skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Evidence of trap-assisted Auger recombination in low radiative efficiency MBE-grown III-nitride LEDs

Abstract

By studying low radiative efficiency blue III-nitride light emitting diodes (LEDs), we find that the ABC model of recombination commonly used for understanding efficiency behavior in LEDs is insufficient and that additional effects should be taken into account. We propose a modification to the standard recombination model by incorporating a bimolecular nonradiative term. The modified model is shown to be in much better agreement with the radiative efficiency data and to be more consistent than the conventional model with very short carrier lifetimes measured by time-resolved photoluminescence in similar, low radiative efficiency material. Here, we present experimental evidence that a hot carrier-generating process is occurring within these devices, in the form of measurements of forward photocurrent under forward bias. The forward photocurrent, due to hot carrier generation in the active region, is present despite the lack of any "efficiency droop"-the usual signature of band-to-band Auger recombination in high-quality III-nitride LEDs. Hot carrier generation in the absence of band-to-band Auger recombination implies that some other source of hot carriers exists within these low radiative efficiency devices, such as trap-assisted Auger recombination.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
  2. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Kista (Sweden)
  3. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office; Swedish Energy Agency
Contributing Org.:
KTH - Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden)
OSTI Identifier:
1635224
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1573867
Grant/Contract Number:  
EE0007096; 45390-1
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Applied Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 126; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Light emitting diodes; solid state lighting; Auger effect; photoexcitations; nitrides; recombination reactions; time-resolved photoluminescence; semiconductors

Citation Formats

Espenlaub, Andrew C., Myers, Daniel J., Young, Erin C., Marcinkevičius, Saulius, Weisbuch, Claude, and Speck, James S. Evidence of trap-assisted Auger recombination in low radiative efficiency MBE-grown III-nitride LEDs. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5096773.
Espenlaub, Andrew C., Myers, Daniel J., Young, Erin C., Marcinkevičius, Saulius, Weisbuch, Claude, & Speck, James S. Evidence of trap-assisted Auger recombination in low radiative efficiency MBE-grown III-nitride LEDs. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5096773
Espenlaub, Andrew C., Myers, Daniel J., Young, Erin C., Marcinkevičius, Saulius, Weisbuch, Claude, and Speck, James S. 2019. "Evidence of trap-assisted Auger recombination in low radiative efficiency MBE-grown III-nitride LEDs". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5096773. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1635224.
@article{osti_1635224,
title = {Evidence of trap-assisted Auger recombination in low radiative efficiency MBE-grown III-nitride LEDs},
author = {Espenlaub, Andrew C. and Myers, Daniel J. and Young, Erin C. and Marcinkevičius, Saulius and Weisbuch, Claude and Speck, James S.},
abstractNote = {By studying low radiative efficiency blue III-nitride light emitting diodes (LEDs), we find that the ABC model of recombination commonly used for understanding efficiency behavior in LEDs is insufficient and that additional effects should be taken into account. We propose a modification to the standard recombination model by incorporating a bimolecular nonradiative term. The modified model is shown to be in much better agreement with the radiative efficiency data and to be more consistent than the conventional model with very short carrier lifetimes measured by time-resolved photoluminescence in similar, low radiative efficiency material. Here, we present experimental evidence that a hot carrier-generating process is occurring within these devices, in the form of measurements of forward photocurrent under forward bias. The forward photocurrent, due to hot carrier generation in the active region, is present despite the lack of any "efficiency droop"-the usual signature of band-to-band Auger recombination in high-quality III-nitride LEDs. Hot carrier generation in the absence of band-to-band Auger recombination implies that some other source of hot carriers exists within these low radiative efficiency devices, such as trap-assisted Auger recombination.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5096773},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1635224}, journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
issn = {0021-8979},
number = 18,
volume = 126,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Mon Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Impact ionisation and Auger recombination involving traps in semiconductors
journal, April 1980


Calcium impurity as a source of non-radiative recombination in (In,Ga)N layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy
journal, November 2016


Auger recombination with traps in quantum-well semiconductors
journal, June 1993


Photocharging ZnO Nanocrystals: Picosecond Hole Capture, Electron Accumulation, and Auger Recombination
journal, September 2012


Auger recombination and impact ionization involving traps in semiconductors
journal, December 1964


Auger Recombination with Traps
journal, February 1980


Experimental proof of impurity Auger recombination in silicon
journal, December 1985


Simulation of light-emitting diodes for new physics understanding and device design
conference, February 2012


Status and Future of High-Power Light-Emitting Diodes for Solid-State Lighting
journal, June 2007


Auger Recombination of Electrons via Deep and Shallow Acceptors
journal, November 1985


Theory of Donor-Acceptor Radiative and Auger Recombination in Simple Semiconductors
journal, September 1973


Carrier recombination mechanisms and efficiency droop in GaInN/GaN light-emitting diodes
journal, September 2010


Influence of polarization fields on carrier lifetime and recombination rates in InGaN-based light-emitting diodes
journal, July 2010


High Internal Quantum Efficiency Blue-Green Light-Emitting Diode with Small Efficiency Droop Fabricated on Low Dislocation Density GaN Substrate
journal, August 2013


Auger-generated hot carrier current in photo-excited forward biased single quantum well blue light emitting diodes
journal, April 2018


On the Monte Carlo Description of Hot Carrier Effects and Device Characteristics of III-N LEDs
journal, February 2017


The first 70 semiconductor Auger processes
journal, November 1978


Impact of carrier localization on radiative recombination times in semipolar (202¯1) plane InGaN/GaN quantum wells
journal, November 2015


Identification of low-energy peaks in electron emission spectroscopy of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes
journal, August 2018


Carrier distribution in (0001)InGaN∕GaN multiple quantum well light-emitting diodes
journal, February 2008


Trap-assisted tunneling in InGaN/GaN single-quantum-well light-emitting diodes
journal, September 2014


Auger Recombination with Deep Impurities in Indirect Band Gap Semiconductors
journal, December 1981


Size-Dependent Trap-Assisted Auger Recombination in Semiconductor Nanocrystals
journal, March 2013


Auger effect involving recombination centres
journal, February 1964


Quantitative Multi-Scale, Multi-Physics Quantum Transport Modeling of GaN-Based Light Emitting Diodes
journal, December 2017


Multiphonon broadening of impact ionisation and Auger recombination involving traps in semiconductors
journal, July 1983