Multi-color red, green, and blue (RGB) micro-light emitting diode (LED) displays often require the use different material systems to obtain high-efficiency RGB pixels. While blue and green micro-LEDs can be fabricated with sufficiently high external quantum efficiencies (ηEQE) using the InGaN materials system, red InGaN emitters currently exhibit much lower ηEQE. The reduction of InGaN LED efficiency at longer wavelengths can be attributed to the Quantum Confined Stark Effect (QCSE), which reduces the electron-hole wavefunction overlap (Γe_hh) and radiative recombination rate (𝑅𝑠𝑝), and worsens at longer wavelengths with increasing QW In-content. Consequently, higher efficiency AlInGaP LEDs are usually used for the red pixels in micro-LEDs, complicating the fabrication process. In this work, InGaN-delta-InN quantum well (QW) LEDs with InGaN quantum barriers on InGaN substrates are shown to produce significant enhancement in electronhole wavefunction overlap and 𝑅𝑠𝑝 over the entire red emission regime and into the near-infrared. Analysis and comparison of various InGaN-delta-InN QWs with InGaN barriers and InGaN/InGaN QWs emitting at 630 nm was performed using self-consistent six-band 𝑘 ∙ 𝑝 formalism. Wavefunction overlap from InGaN-delta-InN QWs was shown to increase by 3.5x when compared to an InGaN/InGaN QW at 630 nm. These improvements in wavefunction overlap were shown to lead to ~5 - 7x and ~3 - 10x enhancements in 𝑅𝑠𝑝 and IQE, respectively. With growth of InN monolayers on InGaN now readily achievable, this novel delta-InN active region on InGaN substrate design could pave the way for high efficiency, native red-emitting InGaN LEDs and allow for monolithic fabrication of InGaN micro-LED displays.
Planar deep-ultraviolet (DUV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from extremely low external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) due to poor light extraction efficiencies (LEE) which are often less than 1%, hindering their widespread use. In AlGaN DUV LEDs with high Al-content, the positioning of the valence subbands leads to dominant transverse magnetic (TM)-polarized emission which is difficult to extract from planar devices. To improve the LEE of DUV LEDs, techniques such as surface roughening and nanowire formation have been used. Nanowires are especially promising for DUV LEDs because they allow for very efficient extraction of TM-polarized light through their sidewalls. In this work, we demonstrate a novel “inverse taper” profile in AlGaN nanowires, in which the base of the nanowire can be narrowed to have a smaller diameter than the top through a KOH-based wet etch process. Hydroxyl-based chemistries are known to have a lower etch rate against the c-plane of wurtzite AlGaN alloys. Here, we report on observations of 0.8% KOH at 80℃ exhibiting a unique selectivity to a different wurtzite crystal plane, believed to be the (202̅ 1) plane, allowing for formation of an inverse taper structure. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations at 280 nm reveal that AlGaN nanowire LEDs with high sidewall inverse taper angles can have greater than 75% and 90% LEE for TE and TM-polarized light respectively, ~2.5x higher than the LEE of vertical sidewall nanowires. This novel phenomenon may allow for significant improvements in the LEE of DUV nanowire LEDs.
Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are useful in applications such as water/air purification, sterilization, and biosensing. However, due to the low external quantum efficiencies (ηEQE) of III-Nitride semiconductor UV LEDs, the technology has struggled to achieve penetration into many of these potential applications. While the active regions of UV LEDs have been well optimized, allowing for internal quantum efficiencies of greater than 60%, light extraction efficiency (ηEXT) remains a significant obstacle, and is limited to less than 10% in conventional UV LEDs, limiting their ηEQEs to around 1% for wavelengths below 300 nm. Surface texturing of the p-GaN or p-AlGaN layer in top-emitting UV LEDs has allowed for improvements in ηEQE at the expense of hole injection efficiency. Etching of the sapphire or AlN substrates to form lenses avoids this tradeoff in bottom-emitting LEDs, but is exceptionally time and resource intensive. Here, we investigated a novel method of enhancing ηEXT of AlGaN multiple quantum well UV LEDs at 280 nm using self-aligned monolayers of SiO2 microspheres and microlenses. Finite-difference time-domain simulations were utilized to investigate the effects of these nanostructure monolayers on the ηEXT of DUV LEDs emitting at 280 nm, and predicted up to 2.31x times enhancement of ηEXT. Electroluminescence (EL) measurements were performed in tandem with our simulations of UV LEDs. At normal incidence, up to 6.1% and 12.7% EL intensity enhancements were observed using 700 nm SiO2 microspheres and microlenses, respectively. These promising enhancements in output power may allow for high ηEQE in UV LEDs.
Deep-ultraviolet (DUV) emitters have attracted enormous attentions for water/air purification, and sterilization. However, it is difficult to realize high-efficiency DUV emitters due to several material limitations. In addition, the band mixing effect is another crucial fundamental physics factor limiting device efficiency for 240-260 nm based on AlGaN/AlN quantum wells (QWs). Specifically, heavy hole (HH) and crystal-field split-off (CH) subbands are mixed together in this regime, which results in the insufficient conduction band to valence subband transitions and consequently the low transverse-electric (TE)- and transverse-magnetic (TM)-polarized optical gain. To resolve this issue, we have proposed and investigated the use of AlGaN-delta-GaN and AlN-delta-GaN QWs as active region. Alternatively, high-quality AlGaN substrates are being developed for potential UV applications. However, very limited analysis has been reported for AlGaN QWs on AlGaN substrates. Thus, here, we theoretically study the optical properties of AlGaN QWs on ternary substrates for 240-260 nm. The results show up to 12.16, 7.79 and 6.95 times optical gain enhancements by using AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN QWs on AlyGa1-yN substrate, as compared to AlxGa1-xN/AlN QWs on AlN substrate at 240 nm, 250 nm and 260 nm, respectively. It can be explained by the fact that the reduced strain in the active region shift HH/CH subbands crossover Al-content to lower Al-content, which ensures the topmost CH subband with large energy separation to HH subband and sufficient C-CH transition. As a result, large TM-polarized optical gain can be achieved, which indicates the great potential of using AlGaN substrate for high-efficiency 240-260 nm lasers.
Light extraction efficiency (ηextraction) remains as a big challenge for high-efficiency deep-ultraviolet (UV) lightemitting diodes (LEDs) due to the large refractive index contrast at the AlN(sapphire)/air interface. Various surface patterning approaches such as microdome design and patterned sapphire substrates have been proposed to address the low ηextraction issue. Nevertheless, these previously proposed methods all involved additional complicated fabrication steps and the polarization-dependent analysis for these devices has not been investigated experimentally. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of using 700-nm SiO2 microsphere array on 280 nm flip-chip UV LEDs to improve the ηextraction. Angle- and polarization-dependent electroluminescence measurements have been performed to compare the 280 nm LEDs with and without the SiO2 microsphere array. The UV LED with microsphere array showed enhancement for transverse-electric (TE)-polarized light intensities at small angles while decreased intensities at large angles with respect to c-axis, as compared to the device without SiO2 microspheres For instance, up to 7.4% enhancement is observed at θ = 0°. However, for transverse-magnetic (TM)-polarized light, the intensities largely remain the same at small angles while decrease at large angles. Cross-sectional near-field electric field distribution from three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation has confirmed that the use of SiO2 microspheres array resulted in scattering of photons at the sapphire/SiO2 microspheres interface, which eventually leads to enhanced TE-photons extraction at small-angles. From simulation, the light radiation patterns from the UV LED with SiO2 spheres are reshaped to a small-angle-favored pattern without reducing the total output power, showing great consistency with the measurement results.
III-nitride ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) with emission wavelengths in the range of 250-280 nm have attracted considerable interest for applications such as germicidal disinfection and biological detection. However, the widely-used AlGaN quantum well (QW)-based LEDs at such wavelengths suffer from low quantum efficiencies. One main factor that limits the AlGaN QW LED efficiency at ~250-280 nm is the suffering of the severe band mixing effect caused by the valence subbands crossover, as well as the Quantum Confined Stark Effect (QCSE). Therefore, the novel AlGaN-delta-GaN QW design was proposed to address these issues in order to realize high-efficiency deep-UV LEDs.
Here, we proposed a novel Al0.9Ga0.1N-delta-GaN QW by inserting an ultra-thin delta-GaN layer into a conventional Al0.9Ga0.1N QW active region. The physics from such QW design was investigated by 6-band k·p model and the structure was experimentally demonstrated by Plasma-assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy (PAMBE). The calculated results show that the insertion of delta-GaN layer could successfully address the band mixing issue and QCSE, leading to a significant improvement in spontaneous emission rate as compared to that of Al0.55Ga0.45N QW at 260 nm. The 5-period Al0.9Ga0.1N-delta-GaN QW with 3-nm AlN barrier was grown on AlN/sapphire substrate by MBE with ~2-monolayer delta-GaN layer, which was evidenced by the cross-sectional transmission electron microscope. The two-photon photoluminescence spectrum presented a single peak emission centered at 260 nm from the grown Al0.9Ga0.1N-deltaGaN QW with a full width at half maximum of 12 nm, which shows that the demonstrated QW would be promising for high-efficiency UV LEDs.
Optical polarization from AlGaN quantum well (QW) is crucial for realizing high-efficiency deep-ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) because it determines the light emission patterns and light extraction mechanism of the devices. As the Al-content of AlGaN QW increases, the valence bands order changes and consequently the light polarization switches from transverse-electric (TE) to transverse-magnetic (TM) owing to the different sign and the value of the crystal field splitting energy between AlN (-169meV) and GaN (10meV). Several groups have reported that the ordering of the bands and the TE/TM crossover Al-content could be influenced by the strain state and the quantum confinement from the AlGaN QW system. In this work, we investigate the influence of QW thickness on the optical polarization switching point from AlGaN QW with AlN barriers by using 6-band k∙p model. The result presents a decreasing trend of the critical Al-content where the topmost valence band switches from heave hole (HH) to crystal field spilt-off (CH) with increasing QW thicknesses due to the internal electric field and the strain state from the AlGaN QW. Instead, the TE- and TM-polarized spontaneous emission rates switching Al-content rises first and falls later because of joint consequence of the band mixing effect and the Quantum Confined Stark Effect. The reported optical polarization from AlGaN QW emitters in the UV spectral range is assessed in this work and the tendency of the polarization switching point shows great consistency with the theoretical results, which deepens the understanding of the physics from AlGaN QW UV LEDs.
III-nitride based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have great potential in various applications due to their higher efficiency and longer lifetime. However, conventional planar structure InGaN LED suffers from total internal reflection due to large refractive index contrast between GaN (nGaN = 2.5) and air (nair = 1), which results in low light extraction efficiency (ηextraction). Accordingly, various approaches have been proposed previously to enhance the ηextraction. Nevertheless, most of the proposed methods involve elaborated fabrication processes. Therefore, in this work, we proposed the integration of three-dimensional (3D) printing with LED fabrication as a straightforward and highlyreproducible method to improve the ηextraction. Specifically, 500-μm diameter dome-shaped lens of optically transparent acrylate-based photopolymer is 3D-printed on planar structure 500 × 500 μm2 blue-emitting LEDs. Light output power measurement shows that up to 9% enhancement at injection current 4 mA can be obtained from the LEDs with 3D printed lens on top as compared to LEDs without the lens. Angle-dependent electroluminescence measurement also exhibits significant light output enhancement between angles 0 and 30° due to the larger photon escape cone introduced by the higher refractive index of the 3D printed lens (nlens = 1.5) than the air medium as well as the enhanced light scattering effect attributed to the curvature surface of the 3D printed lens. Our simulation results based on 3D finitedifference time-domain method also show that up to 1.61-times enhancement in ηextraction can be achieved by the use of 3D-printed lens of various dimensions as compared to conventional structure without the lens.
III-nitride based ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) are of considerable interest in replacing gas lasers and mercury lamps for numerous applications. Specifically, AlGaN quantum well (QW) based LEDs have been developed extensively but the external quantum efficiencies of which remain less than 10% for wavelengths <300 nm due to high dislocation density, difficult p-type doping and most importantly, the physics and band structure from the three degeneration valence subbands. One solution to address this issue at deep UV wavelengths is by the use of the AlGaN-delta-GaN QW where the insertion of the delta-GaN layer can ensure the dominant conduction band (C) - heavyhole (HH) transition, leading to large transverse-electric (TE) optical output. Here, we proposed and investigated the physics and polarization-dependent optical characterizations of AlN-delta- GaN QW UV LED at ~300 nm. The LED structure is grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) where the delta-GaN layer is ~3-4 monolayer (QW-like) sandwiched by 2.5-nm AlN sub-QW layers. The physics analysis shows that the use of AlN-delta-GaN QW ensures a larger separation between the top HH subband and lower-energy bands, and strongly localizes the electron and HH wave functions toward the QW center and hence resulting in ~30-time enhancement in TEpolarized spontaneous emission rate, compared to that of a conventional Al0.35Ga0.65N QW. The polarization-dependent electroluminescence measurements confirm our theoretical analysis; a dominant TE-polarized emission was obtained at 298 nm with a minimum transverse-magnetic (TM) polarized emission, indicating the feasibility of high-efficiency TEpolarized UV emitters based on our proposed QW structure.
Ultraviolet (UV) lasers with wavelength (λ) < 300 nm have important applications in free-space communication, water/air purification, and biochemical agent detection. Conventionally, AlGaN quantum wells (QWs) are widely used as active region for UV lasers. However, high-efficiency electrically injected mid-UV lasers with λ ~ 250-300 nm are still very challenging as the corresponding AlGaN QWs suffer from severe band-mixing effect due to the presence of the valence sub-band crossover between the heavy-hole (HH) and crystal-field split off (CH) sub-bands, which would result in very low optical gain in such wavelength regime.
Therefore, in this work, we propose and investigate the use of AlInN material system as an alternative for mid-UV lasers. Nanostructure engineering by the use of AlInN-delta-GaN QW has been performed to enable dominant conduction band – HH sub-band transition as well as optimized electron-hole wave function overlap. The insertion of the ultra-thin delta-GaN layer, which is lattice-matched to Al0.82In0.18N layer, would localize the wave functions strongly toward the center of the active region, leading to large transverse electric (TE) polarized optical gain (gTE) for λ~ 250- 300 nm. From our finding, the use of AlInN-delta-GaN QW resulted in ~ 3-times enhancement in TE-polarized optical gain, in comparison to that of conventional AlGaN QW, for gain media emitting at ~ 255 nm. The peak emission wavelength can be tuned by varying the delta layer thickness while maintaining large TE gain. Specifically, gTE ~ 3700 cm-1 was obtained for λ ~ 280-300 nm, which are very challenging for conventional AlGaN QW active region.
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