Degradation of phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes under pulsed current stressing

The electrical and optical degradation of green phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) stressed under 50 mA/cm² pulsed currents with 10–50% duty cycles was studied. The stressing resulted in significant increases in low-bias leakage current and operational voltage. The luminance evolution comprised an initial rapid decay regime and a subsequent slow decay regime, and only the latter was governed predominantly by electrical excitation. Compared to continuous-wave stressing, pulsed stressing with 10% duty cycle improved the effective half life by only ∼15%, indicating that self-heating plays a minor role in the performance degradation process. Adding a reverse bias component to the pulsed current led to suppressed low-bias leakage and current-induced luminance decay due to defect removal and alleviated charge build-up.     

High-current stressing of organic light-emitting diodes with different electron-transport materials

We conducted accelerated reliability tests of electron-only devices (EODs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) differing only in their electron-transport material (ETM). High current stressing of EODs at 50 mA/cm² showed that Bphen ~ Alq₃ > TPBi > TAZ in terms of intrinsic material stability. In addition, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level and electron mobility have been identified as two other key material factors affecting the degradation rate of OLEDs. TAZ has a low electron mobility, a LUMO level misaligned with the Fermi level of the cathode, and poor material stability, leading to extremely poor reliability of devices with a TAZ electron-transport layer (ETL). In contrast, the OLED with a Bphen ETL exhibited more stable operation and a 76 × longer luminance lifetime. Due to its relatively high electron mobility and good stability as well as perfect energy level alignment with the cathode, Bphen has proven to be the most desirable ETM from the standpoint of OLED reliability.     

Degradation of InGaN blue light-emitting diodes under continuous and low-speed pulse operations

Long-term accelerated degradation tests on InGaN blue light-emitting diodes were performed under continuous and low-speed pulse operations, and the half-life of the optical output was estimated. It was estimated that the lifetime under pulse operation is 2–4 times longer than that in continuous operation. A higher pulse repetition rate confers a longer life.     

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.     

Degradation of organic light-emitting diodes under different environment at high drive conditions

The origin of dark spots, crucial for understanding the degradation mechanisms in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), is typically attributed to the penetration of moisture, oxygen and other active atmospheric agents. Employing scanning X-ray photoelectron spectromicroscopy we have investigated the morphology and chemical composition of degraded micro-areas created in OLEDs under different environment. The same confined degradation events, involving decomposition of the ITO film and organic layer and oxidation and delamination of the Al cathode were observed even for devices grown in situ and operated in ultra-high vacuum at pressures lower than 10⁻⁹ mbar. Our results provide unambiguously prove that ‘uncontrollable’ imperfections in the fabricated structures are the major cause for ignition of degradation events, whereas external causes related to the air ambient act as efficient promoters.     

Defect generation in InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes under forward and reverse electrical stresses

Electrical and optical degradations of GaN/InGaN single-quantum-well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) under high-injection current (150 A/cm²) and reverse-bias (−20 V) stresses were investigated. A substantial increase in the tunneling components of both forward and reverse currents was observed in the devices subjected to reverse biases. However, the stressed LEDs exhibited minimal degradation of optical characteristics. For devices subjected to high forward currents, a monotonic decrease in light intensities with stress time, accompanied by an increase of forward leakage current, was observed in the low-injection region, but a positive stress effect was found on the light output measured at high currents. These degradation behaviors can be explained by slow generation of point defects in the LEDs via different mechanisms, i.e., thermally induced defect formation in the InGaN active region in the devices subjected to high-injection currents, and destructive microstructual changes as a result of impact ionization in the cladding layer in the devices under high reverse-bias stress.     

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.     

Tunnel injection and power efficiency of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes

The results of studying the influence of the finite tunneling transparency of injection barriers in light-emitting diodes with InGaN/GaN quantum wells on the dependences of the current, capacitance, and quantum efficiency on the p-n junction voltage and temperature are presented. It is shown that defectassisted hopping tunneling is the main transport mechanism through the space charge region (SCR) and makes it possible to lower the injection barrier. It is shown that, in the case of high hopping conductivity through the injection barrier, the tunnel-injection current into InGaN band-tail states is limited only by carrier diffusion from neutral regions and is characterized by a close-to-unity ideality factor, which provides the highest quantum and power efficiencies. An increase in the hopping conductivity through the space charge region with increasing frequency, forward bias, or temperature has a decisive effect on the capacitance-voltage characteristics and temperature dependences of the high-frequency capacitance and quantum efficiency. An increase in the density of InGaN/GaN band-tail states and in the hopping conductivity of injection barriers is necessary to provide the high-level tunnel injection and close-to-unity power efficiency of high-power light-emitting diodes.     

Changes in properties of GaN blue light-emitting diodes over time

Electrical conduction tests of metal-insulator-semiconductor(MIS)-structure GaN blue light-emitting diodes have been performed. Samples in which the emission intensity improved over time and samples in which the emission intensity degraded with time were observed. The pattern of change in both types was studied by measuring the device properties. Degradation of emission intensity was seen to be caused by changes in the emission and electron injection mechanism. Reference was made to the action of Zn in the I-S region.     

GaN resonant cavity light-emitting diodes for plastic optical fiber applications

The optical designs of resonant GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been determined for maximum extraction efficiency into typical plastic optical fiber of numerical aperture 0.5. An optimum extraction efficiency of 3.9% can be achieved for a practical resonant cavity LED (RCLED), taking account of current growth and processing considerations. The optimized device is a metal-active layer distributed Bragg reflector construction. Constructive interference effects from the top metal mirror are found to play the dominant role in efficiency enhancement. The extraction efficiency of an optimized resonant single-mirror LED is found to be 3.3%, indicating a small compromise in performance compared with the more complex RCLED structure.     

Mechanism of light production in metal-insulator-semiconductor diodes; GaN:Mg violet light-emitting diodes

The mechanism of electroluminescence in MIN GaN:Mg violet light-emitting diodes was analyzed by considering observed structural features of the diodes as well as their electrical and optical characteristics. Comparison of the observed I–V characteristic, including dependence upon temperature and upon film thickness, with all possible mechanisms for conduction in insulators lead to a proposed conduction mechanism of quantum mechanical tunneling, with the I–V characteristic being well represented by the Fowler-Nordheim equation. The proposed mechanism of light production involved impact ionization of luminescent centers near the i-n junction, with subsequent radiative recombination. This proposed mechanism was supported by measurements of carrier multiplication in the device and a steep voltage gradient at the i-n junction. The impact ionization process occurs in discrete regions coincident with sub-grain boundaries in the GaN film.     

Nitride-based green light-emitting diodes with high temperature GaN barrier layers

High-quality InGaN-GaN multiquantum well (MQW) light-emitting diode (LED) structures were prepared by temperature ramping method during metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth. It was found that we could reduce the 20-mA forward voltage and increase the output intensity of the nitride-based green LEDs by increasing the growth temperature of GaN barrier layers from 700/spl deg/C to 950/spl deg/C. The 20-mA output power and maximum output power of the nitride-based green LEDs with high temperature GaN barrier layers was found to be 2.2 and 8.9 mW, respectively, which were more than 65% larger than those observed from conventional InGaN-GaN green LEDs. Such an observation could be attributed to the improved crystal quality of GaN barrier layers. The reliability of these LEDs was also found to be reasonably good.     

Edge and defect luminescence of powerful ultraviolet InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes

The spectrum of ultraviolet (UV) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes and its dependence on the current flowing through the structure are studied. The intensity of the UV contribution to the integrated diode luminescence increases steadily with increasing density of current flowing through the structure, despite a drop in the emission quantum efficiency. The electroluminescence excitation conditions that allow the fraction of UV emission to be increased to 97% are established. It is shown that the nonuniform generation of extended defects, which penetrate the active region of the light-emitting diodes as the structures degrade upon local current overheating, reduces the integrated emission intensity but does not affect the relative intensity of diode emission in the UV (370 nm) and visible (550 nm) spectral ranges.     

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.     

Degradation in short wavelength (AlGa)As light-emitting diodes

Degradation in short-wavelength (AlGa)As lasers is investigated through lifetests of such devices operated in the incoherent mode. It is shown that degradation increases with emission energy for diodes containing zinc in the p-type (AlGa)As bounding region, whereas diodes containing Ge in this region, although not satisfactory as c.w. lasers because of high resistivity, show no degradation. A way out of this difficulty is proposed through double doping with Ge and Zn, in which case degradation appears to be brought down to the Ge level.     

The use of short-period InGaN/GaN superlattices in blue-region light-emitting diodes

Optical and light-emitting diode structures with an active InGaN region containing short-period InGaN/GaN superlattices are studied. It is shown that short-period superlattices are thin two-dimensional layers with a relatively low In content that contain inclusions with a high In content 1–3 nm thick. Inclusions manifest themselves from the point of view of optical properties as a nonuniform array of quantum dots involved in a residual quantum well. The use of short-period superlattices in light-emitting diode structures allows one to decrease the concentration of nonradiative centers, as well as to increase the injection of carriers in the active region due to an increase in the effective height of the AlGaN barrier, which in general leads to an increase in the quantum efficiency of light-emitting diodes.     

Influence of GaN material characteristics on device performance for blue and ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

An analysis of blue and near-ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and material structures explores the dependence of device performance on material properties as measured by various analytical techniques. The method used for reducing dislocations in the epitaxial III-N films that is explored here is homoepitaxial growth on commercial hybride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) GaN substrates. Blue and UV LED devices are demonstrated to offer superior performance when grown on GaN substrates as compared to the more conventional sapphire substrate. In particular, the optical analysis of the near-UV LEDs on GaN versus ones on sapphire show substantially higher light output over the entire current-injection regime and twice the internal quantum efficiency at low forward current. As the wavelength is further decreased to the deep-UV, the performance improvement of the homoepitaxially grown structure as compared to that grown on sapphire is enhanced.     

Investigation of radiative tunneling in GaN/InGaN single quantum well light-emitting diodes

The mechanisms of carrier injection and recombination in a GaN/InGaN single quantum well light-emitting diodes have been studied. Strong defect-assisted tunneling behavior has been observed in both forward and reverse current–voltage characteristics. In addition to band-edge emission at 400 nm, the electroluminescence has also been attributed to radiative tunneling from band-to-deep level states and band-to-band tail states. The approximately current-squared dependence of light intensity at 400 nm even at high currents indicates dominant nonradiative recombination through deep-lying states within the space-charge region. Inhomogeneous avalanche breakdown luminescence, which is primarily caused by deep-level recombination, suggests a nonuniform spatial distribution of reverse leakage in these diodes.     

Improvement of near-ultraviolet InGaN-GaN light-emitting diodes through higher pressure grown underlying GaN layers

The 410-nm near-ultraviolet (near-UV) InGaN-GaN multiple quantum-wells light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with low-pressure-grown (200 mbar) and high-pressure-grown (400 mbar) Si-doped GaN underlying layers were grown on c-face sapphire substrates by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. Increasing the growth pressure during the initial growth of the underlying n-type GaN epilayers of the near-UV InGaN-GaN LEDs was found to reduce the amount of threading dislocations that originated from the GaN-sapphire interfaces. The electroluminescence intensity of LEDs with underlying GaN layers grown at a higher pressure was nearly five times larger than that of LED with layers grown at lower pressure. Additionally, two-order reduction of leakage current was also induced for the LEDs grown at a higher pressure.     

Current-voltage characteristics of light-emitting diodes under optical and electrical excitation

The factors influencing the current-voltage(I-V) characteristics of light-emitting diodes(LEDs) are investigated to reveal the connection of I-V characteristics under optical excitation and those under electrical excitation.By inspecting the I-V curves under optical and electrical excitation at identical injection current,it has been found that the I-V curves exhibit apparent differences in voltage values.Furthermore,the differences are found to originate from the junction temperatures in diverse excitation ways.Experimental results indicate that if the thermal effect of illuminating spot is depressed to an ignorable extent by using pulsed light,the junction temperature will hardly deflect from that under optical excitation,and then the I-V characteristics under two diverse excitation ways will be the same.