The challenges and approaches for high-efficiency InGaN quantum wells (QWs) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are
presented. The studies include designs, growths, and device characteristics of 1) InGaN-based QWs LEDs with
enhanced matrix element for realizing green-emitting LEDs with high internal quantum efficiency, and 2) InGaN QW
LEDs device structure with lattice-matched AlInN-barrier to suppress efficiency-droop in nitride LEDs. Other
approaches to improve the efficiency of the nitride LEDs will be discussed as follow: 1) surface plasmon LEDs, 2) new
growth approach for dislocation density reduction in GaN, and 3) novel approaches for light extraction efficiency
improvement of III-Nitride LEDs.
The enhancement of light extraction efficiency of InGaN quantum well (QW) light emitting diodes (LEDs) was achieved
by employing the refractive index matched TiO2 microsphere arrays. The optimization studies of the dipping method and
rapid convective deposition (RCD) method were carried out for the deposition of TiO2 microsphere arrays onto LEDs.
The 2-dimensional relatively close-packed and close-packed TiO2 microsphere arrays were deposited by the using
optimized conditions of the dipping method and RCD method, respectively. The light extraction efficiencies of LEDs
under electrical injection were enhanced by 1.83 times by utilizing 520-nm diameter TiO2 microspheres. This
enhancement is primarily attributed to increase in the effective photon escape cone due to the matched index and
spherical shape of TiO2 microstructures arrays.
Novel staggered InGaN quantum wells (QWs) and type-II InGaN-GaNAs QWs with improved momentum matrix
element lead to improved internal quantum efficiency for green-emitting light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Approaches for
enhancing internal quantum efficiency, light extraction efficiency, and efficiency-droop in nitride LEDs are discussed.
Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) nucleation studies of GaN on planar sapphire and nano-patterned AGOG
(Deposition of Aluminum, Growth of Oxide, and Grain growth) sapphire substrates were conducted. The use of
abbreviated GaN growth mode, which utilizes a process of using 15nm low temperature GaN buffer and bypassing etchback
and recovery processes during epitaxy, enables the growth of high-quality GaN template on nano-patterned AGOG
sapphire. The GaN template grown on nano-patterned AGOG sapphire by employing abbreviated growth mode has two
orders of magnitude lower threading dislocation density than that of conventional GaN template grown on planar
sapphire. The use of abbreviated growth mode also leads to significant reduction in cost of the epitaxy. The growths and
characteristics of InGaN quantum wells (QWs) light emitting diodes (LEDs) on both templates were compared. The
InGaN QWs LEDs grown on the nano-patterned AGOG sapphire demonstrated a 24% enhancement of output power
enhancement over that of LEDs grown on conventional GaN templates.
Staggered InGaN quantum wells (QWs) are analyzed as improved active media based on a 6-band k•p method taking
into account the valence band mixing, strain effect, and spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations as well as the carrier
screening effect. The growths of staggered InGaN QW emitting at green regime were conducted by employing graded
temperature profile. The electroluminescence measurement shows a significant enhancement of the output power of the
staggered InGaN QW LED as compared to that of the conventional InGaN QW LED.
Improvement of light extraction efficiency of InGaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
concave microstructures arrays was demonstrated. The size effect of the concave microstructures on the light extraction
efficiency of III-Nitride LEDs was studied. Depending on the size of the concave microsturctures, ray tracing
simulations show that the use of PDMS concave microstructures arrays can lead to increase in light extraction efficiency
of InGaN LEDs by 1.4 to 1.9 times. Experiments utilizing 1.0 μm PDMS concave microstructures arrays demonstrated
1.60 times improvement in light extraction, which is consistent with simulated improvement of 1.63 times. The
enhancement in light extraction efficiency is attributed to increase in effective photon escape cone due to PDMS concave
microstructures arrays, and reduced Fresnel reflection within the photon escape cone due to the grading of refractive
index change between GaN / PDMS / air interface.
The concept of polarization engineering of InGaN quantum wells are discussed as an approach for improving the
radiative recombination rate of III-Nitride based active region. Two quantum wells were discussed as follow: 1) staggered InGaN quantum well, and 2) type-II InGaN-GaNAs quantum well. Staggered InGaN quantum wells (QW) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition was demonstrated as improved active region for visible light emitters. Fermi's Golden Rule indicates that InGaN QW with
step-function like In distribution leads to significantly improved
radiative recombination rate and optical gain due to increased electron-hole wavefunction overlap, in comparison to that
of conventional InGaN QW. Spontaneous emission spectra of both conventional and staggered InGaN QW were
calculated based on energy dispersion and transition matrix element obtained by 6-band <b>k•p</b> formalism for wurtzite
semiconductor, taking into account valence-band-states mixing, strain effects, and polarization-induced electric fields.
The calculated spectra for the staggered InGaN QW showed enhancement of radiative recombination rate, which is in
good agreement with photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence measurements at emission wavelength regime of
425-nm and 500-nm. Experimental results of light emitting diode (LED) structures at 450-nm utilizing staggered InGaN
QW show improvement in output power much higher than what is predicted theoretically. In addition to the staggered
InGaN QW, type-II InGaN-GaNAs QW was also investigated theoretically with potential of implementation for high efficiency
LEDs.
Staggered InGaN quantum wells (QW) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition was demonstrated as
improved active region for visible light emitters. Fermi's Golden Rule indicates that InGaN QW with step-function like
In distribution leads to significantly improved radiative recombination rate and optical gain due to increased electronhole
wavefunction overlap, in comparison to that of conventional InGaN QW. Spontaneous emission spectra of both
conventional and staggered InGaN QW were calculated based on energy dispersion and transition matrix element
obtained by 6-band k•p formalism for wurtzite semiconductor, taking into account valence-band-states mixing, strain
effects, and polarization-induced electric fields. The calculated spectra for the staggered InGaN QW showed
enhancement of radiative recombination rate, which is in good agreement with photoluminescence and
cathodoluminescence measurements at emission wavelength regime of 425-nm and 500-nm. Experimental results of
light emitting diode (LED) structures at 45-nm utilizing staggered InGaN QW show improvement in output power
much higher than what is predicted theoretically. Reduction in non-radiative recombination rate due to improved
materials quality, in addition to the enhancement in radiative recombination rate in the staggered InGaN QW could
presumably be the reason behind this significant output power improvement.
Strain-compensated InGaN quantum well (QW) active region employing tensile AlGaN barriers was analyzed as
improved gain media for laser diodes emitting at 430-440 nm by taking into account the carrier screening effect. The use
of strain-compensated InGaN-AlGaN structure is advantageous because the tensile barriers compensate the compressive
strain in the InGaN QW and the larger band offset allows high temperature operation. The band structure is calculated by
using a 6-band k times p formalism, taking into account valence band mixing, strain effect, spontaneous and piezoelectric
polarizations. The carrier screening effect is incorporated in the calculation, which is solved self-consistently. The
spontaneous emission spectra show a significant improvement of the radiative emission for strain-compensated structure.
The optical gain analysis shows enhancement in the peak optical gain for the strain-compensated QW structures.
Threshold analysis of both the conventional InGaN-GaN QW and strain-compensated InGaN-AlGaN QW active regions
indicate a reduction in the threshold carrier density and threshold current density for diode laser employing the strain-compensated
QW as its active region.
We demonstrated and analyzed 480-nm emitting III-Nitride LEDs using SiO2/polystyrene (PS) microlens arrays,
deposited via rapid-convective-deposition. Output power of MOCVD-grown InGaN QW LEDs with SiO2/PS microlens
exhibited improvement of 219%. Numerical simulation of the light extraction efficiency optimization of III-Nitride
LEDs with SiO2/PS microlens was carried out using Monte Carlo ray tracing including 3D self-consistent photon-carrier
interaction. The light extraction efficiency of the LEDs with microlens array is optimized for the PS layer thickness and
the SiO2 microspheres diameter. The simulations show good agreement with experiments, indicating the use of SiO2/PS
microlens leads to increased photon escape cone.
Here we present a full 3-D numerical model based on Quantum-Finite-Difference-Time-Domain (Q-FDTD) method,
with Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) boundary condition, as a versatile tool to accurately analyze 3-D QD nanostructure
with arbitrary shape. Model solid theory has been utilized to determine the 3-D band lineup of the QD heterostructure.
The effects of strain distribution, and effective mass distribution on the band structure of the QD nanostructure are also
taken into account in the model. The Q-FDTD computation has been applied for analyzing MOCVD-grown InGaAs
QDs with GaAs1-xPx barriers on GaAs. The Q-FDTD simulation, using the QDs shape measured by TEM and AFM,
shows good agreement with the experimental results obtained from the as-grown InGaAs QDs with GaAs1-xPx barriers.
Design analysis of III-Nitride based intersubband quantum well absorption in the mid-IR regime (&lgr; ~ 3-5 &mgr;m) is
presented. The use of lattice-matched AlInGaN materials is advantageous because of its extremely fast intersubband
relaxation time &tgr;rel ~ 150-fs. The ability to engineer lattice-matched AlInGaN layer with GaN should allow realization of
multiple pairs of AlInGaN / GaN quantum well structures, which would otherwise be challenging due to the cracking
issues that might develop in conventional multiple pairs AlGaN / GaN heterostructures. The large conduction band offset
in III-Nitride heterostructures is also beneficial for minimizing dark current and thermal noise.
We present and analyze a new nitride-based gain media by utilizing type-II InGaN-GaNAs quantum well (QW) on GaN.
This novel III-N based type-II QW allows extension of the emission wavelength from blue regime (450-nm) to yellow
regime (550-nm) with relatively-low In-content in the QW, while maintaining a large electron-hole wavefunction
overlap. High electron-hole wavefunction overlap (≥ 65%-70%) can be obtained by careful energy band engineering to
take advantage of the polarization-induced electric field. Our analysis shows this new type-II QW gain media offers
wide emission wavelength coverage, from pure blue (~450-nm) to yellow-green (~530-nm). Design and optimization for
pure blue (~450-nm), green (~515-nm) and yellow-green (~530-nm) emission structures are also presented. This method
may allow realization of green laser diode on GaN, as well as paving the way to low cost, truly monolithic solid-state
white light source.
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