High-quality ten-period (Al, Ga)N/GaN Bragg reflectors ( 15% < Al% < 45%),
with a target centre wavelength of 510 nm, have been grown by plasma-assist
ed molecular beam epitaxy on GaN templates. X-ray diffraction and high-reso
lution transmission electron microscopy measurements reveal an excellent cr
ystal quality and morphology of the mirrors, and provide an estimate of the
structural parameters, including layer thicknesses, Al content and lattice
strain. Threading dislocations running through the structure do not affect
the interface abruptness or the periodicity. Peak reflectance values up to
58% are achieved, in spite of the rather small number of periods and low A
l content. The experimental results are in very good agreement with simulat
ed reflectivity spectra. These semitransparent Bragg mirrors are key elemen
ts to fabricate backside-emitting resonant-cavity LEDs for plastic optical
fibre communications at 510 nm.