Graphene as tunable transparent electrode material on GaN: Layer-number-dependent optical and electrical properties

Graphene has been regarded as a prospective transparent electrode for a GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED), but fundamental knowledge about the intrinsic properties of the graphene/GaN contact is lacking. We have studied the optical and electronic properties of graphene exfoliated on an n-type GaN surface. The graphene visibility was simulated based on Fresnel's law and confirmed with an optical microscope and micro-Raman spectra. The interfacial electronic property was studied with a scanning photoelectron microscope. We found that the Schottky barrier height of the graphene/n-GaN is decreased with decreasing graphene number of layers, yielding an improved GaN-based LED performance.