Quantum efficiency and formation of the emission line in light-emitting diodes based on InGaN/GaN quantum well structures

The spectra of electroluminescence, photoluminescence, and photocurrent for the In_0.2Ga_0.8N/GaN quantum-well structures are studied to clarify the causes for the reduction in quantum efficiency with increasing forward current. It is established that the quantum efficiency decreases as the emitting photon energy approaches the mobility edge in the In_0.2Ga_0.8N layer. The mobility edge determined from the photocurrent spectra is E _me = 2.89 eV. At the photon energies hv > 2.69 eV, the charge carriers can tunnel to nonradiative recombination centers with a certain probability, and therefore, the quantum efficiency decreases. The tunnel injection into deep localized states provides the maximum electroluminescence efficiency. This effect is responsible for the origin of the characteristic maximum in the quantum efficiency of the emitting diodes at current densities much lower than the operating densities. Occupation of the deep localized states in the density-of-states “tails” in InGaN plays a crucial role in the formation of the emission line as well. It is shown that the increase in the quantum efficiency and the “red” shift of the photoluminescence spectra with the voltage correlate with the changes in the photocurrent and occur due to suppression of the separation of photogenerated carriers in the field of the space charge region and to their thermalization to deep local states.     

EBIC measurements of small diffusion length in semiconductor structures

The problems arising under submicron diffusion-length measurements by EBIC are discussed. As an example, the results of diffusion-length measurements in GaN are presented. It is shown that fitting the collection efficiency dependence on beam energy is the most reliable method for this purpose. The depth-dose dependence for GaN is calculated by the Monte-Carlo method and its analytical approximation is presented. This expression was verified experimentally by simultaneous fitting of the collected current dependence on beam energy for a few applied bias values. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

EBIC characterization of strained Si/SiGe heterostructures

Strained-Si/SiGe heterostructure is studied by EBIC. The effect of annealing at 800°C is investigated. The EBIC images obtained at different beam energies are analyzed. The analysis of images obtained shows that misfit dislocation bunches in the graded SiGe layer could not explain the cross-hatch contrast dependence on E _b. Therefore, at least a part of this contrast should be associated with other defects located closer to the depletion region. It is assumed that dislocation trails could play the role of such defects. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

EBIC study of resistive photosensitive elements based on HgCdTe

Photosensitive resistive elements based on HgCdTe with decreased photosensitivity as a result of prolonged operation are studied by the method of electron-beam-induced current in a scanning electron microscope. It is shown that the degradation processes in these elements are related to the appearance of regions with a lowered sensitivity in the vicinity of contacts. Distribution of the induced current for these inhomogeneous elements was simulated. It is shown that a comparison of the measured and calculated distributions of the induced-current signal makes it possible to reveal the most probable causes of the inhomogeneous decrease in the photosensitivity. The comparison performed showed that the most likely cause of a decrease in the photosensitivity of the elements under study was an increase in the donor concentration in the near-contact regions.     

Frequency and temperature dependences of capacitance-voltage characteristics of InGaN/GaN light-emitting structures with multiple quantum wells

A frequency dependence of capacitance-voltage (C–V) characteristics in multiple quantum well InGaN/GaN heterostructures in the range of 60 Hz-5 MHz is investigated at temperatures from 77 to 300 K. It is found that temperature lowering and test frequency increase lead to the similar changes in obtained apparent carrier distributions. It is shown that commonly used conditions for capacitance-voltage profiling of InGaN/GaN LEDs correspond to an intermediate case between low- and high-frequency capacitance approximations. At all temperatures investigated, the edge low-frequency capacitance-voltage profiles are experimentally reached and found to be identical. The process of attainment of equilibrium of the charges in the active region is most likely determined by tunneling of the carriers through the barriers.     

Temperature-dependent light-emitting characteristics of InGaN/GaN diodes

Temperature-dependent light-emitting and current-voltage characteristics of multiple-quantum well (MQW) InGaN/GaN blue LEDs were measured for temperature ranging from 100 to 500 K. The measurement results revealed two kinds of defects that have pronounced impact on the electroluminescent (EL) intensity and device reliability of the LEDs. At low-temperature (<150 K), in addition to the carrier freezing effect, shallow defects such as nitrogen vacancies or oxygen in nitrogen sites can trap the injected carriers and reduces the EL intensity. At high temperature (>300 K), deep traps due to the structure dislocations at the interfaces significantly reduce the efficiency for radiative recombination though they can enhance both forward and reverse currents significantly. In addition, the significant enhancement of trap-assisted tunneling current causes a large heat dissipation and results in a large redshift of the emission peak at high temperature.     

Electrical characterization of MS and MIS structures on AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructures

The forward and reverse bias I-V, C-V, and G/ω-V characteristics of (Ni/Au) Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) on the Al_0.22Ga_0.78N/AlN/GaN high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMTs) without and with SiN_x insulator layer were measured at room temperature in order to investigate the effects of the insulator layer (SiN_x) on the main electrical parameters such as the ideality factor (n), zero-bias barrier height (Ф_B0), series resistance (R_s), interface-state density (N_ss). The energy density distribution profiles of the N_ss were obtained from the forward bias I-V characteristics by taking into account the voltage dependence of the effective barrier height (Ф_e) and ideality factor (n_V) of devices. In addition, the N_ss as a function of E_c-E_ss was determined from the low-high frequency capacitance methods. It was found that the values of N_ss and R_s in SBD HEMTs decreases with increasing insulator layer thickness.     

Analysis of the temperature dependence of the capacitance-voltage characteristics of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light-emitting structures

The capacitance-voltage characteristics and frequency dependences of the capacitance and conductance of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light-emitting structures are studied in the frequency range of 60 Hz-5 MHz and the temperature range of 77–300 K. It is shown that carrier relaxation in quantum wells can be described by two emission processes, i.e., the thermally activated one and with the power-law temperature dependence of the emission rate. It is also shown that one or several quantum wells in typical InGaN/GaN-based light-emitting structures can remain filled with electrons even at comparatively high reverse biases. This makes it possible to explain the depth shift of the apparent carrier concentration profiles, obtained from the capacitance-voltage characteristics, with decreasing temperature.     

InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode microwires of submillimeter length

Microcrystalline wire-like InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes designed as core–shell structures 400–600 μm in length are grown by metal–organic vapor-phase epitaxy on sapphire and silicon substrates. The technology of the titanium-nanolayer-induced ultrafast growth of nanowire and microwire crystals is used. As a current is passed through the microcrystals, an electroluminescence signal is observed in the blue–green spectral region.     

Piezoelectric GaN sensor structures

Free-standing GaN and AlGaN/GaN cantilevers have been fabricated on (111) silicon substrate using dry etching. On these cantilevers, a piezoresistor and a high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) structure have been realized, and the piezoresponse has been characterized. Cantilever bending experiments resulted in a Young's modulus of approximately 250 GPa, a sensitivity of K/spl sim/90, and a modulation of the HEMT current of up to 50%. It is seen that the piezoresponse could be related to both the bulk properties and the properties of the heterostructure interface.     

Effects of p-type GaN thickness on optical properties of GaN-based light-emitting diodes

The influence of p-type Ga N(p Ga N) thickness on the light output power(LOP) and internal quantum efficiency(IQE) of light emitting diode(LED) was studied by experiments and simulations. The LOP of Ga N-based LED increases as the thickness of p Ga N layer decreases from 300 nm to 100 nm, and then decreases as the thickness decreases to 50 nm. The LOP of LED with 100-nm-thick pG a N increases by 30.9% compared with that of the conventional LED with 300-nm-thick p Ga N. The variation trend of IQE is similar to that of LOP as the decrease of Ga N thickness. The simulation results demonstrate that the higher light efficiency of LED with 100-nm-thick p Ga N is ascribed to the improvements of the carrier concentrations and recombination rates.     

Electrical properties and luminescence spectra of light-emitting diodes based on InGaN/GaN heterostructures with modulation-doped quantum wells

The distribution of charged centers N(w), quantum efficiency, and electroluminescence spectra of blue and green light-emitting diodes (LED) based on InGaN/AlGaN/GaN p-n heterostructures were investigated. Multiple InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QW) were modulation-doped with Si donors in GaN barriers. Acceptor and donor concentrations near the p-n junction were determined by the heterodyne method of dynamic capacitance to be about N _A ≥ 1 × 10¹⁹ cm^?3 ? N _D ≥ 1 × 10¹⁸ cm^?3. The N(w) functions exhibited maxima and minima with a period of 11–18 (±2–3 nm) nm. The energy diagram of the structures has been constructed. The shifts of spectral peaks with variation of current (J=10^?6–3×10^?2 A) are smaller (13–12 meV for blue and 20–50 meV for green LEDs) than the corresponding values for the diodes with undoped barriers (up to 150 meV). This effect is due to the screening of piezoelectric fields in QWs by electrons. The dependence of quantum efficiency on current correlates with the charge distribution and specific features in the current-voltage characteristics.     

Electrical and optical characterization of GaN-based light-emitting diodes fabricated with top-emission and flip-chip structures

We investigated the electrical and optical characteristics of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated with top-emission and flip-chip structures. Compared with top-emission LEDs, flip-chip LEDs exhibited a 0.25 V smaller forward voltage and an 8.7 Ω lower diode resistance. The light output power of the flip-chip LED was also larger than that of the top-emission LED by factors of 1.72 and 2.0 when measured before and after packaging, respectively. The improved electrical and optical output performances of flip-chip LEDs were quantitatively analyzed in terms of device resistance and ray optics, respectively.     

Thermal effect on the electroluminescence of InGaN/GaN multiquantum-well light-emitting devices

A steady-state thermal model is presented to investigate the temperature and injection-current dependence of the electroluminescence (EL) in InGaN/GaN multiquantum-well light-emitting devices. The important mechanisms for the carrier dynamics, including thermal emission, recapturing, radiative and nonradiative recombination, are taken into account in this model. From the measured EL spectra, it is found that the S-shaped temperature dependence of the peak energy disappears at a high injection-current level. The temperature-dependent emission energies of the EL spectra are calculated with this model. The band-filling effect and the heating effect are considered in our investigation of this phenomenon, and the simulation results are in fair agreement with the experimental data. It is observed that both the band-filling and heating effects influence the temperature dependence of the EL emission spectra of InGaN/GaN multiquantum-wells. Quantitative discussion reveals that the heating effect becomes more apparent when the device is working at high injection-currents.     

InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well-based light-emitting and photodetective dual-functional devices

In this study, we fabricated and characterized an InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well (MQW)-based p-n junction photodetector (PD) for voltage-selective light-emitting and photo-detective applications. The photode-tector exhibits a cutoff wavelength at around 460nm which is close to its electroluminescence (EL) peak position. The rejection ratio was determined to be more than three orders of magnitude. Under zero bias, the responsivity of the device peaks at 371 nm, with a value of 0.068 A/W, corresponding to a 23% quantum efficiency.The overall responsivity gradually rises as a function of reverse bias, which is explained by the enhanced photocarrier collection efficiency.     

Influence of temperature on the mechanism of carrier injection in light-emitting diodes based on InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells

The experimental current-voltage characteristics and dependences of the external quantum yield on the current density of light-emitting diodes based on InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells for the wide temperature range T = 10–400 K are presented. It is shown that, at low-temperatures T < 100 K, the injection of holes into the quantum wells occurs from localized acceptor states. The low-temperature injection of electrons into p-GaN occurs due to quasi-ballistic transport in the region of multiple quantum wells. An increase in temperature leads to an increase in the current which is governed by thermally activated hole and electron injection from the allowed bands of GaN.     

Temperature-dependent electroluminescence in InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes

We present a comparative study on temperature dependence of electroluminescence (EL) of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with identical structure but different indium contents in the active region. For the ultraviolet (UV) and blue LEDs, the EL intensity decreases dramatically with decreasing temperature after reaching a maximum at 150 K. The peak energy exhibits a large redshift in the range of 20–50 meV with a decrease of temperature from 200 K to 70 K, accompanying the appearance of longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon replicas broadening the low energy side of the EL spectra. This redshift is explained by carrier relaxation into lower energy states, leading to dominant radiative recombination at localized states. In contrast, the peak energy of the green LED exhibits a minimal temperature-induced shift, and the emission intensity increases monotonically with decreasing temperature down to 5 K. We attribute the different temperature dependences of the EL to different degrees of the localization effects in the MQW regions of the LEDs.     

Characterization of light-emitting diodes based on InAsSbP/InAsSb structures grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy

Light-emitting diodes for the wavelength range λ=3.3–4.5 µm were fabricated on the basis of InAsSbP/InAsSb heterostructures grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy. The use of vapor-phase epitaxy made it possible to appreciably increase the phosphorus content in barrier layers (up to 50%) in comparison with that attainable in the case of liquid-phase epitaxy; correspondingly, it was possible to improve confinement of charge carriers in the active region of the structures. Photoluminescent properties of InAsSb layers, electroluminescent properties of light-emitting diodes, and dependences of the emission power on current were studied. Two types of light-emitting diodes were fabricated: (i) with extraction of emission through the substrate (type A) and (ii) with extraction of emission through the epitaxial layer (type B). The light-emitting diodes operating in the pulse mode (with a relative pulse duration of 20) had an emission power of 1.2 mW at room temperature.     

Study of the characteristics of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes based on GaN/AlGaN heterostructures grown by chloride-hydride vapor-phase epitaxy

The results of work on developing and studying ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on GaN/AlGaN heterostructures fabricated on Al₂O₃(0001) substrates by the chloride-hydride vaporphase epitaxy are presented. The maximum in the electroluminescence spectrum is located in the wavelength range of 360–365 nm, and its full width at half maximum is 10–13 nm. At a working current of 20 mA, the optical density and efficiency of the UV LED are 1.14 mW and 1.46%, respectively.     

Active region based on graded-gap InGaN/GaN superlattices for high-power 440- to 470-nm light-emitting diodes

The structural and optical properties of light-emitting diode structures with an active region based on ultrathin InGaN quantum wells limited by short-period InGaN/GaN superlattices from both sides have been investigated. The dependences of the external quantum efficiency on the active region design are analyzed. It is shown that the use of InGaN/GaN structures as limiting graded-gap short-period superlattices may significantly increase the quantum efficiency.