Recent Progress in III-Nitride Tunnel Junction-Based Optoelectronics

Tunnel junctions have garnered much interest from the III-Nitride optoelectronic research community within recent years. Tunnel junctions have seen applications in several material systems with relatively narrow bandgaps as compared to the III-Nitrides. Although they were initially dismissed as ineffective for commercial device applications due to high voltage penalty and on resistance owed to the wide bandgap nature of the III-Nitride material systems, recent development in the field has warranted further study of such tunnel junction enabled devices. They are of particular interest for applications in III-Nitride optoelectronic devices in which they can be used to enable novel device designs which could potentially address some of the most challenging physical obstacles presented with this unique material system. In this work we review the recent progress made on the study of III-Nitride tunnel junction-based optoelectronic devices and the challenges which are still faced in the field of study today.