Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Impact of carrier localization on recombination in InGaN quantum wells and the efficiency of nitride light-emitting diodes: Insights from theory and numerical simulations

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5002104· OSTI ID:1543843

We investigate the effect of carrier localization due to random alloy fluctuations on the radiative and Auger recombination rates in InGaN quantum wells as a function of alloy composition, crystal orientation, carrier density, and temperature. Our results show that alloy fluctuations reduce individual transition matrix elements by the separate localization of electrons and holes, but this effect is overcompensated by the additional transitions enabled by translational symmetry breaking and the resulting lack of momentum conservation. Thus, we find that localization increases both radiative and Auger recombination rates, but that Auger recombination rates increase by one order of magnitude more than radiative rates. Moreover, we demonstrate that localization has an overall detrimental effect on the efficiency-droop and green-gap problems of InGaN light-emitting diodes.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1543843
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1389106
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 111; ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (34)

Efficiency droop in nitride-based light-emitting diodes journal July 2010
Visible-Wavelength Polarized-Light Emission with Small-Diameter InN Nanowires journal March 2014
Transition of radiative recombination channels from delocalized states to localized states in a GaInP alloy with partial atomic ordering: a direct optical signature of Mott transition? journal January 2016
Candela‐class high‐brightness InGaN/AlGaN double‐heterostructure blue‐light‐emitting diodes journal March 1994
Carrier localization and the origin of luminescence in cubic InGaN alloys journal September 2001
Auger recombination in InGaN measured by photoluminescence journal October 2007
Blue-emitting InGaN–GaN double-heterostructure light-emitting diodes reaching maximum quantum efficiency above 200A∕cm2 journal December 2007
Three-dimensional atom probe analysis of green- and blue-emitting InxGa1−xN∕GaN multiple quantum well structures journal July 2008
Indirect Auger recombination as a cause of efficiency droop in nitride light-emitting diodes journal April 2011
Atom probe tomography assessment of the impact of electron beam exposure on In x Ga 1−x N/GaN quantum wells journal July 2011
Analyzing the physical properties of InGaN multiple quantum well light emitting diodes from nano scale structure journal August 2012
Interplay of polarization fields and Auger recombination in the efficiency droop of nitride light-emitting diodes journal December 2012
Two distinct carrier localization in green light-emitting diodes with InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells journal February 2014
The influence of random indium alloy fluctuations in indium gallium nitride quantum wells on the device behavior journal September 2014
Temperature-dependent recombination coefficients in InGaN light-emitting diodes: Hole localization, Auger processes, and the green gap journal October 2016
Deep ultraviolet emission from ultra-thin GaN/AlN heterostructures journal December 2016
Temperature and carrier-density dependence of Auger and radiative recombination in nitride optoelectronic devices journal December 2013
Auger recombination in semiconductor quantum wells journal August 1998
Carrier localization mechanisms in In x Ga 1 − x N/GaN quantum wells journal March 2011
High-temperature Mott transition in wide-band-gap semiconductor quantum wells journal November 2014
Atomistic analysis of the impact of alloy and well-width fluctuations on the electronic and optical properties of InGaN/GaN quantum wells journal January 2015
First-principles calculations of indirect Auger recombination in nitride semiconductors journal July 2015
Enhancement of Auger recombination induced by carrier localization in InGaN/GaN quantum wells journal March 2017
Efficiency Drop in Green InGaN / GaN Light Emitting Diodes: The Role of Random Alloy Fluctuations journal January 2016
nextnano: General Purpose 3-D Simulations journal September 2007
High-Power and High-Efficiency InGaN-Based Light Emitters journal January 2010
Solid-state lighting: lamps, chips, and materials for tomorrow journal May 2004
InGaN Multi-Quantum-Well-Structure Laser Diodes with Cleaved Mirror Cavity Facets journal February 1996
Towards quantification of the crucial impact of auger recombination for the efficiency droop in (AlInGa)N quantum well structures journal January 2016
Internal quantum efficiency and carrier dynamics in semipolar (2021) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes journal January 2017
Carrier localization in InGaN by composition fluctuations: implication to the “green gap” journal January 2017
Solid-State Lighting journal April 2008
Auger Recombination in Semiconductor Quantum Wells text January 1998
Towards quantification of the crucial Impact of auger recombination for the Efficiency droop in (AlInGa)N Quantum well structures text January 2016

Cited By (17)

Role of hole confinement in the recombination properties of InGaN quantum structures journal June 2019
Carrier Redistribution Between Two Kinds of Localized States in the InGaN/GaN Quantum Wells Studied by Photoluminescence journal March 2019
Radiative and Auger Recombination Constants and Internal Quantum Efficiency of (0001) AlGaN Deep‐UV Light‐Emitting Diode Structures journal December 2019
Radiative and Auger recombination processes in indium nitride journal June 2018
Deep trap analysis in green light emitting diodes: Problems and solutions journal June 2019
Compensation between radiative and Auger recombinations in III-nitrides: The scaling law of separated-wavefunction recombinations journal November 2019
Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of the dynamics of a coupled system of free and localized carriers in AlGaN journal January 2020
Interface Roughness, Carrier Localization, and Wave Function Overlap in c -Plane ( In , Ga ) N / Ga N Quantum Wells: Interplay of Well Width, Alloy Microstructure, Structural Inhomogeneities, and Coulomb Effects journal September 2018
Quantum Efficiency of III-Nitride Emitters: Evidence for Defect-Assisted Nonradiative Recombination and its Effect on the Green Gap journal March 2019
Impact of Compositional Nonuniformity in ( In , Ga ) N -Based Light-Emitting Diodes journal July 2019
Impact of alloy disorder on Auger recombination in single InGaN/GaN core-shell microrods journal December 2019
Quantum Barrier Growth Temperature Affects Deep Traps Spectra of InGaN Blue Light Emitting Diodes journal January 2018
Review—Recent Advances and Challenges in Indium Gallium Nitride (In x Ga 1-x N) Materials for Solid State Lighting journal November 2019
Review—The Physics of Recombinations in III-Nitride Emitters journal January 2020
Review—On The Search for Efficient Solid State Light Emitters: Past, Present, Future journal January 2020
Effect of Carrier Localization on Recombination Processes and Efficiency of InGaN-Based LEDs Operating in the “Green Gap” journal May 2018
Effect of Die Shape and Size on Performance of III-Nitride Micro-LEDs: A Modeling Study journal October 2018

Similar Records

InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes with a grading InN composition suppressing the Auger recombination
Journal Article · Mon Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:22311168

Radiative and Auger recombination processes in indium nitride
Journal Article · Mon Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1543870

Efficient carrier relaxation and fast carrier recombination of N-polar InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes
Journal Article · Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:22494634

Related Subjects