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Title: Efficiency droop in GaN LEDs at high injection levels: Role of hydrogen

Journal Article · · Semiconductors
 [1];  [2]
  1. Russian Academy of Sciences, Ioffe Physical–Technical Institute (Russian Federation)
  2. Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation)

Point defects in GaN and, in particular, their manifestation in the photoluminescence, optical absorption, and recombination current in light-emitting diodes with InGaN/GaN quantum wells are analyzed. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the wide tail of defect states in the band gap of GaN facilitates the trap-assisted tunneling of thermally activated carriers into the quantum well, but simultaneously leads to a decrease in the nonradiative-recombination lifetime and to an efficiency droop as the quasi-Fermi levels intersect the defect states with increasing forward bias. The results reveal the dominant role of hydrogen in the recombination activity of defects with dangling bonds and in the efficiency of GaN-based devices.

OSTI ID:
22649685
Journal Information:
Semiconductors, Vol. 50, Issue 10; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2016 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-7826
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English