Optical Properties of GaN-Based Green Light-Emitting Diodes Influenced by Low-Temperature p-GaN Layer

GaN-based green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with different thicknesses of the low-temperature (LT) p-GaN layer between the last GaN barriers and p-AlGaN electron blocking layer were characterized by photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) spectroscopic methods in the temperature range of 6–300 K and injection current range of 0.01–350 mA. Based on the results, we suggest that a 20 nm-thick LT p-GaN layer can effectively prevent indium (In) re-evaporation, improve the quantum-confined Stark effect in the last quantum well (QW) of the active region, and finally reduce the efficiency droop by about 7%.

Droop-free amplified red emission from Eu ions in GaN

Eu-doped GaN (GaN:Eu) are novel candidates for red light-emitting diodes (LEDs). To further improve the luminescent efficiency of the GaN:Eu-based LED, the efficiency-droop under strong excitation conditions should be suppressed. In this paper, we demonstrate droop-free luminescence of GaN:Eu emitted from a sample-edge using a stripe excitation configuration. The Eu emission intensity clearly increases compared to the conventional surface-emission, and the enhancement is more pronounced for stronger excitation conditions. We clarify that the wavelength dependence of the enhancement agrees well with the optical gain spectrum of the GaN:Eu and is attributed to amplified spontaneous emission.

Thermophysical Characterization of Efficiency Droop in GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes

An efficiency droop in GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LED) was characterized by examining its general thermophysical parameters. An effective suppression of emission degradation afforded by the introduction of InGaN/GaN heterobarrier structures in the active region was attributable to an increase in the capture cross-section ratios. The Debye temperatures and the electron–phonon interaction coupling coefficients were obtained from temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well LEDs over a temperature range from 20 to 300 K. It was found that the Debye temperature of the LEDs was modulated by the InN molar fraction in the heterobarriers. As far as the phonons involved in the electron–phonon scattering process are concerned, the average number of phonons decreases with the Debye temperature, and the electron–phonon interaction coupling coefficients phenomenologically reflect the nonradiative transition rates. We can use the characteristic ratio of the Debye temperature to the coupling coefficient (DCR) to assess the efficiency droop phenomenon. Our investigation showed that DCR is correlated to quantum efficiency (QE). The light emission results exhibited the high and low QEs to be represented by the high and low DCRs associated with low and high injection currents, respectively. The DCR can be envisioned as a thermophysical marker of LED performance, not only for efficiency droop characterization but also for heterodevice structure optimization.