Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Akio Aioi

Norikatsu Koide

Hiroshi Nakatsu

Atsushi Ogawa

Satoshi Komada

Takeshi Nishino

A nitride semiconductor light-emitting device comprises a substrate, and a first n-type nitride semiconductor layer, an emission layer, a p-type nitride semiconductor layer, a metal layer and a second n-type nitride semiconductor layer stacked on the substrate successively from the side closer to the substrate, with an electrode provided on the surface of the second n-type nitride semiconductor layer or above the surface of the second n-type nitride semiconductor layer. The metal layer is preferably made of a hydrogen-storage alloy.

Nitride semiconductor light-emitting device providing efficient light extraction

The semiconductor light emitting device has a gallium nitride base compound semiconductor layer expressed by a general formula of In Ga Al N (x&plus;y&plus;z&equals;1, 0&lE;x&lE;1, 0&lE;y&lE;1, 0&lE;z&lE;1). A second intermediate layer is provided between a GaN layer and a light emitting layer, and the second intermediate layer has a lattice constant closer to that of the light emitting layer than that of the GaN layer. As such, when a substrate such as Si substrate having a smaller coefficient of thermal expansion than the nitride semiconductor film is employed, occurrence of cracks is prevented and good crystallinity of the nitride semiconductor film is assured, and accordingly, a long-life and high-luminance nitride base semiconductor light emitting device is obtained.

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Mihara, Japan

Akio Aioi