Reduction of efficiency droop in c-plane InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes using a thick single quantum well with doped barriers

Chow, Y. C.; Lynsky, C.; Wu, F.; Nakamura, S.; DenBaars, S. P.; Weisbuch, C.; Speck, J. S.

doi:10.1063/5.0073741

Title: Reduction of efficiency droop in c-plane InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes using a thick single quantum well with doped barriers

Journal Article · Mon Nov 29 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0073741· OSTI ID:1834371

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^[1]; Wu, F. ^[1];

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^[1]; Weisbuch, C. ^[2]; Speck, J. S. ^[1]

Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France)

We report on c-plane InGaN/GaN single quantum well (QW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of different well widths (3 or 9 nm) with and without doped barriers. QW barriers were doped with the aim of reducing the internal electric field (F_QW) in the QW to increase the electron-hole overlap, therefore increasing the recombination rates and resulting in the reduction of the efficiency droop. We, indeed, observed, through biased photocurrent spectroscopy, a reduction in F_QW with doped barriers, with F_QW being in the same direction of the p-n junction field at zero bias as opposed to the junction field for LEDs without doped barriers. Even with the improvement in the ground state wavefunction overlap, the ground state transition rate remains low for thick QWs. Transitions through excited states were observed for both thick QW LEDs with and without doped barriers. Here, the thick QW LED without doped barriers displayed low external quantum efficiency (EQE), likely as a result of the carrier overflow due to the poor confinement of carriers in the excited states. On the other hand, for LEDs with doped barriers, the flatter band in the QW resulting from the lower F_QW reduces the energy separation between the eigenstates, leading to better confinement of carriers in the excited states. With doped barriers, we demonstrated a low efficiency droop 9-nm-thick single QW LED with a peak EQE of 42% at 40 A/cm² and an EQE of 36% at 400 A/cm².

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008204; 2150283

OSTI ID:: 1834371

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1832915

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 22; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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