Chunlan Mo

Effects of thickness ratio of InGaN to GaN in superlattice strain relief layer on the optoelectrical properties of InGaN-based green LEDs grown on Si substrates

InGaN-based multiple quantum well (MQW) green light-emitting diodes with a InGaN/GaN superlattice as a strain relief layer (SSRL) were grown on Si(111) substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The influences of the thickness ratio of InGaN to GaN in SSRL on the optoelectrical properties have been investigated. Electrical measurements show that the sample with a higher thickness ratio has a lower series resistance. This is mainly ascribed to the improvement of carrier vertical transport due to the thinner GaN in SSRL. However, it is found that the leakage current increases with the thickness ratio from 1:1 to 2.5:1, which could be attributed to the larger density of small size V-pits forming at the first few QW pairs. Compared with the smaller thickness ratio, the sample with a higher thickness ratio of InGaN to GaN in SSRL is found to exhibit larger strain relaxation (about 33.7%), but the electroluminescence measurement exhibits inferior emission efficiency. Carrier leakage via the small V-...

The Efficiency Droop of InGaN-Based Green LEDs with Different Superlattice Growth Temperatures on Si Substrates via Temperature-Dependent Electroluminescence

InGaN-based green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with different growth temperatures of superlattice grown on Si (111) substrates are investigated by temperature-dependent electroluminescence between 100 K and 350 K. It is observed that with the decrease of the growth temperature of the superlattice from 895°C to 855°C, the forward voltage decreases, especially at low temperature. We presume that this is due to the existence of the larger average size of V-shaped pits, which is determined by secondary ion mass spectrometer measurements. Meanwhile, the sample with higher growth temperature of superlattice shows a severer efficiency droop at cryogenic temperatures (about 100 K–150 K). Electron overflow into p-GaN is considered to be the cause of such phenomena, which is relevant to the poorer hole injection into multiple quantum wells and the more reduced effective active volume in the active region.

Effects of p-AlGaN EBL thickness on the performance of InGaN green LEDs with large V-pits

The effects of the p-AlGaN electron blocking layer (EBL) thickness on the performance of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) green light emitting diodes (LEDs) was investigated. It was observed that increasing the thickness of the p-AlGaN EBL could reduce the leakage current and improve the efficiency of green LEDs with large V-pits. It is proposed that increasing the EBL thickness leads to a thicker p-AlGaN on the sidewalls of V-pits, which provides a thicker energy barrier and consequently screens dislocations more effectively. The leakage current (at −5 V) of LEDs with a 40 nm EBL is about an order of magnitude lower than that of LEDs with a 20 nm EBL. With the increase in EBL thickness, at low current densities, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) firstly decreases and then increases afterwards, which could be attributed to the competition between the enhancement of the radiative recombination rate and the reduction of the hole injection efficiency. At operating current density, there is a positive correlation between EQE and the thickness of the EBL. This is attributed to the improved electron confinement in the active region by preventing electrons overflowing to the p-type layer. Meanwhile, the efficiency droop is obviously suppressed when the thickness of the EBL increases from 20 nm to 40 nm. However, further increasing the thickness of the EBL may deteriorate the EQE and efficiency droop. Packaged green LED chips with an optimized EBL emit 260 mW (dominant wavelength: 520 nm) at 350 mA (35 A cm−2), and the EQE reaches 31.2%.

Performance enhancement of yellow InGaN-based multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes grown on Si substrates by optimizing the InGaN/GaN superlattice interlayer

A specially designed InGaN/GaN superlattice (SL) interlayer was inserted between n-GaN and a multiple quantum well to enhance the performance of yellow light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on Si (111). The number of SL periods was determined to be the key to enhancing the external quantum efficiency and reducing forward voltage. Our results show that more SLs could suppress nonradiative recombination by eliminating micron-scale indium-rich clusters and could promote hole injection with increased V-pit size. However, too many SLs reduce the effective luminescence area and lead to many voids formed in the p-type layer. We demonstrate that 32 is the optimum number of SLs for yellow InGaN/GaN LEDs, obtaining a high light output power of 63 mW with a dominant wavelength of 568 nm, and a low forward voltage of 2.38 V at 200 mA (20 A/cm2).