the barrier layer, a nonpolar surface such as an m-plane is effective. On the other hand, even when a barrier layer made of InGaN is used, it is possible to suppress the formation of luminescent spots in the light emission pattern by providing the off angle in the a-axis direction.

  However, when a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is formed on a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off-angle in the a-axis direction, an effect of improving crystallinity and the like can be obtained. Therefore, a nitride having an off-angle in the a-axis direction When a semiconductor substrate is used and a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is used for the barrier layer, the crystallinity of the barrier layer is improved. Thus, it is more preferable to combine both because a synergistic effect is obtained. Of course, if a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction is used and a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is used for the barrier layer, the generation of dark lines can be suppressed, in addition to the generation of bright spot-like light emission. Suppression is also possible.

  7 to 19 are views for explaining a method of manufacturing the nitride semiconductor laser element according to the first embodiment of the present invention. A method for manufacturing the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is now described with reference to FIGS.

First, a GaN substrate 10 having a growth main surface 10a as a surface having an off angle with respect to the m-plane is prepared. The GaN substrate 10 is produced, for example, by growing a GaN crystal on a seed substrate that is a substrate cut from a GaN bulk crystal having a c-plane (0001) as a main surface. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, after a protective film (not shown) made of SiO ₂ is partially formed on the base substrate 300, the base substrate 300 is formed using an epitaxial growth method such as MOCVD. A GaN bulk crystal is grown on the protective film. As a result, growth starts from a portion where the protective film is not formed, and lateral growth of the GaN crystal occurs on the protective film. Then, the GaN crystals grown in the lateral direction are joined together on the protective film and continue to grow, and the GaN crystal layer 400 a is formed on the base substrate 300. The GaN crystal layer 400a is formed to be sufficiently thick so that it can be handled independently even after the base substrate 300 is removed. Next, the base substrate 300 is removed from the formed GaN crystal layer 400a by, for example, etching. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 8, a GaN bulk crystal 400 having a c-plane (0001) as a main surface is obtained. As the base substrate 300, for example, a GaAs substrate, sapphire substrate, ZnO substrate, SiC substrate, GaN substrate, or the like can be used. The thickness S of the GaN bulk crystal 400 can be set to about 3 mm, for example.

  Next, by grinding and polishing the (0001) plane and the (000-1) plane, which are both main surfaces of the obtained GaN bulk crystal 400, the average roughness Ra of both main surfaces is set to 5 nm. This average roughness Ra is an arithmetic average roughness Ra specified in JIS B 0601, and can be measured by an AFM (atomic force microscope).

  Next, by slicing the GaN bulk crystal 400 with a plurality of planes perpendicular to the [1-100] direction, a plurality of GaN crystal substrates 410 having the m-plane {1-100} as the main surface are formed with a thickness T (for example, 1 mm) (width S: 3 mm). Then, by grinding and polishing the four surfaces of the cut GaN crystal substrate 410 that have not been ground and polished, the average roughness Ra of these four surfaces is set to 5 nm. Thereafter, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, in the plurality of GaN crystal substrates 410, the principal surfaces are made parallel to each other, and the [0001] directions of the GaN crystal substrates 410 are made the same. , Arranged adjacent to each other.

  Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of GaN crystal substrates 410 arranged adjacent to each other are used as seed substrates, and an epitaxial growth method such as an HVPE method is performed on the m-plane {1-100} of these GaN crystal substrates 410. Use to grow GaN crystals. Thereby, the GaN substrate 1 having the m-plane as the growth main surface is obtained. Next, by polishing the main surface of the obtained GaN substrate 1 by a chemical mechanical polishing process, the off-angle in the a-axis direction and the off-angle in the c-axis direction are independently controlled, and the a-axis with respect to the m-plane The off angle in the direction and the off angle in the c-axis direction are set as desired off angles. This off angle can be measured by an X-ray diffraction method. Thereby, the GaN substrate 10 is obtained in which the growth main surface is a surface having an off angle in each of the a-axis direction and the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane.

  In the production of the GaN substrate 10, when producing a substrate with a large off-angle, when the plurality of GaN crystal substrates 410 are cut out from the GaN bulk crystal 400, the main surface of the GaN crystal substrate 410 is m-plane {1 You may cut out with a predetermined cut-off angle with respect to the [1-100] direction so that it may have a desired off angle with respect to the −100} plane. By doing so, the main surface of the GaN crystal substrate 410 becomes a surface having a desired off angle with respect to the m-plane {1-100} plane, and thus the GaN substrate 1 (10) formed on the main surface. The main surface (growth main surface) is also a surface having a desired off angle with respect to the m-plane {1-100} plane.

  Further, the GaN crystal substrate 410 can be used as the GaN substrate 10 by polishing the main surface of the GaN crystal substrate 410 cut out from the GaN bulk crystal 400 (see FIG. 8) by chemical mechanical polishing. In this case, the width S of the GaN crystal substrate 410 may be 3 mm or more.

  Here, in the first embodiment, the off angle in the a-axis direction of the GaN substrate 10 is adjusted to be an angle larger than 0.1 degree. In addition, when providing an off angle also in the c-axis direction, it is preferable to adjust the off-angle in the c-axis direction to an angle larger than ± 0.1 degrees. Further, the off angle in the c-axis direction is preferably adjusted to be smaller than the off-angle in the a-axis direction.

  Subsequently, as illustrated in FIG. 12, each layer of the nitride semiconductor is grown on the main growth surface 10 a of the obtained GaN substrate 10 by using the MOCVD method. At this time, each nitride semiconductor layer is grown so that the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the GaN substrate 10 and the active layer 14 (well layer 14a) is 0.7 μm or less.

Specifically, on the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10, an n-type GaN layer 11 having a thickness of about 0.1 μm and a lower cladding layer made of n-type Al _0.06 Ga _0.94 N having a thickness of about 2.2 μm. 12. A lower guide layer 13 made of n-type GaN having a thickness of about 0.1 μm and an active layer 14 are sequentially grown. When the active layer 14 is grown, as shown in FIG. 5, two well layers 14a made of In _x1 Ga _1-x1 N and three barrier layers 14b made of Al _x2 Ga _1-x2 N are used. And grow alternately. Specifically, for example, on the lower guide layer 13, from the lower layer to the upper layer, a first barrier layer 141b having a thickness of about 30 nm, a first well layer 141a having a thickness of about 1.5 nm to about 4 nm, A second barrier layer 142b having a thickness of about 16 nm, a second well layer 142a having a thickness of about 1.5 nm to about 4 nm, and a third barrier layer 143b having a thickness of about 60 nm are sequentially grown. As a result, an active layer 14 having a DQW structure composed of two well layers 14 a and three barrier layers 14 b is formed on the lower guide layer 13. At this time, the well layer 14a is formed so that the In composition ratio x1 is 0.15 or more and 0.45 or less (for example, 0.2 to 0.25). On the other hand, the barrier layer 14b is formed such that the Al composition ratio x2 is, for example, 0 <x2 ≦ 0.08.

Next, as shown in FIG. 12, a carrier block layer 15 made of p-type Al _y Ga _1-y N and an upper part made of p-type Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N having a thickness of about 0.05 μm are formed on the active layer 14. A guide layer 16, an upper cladding layer 17 made of p-type Al _0.06 Ga _0.94 N having a thickness of about 0.5 μm, and a contact layer 18 made of p-type Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N having a thickness of about 0.1 μm are sequentially grown. . At this time, the carrier block layer 15 is preferably formed so as to have a thickness of 40 nm or less (for example, about 12 nm). The carrier block layer 15 is formed so that the Al composition ratio y is 0.08 or more and 0.35 or less (for example, about 0.15). The n-type semiconductor layer (n-type GaN layer 11, lower cladding layer 12 and lower guide layer 13) is doped with, for example, Si as an n-type impurity, and a p-type semiconductor layer (carrier block layer 15, upper guide layer). Layer 16, upper cladding layer 17 and contact layer 18) are doped with Mg as a p-type impurity.

  In the first embodiment, the n-type semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature of 900 ° C. or higher and lower than 1300 ° C. (for example, 1075 ° C.). The well layer 14a of the active layer 14 is formed at a growth temperature (for example, 700 ° C.) of 600 ° C. or higher and 800 ° C. or lower. The barrier layer 14b in contact with the well layer 14a is formed at the same growth temperature (for example, 700 ° C.) as the well layer 14a. Further, the p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature of 700 ° C. or higher and lower than 900 ° C. (for example, 880 ° C.). The growth temperature of the n-type semiconductor layer is preferably 900 ° C. or higher and lower than 1300 ° C., more preferably 1000 ° C. or higher and lower than 1300 ° C. The growth temperature of the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 is preferably 600 ° C. or higher and 830 ° C. or lower. When the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a is 0.15 or higher, 600 ° C. or higher and 770 ° C. or lower is preferable. It is more preferable if it is 630 ° C. or higher and 740 ° C. or lower. The growth temperature of the barrier layer 14b of the active layer 14 is preferably the same temperature as the well layer 14a or higher than the well layer 14a. Furthermore, the growth temperature of the p-type semiconductor layer is preferably 700 ° C. or higher and lower than 900 ° C., more preferably 700 ° C. or higher and 880 ° C. or lower. Of course, even if the p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a temperature of 900 ° C. or higher, p-type conduction can be obtained. Therefore, the p-type semiconductor layer may be formed at a temperature of 900 ° C. or higher.

  In addition, when the In composition ratio of the well layer is high, if the semiconductor layer is formed at a temperature higher than the growth temperature of the well layer after the well layer is grown, thermal damage to the well layer is observed and black light is not emitted. Spots appear. This black spot is considered to be generated by aggregation of In atoms. For this reason, suppressing aggregation of In atoms leads to protection of the active layer from thermal damage. In a light emitting device (for example, a semiconductor laser device) in which a p-type semiconductor layer needs to be stacked at a growth temperature higher than the well layer growth temperature after the well layer is grown, the heat resistance of the active layer is required. According to previous studies by the present inventors, when an m-plane substrate is used, a p-type nitride semiconductor layer exhibiting p-type conduction at a lower temperature (for example, compared to a conventional c-plane substrate) (for example, , P-type AlGaN layer, p-type GaN layer, etc.) can be formed. Using this knowledge, although it is possible to use GaN or InGaN for the barrier layer, the effect of heat is reduced by using a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, etc.) for the barrier layer. In addition to being able to suppress more, the occurrence of dark lines can also be suppressed. Therefore, as described above, the light emission efficiency can be further improved by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. Further, a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane also has an effect of improving flatness unique to the a-axis off-substrate. Therefore, by using such a nitride semiconductor substrate (m-plane a-axis off-substrate) and forming a barrier layer made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al on the main growth surface, the luminous efficiency is further improved. Is done.

In addition, as a growth raw material of these nitride semiconductors, as a group III source gas, for example, trimethylgallium ((CH ₃ ) ₃ Ga; TMG), trimethylaluminum ((CH ₃ ) ₃ Al; TMA), and Trimethylindium ((CH ₃ ) ₃ In; TMI) can be used. Further, for example, ammonia gas (NH ₃ ) can be used as the group V source gas. As for the dopant, for example, monosilane (SiH ₄ ) can be used as the n-type dopant (n-type impurity), and for example, cyclopentadienyl magnesium (CP ₂ Mg) is used as the p-type dopant (p-type impurity). Can be used.

  When the well layer is grown at a low growth temperature of 600 ° C. or higher and 770 ° C. or lower (particularly when grown at a low growth temperature of 650 ° C. or higher and 740 ° C. or lower), the growth rate of the well layer is It is preferably at least 0.7 second / second and more preferably at least 0.05 second / second and not more than 0.2 second / second. As described above, when the growth rate of the well layer is set low, the migration of atoms is suppressed, while the slowing of the growth rate as described above alleviates the suppression of migration, and the proper movement of atoms. Secured. Thereby, crystallinity improves and luminous efficiency improves. When the growth rate of the well layer is slower than 0.05 Å / sec, the number of atoms leaving from the crystal surface is larger than the number of atoms supplied to the crystal surface. For this reason, since the crystal surface is likely to be roughened by the etching effect, the flatness is likely to deteriorate. Therefore, the growth rate of the well layer is preferably 0.05 kg / sec or more as described above. Of course, the growth method (growth conditions) of the well layer is not limited to the above, but the light emission efficiency is further improved by forming the well layer as described above.

  Furthermore, when the growth temperature of the well layer is 600 ° C. or higher and 720 ° C. or lower, hydrogen (H 2) may be introduced as a carrier gas during the growth of the well layer.

  When hydrogen is introduced as a carrier gas, the gas flow rate is preferably 0.005 L / min or more and 0.100 L / min or less, more preferably 0.010 L / min or more and 0.050 L / min or less. When the gas flow rate is less than 0.005 L / min, it is difficult to obtain the effect of introducing hydrogen during the growth of the well layer. In addition, when hydrogen as a carrier gas is introduced at a gas flow rate higher than 0.100 L / min, the incorporation of In atoms can be easily reduced even when the well layer growth temperature is 600 ° C. or higher and 720 ° C. or lower. This makes it difficult to increase the wavelength.

  As described above, when hydrogen is introduced during the growth of the well layer, the satellite peak of the X-ray diffraction image becomes clear. In addition, an improvement effect such as improvement of the light emission pattern at the time of current injection can be obtained, leading to an improvement in light emission efficiency. Si or Mg can also be added to any or all of the well layers. The well layer is not limited to InGaN, and may be composed of AlInGaN. The formation method at that time is the same as that of the InGaN well layer.

  Further, the well layer and the barrier layer may be continuously grown without being interrupted, or may be interrupted.

  Further, when forming the barrier layer, the carrier gas may be only nitrogen, but a state containing hydrogen is more preferable. When hydrogen is used as the carrier gas, the hydrogen flow rate is preferably less than 1.0 L / min, more preferably 0.500 L / min or less. When the flow rate of hydrogen is 0 L / min, it is agreed that the carrier gas is only nitrogen, but by introducing hydrogen at the above flow rate, the steepness of the interface is improved. Thereby, the satellite peak of the X-ray diffraction image becomes clear. When the flow rate of hydrogen is 1.0 L / min or more, the crystal surface is likely to be rough due to the etching effect, and the flatness is likely to deteriorate. Further, when the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing In, In atoms are difficult to be taken in.

  Further, the growth rate when the barrier layer is formed is preferably 0.05 to 1.2 liters / second, more preferably 0.05 to 0.8 liters / second. When the growth rate of the barrier layer is slower than 0.05 Å / sec, the number of atoms leaving the crystal surface is larger than the number of atoms supplied to the crystal surface. For this reason, the crystal surface is likely to be roughened by the etching effect, and the flatness may be deteriorated. Further, when the growth rate is higher than 1.2 Å / sec, the crystallinity and flatness may be deteriorated. For this reason, the growth rate of the barrier layer is preferably in the above range. Of course, the growth method (growth conditions) of the barrier layer is not limited to the above, but the light emission efficiency is further improved by forming the barrier layer as described above.

  Such a tendency is applicable to the case where the barrier layer is any one of GaN, InGaN, and AlGaN, but is more effective when the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al. Most preferably, the barrier layer is composed of an AlGaN layer or an AlInGaN layer.

  When the barrier layer is made of AlInGaN, there is a method in which, for example, TMG, TMI and TMA are simultaneously supplied as group III source gases and ammonia gas is simultaneously supplied as group V source gases.

  As another method, when forming the barrier layer, TMG and TMA are simultaneously supplied as the group III source gas without supplying TMI (that is, the AlGaN layer is first formed as the barrier layer). There is a method in which an AlInGaN barrier layer is formed by automatically taking in In utilizing the residual TMI gas at the time of well layer growth, In diffusion and segregation effects. Specifically, the growth temperature of the well layer is set to 700 ° C., and TMG, TMI and ammonia gas for realizing a gas phase ratio for obtaining a desired wavelength are supplied. Thereafter, the supply of TMG and TMI is stopped, and after the growth is interrupted for several seconds, TMG, TMA and ammonia gas are supplied with the growth temperature maintained at 700 ° C. to form a barrier layer. Using this method, the composition ratio of the barrier layer was analyzed by AES (Auger analysis) measurement. As a result, an Al composition ratio of 1.0% and an In composition ratio of 2.0% were detected in the barrier layer. That is, In is automatically taken in by the above method. A barrier layer made of AlInGaN may be formed using such a method. It should be noted that the same effect can be obtained only by changing the raw material without interrupting the growth. When this method is used, as a method for controlling the incorporation of In atoms, the growth temperature of the barrier layer is 30 ° C. higher than the growth temperature of the well layer (for example, the growth temperature of the well layer is 700 ° C. In this case, since the In is evaporated by forming the film at a growth temperature of the barrier layer of 730 ° C., the AlGaN film can be formed. In addition, by increasing the flow rate of the hydrogen carrier gas when forming the barrier layer, it is possible to suppress In incorporation and AlGaN film formation is possible. In any case, In atoms were not detected from the barrier layer by AES measurement.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 13, the contact layer 18 has a width of about 1 μm to about 10 μm (for example, about 1.5 μm), and is formed in the Y direction (substantially c-axis [0001]). A striped (elongated) resist 450 extending in parallel with the direction is formed. Then, as shown in FIG. 14, using the RIE (reactive ion etching) method using a chlorine-based gas such as SiCl ₄ or Cl ₂ or Ar gas, the depth in the middle of the upper guide layer 16 using the resist 450 as a mask. Etching is performed. Thus, a striped (elongated) ridge is formed by the convex portion of the upper guide layer 16, the upper cladding layer 17, and the contact layer 18, and extends in parallel to each other in the Y direction (substantially c-axis [0001] direction). A portion 19 (see FIGS. 3 and 6) is formed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 15, SiO ₂ having a thickness of about 0.1 μm to about 0.3 μm (for example, about 0.15 μm) by sputtering or the like with the resist 450 left on the ridge portion 19. An insulating layer 20 made of is formed, and the ridge portion 19 is embedded. Then, by removing the resist 450 by lift-off, the contact layer 18 above the ridge portion 19 is exposed. As a result, insulating layers 20 as shown in FIG. 16 are formed on both sides of the ridge portion 19.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 17, a Pd layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 15 μm and an Au layer having a thickness of about 200 nm are formed from the substrate side (insulating layer 20 side) using a vacuum deposition method or the like. By sequentially forming (not shown), a p-side electrode 21 having a multilayer structure is formed on the insulating layer 20 (contact layer 18).

  Then, in order to make it easy to divide the substrate, the back surface of the GaN substrate 10 is ground or polished to reduce the thickness of the GaN substrate 10 to about 100 μm. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 2, an Hf layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 5 nm from the back side of the GaN substrate 10 and a thickness of about 150 nm are formed on the back side of the GaN substrate 10 using a vacuum deposition method or the like. An n-side electrode 22 having a multilayer structure is formed by sequentially forming an Al layer (not shown) having a thickness. An Mo layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 36 nm, a Pt layer (not shown) having a thickness of about 18 nm, and an Au having a thickness of about 200 nm are formed on the n-side electrode 22 from the n-side electrode 22 side. By sequentially forming layers (not shown), a metallized layer 23 having a multilayer structure is formed. Note that before the n-side electrode 22 is formed, dry etching or wet etching may be performed for the purpose of adjusting the electrical characteristics of the n-side.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 18, the substrate is divided into bars by using a scribing / breaking method or a laser scribing method. As a result, a bar-shaped element whose end face is the resonator face 30 is obtained. Next, a coating is applied to the end face (resonator face 30) of the bar-like element using a technique such as vapor deposition or sputtering. Specifically, an emission side coating film (not shown) made of, for example, an aluminum oxynitride film or the like is formed on one end face serving as a light emission surface. In addition, a reflection-side coating film (not shown) made of a multilayer film such as SiO ₂ or TiO ₂ is formed on the opposite end face serving as the light reflection surface.

  Finally, by dividing the bar-shaped element along the planned dividing line P along the Y direction (substantially c-axis [0001] direction), the individual nitride semiconductor laser elements are separated as shown in FIG. Tidy up. Thus, the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is manufactured.

  The nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment manufactured as described above is mounted on a stem 120 via a submount 110 and electrically connected to a lead pin by a wire 130 as shown in FIG. The Then, the cap 135 is welded onto the stem 120 to assemble the can package type semiconductor laser device (semiconductor device) 150.

  In the method for manufacturing the nitride semiconductor laser device 100 according to the first embodiment, as described above, the GaN layer (n-type GaN layer 11, lower portion) formed between the GaN substrate 10 and the active layer 14 (well layer 14a). By forming the guide layer 13) so that the total layer thickness is 0.7 μm or less (about 0.2 μm), a good surface morphology can be obtained. Thereby, since the in-plane distribution of the layer thickness in each nitride semiconductor layer can be made uniform, the flatness of each nitride semiconductor layer can be improved. Further, by improving the surface morphology, variation in element characteristics can be reduced, so that elements having characteristics within the standard range can be increased. Thereby, a manufacturing yield can be improved. It should be noted that device characteristics and reliability can be further improved by improving the surface morphology.

  In the first embodiment, the surface of the n-type semiconductor layer can be planarized by forming the n-type semiconductor layer at a high temperature of 900 ° C. or higher. Therefore, by forming the active layer 14 and the p-type semiconductor layer on the planarized n-type semiconductor layer, it is possible to suppress a decrease in crystallinity in the active layer 14 and the p-type semiconductor layer. Therefore, a high quality crystal can be formed also by this. Further, by forming the n-type semiconductor layer at a growth temperature lower than 1300 ° C., the surface of the GaN substrate 10 is re-evaporated at the time of temperature rise due to being formed at a growth temperature of 1300 ° C. or higher. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of inconvenience that the rough is caused. Therefore, with this configuration, nitride semiconductor laser device 100 having excellent device characteristics and high reliability can be easily manufactured.

  In the first embodiment, the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 is formed at a growth temperature of 600 ° C. or higher, so that the atomic diffusion length is short due to the formation at a growth temperature lower than 600 ° C. It is also possible to suppress the inconvenience that the crystallinity deteriorates. Further, by forming the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 at a growth temperature of 800 ° C. or lower, the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 is formed at a growth temperature higher than 800 ° C. (for example, 830 ° C. or higher). As a result, it is possible to suppress the disadvantage that the active layer 14 is blackened due to thermal damage. The growth temperature of the barrier layer 14b in contact with the well layer 14a is preferably the same temperature as the well layer 14a or higher than the well layer 14a.

  In the first embodiment, by forming the p-type semiconductor layer at a growth temperature of 700 ° C. or higher, the p-type semiconductor layer has a high resistance due to the growth temperature of the p-type semiconductor layer being too low. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of inconvenience. Moreover, the thermal damage of the active layer 14 can be reduced by forming the p-type semiconductor layer at a growth temperature lower than 1100 ° C. Note that, when the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al such as AlGaN or AlInGaN, the active layer becomes strong against thermal damage that occurs when the p-type semiconductor layer is formed. That is, even when the p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature of 1000 ° C. or higher, blackening of the active layer due to thermal damage can be suppressed.

  Here, when a GaN substrate having the c-plane as the growth main surface is used, if the p-type semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature lower than 900 ° C., the p-type semiconductor layer has a very high resistance, and a device (for example, , Use as a semiconductor light emitting device) becomes difficult. On the other hand, by using the GaN substrate 10 whose main growth surface is a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, Mg is doped as a p-type impurity even at a growth temperature lower than 900 ° C. By doing so, p-type conduction can be obtained. In particular, when the In composition ratio x1 of the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 is 0.15 or more and 0.45 or less, variations in the In composition are likely to occur in the plane due to segregation of In or the like. For this reason, it is preferable that the growth temperature of the p-type semiconductor layer is low. Further, the difference between the growth temperature of the well layer 14a of the active layer 14 and the growth temperature of the p-type semiconductor layer is preferably less than 200 ° C. in order to avoid thermal damage of the active layer 14, and more preferably 150 ° C. or less.

  Next, an experiment conducted for confirming the effect of the nitride semiconductor laser element 100 according to the first embodiment will be described. In this experiment, first, a light emitting diode element 200 as shown in FIG. 21 was manufactured as a confirmation element, and an EL light emission pattern was observed. The reason why the light emitting diode element is used for the observation of the EL light emission pattern is that it is difficult to observe the EL light emission pattern in the nitride semiconductor laser element because the region where current is injected is narrowed by the formation of the ridge portion. Because.

  This confirmation element (light emitting diode element 200) was produced by forming a similar nitride semiconductor layer on the same GaN substrate 10 as in the first embodiment. The nitride semiconductor layer was formed using the same method as in the first embodiment. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 21, a GaN substrate 10 having a growth main surface 10a as a surface having an off angle with respect to the m-plane is used, and an n-type GaN layer 11 is formed on the growth main surface 10a. A lower clad layer 12, a lower guide layer 13, an active layer 14, a carrier block layer 15, an upper guide layer 16, an upper clad layer 17 and a contact layer 18 were sequentially formed. Next, the p-side electrode 221 was formed on the contact layer 18. The p-side electrode 221 was a transparent electrode in order to confirm the EL emission pattern. An n-side electrode 22 and a metallized layer 23 were formed on the back surface of the GaN substrate 10. Regarding the off-angle of the GaN substrate 10 in the confirmation element, the off-angle in the a-axis direction was 1.7 degrees, and the off-angle in the c-axis direction was +0.1 degrees. In the confirmation element, the In composition ratio of the well layer was 0.25, and the Al composition ratio of the barrier layer was 2%. Note that the barrier layer of the confirmation element is AlGaN. By injecting current into the confirmation element (light-emitting diode element 200) thus produced, the confirmation element (light-emitting diode element 200) was caused to emit light, and the in-plane light distribution was observed. FIG. 22 shows a micrograph of an EL light emission pattern observed in the confirmation element.

For comparison, a light-emitting diode element using a GaN substrate having an m-plane as a growth main surface (substantially m-plane just substrate: the off angle in the a-axis direction is 0 degrees and the off angle in the c-axis direction is +0.05 degrees) is used. It produced as an element. This comparative element was produced by the same method as the above-mentioned confirmation element. The In gas flow rate was the same as that of the confirmation element, but the In composition ratio of the well layer in the comparison element was 0.2. The barrier layer of the comparative element was In _0.02 Ga _0.98 N. Then, the in-plane light distribution was observed as in the confirmation element. The comparative element is a confirmation element (light emitting diode element) except that an m-plane just substrate is used for the GaN substrate, the In composition ratio of the well layer is 0.2, and the barrier layer is made of InGaN. 200). Note that the EL light emission pattern shown in FIG. 37 is an EL light emission pattern (micrograph) observed in the comparative element.

  As shown in FIG. 37, in the comparative element, the EL emission pattern has a bright spot shape, whereas in the confirmation element as shown in FIG. 22, although the In composition ratio of the well layer is high. It can be seen that the EL light emission pattern is suppressed from becoming bright spots, and the light emission is uniform. From this, it was confirmed that the use of the GaN substrate 10 having the growth main surface 10a as a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane suppresses the brightening of the EL light emission pattern.

  In the comparative element in which the barrier layer is made of InGaN, dark lines are generated in the PL light emission pattern as in FIG. Even in the device in which the barrier layer is made of GaN, the occurrence of dark lines was confirmed as in the comparative device. On the other hand, in the confirmation element in which the barrier layer is composed of a nitride semiconductor layer (AlGaN layer) containing Al, generation of dark lines was not observed as in FIG.

  Further, when the luminous efficiencies of the confirmation element and the comparative element were measured, it was confirmed that the luminous efficiency of the confirmation element was improved by about twice the luminous efficiency of the comparative element. This is considered to be due to the effect of suppressing the occurrence of dark lines, the effect of protecting the active layer, and the effect of improving flatness. The emission wavelength of the confirmation element was 530 nm, and the emission wavelength of the comparison element was 490 nm. From this, it was confirmed that the confirmation element in which the off angle was controlled was more efficient in terms of In incorporation than the comparison element using the m-plane just substrate. From the above, it was confirmed that by providing an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, a bright spot-like light emission suppressing effect was obtained and the light emission efficiency increased in the green wavelength region.

  Furthermore, it was confirmed that by forming the barrier layer of the active layer from a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al, an element having a uniform and high emission intensity can be obtained even in an emission wavelength region as very long as 530 nm. . In addition, the increase in emission intensity in the long wavelength region, which is an effect obtained by forming the barrier layer of the active layer from a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al, is caused by the growth main surface such as m-plane or a-plane. It was confirmed that it is preferably obtained when a nonpolar substrate having the same is used. In this case, the uniformity of the EL light emission pattern can be obtained by using a substrate that can form a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al with good flatness and good crystallinity and that has an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane. It was found to be more preferable.

In the configuration of the confirmation element, almost the same effect was obtained when the Al composition ratio x2 of the barrier layer made of Al _x2 Ga _1-x2 N was in the range of 0 <x2 ≦ 0.08.

  Subsequently, using a plurality of GaN substrates having different off angles in the a-axis direction and off-angles in the c-axis direction, a plurality of elements similar to the light-emitting diode element 200 shown in FIG. The experiment was conducted.

  As a result, it has been clarified that by providing an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, the effect of suppressing the brightening of the EL emission pattern can be obtained. Further, when the off angle in the a-axis direction is 0.1 degrees or less, the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission is small, and when the off angle in the a-axis direction is 0.1 degrees or more, the bright spot shape of the EL light emission pattern. It became clear that the inhibitory effect of crystallization appeared. From this, it was confirmed that the formation of a bright spot in the EL light emission pattern can be suppressed by using a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane as the growth main surface of the GaN substrate. It was also confirmed that the bright spot shape of the EL light emission pattern was more effectively suppressed by making the off angle in the a-axis direction larger than the off angle in the c-axis direction.

  As the nitride semiconductor laser element according to Example 1, a GaN substrate having an a-axis direction off angle of 1.7 degrees and a c-axis direction off angle of +0.1 degrees with respect to the m-plane {1-100} is used. A nitride semiconductor laser element similar to the nitride semiconductor laser element according to the first embodiment was manufactured. The In composition ratio of the well layer was 0.25, and the Al composition ratio of the barrier layer was 2%. Other configurations of Example 1 are the same as those of the first embodiment. A nitride semiconductor laser device manufactured in the same manner as the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the above-described table 1 embodiment using a GaN substrate (m-plane just substrate) having no off-angle was used as Comparative Example 1. Other configurations of the nitride semiconductor laser element according to the comparative example 1 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  When the threshold current was measured for Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, the nitride semiconductor laser element according to Comparative Example 1 had a threshold current value of about 120 mA, whereas the nitride semiconductor laser element according to Example 1 had a threshold current value of about 120 mA. The threshold current value was 55 mA, and it was confirmed that the threshold current was much smaller in the nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 1 than in Comparative Example 1. This is considered to be because the bright spot-like light emission was suppressed and the gain was increased by emitting light uniformly in the plane. Further, with respect to the drive voltage, it was confirmed that the drive voltage at the time of 50 mA current injection was smaller by about 0.4 V in the nitride semiconductor laser element according to Example 1 than in Comparative Example 1. The reason why such a result was obtained is that the incorporation of Mg in the p-type semiconductor layer is changed by using a surface having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane as the growth main surface of the GaN substrate. It is also considered that the activation rate was improved. The emission wavelength of the nitride semiconductor laser element according to Example 1 was 505 nm. As described above, even in the oscillation of a long wavelength of 500 nm or more, the oscillation was possible with a relatively low threshold current density between the nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction and the active layer (well layer). This is probably because the surface morphology was improved and the flatness of the film was improved by forming the GaN layer so that the total layer thickness was 0.7 μm or less. Furthermore, it is considered that the use of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al for the barrier layer has an effect of suppressing the generation of dark lines.

As a nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 2, a GaN substrate having an a-axis direction off angle of 4 degrees and a c-axis direction off angle of +1 degree with respect to the m-plane {1-100} is used, and the barrier layer is made of Al. the _{s In t Ga u N (s} + t + u = 1) the nitride semiconductor laser device composed of was prepared. In Example 2, a barrier _{layer, Al s In t Ga u N} (s = 0.02, t = 0.01, u = 0.97) was formed from. That is, in Example 2, the barrier layer was made of AlInGaN. The configuration other than the barrier layer of Example 2 is the same as that of the first embodiment (Example 1). Also in Example 2, the same effect as in Example 1 was obtained.

Further, in the configuration of the second embodiment, the _{Al s In t Ga u N (} s + t + u = 1) of the barrier layer of Al composition ratio s, 0 <a range of s ≦ 0.08, the In composition ratio t, 0 Even in the case of <t ≦ 0.10, substantially the same effect was obtained.

When the barrier layer is made of Al _s In _t Ga _u N (s + t + u = 1), the Al composition is preferably smaller than the In composition. In order to realize the emission wavelength in the long wavelength region, the active layer must be formed at a low temperature of 900 ° C. or lower, usually about 700 ° C. to 800 ° C., so that the crystallinity is improved in the low temperature growth by adding In I think that you do. Moreover, since the refractive index can be increased compared to the AlGaN layer by making the barrier layer an AlInGaN layer containing In, light confinement can be performed efficiently.

As the nitride semiconductor laser element according to Example 3, a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 6 degrees and an off angle in the c-axis direction of −1.1 degrees with respect to the m-plane {1-100} is used as a barrier. A nitride semiconductor laser device having a layer made of Al _s In _t Ga _u N (s + t + u = 1) was fabricated. In Example 3, the first barrier layer is composed of _{Al s In t Ga u N (} s = 0.02, t = 0, u = 0.98), the second barrier layer and the third barrier layer, _{al s In t Ga u N (} s = 0.02, t = 0.01, u = 0.97) was formed from. That is, in Example 3, the first barrier layer was made of AlGaN, and the second and third barrier layers were made of AlInGaN different from the first barrier layer. The configuration other than the barrier layer of Example 3 is the same as that of the first embodiment (Example 1). Also in Example 3, the same effect as in Example 1 was obtained. As in Example 3, the composition of the first barrier layer and the second and third barrier layers may be different, or the Al composition of all the barrier layers may be different.

Further, in the configuration of Example 3, the Al composition ratio s of the barrier layer made of Al _s In _t Ga _u N is set in the range of 0 <s ≦ 0.08, the In composition ratio t is set to 0 <t ≦ 0. Even in the range of 10, almost the same effect was obtained.

  As a nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 4, a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 6 degrees and an off angle in the c-axis direction of +2 degrees with respect to the m-plane {1-100} is used. Almost the same nitride semiconductor laser device was fabricated. That is, in Example 4, the barrier layer was made of AlGaN. However, in Example 1, the Al composition ratio of the three barrier layers (the first barrier layer, the second barrier layer, and the third barrier layer) is configured to be the same, whereas in Example 4, different Al The composition ratio was used. Specifically, the Al composition ratio of the first barrier layer was 2%, and the Al composition ratios of the second and third barrier layers were 0.08%. In Example 4, the same effect as in Example 1 was obtained. Note that the same effect was obtained when the Al composition ratio of the first barrier layer was higher than the Al composition ratio of the other barrier layers as in Example 4.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 23 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a nitride semiconductor laser device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Next, a nitride semiconductor laser element 250 according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the second embodiment, the same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

In the nitride semiconductor laser device 250 according to the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 23, the semiconductor layer in contact with the main growth surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 is composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. The lower guide layer 13 formed on the lower cladding layer 12 is made of AlGaN. Specifically, in the nitride semiconductor laser device 250 according to the second embodiment, the n-type Al having a thickness of about 2.2 μm is formed on the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 so as to be in contact with the growth main surface 10a. _A lower clad layer 12 made of _0.06 Ga _0.94 N is formed. A lower guide layer 13 made of n-type Al _0.005 Ga _0.995 N having a thickness of about 0.1 μm is formed on the lower cladding layer 12. That is, in the second embodiment, the n-type GaN layer 11 (see FIG. 2) is not formed. In the second embodiment, the lower guide layer 13 formed on the lower cladding layer 12 is composed of an AlGaN layer instead of the GaN layer. For this reason, in the second embodiment, each nitride semiconductor layer stacked on the GaN substrate 10 does not include a GaN layer.

  When the lower guide layer 13 is made of AlGaN, the Al composition ratio is preferably set in a range larger than 0 and 0.03 or less. When the Al composition ratio is 0 and the GaN layer is formed, the flatness may be deteriorated. On the other hand, when the Al composition ratio is greater than 0.03, light confinement becomes insufficient.

  The lower guide layer 13 made of AlGaN is preferably formed to a thickness of 0.05 μm to 0.4 μm, and more preferably 0.08 μm to 0.25 μm. When the thickness of the lower guide layer 13 is smaller than 0.05 μm, the effect of improving the flatness tends to be insufficient. On the other hand, when the thickness of the lower guide layer 13 is larger than 0.4 μm, the light field confinement coefficient decreases because the electric field strength distribution of light spreads in the layer direction.

  As described above, when the guide layer is made of AlGaN, light confinement can be further improved by increasing the Al composition ratio of the cladding layer.

  Other configurations of the second embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, as described above, the lower cladding layer 12 made of AlGaN is formed on the growth main surface 10a having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane so as to be in contact with the growth main surface 10a. By doing so, the surface morphology can be greatly improved, and the flatness of the layer surface can be improved. Thereby, the in-plane layer thickness distribution of each layer of the nitride semiconductor formed on the GaN substrate 10 can be made uniform. Further, by improving the surface morphology, variations in device characteristics (for example, IL characteristics, IV characteristics, far field patterns, wavelengths, etc.) can be reduced, so that the manufacturing yield can be improved. it can. Thereby, an element having characteristics within the standard range can be easily obtained. In addition, the device characteristics and reliability can be further improved by improving the surface morphology.

  In the second embodiment, the lower guide layer 213 made of AlGaN is formed on the lower clad layer 12, so that the flatness of the layer surface can be improved.

  Other effects of the second embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, the lower guide layer 13 can be made of AlInGaN or InGaN in addition to AlGaN. A superlattice structure in which AlGaN, AlInGaN, and InGaN are appropriately combined can also be used. The lower guide layer 13 is more preferably made of a nitride semiconductor containing In from the viewpoint of optical confinement. Further, when InGaN, AlGaN, and AlInGaN are used for the lower guide layer 13, it may be intentionally non-doped without doping impurities, or may be doped with, for example, Si as an n-type impurity.

  When an InGaN layer is used for the lower guide layer 13, the In composition ratio is set in a range smaller than the In composition ratio of the well layer. Preferably, the In composition ratio is larger than 0 and 0.05 or less. If the In composition ratio is 0 and the GaN layer is formed, the flatness may be deteriorated. On the other hand, when the In composition ratio is larger than 0.05, high strain is generated, and there is a concern about deterioration of crystal quality. The lower guide layer 13 made of InGaN is preferably formed to a thickness of 0.05 μm to 0.5 μm, and more preferably 0.08 μm to 0.3 μm. When the thickness of the lower guide layer 13 is smaller than 0.05 μm, the light confinement effect tends to be insufficient. On the other hand, when the thickness of the lower guide layer 13 is larger than 0.4 μm, the electric field strength distribution of light spreads in the layer direction, so that the light confinement factor is reduced.

  When an AlInGaN layer is used for the lower guide layer 13, the In composition ratio is preferably set to be larger than 0 and equal to or less than 0.10. The Al composition ratio is preferably set to be larger than 0 and 0.08 or less. Further, the lower guide layer 13 made of AlInGaN is preferably formed to a thickness of 0.05 μm to 0.5 μm, and more preferably 0.07 μm to 0.3 μm. When the lower guide layer 13 is made of AlInGaN and exceeds the above range (upper limit value of at least one of composition and thickness), the crystal quality may be deteriorated. On the other hand, in the case of at least one of the case where the composition ratio is not more than the above range and the case where the thickness is smaller than the lower limit value of the above thickness range, the light confinement effect and the flatness improvement effect are insufficient.

  As a modification of the second embodiment, in the configuration of the second embodiment, a nitride containing In so as to be in contact with the growth main surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 between the GaN substrate 10 and the lower cladding layer 12. A semiconductor layer (for example, an InGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.) may be formed. In this case, if the lattice constant of the nitride semiconductor layer containing In is set larger than that of GaN, an effect of suppressing the occurrence of cracks can be obtained. As the nitride semiconductor layer containing In that is in contact with the main growth surface 10a, an InGaN layer or an AlInGaN layer is more preferable.

As a nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 5, a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 8 degrees and an off angle in the c-axis direction of +4 degrees with respect to the m-plane {1-100} is used. Almost the same nitride semiconductor laser device was fabricated. However, in Example 5, the semiconductor layer in contact with the main growth surface of the substrate is not an n-type GaN layer but a lower cladding layer. That is, in Example 5, the n-type GaN layer is not formed, and the nitride semiconductor is formed from the lower clad layer made of n-type Al _0.06 Ga _0.94 N having a thickness of about 2.2 μm on the main growth surface of the substrate. Layers are stacked. In this case, the same effect was obtained. Also, the surface morphology was improved and the driving voltage was reduced by about 0.2V.

Further, in the structure of the fifth embodiment, the lower clad _{layer, Al s In t Ga u N} (s + t + u = 1) the same effect even when composed is obtained. Here, substantially the same effect was obtained by setting the Al composition ratio s in the range of 0 <s ≦ 0.15 and the In composition ratio t in the range of 0 <t ≦ 0.10.

As a nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 6, a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 3 degrees and an off angle in the c-axis direction of +1 degree with respect to the m plane {1-100} is used. Almost the same nitride semiconductor laser device was fabricated. However, the semiconductor layer in contact with the main growth surface of the substrate is an InGaN layer made of In _0.02 Ga _0.98 N having a thickness of about 0.1 μm, instead of the n-type GaN layer. That is, in Example 6, each nitride semiconductor layer is formed at the beginning of the InGaN layer. In this case, the same effect was obtained.

As a nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 7, a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 4 degrees and an off angle in the c-axis direction of +1 degree with respect to the m plane {1-100} is used. Almost the same nitride semiconductor laser device was fabricated. However, in Example 7, the semiconductor layer in contact with the growth main surface of the substrate is not an n-type GaN layer but an n-type In _0.02 Ga _0.98 N having a thickness of about 0.1 μm. That is, in Example 7, the n-type GaN layer is not formed, and the nitride semiconductor layer made of n-type In _0.02 Ga _0.98 N having a thickness of about 0.1 μm is laminated on the main growth surface of the substrate. ing. On top of that, a lower clad composed of a superlattice structure of 250 periods having a structure of 1 period of n-type Al _0.12 Ga _0.88 N (layer thickness: 4 nm) / GaN (layer thickness: 2 nm) having a thickness of about 1.5 μm. A layer is formed. In this case, the same effect was obtained.

The nitride semiconductor laser device according to Example 8 was implemented using a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 3 degrees and an off angle in the c-axis direction of −0.5 degrees with respect to the m-plane {1-100}. A nitride semiconductor laser device substantially the same as in Example 1 was produced. However, in Example 8, a lower guide layer, in place of GaN of Example _{1, Al s In t Ga u} N (s = 0.02, t = 0.01, u = 0.97) was formed from . Further, as Example 8, an element in which the lower guide layer was composed of InGaN (In composition ratio: 1.5%) was also manufactured. Even in such a configuration, the same effect was obtained.

Further, when the lower guide layer is composed of GaN and when it is composed of In _0.015 Ga _0.985 N and Al _0.02 In _0.01 Ga _0.97 N, the lower guide layer is composed of InGaN or AlInGaN. As compared with the case of being composed of GaN, the luminous efficiency increased by about 1.5 times. Further, as a semiconductor laser element, the light confinement effect was increased and the threshold current was reduced by about 20 mA. Such an effect was obtained in an element in which the lower guide layer was made of InGaN, with almost the same effect when the In composition ratio y2 of In _y2 Ga _{1 -y2} N was in the range of 0 <y2 ≦ 0.05. . Further, in the element as a lower guide layer from _{Al s In t Ga u N,} Al composition ratio s is 0 <a range of s ≦ 0.08, an In composition ratio t is in the range of 0 <t ≦ 0.10 The same effect was obtained.

  When the lower guide layer was made of InGaN, the same tendency was observed when the In composition ratio was larger than 0.0% and 5.0% or less. In an element having an In composition ratio y greater than 5.0%, non-light-emitting black spots are observed, and the light emission efficiency tends to be reduced. Further, when the lower guide layer was made of AlInGaN, the same effect was observed when the Al composition ratio was larger than 0.0% and not more than 8.0%. By adding Al, in the case of AlInGaN, black spots were suppressed up to an In composition ratio of 10%.

(Third embodiment)
24 and 25 are views for explaining the structure of the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the third embodiment of the invention. FIG. 24 is a plan view of a nitride semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer) used for manufacturing the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the third embodiment. FIG. 25 is a plan view of the nitride semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer). A cross-sectional view showing a part thereof in an enlarged manner is shown. Next, with reference to FIGS. 24 and 25, a nitride semiconductor laser element according to a third embodiment of the invention will be described.

  In the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the third embodiment, a digging region is formed in the main growth surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10 in the configurations of the first and second embodiments. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 24, the GaN substrate 10 has a plurality of recesses 2 formed by being dug in the thickness direction from the growth main surface 10a. These recesses 2 are formed so as to extend in a direction parallel to the c-axis [0001] direction, respectively, in plan view. The recesses 2 are arranged at regular intervals with a period R of about 150 μm to about 600 μm (for example, about 400 μm) in the a-axis [11-20] direction orthogonal to the c-axis [0001] direction. That is, the plurality of recesses 2 are formed in a stripe shape on the main growth surface 10 a of the GaN substrate 10. Further, in the GaN substrate 10, a region where the concave portion 2 is formed (a region where the recess is formed) is a recess region 3. On the other hand, a region where the recess 2 is not formed in the growth main surface 10a (a region not dug) is a non-digging region 4.

  As shown in FIG. 25, each of the plurality of recesses 2 includes a bottom surface portion 2a and a pair of side surface portions 2b. The pair of side surface portions 2b is set so that the inclination angle γ is a predetermined angle larger than 90 degrees. For this reason, the side part 2b of the recessed part 2 is an inclined surface. Thereby, the recessed part 2 is formed so that opening width may become large gradually toward upper direction. Further, the recess 2 has an opening width g (open end width) of about 5 μm in the [11-20] direction and a depth f of about 5 μm in the thickness direction of the n-type GaN substrate 10. is doing.

  Further, by using the GaN substrate 10 having an off-angle in the a-axis direction, the nitride semiconductor layer on the non-dig region 4 has a layer thickness that is inclined as it approaches the recess 2 (dig region 3) ( A gradually decreasing layer thickness gradient region (not shown) is formed. This layer thickness gradient region is formed in a substantially strip shape extending in a direction parallel to the concave portion 2 (digging region 3) in a region near one side (for example, the right side) of the concave portion 2 (digging region 3). Also, the strain in the nitride semiconductor layer caused by lattice mismatch with the GaN substrate 10 is alleviated by this layer thickness gradient region.

  The nitride semiconductor layer on the non-dig region 4 is formed with a light emitting portion forming region (not shown) suitable for forming a ridge portion, in which the layer thickness variation is very small compared to the layer thickness inclined region. ing. A ridge portion is formed in the light emitting portion formation region.

  The configuration other than the GaN substrate 10 of the third embodiment is the same as that of the first and second embodiments. In addition, the nitride semiconductor laser device according to the third embodiment may be divided into individual elements so as to include at least a part of the recess 2, or individual elements so as not to include the recess 2. It may be divided into.

  Moreover, the said recessed part 2 can be formed using a photolithographic technique and an etching technique.

  In the third embodiment, as described above, by forming the recess 2 (digging region 3) on the growth main surface 10a side of the GaN substrate 10, the nitride semiconductor layer (on the recessing region 3) ( A depression can be formed on the surface of the nitride semiconductor layer on the recess 2. For this reason, the lattice constant difference or the thermal expansion coefficient difference between the GaN substrate 10 and the nitride semiconductor layer formed on the growth principal surface 10a is increased, and even when the nitride semiconductor layer is distorted, The distortion of the nitride semiconductor layer formed on the non-dig region 4 can be alleviated by the above-described depression portion formed on the surface of the nitride semiconductor layer on the recess 2 (dig region 3). Thereby, it is possible to effectively suppress the occurrence of cracks in the nitride semiconductor layer.

  Thus, in the third embodiment, by forming the recess 2 in the GaN substrate 10, a very high strain relaxation effect and crack suppression effect can be obtained, so that the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al. Even when configured, the strain of the barrier layer can be relaxed and the generation of cracks can be suppressed. Moreover, even when the Al composition ratio of the cladding layer is increased in order to improve the light confinement, the generation of cracks can be suppressed.

  Other effects of the third embodiment are the same as those of the first and second embodiments.

  As a nitride semiconductor laser element according to Example 9, a nitride semiconductor laser element substantially the same as that of Example 1 was manufactured using a substrate (m-plane a-axis off-substrate) in which a dug region was formed. In Example 9, unlike the first embodiment, a clad layer (an upper clad layer and a lower clad layer) having an Al composition ratio of 8.0% was formed. In this case, the same effect as in Example 1 was obtained.

  Here, when the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, a tensile strain with respect to GaN increases, and thus cracks may occur. Moreover, since the strain applied to the active layer tends to increase by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al, it is preferable to reduce the strain (stress) as much as possible. Furthermore, in order to improve optical confinement, the Al composition ratio of the cladding layer may be increased, and in this case as well, cracks are likely to occur.

  However, by forming a digging region (concave portion) in the substrate, it was possible to prevent the occurrence of cracks even in such a case.

  Further, a nitride semiconductor laser device similar to that of Example 9 was fabricated using a substrate (m-plane a-axis off-substrate) in which no digging region (concave portion) was formed, and this nitride semiconductor laser device was compared. Example 2 was adopted.

  In Example 9, although the Al composition ratio of the cladding layer was increased to 8.0% (0.08), no cracks were observed. On the other hand, in Comparative Example 2, many cracks occurred. Thus, in Example 9, the very high crack suppression effect was confirmed and the yield improvement effect of the element was acquired. As a result, device characteristics and reliability could be improved.

(Fourth embodiment)
The nitride semiconductor laser device according to the fourth embodiment is formed using a GaN substrate whose growth main surface is a surface having an off-angle (for example, −0.5 degrees) in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane. Yes. The barrier layer of the active layer is made of AlInGaN. Other configurations of the fourth embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment.

  In the fourth embodiment, as described above, the generation of dark lines can be suppressed by configuring the barrier layer from AlInGaN. Moreover, since the steepness of the interface can be improved as compared with the case where the barrier layer is made of GaN or InGaN, the satellite peak by the X-ray diffraction measurement can be clarified. This is considered to be because the aggregation and diffusion of In were suppressed or the thermal damage of the active layer was suppressed by including Al and In in the barrier layer.

  When a GaN substrate having an off-angle in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, the layer surface of the layer is larger than when using a GaN substrate having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane. Although the flatness is inferior, a sufficiently usable luminous efficiency can be obtained. Further, by using AlInGaN for the barrier layer, the efficiency of In taken into the well layer can be made very good. For this reason, even when the gas flow rate of In is reduced, a high In composition ratio can be maintained. Thereby, since the capture efficiency can be improved, the wavelength can be effectively increased.

(Fifth embodiment)
FIG. 26 is a cross-sectional view of a light emitting diode device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention. Next, a light emitting diode (LED) according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The light emitting diode device according to the fifth embodiment is configured by forming similar layers of nitride semiconductors on the same GaN substrate 10 as in the first and second embodiments. However, in the fifth embodiment, unlike the first and second embodiments, the lower guide layer 13 (see FIGS. 2 and 23) and the upper guide layer 16 (see FIGS. 2 and 23) are not formed. It has become.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 26, a lower cladding layer 12, an active layer 14, a carrier block layer 16, an upper cladding layer 17 and a contact layer 18 are sequentially formed on the main growth surface 10a of the GaN substrate 10. Yes. A p-side electrode 221 made of an oxide-based transparent conductive film such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is formed on the contact layer 18. An n-side electrode 22 and a metallized layer 23 are formed on the back surface of the GaN substrate 10.

  In the fifth embodiment, the barrier layer of the active layer 14 is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, AlGaN, AlInGaN, AlInN, etc.), as in the first to fourth embodiments.

  In the fifth embodiment, as described above, by forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the generation of dark lines can be suppressed. Thereby, luminous efficiency can be improved.

  Further, in the fifth embodiment, by being configured as described above, the flatness and crystallinity of the layer surface can be improved, so that the luminous efficiency can also be improved.

  In the fifth embodiment, the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, so that a decrease in light emission efficiency can be suppressed even when the number of well layers is increased. Therefore, the luminous efficiency can be easily improved by increasing the number of well layers.

  When the barrier layer is made of AlInGaN, the efficiency of In taken into the well layer can be made very good as described above. For this reason, even when the gas flow rate of In is reduced, a high In composition ratio can be maintained, so that the incorporation efficiency can be improved. This makes it possible to increase the wavelength more effectively. In this case, the well layer can be more easily multi-layered as compared with the case where the barrier layer is made of AlGaN.

  Furthermore, by constituting the barrier layer from AlInGaN, crystal strain can be reduced as compared with the case where the barrier layer is comprised of AlGaN. In other words, by alternately laminating InGaN well layers and AlInGaN barrier layers, a crystal resulting from a difference in lattice constant compared to alternately laminating InGaN well layers and AlGaN barrier layers. Distortion can be reduced. In general, in a light emitting diode element, an active layer may be configured in a quantum well structure having a relatively large number of two or more well layers. For this reason, from the viewpoint of crystal distortion, it is more advantageous to construct the barrier layer from AlInGaN than to construct the barrier layer from AlGaN.

  The other effects of the fifth embodiment are the same as the effects when the configurations of the first and second embodiments described above are applied to a light emitting diode element.

In Example 10, an LED was manufactured using a GaN substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction of 3 degrees with respect to the m-plane {1-100} and an off angle in the c-axis direction of +0.5 degrees. In Example 10, after an n-type Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N layer was formed with a layer thickness of about 1 μm on the main growth surface of the substrate, Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N (layer thickness: about 15 nm) / In _0.25 Ga A 4QW active layer of _0.75 N (layer thickness: about 3 nm) was formed. Next, a p-type Al _0.2 Ga _0.8 N carrier blocking layer was formed on the 4QW active layer with a layer thickness of about 20 nm. Then, a p-type GaN contact layer having a thickness of about 0.2 μm was formed on the p-type Al _0.2 Ga _0.8 N carrier block layer. Thereafter, ITO, which is an oxide-based transparent conductive film, was formed on the p-type GaN contact layer with an EB (Electron Beam) vapor deposition apparatus with a layer thickness of about 50 nm, thereby forming a p-side electrode made of ITO. Also in Example 10 configured as described above, the effect of suppressing the occurrence of dark lines, the effect of improving the light emission efficiency, and the effect of suppressing the bright spot light emission were obtained.

As the oxide-based transparent conductive film, in addition to the indium oxide-based ITO transparent conductive film, an In ₂ O ₃ —ZnO-based transparent conductive film, a zinc oxide-based ZnO-based transparent conductive film, tin oxide-based SnO 2 is used. A system transparent conductive film or the like may be used. By using these transparent conductive films, light extraction efficiency can be significantly improved. In addition, by using a substrate having an off-angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane, it can be formed on a p-type layer with improved surface morphology, so that low contact resistance can be obtained, and brightness Since the point light emission is suppressed and uniform light emission and uniform injection can be achieved, the light emission efficiency can be improved, and it is preferable to use it for the contact electrode of the nitride semiconductor layer formed on the substrate. An ITO electrode, which can be annealed at a low temperature, is particularly preferable from the viewpoint that the active layer is hardly damaged by heat. In Example 10, the annealing process is performed at 600 ° C.

  The oxide-based transparent conductive film is formed on the contact layer 18 in an amorphous state by an EB vapor deposition apparatus or a sputtering apparatus, and then crystallized by thermal annealing at about 400 ° C. to 700 ° C. It is more preferable to further reduce the voltage by reducing the resistance of the film. At this time, a contact layer having a very high flatness can be formed by using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off-angle in the a-axis direction. Therefore, the contact resistance between the oxide-based transparent conductive film and the contact layer 18 is reduced. Since it can be lowered, it is more preferable.

In Example 11, an LED having substantially the same structure as that of Example 10 was produced using the same substrate as that of Example 10. However, in Example 11, an Al _s In _t Ga _u N (s = 0.01, t = 0.03, u = 0.96) barrier layer is used. In this case, the same effect as described above was obtained. Further, it is preferable that the barrier layer contains Al and further contains In because growth at a low temperature is possible.

In Example 12, an LED similar to that in the fifth embodiment was manufactured using the same substrate as in Example 10. However, in this embodiment 12, the barrier layer AlGaN (Al composition ratio: 1.5%) of the element and the barrier layer was formed from _{Al s In t Ga u N (} s = 0.02, t = 0.01, Two types of elements composed of u = 0.97) were fabricated. All the LEDs of Example 12 emitted light at an emission wavelength of 520 nm, and no dark line was observed in the emission pattern.

Further, when the barrier layer is made of Al _x2 Ga _{1 -x2} N, almost the same effect is obtained when the Al composition ratio x2 is in the range of 0 <x2 ≦ 0.08. Also, when constituting the barrier layer from Al _s In _t Ga _u N, the range of the Al composition ratio s is 0 <s ≦ 0.08, in the range of the In composition ratio t is 0 <t ≦ 0.10, almost the same The effect of was obtained.

  Furthermore, when a plurality of devices with the number of well layers increased from two to eight layers one by one were manufactured and the light emission efficiency was measured, in a device in which the barrier layer is composed of GaN or InGaN, As the number of layers increased, the light emission efficiency decreased significantly. On the other hand, in the element in which the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al (for example, AlGaN), the light emission efficiency was not reduced. When the number of well layers is three or more, the luminous efficiency is improved by about 1.2 times by forming the barrier layer from AlInGaN as compared to the case where the barrier layer is formed from AlGaN.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown not by the above description of the embodiments but by the scope of claims for patent, and further includes all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of claims for patent.

  For example, in the first to fifth embodiments, examples in which the present invention is applied to light-emitting elements such as nitride semiconductor laser elements and light-emitting diode elements, which are examples of nitride semiconductor elements, have been described. The present invention can be applied not only to devices using nitride semiconductors such as electronic devices (for example, power transistors, ICs (Integrated Circuits), LSIs (Large Scale Integrations), etc.) in general. In the first to fourth embodiments, the example in which the present invention is applied to the nitride semiconductor laser element which is an example of the nitride semiconductor element has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to all light emitting diode elements. It is.

  In the first to third embodiments and the fifth embodiment, the example in which the off angle in the a-axis direction is configured to be larger than 0.1 degrees is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the a-axis The off angle of the direction may be an angle of 0.1 degrees or less. However, considering the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission, surface morphology, and the like, the off angle in the a-axis direction is preferably an angle larger than ± 0.1 degrees.

Moreover, in the said 1st-5th embodiment, although the example which comprised the quantum well structure of the active layer in the DQW structure was shown, this invention is not restricted to this, An active layer is provided in quantum well structures other than DQW structure. It may be configured. For example, the quantum well structure of the active layer may be configured as an SQW (Single Quantum Well) structure. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 27, one well layer 54a made of InGaN and 2 made of Al _0.005 Ga _0.995 N are formed on the lower guide layer 13 (lower clad layer in the fifth embodiment). An active layer 54 having an SQW structure in which two barrier layers 54b are alternately stacked can be formed. The well layer 54a can be configured to have a thickness of about 3 nm to about 4 nm, and the barrier layer 54b can be configured to have a thickness of about 70 nm. In the configurations of the first to fifth embodiments, the drive voltage can be reduced by configuring the active layer in the SQW structure as compared with the case where the active layer is configured in the DQW structure. Specifically, in the active layer of the SQW structure, the driving voltage at the time of 50 mA current injection is reduced by about 0.1 V to 0.25 V compared to the active layer of the DQW structure. In the case of the DQW structure, this is considered to be caused by the fact that carriers in the barrier layer sandwiched between two well layers are depleted and a large electric field is applied to the barrier layer. Further, the active layer may be configured in an MQW structure in addition to the SQW structure. Even when the active layer has the SQW structure or the MQW structure, the effect of suppressing bright spot light emission can be obtained. Note that in the case of a multiple quantum well structure having three or more well layers, optical confinement can be effectively performed, so that the gain can be increased. Furthermore, in the MQW structure with a relatively large number of well layers used in LEDs and the like, the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing not only Al but also In, thereby reducing lattice distortion with the well layer. Since it can do, it is more preferable.

  In addition, when the active layer is configured in a multiple quantum well structure, the first quantum well, the second quantum well,... Need not have the same layer thickness and composition, and are different from each other. Also good. In that case, the emission wavelengths from the respective quantum wells are different, but in the relationship between the first quantum well and the second quantum well, the emission wavelength of the first quantum well closest to the substrate is the shortest, and the emission of the second quantum well. The wavelength is preferably configured to be longer than the emission wavelength of the first quantum well.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the example in which the GaN substrate is used as the nitride semiconductor substrate has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a nitride semiconductor substrate other than the GaN substrate may be used. For example, a nitride semiconductor substrate made of InGaN, AlGaN, AlGaInN, or the like may be used. In addition, the thickness, composition, and the like of each nitride semiconductor layer that is crystal-grown on the substrate can be appropriately combined or changed so as to meet the desired characteristics. For example, the semiconductor layers may be added or deleted, or the order of the semiconductor layers may be partially changed. Further, the conductivity type may be changed for some semiconductor layers. That is, it can be freely changed as long as basic characteristics as a nitride semiconductor laser element and a light emitting diode element are obtained.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the example in which the In composition ratio of the well layer is configured to be 0.2 to 0.25 is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the In composition ratio of the well layer is used. Can be appropriately changed within the range of 0.15 to 0.45. Further, the In composition ratio of the well layer may be a value smaller than 0.15. Further, the well layer may contain Al as long as it is within 5%. The carrier block layer may contain In as long as it is within 7%. It is preferable to include In because it is easy to form a film having good crystallinity at a low temperature, and further includes a barrier layer that includes Al or a nitride semiconductor layer that includes Al and In. This is preferable because distortion to the active layer can be reduced.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the Al composition ratio x2 of the barrier layer can be appropriately changed within the range of 0 <x2 ≦ 0.08. When the barrier layer is made of AlGaN, dislocations that occur in the active layer when the In composition ratio of the well layer is increased and enter the direction parallel to the c-axis direction (when the EL emission pattern is seen, the dark line Can be suppressed). In the first to fourth embodiments, when the barrier layer is made of AlGaN, the In composition ratio of the nitride semiconductor layer such as the guide layer is increased in order to make the optical confinement more effective. That's fine.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the example in which the barrier layer of the active layer is made of AlGaN has been shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the barrier is made of, for example, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, or the like other than AlGaN. Layers can also be constructed. And also by comprising in this way, luminous efficiency and reliability can be improved.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the distance between the carrier block layer and the well layer is the same as the thickness of the third barrier layer. However, the carrier block layer and the well layer (the well on the most carrier block layer side) A plurality of nitride semiconductor layers having different compositions may be formed between the two layers. Further, it is also preferable that a part between the carrier block layer and the well layer (most well layer on the carrier block layer side) is doped with a p-type impurity such as Mg to make it p-type. In the first to fifth embodiments, non-doping is performed.

  Moreover, although the said 1st-5th embodiment demonstrated the structure which formed the carrier block layer on the active layer, this invention is not restricted to this, You may make it the structure by which the carrier block layer is not formed. However, since the carrier block layer is formed, the barrier layer composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer or an AlInGaN layer) has a protective function for the active layer, The effect of protecting the active layer after the active layer is grown is obtained. For this reason, in the region where the In composition ratio of the well layer is large (x1 ≧ 0.15), it is preferable that the carrier block layer is formed. Here, as described above, in the nitride semiconductor light emitting device using the nitride semiconductor substrate (m-plane just substrate) having the m-plane having no off-angle as the growth main surface, the EL emission pattern has a bright spot shape. Light is emitted. This is because the carrier block layer having a relatively high Al composition ratio may have an adverse effect. On the other hand, when a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is used, the light emission pattern can be made uniform as described above. Thus, the nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane is a nonpolar electrode that is very suitable for forming a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer) with good crystallinity. It can be said that it is a conductive substrate. For this reason, the carrier block layer can be made to function in a better state by using a nitride semiconductor substrate having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the barrier layer is composed of a single layer of nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the barrier layer is nitrided containing Al. A multilayer structure including at least one physical semiconductor layer (for example, a superlattice structure of InGaN and AlGaN) may be used. In that case, the layer adjacent to the well layer is preferably made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al. In the case of a multilayer structure, the layer composed of a nitride semiconductor containing Al adjacent to the well layer is preferably formed to a thickness of 1.0 nm or more, and is formed to a thickness of 3.0 nm or more. It is more preferable. Such a configuration is effective for further functioning the effect of suppressing the occurrence of dark lines, the effect of improving the heat resistance of the active layer, and the effect of improving the flatness. In nitride semiconductor laser elements, even if AlGaN, which is a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al, is used for the barrier layer, a method using InGaN for the guide layer, a method for increasing the Al composition ratio of the cladding layer, etc. By using it, it is possible to sufficiently confine light. When the Al composition ratio is increased, cracks due to tensile strain are feared. However, as shown in the third embodiment, the GaN substrate is grooved (formed with recesses) to generate cracks. It is possible to suppress.

  Moreover, in the said 1st-5th embodiment, although all the three barrier layers showed the example made into the AlGaN layer, this invention is not restricted to this, A part of layer of the three barrier layers is used, It may be an AlGaN layer. If at least one layer in contact with the well layer among the plurality of barrier layers is composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al (for example, an AlGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, an AlInN layer, etc.), the effect of improving the light emission efficiency can be obtained. . Note that the number of barrier layers differs when the number of well layers in the active layer is different, but even in this case, the above effect can be obtained by forming at least one barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. can get. Taking the first embodiment as an example, for example, in order to improve the flatness of the base before forming the well layer, the first barrier layer and the second barrier layer which are the base layers before forming the well layer Are preferably nitride semiconductor layers containing Al. Further, since the AlGaN layer also serves as an evaporation preventing layer for the InGaN layer (a role for protecting the active layer), the second barrier formed on the well layer from the viewpoint of preventing evaporation (from the viewpoint of protecting the active layer). The layer and the third barrier layer may be a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. Further, the second barrier layer has a two-layer structure of a side in contact with the first well layer and a side in contact with the second well layer, and the side of the second barrier layer in contact with the first well layer is a lower second barrier layer, The side of the second barrier layer in contact with the second well layer and the upper second barrier layer may be used. In order to improve the flatness of the base, the upper second barrier layer is preferably a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of preventing evaporation, the lower second barrier layer is preferably a nitride semiconductor layer containing Al. All the barrier layers may be nitride semiconductor layers containing Al.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the semiconductor layer formed in contact with the nitride semiconductor substrate (GaN substrate) may be an n-type conductivity type or a p-type conductivity type. Also good. Further, it may be undoped.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, a layer formed below the active layer and between the substrate is an n-side semiconductor layer, and a layer formed above the active layer is a p-side semiconductor layer. In this case, the n-side semiconductor layer, the active layer, and the p-side semiconductor layer are preferably formed at the growth temperature shown below.

  When the n-side semiconductor layer is composed of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the n-side semiconductor layer is preferably formed at a growth temperature of 900 ° C. or higher and lower than 1300 ° C. (for example, 1075 ° C.). . More preferably, it is 1000 ° C. or higher and lower than 1300 ° C. Thus, when the n-side semiconductor layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, the layer surface of the n-side semiconductor layer can be planarized by forming at a high temperature of 900 ° C. or higher. Therefore, by forming the active layer and the p-side semiconductor layer on the planarized n-side semiconductor layer, it is possible to suppress a decrease in crystallinity in the active layer and the p-side semiconductor layer. Therefore, a high quality crystal can be formed also by this. Further, by forming the n-side semiconductor layer at a growth temperature lower than 1300 ° C., the surface of the GaN substrate is re-evaporated at the time of temperature rise due to being formed at a growth temperature of 1300 ° C. or more, resulting in surface roughness. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of inconvenience that it is caused. Therefore, with this configuration, a highly reliable nitride semiconductor light emitting device having excellent device characteristics can be easily manufactured.

  When the n-side semiconductor layer is composed of a nitride semiconductor containing In, the n-side semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature (for example, 1000 ° C.) that is 600 ° C. or higher and lower than 1100 ° C. Is preferred. More preferably, it is 700 ° C. or higher and lower than 950 ° C. Thus, when the n-side semiconductor layer is composed of a nitride semiconductor layer containing In, the layer surface can be planarized by forming it at a growth temperature of 600 ° C. or higher. Therefore, by forming the active layer and the p-side semiconductor layer on the planarized n-side semiconductor layer, it is possible to suppress a decrease in crystallinity in the active layer and the p-side semiconductor layer. Therefore, a high quality crystal can be formed also by this. In addition, when the n-side semiconductor layer is formed at a growth temperature lower than 1100 ° C., it is formed at a growth temperature of 1100 ° C. or higher, resulting in inconvenience that In incorporation is poor and raw material efficiency is poor. Can be suppressed. In addition, when the In composition ratio is high, it is possible to suppress inconveniences such as deterioration of flatness. Therefore, with this configuration, it is possible to easily manufacture a nitride semiconductor light emitting device that is excellent in device identification and highly reliable.

  Furthermore, when the n-side semiconductor layer is composed of a nitride semiconductor containing Al and In, the n-side semiconductor layer is preferably formed at a growth temperature of 700 ° C. or higher and lower than 1000 ° C. . More preferably, it is 800 ° C. or more and 900 ° C. or less.

  The growth temperature of the well layer of the active layer is preferably 600 ° C. or higher and 830 ° C. or lower. When the In composition ratio of the well layer is 0.15 or higher, 600 ° C. or higher and 770 ° C. or lower is preferable. It is more preferable if it is 630 ° C. or higher and 740 ° C. or lower. The growth temperature of the barrier layer of the active layer is preferably the same temperature as the well layer or higher than the well layer.

  The growth temperature of the p-side semiconductor layer is preferably 700 ° C. or higher and lower than 900 ° C., more preferably 700 ° C. or higher and 880 ° C. or lower when it is composed of a nitride semiconductor containing Al. When composed of a nitride semiconductor containing In, the temperature is preferably 600 ° C. or higher and lower than 850 ° C., more preferably 700 ° C. or higher and 800 ° C. or lower. Further, when the p-side semiconductor layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al and In, it is preferably formed at a growth temperature of 600 ° C. or higher and lower than 1000 ° C. More preferably, it is 700 ° C. or higher and 850 ° C. or lower.

  Moreover, in the said 1st-5th embodiment, although the example which formed the some barrier layer in different thickness was shown, this invention is not restricted to this, You may form a some barrier layer in the same thickness.

  Moreover, although the example which formed the carrier block layer in the thickness of 40 nm or less was shown in the said 1st-5th embodiment, this invention is not limited to this, The thickness of a carrier block layer may be larger than 40 nm. The effect of the present invention can be obtained even if the carrier block layer contains about 3% In. Further, the Al composition ratio of the carrier block layer is preferably higher than the Al composition ratio of the upper cladding layer for the purpose of reducing the driving voltage.

  Moreover, although the example which used Si as an n-type impurity of an n-type semiconductor layer was shown in the said 1st-5th embodiment, this invention is not restricted to this, In addition to Si, for example, O, S, and C may be used. Note that Si and O are particularly preferable as the n-type impurity.

In the above-mentioned first to fifth embodiments show the example in which the insulating layer from SiO _2, the present invention is not limited thereto, may be formed of an insulating material other than SiO _2. For example, the insulating layer may be made of SiN, Al ₂ O ₃ , ZrO ₂ or the like.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the crystal axis directions ([1-100] direction, [11-20] direction, and [0001] direction) may be crystallographically equivalent directions.

  In the first to fifth embodiments, the example in which each nitride semiconductor layer is crystal-grown using the MOCVD method has been shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and an epitaxial growth method other than the MOCVD method is used. Alternatively, each nitride semiconductor layer may be crystal-grown. As a method other than the MOCVD method, for example, the HVPE method (Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy), the MBE method (Molecular Beam Epitaxy), and the like are conceivable.

In the first to fourth embodiments, the upper guide layer is made of p-type Al _0.01 Ga _0.99 N. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the upper guide layer is made of GaN, AlGaN or You may comprise from AlInGaN and may comprise the superlattice structure which combined these. If there is no problem from the viewpoint of optical confinement and far-field images, a p-type cladding layer may be directly stacked on the carrier block layer without forming the p-side guide layer (upper guide layer). Is possible.

When the upper guide layer is formed, when the upper guide layer is a non-doped GaN layer that is not doped with impurities, and a p-type GaN layer that is doped with p-type impurities is further formed, Among the layer thicknesses, the p-type GaN layer thickness (total layer thickness) L _pgan and the p-type impurity-doped GaN layer (the n-type GaN layer intentionally n-type impurity doped, the deliberate impurity It is preferable that the relationship with the layer thickness (total layer thickness) L _gan of the non-doped GaN layer not doped) satisfies L _gan <L _pgan . Furthermore, the layer thickness of the p-type GaN layer is preferably 0.3 μm or less. If it is larger than 0.3 μm, the light distribution is widened and the light confinement efficiency may be reduced. In addition, the flatness may be deteriorated.

  On the other hand, when the upper guide layer is a p-type GaN layer to which p-type impurity doping is applied, the flatness does not deteriorate. Therefore, the upper guide layer may be designed from the viewpoint of optical confinement. Good.

  When InGaN, AlGaN or AlInGaN is used for the upper guide layer, it may be intentionally non-doped without doping impurities, or may be doped with, for example, Mg as a p-type impurity. When the upper guide layer is made of AlGaN, in the case of a non-doped AlGaN layer, the Al composition ratio is preferably set in the range of 0.0 to 0.03. In the case of a p-type AlGaN layer subjected to p-type impurity doping, the Al composition ratio is preferably set in the range of 0.0 to 0.03. When the upper guide layer is made of AlGaN, the effect of improving the flatness can be obtained. In the case of a non-doped AlGaN layer, a GaN layer having an Al composition ratio of 0 makes it difficult to obtain a sufficient flatness improvement effect. On the other hand, when the Al composition ratio is larger than 0.03, light confinement becomes insufficient. The upper guide layer made of AlGaN is preferably formed to a thickness of 0.05 μm to 0.4 μm, and more preferably 0.08 μm to 0.25 μm. If the thickness of the upper guide layer made of AlGaN is smaller than 0.05 μm, the effect of improving flatness tends to be insufficient. On the other hand, when the thickness is larger than 0.4 μm, the electric field strength distribution of light spreads in the layer direction, so that the optical confinement factor is reduced. When the upper guide layer is made of AlGaN, the optical confinement can be improved by increasing the Al composition ratio of the cladding layer. The upper guide layer is more preferably made of a nitride semiconductor containing In from the viewpoint of light confinement.

  When the upper guide layer is made of InGaN, the In composition ratio is set in a range smaller than the In composition ratio of the well layer. When the upper guide layer is a non-doped InGaN layer, the In composition ratio is preferably set to be larger than 0 and 0.05 or less. In the case where the upper guide layer is a p-type layer doped with p-type impurities, doping with Mg ensures flatness even with GaN, so that the In composition ratio of the InGaN layer is 0.0 or more and 0.05 or less. It is possible to set the range. When the upper guide layer is a non-doped InGaN layer, when the GaN layer has an In composition ratio of 0, it is difficult to obtain a sufficient flatness improvement effect. On the other hand, when the In composition ratio is larger than 0.05, the crystal quality is likely to be deteriorated due to high strain. The upper guide layer made of InGaN is preferably formed with a thickness of 0.05 μm or more and 0.5 μm or less, and more preferably formed with a thickness of 0.08 μm or more and 0.3 μm or less. When the thickness of the upper guide layer made of InGaN is smaller than 0.05 μm, the light confinement effect becomes insufficient. On the other hand, if the thickness is larger than 0.5 μm, the electric field strength distribution of light spreads in the layer direction, so that the optical confinement factor is reduced.

  When the upper guide layer is made of AlInGaN, in the case of a non-doped AlInGaN layer, the In composition ratio is preferably set in the range of 0.002 or more and 0.05 or less. Further, the Al composition ratio is preferably set in a range of greater than 0.005 and 0.05 or less. In the case of a p-type AlInGaN layer subjected to p-type impurity doping, the In composition ratio is preferably set in the range of 0.0 to 0.05. Further, the Al composition ratio is preferably set in a range of greater than 0.0 and less than or equal to 0.05. The upper guide layer made of AlInGaN is preferably formed to a thickness of 0.05 μm to 0.5 μm, and more preferably 0.07 μm to 0.3 μm. If the above range (the upper limit of at least one of the composition and thickness) is exceeded, the crystal quality may be deteriorated. On the other hand, in the case of at least one of the case where the composition ratio is not more than the above range and the case where the thickness is smaller than the lower limit value of the above thickness range, the light confinement effect and the flatness improvement effect are insufficient.

  In addition, it is also possible to combine suitably the structure shown in the said 1st-4th embodiment.

  In the first embodiment, an example is shown in which two GaN layers, an n-type GaN layer and a lower guide layer, are formed between the substrate and the active layer. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the total layer If the thickness is 0.7 μm or less, a GaN layer other than the above may be formed. In addition, a GaN layer may not be formed between the substrate and the active layer. In this case, the layer structure laminated on the substrate preferably does not include a GaN layer, and these layer structures are preferably composed of a semiconductor layer having a composition different from that of GaN such as InGaN, AlGaN, InAlGaN, and InAlN.

  In the first embodiment, the semiconductor layer in contact with the growth main surface of the GaN substrate is an GaN layer. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the semiconductor layer in contact with the growth main surface of the GaN substrate is It may be an AlGaN, AlInGaN layer, AlInN layer, InGaN layer, InN layer, or the like.

In the first embodiment, each nitride semiconductor layer formed on the GaN substrate has an example in which the nitride semiconductor layer formed on the active layer is configured not to include the GaN layer. The present invention is not limited to this, and the nitride semiconductor layer formed on the active layer may be configured to include a GaN layer. For example, the contact layer may be composed of a GaN layer. When a p-type GaN layer with p-type impurity doping is formed, the p-type GaN layer thickness (total layer thickness) L _pgan and a GaN layer without p-type impurity doping (intentionally n-type) It is preferable that the relationship between the layer thickness (total layer thickness) L _gan of the n-type GaN layer doped with impurities and the non-doped GaN layer not intentionally doped with impurities satisfies L _gan <L _pgan .

  In the first embodiment, the barrier layer of the active layer is made of AlGaN in a state where the total thickness of the GaN layer formed between the substrate and the active layer is 0.7 μm or less on the GaN substrate. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and even when the total layer thickness of the GaN layer is greater than 0.7 μm, the barrier layer is made of AlGaN, thereby improving the luminous efficiency. Obtainable.

  Moreover, in the said 3rd Embodiment, the opening width of the recessed part formed in a board | substrate and the depth of a recessed part can be changed suitably. In addition, it is preferable that the opening width of a recessed part is 1 micrometer or more and 50 micrometers or less. Moreover, the cross-sectional shape of a recessed part can be changed suitably. The cross-sectional shape of the concave portion may be a Δ shape or a trapezoidal shape as long as it causes uneven steps. In addition, about the relationship between the opening width of a recessed part and the depth of a recessed part, it is preferable that the opening width is formed larger than the depth. When the opening width is formed to a size equal to or smaller than the depth, the thickness of the film formed on the bottom surface of the recess may be reduced when the growth suppression film is formed. On the other hand, by forming the opening width larger than the depth, the growth suppressing film can be formed with a stable film thickness.

  Moreover, although the example which formed the dug area | region so that it might extend in a c-axis direction was shown in the said 3rd Embodiment, this invention is not limited to this, and the dug area | region extends so that it may cross in a c-axis direction. May be formed. In addition to the stripe shape, for example, the digging region may be formed in a lattice shape.

  In the third embodiment, an example in which the period of the recesses is set to about 400 μm is shown. However, the period of the recesses can be determined by the chip width (element width) of the nitride semiconductor laser element, and the chip width ( For example, when the element width is about 200 μm, the period of the recesses can be about 200 μm. The period (interval) of the recesses (digging area) is preferably 1 mm or less, and more preferably 400 μm or less. With this configuration, even if there is an abnormal portion on a part of the wafer (substrate) and the layer thickness fluctuates due to this, the lateral growth is divided by the depression on the surface of the semiconductor element layer on the recess. Thus, the diffusion of the layer thickness fluctuation caused by the abnormal part is suppressed. Further, when the period (interval) of the recesses (digging regions) is 5 μm or less, it becomes difficult to form the ridge portion. Therefore, the period (interval) of the recesses (digging regions) is preferably larger than 5 μm.

  Moreover, in the said 3rd Embodiment, although the example which formed the dug area | region in the board | substrate was shown by forming the recessed part which has a fixed opening width | variety linearly, this invention is not limited to this, Other than the above You may form a dug area | region in a board | substrate by forming a recessed part in a shape. For example, the digging region may be formed in the substrate by forming a zigzag-shaped concave portion or a wave-shaped concave portion, or the digging region 3 may be formed in the substrate by forming a concave portion having a variable opening width. May be formed. In addition, digging regions having different shapes and digging regions having different depths and widths may exist on one substrate. Even when such a dug region is formed, the effect of the present invention can be obtained.

  In the fourth embodiment, an example in which a GaN substrate having an off angle in the c-axis direction with respect to the m plane has been shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and an m-plane GaN having no off angle. A substrate may be used. Alternatively, a GaN substrate having off angles in the a-axis direction and the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane may be used. That is, as long as the nitride semiconductor substrate has a nonpolar surface as the growth main surface, the same effect as in the fourth embodiment can be obtained regardless of which substrate is used.

  In the fifth embodiment, the AlGaN layer (lower cladding layer) is shown as the layer in contact with the growth main surface of the substrate. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the layer in contact with the growth main surface of the substrate is A layer other than the AlGaN layer may be used. For example, as in the first embodiment, an n-type GaN layer may be formed between the substrate and the lower cladding layer so that the layer in contact with the growth main surface may be an n-type GaN layer. Further, as shown in the second embodiment, a layer such as an InGaN layer, an AlInGaN layer, or an AlInN layer may be formed between the substrate and the lower cladding layer so as to be in contact with the growth main surface.

  In the fifth embodiment, a digging region (concave portion) similar to that in the third embodiment may be formed in the GaN substrate. Further, a substrate similar to the fourth embodiment (a nitride semiconductor substrate having no off-angle in the c-axis direction with respect to the m-plane) or a nonpolar substrate may be used.

10 GaN substrate (nitride semiconductor substrate)
10a Growth main surface 11 n-type GaN layer 12 lower cladding layer 13 lower guide layer 14 active layer 14a well layer 14b barrier layer 15 carrier block layer 16 upper guide layer 17 upper cladding layer 18 contact layer 19 ridge portion 20 insulating layer 21 p side Electrode 22 N-side electrode 23 Metallized layer 30 Resonator surface 30a Light emitting surface 30b Light reflecting surface 100, 250 Nitride semiconductor laser element (nitride semiconductor element)
110 Submount 120 Stem 130 Wire 135 Cap 150 Semiconductor Laser Device (Semiconductor Device)

Claims (14)

A nitride semiconductor substrate having a main growth surface;
An active layer formed on the main growth surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate and having a quantum well structure including a well layer and a barrier layer;
The growth main surface is a surface having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane,
The nitride semiconductor device, wherein the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al.   The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the barrier layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing Al, Ga, and N.   The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the barrier layer is made of AlInGaN.   The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the barrier layer is made of AlGaN. The active layer includes a plurality of the barrier layers,
The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the plurality of barrier layers is made of AlInGaN.   The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein an absolute value of an off angle in the a-axis direction is greater than 0.1 degree.   The said well layer is comprised from the nitride semiconductor containing In, and In composition ratio is 0.15 or more and 0.45 or less, The any one of Claims 1-6 characterized by the above-mentioned. The nitride semiconductor device described.   The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the well layer is made of InGaN.   The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the nitride semiconductor substrate is made of GaN.   10. The nitride semiconductor layer containing Al is formed on the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate so as to be in contact with the growth main surface. The nitride semiconductor device described. On the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate, a pair of guide layers sandwiching the active layer vertically is formed,
The nitride semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the guide layer is made of a nitride semiconductor containing In. The growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate has an off-angle in the c-axis direction in addition to the a-axis direction,
The nitride semiconductor device according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein an off angle in the a-axis direction is larger than an off angle in the c-axis direction. preparing a nitride semiconductor substrate including a growth main surface composed of a surface having an off angle in the a-axis direction with respect to the m-plane;
Forming an active layer having a quantum well structure including a well layer and a barrier layer on the growth main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate using an epitaxial growth method,
The method of forming a nitride semiconductor device, wherein the step of forming the active layer includes a step of forming the barrier layer from a nitride semiconductor containing Al.   A semiconductor device comprising the nitride semiconductor element according to claim 1.