Progress and prospects of GaN-based LEDs using nanostructures

Progress with GaN-based light emitting diodes(LEDs) that incorporate nanostructures is reviewed,especially the recent achievements in our research group.Nano-patterned sapphire substrates have been used to grow an Al N template layer for deep-ultraviolet(DUV) LEDs.One efficient surface nano-texturing technology,hemisphere-cones-hybrid nanostructures,was employed to enhance the extraction efficiency of In GaN flip-chip LEDs.Hexagonal nanopyramid GaN-based LEDs have been fabricated and show electrically driven color modification and phosphor-free white light emission because of the linearly increased quantum well width and indium incorporation from the shell to the core.Based on the nanostructures,we have also fabricated surface plasmon-enhanced nanoporous GaN-based green LEDs using AAO membrane as a mask.Benefitting from the strong lateral SP coupling as well as good electrical protection by a passivation layer,the EL intensity of an SP-enhanced nanoporous LED was significantly enhanced by 380%.Furthermore,nanostructures have been used for the growth of GaN LEDs on amorphous substrates,the fabrication of stretchable LEDs,and for increasing the3-d B modulation bandwidth for visible light communication.     

Light-extraction enhancement and directional emission control of GaN-based LED with transmission grating

We theoretically analyze the improvement in light extraction efficiency (LEE) of GaN-based LEDs with transmission grating. Light propagation and extraction was simulated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for conical, cylindrical, and hemispherical grating. The simulations show that the use of transmission grating leads to increase in the LEE of GaN-based LEDs. The enhancement in LEE is attributed to the decrease in the Fresnel reflection and the effective increase in the photon escape cone. The maximum LEE enhancement of 2.3 times was achieved by employing hemispherical grating. The directional emission pattern converged by employing conical grating.     

Improvement of GaN light-emitting diodes with surface-treated Al-doped ZnO transparent Ohmic contacts by holographic photonic crystal

This letter presents a holographic photonic crystal (H-PhC) Al-doped ZnO (AZO) transparent Ohmic contact layer on p-GaN to increase the light output of GaN-based LEDs without destroying the p-GaN. The operating voltage of the PhC LEDs at 20 mA was almost the same as that of the typical planar AZO LEDs. While the resultant PhC LED devices exhibited significant improvements in light extraction, up to 1.22 times that of planar AZO LEDs without PhC integration. Temperature dependence of the integrated photoluminescence intensity indicates that this improvement can be attributed to the increased extraction efficiency due to the surface modification. These results demonstrate that the surface-treated AZO layer by H-PhCs is suitable for fabricating high-brightness GaN-based LEDs.     

Forming the graded-refractive-index antireflection layers on light-emitting diodes to enhance the light extraction

Distributed antireflection (AR) layers with different composition ratios of ITO and SiO(2) formed on an ITO electrode of GaN-based LEDs provide substantial enhancement in light-extraction efficiency. By using the coradio frequency magnetron sputtering deposition, four 50 nm thick AR layers with graduated refractive indices were fabricated. The effect of the AR layers on enhancing the efficiency of the LED device was analyzed by electroluminescence (EL) and I-V measurements. As a result, the EL intensity of the LED device grown on the patterned sapphire substrate with AR layers was increased by up to 13% compared to the conventional patterned sapphire substrate-applied LED device without AR layers at a drive current of 20 mA. The AR layers on top of the LED device gradually changed the refractive indices between ITO (n=2.1) and air (n=1.0), which minimized the total internal reflection of generated light. And no degradation in the electrical characteristic of the LEDs was observed according to the I-V measurements.     

GaN-based LEDs for light communication

Rapid improvement in the efficiency of GaN-based LEDs not only speed up its applications for general illumination, but offer the possibilities for data transmission. This review is to provide an overview of current progresses of GaN-based LEDs for light communications. The modulation bandwidth of GaN-based LEDs has been first improved by optimizing the LED epilayer structures and the modulation bandwidth of 73 MHz was achieved at the driving current density of 40 A/cm² by changing the multi-quantum well structures. After that, in order to increase the current density tolerance, different parallel flip-chip micro-LED arrays were fabricated. With a high injected current density of ～7900 A/cm², a maximum modulation bandwidth of ～227 MHz was obtained with optical power greater than 30 mW. Besides the increase of carrier concentrations, the radiative recombination coefficient B was also enhanced by modifying the photon surrounding environment based on some novel nanostructures such as resonant cavity, surface plasmon, and photonic crystals. The optical 3 dB modulation bandwidth of GaN-based nanostructure LEDs with Ag nanoparticles was enhanced by 2 times compared with GaN-based nanostructure LEDs without Ag nanoparticles. Our results demonstrate that using the QW-SP coupling can effectively help to enhance the carrier spontaneous emission rate and also increase the modulation bandwidth for LEDs, especially for LEDs with high intrinsic IQE. In addition, we discuss the progress of the faster color conversion stimulated by GaN-based LEDs.     

InGaN蓝光与CdTe纳米晶基白光LED

报道了倒装焊InGaN蓝光LED与黄光CdTe纳米晶的复合结构。利用蓝光作为CdTe纳米晶的激发源,通过光的下转换机制,将部分蓝光转化为黄光,复合发射出白光。室温下正向驱动电流为10mA时,发光色品坐标为x=0.29,y=0.30。实验表明,该复合结构白光LED的一大优点在于,复合光的色品坐标几乎不随正向驱动电流大小变化,颜色稳定。     

Status of GaN-based green light-emitting diodes

GaN-based blue light emitting diodes(LEDs) have undergone great development in recent years,but the improvement of green LEDs is still in progress.Currently,the external quantum efficiency(EQE) of GaN-based green LEDs is typically30%,which is much lower than that of top-level blue LEDs.The current challenge with regard to GaN-based green LEDs is to grow a high quality In GaN quantum well(QW) with low strain.Many techniques of improving efficiency are discussed,such as inserting Al GaN between the QW and the barrier,employing prestrained layers beneath the QW and growing semipolar QW.The recent progress of GaN-based green LEDs on Si substrate is also reported:high efficiency,high power green LEDs on Si substrate with 45.2% IQE at 35 A/cm2,and the relevant techniques are detailed.     

Improved light extraction of GaN-based light-emitting diodes with surface-patterned ITO

The surface patterning of the indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent current layer has been investigated to improve the light extraction efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs with periodic micro-hexagon patterned ITO have been fabricated utilizing standard lithography techniques and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) technology. The luminance intensity of the LED chips with patterned ITO following 160 s ICP etching was enhanced by about 50% compared to the LED chips with unpatterned ITO. Detailed processing parameters are provided. scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are used to examine the micro-structures. The results indicate that the surface-patterned ITO technique could have potential applications in high-power GaN-based LEDs.     

Enhancing light extraction of GaN-based blue light-emitting diodes by a tuned nanopillar array

Surface patterning of p-GaN to improve the light extraction efficiency of GaN-based blue light-emitting diodes(LEDs) has been investigated. Periodic nanopillar arrays on p-GaN have been fabricated by polystyrene(PS) nanosphere lithography; the diameter of the nanopillars can be tuned to optimize the electrical and optical properties of the LEDs. The electroluminescence intensity of the nanopillar-patterned LEDs is better than that of conventional LEDs; the greatest enhancement increased the intensity by a factor of 1.41 at a 20 mA injection current. The enhancements can be explained by a model of bilayer film on a GaN substrate. This method may serve as a practical approach to improve the efficiency of light extraction from LEDs.     

Improved light extraction of GaN-based light-emitting diodes with surface-textured indium tin oxide electrodes by nickel nanoparticle mask dry-etching

GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with surface-textured indium tin oxide (ITO) as a transparent current spreading layer were fabricated.The ITO surface was textured by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology using a monolayer of nickel (Ni) nanoparticles as the etching mask.The luminance intensity of ITO surface-textured GaN-based LEDs was enhanced by about 34% compared to that of conventional LED without textured ITO layer.In addition,the fabricated ITO surface-textured GaN-based LEDs would present a quite good performance in electrical characteristics.The results indicate that the scattering of photons emitted in the active layer was greatly enhanced via the textured ITO surface,and the ITO surface-textured technique could have a potential application in improving photoelectric characteristics for manufacturing GaN-based LEDs of higher brightness.     

Effect of the polymer emission on the electroluminescence characteristics of n-ZnO nanorods/p-polymer hybrid light emitting diode

Hybrid light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods and polymers (single and blended) were fabricated and characterized. The ZnO nanorods were grown by the chemical bath deposition method at 50°C. Three different LEDs, with blue emitting, orange-red emitting or their blended polymer together with ZnO nanorods, were fabricated and studied. The current–voltage characteristics show good diode behavior with an ideality factor in the range of 2.1 to 2.27 for all three devices. The electroluminescence spectrum (EL) of the blended device has an emission range from 450 nm to 750 nm, due to the intermixing of the blue emission generated by poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) denoted as PFO with orange-red emission produced by poly(2-methoxy-5(20-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) 1,4-phenylenevinylene) symbolized as MEH PPV combined with the deep-band emission (DBE) of the ZnO nanorods, i.e. it covers the whole visible region and is manifested as white light. The CIE color coordinates showed bluish, orange-red and white emission from the PFO, MEH PPV and blended LEDs with ZnO nanorods, respectively. These results indicate that the choice of the polymer with proper concentration is critical to the emitted color in ZnO nanorods/p-organic polymer LEDs and careful design should be considered to obtain intrinsic white light sources.     

ITO界面调制层对GZO电极LED器件性能的影响

采用磁控溅射制备GZO和具有ITO界面调控层的GZO(ITO/GZO)透明导电薄膜作为大功率LED的电流扩散层,对比研究界面调控层对LED器件性能的影响。研究结果表明,ITO/GZO薄膜的透过率在可见光区达80%以上,退火后的ITO/GZO薄膜有较低的电阻率(1.15×10^-3 Ω·cm)。ITO调控层的介入能够调制GZO表面粗糙度,有利于改善LED外量子效率,降低GZO/p-GaN界面的接触势垒,提高LED器件的光电性 能。通过ITO界面调控后,LED器件20 mA驱动电流下的工作电压从9.5 V降低为6.8 V,发光强度从245 mcd 升到297 mcd,提高了20%;驱动电流为35 mA时,其发光强度从340.5 mcd 升到511 mcd,提高了50%。     

GaN基双波长发光二极管电致发光谱特性研究

通过同时调节同一有源区内不同阱层和垒层的In组分，制备了GaN基单有源区蓝、绿光双波长发光二极管(LED).实现了20mA下蓝、绿光同时发射.实验发现随注入电流由10mA增大到60mA，电致发光(EL)谱中绿光峰强度相对于蓝光峰强度不断增强，峰值波长蓝移也更加明显.同时考虑极化效应和载流子不均匀分布的影响，通过对一维薛定谔方程、稳态速率方程和泊松方程的联立自洽求解.分析了测试电流下蓝、绿光EL谱峰值波长和功率的变化情况.发现理论结果与实验结果有很好地符合. 关键词： 极化 载流子不均匀分布 双波长     

A comparative study of the electrodeposition and the aqueous chemical growth techniques for the utilization of ZnO nanorods on p-GaN for white light emitting diodes

Vertically well aligned zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) were grown on p-GaN by electrodeposition (ED) and aqueous chemical growth (ACG) techniques and the structures were employed to fabricate white light emitting diodes (LEDs). Room temperature current voltage (I–V$I–V$), photoluminescence (PL), and electroluminescence (EL) measurements were performed to investigate and compare both LEDs. In general, the I–V$I–V$ characteristics and the PL spectra of both LEDs were rather similar. Nevertheless, the EL of the ED samples showed an extra emission peak shoulder at 730 nm. Moreover, at the same injection current, the EL spectrum of the ED light emitting diode showed a small UV shift of 12 nm and its white peak was found to be broader when compared to the ACG grown LED. The broadening of the EL spectrum of the LED grown by ED is due to the introduction of more radiative deep level defects. The presented LEDs have shown excellent color rendering indexes reaching a value as high as 95. These results indicate that the ZnO nanorods grown by both techniques possess very interesting electrical and optical properties but the ED is found to be faster and more suitable for the fabrication of white LEDs.     

Numerical study on the wavelength-dependence of light extraction efficiency in AlGaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

Wavelength-dependence of light extraction efficiency (LEE) in AlGaN-based ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode (LED) structures is numerically studied based on three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain methods. Due to strong UV light absorption in the p-GaN contact layer, LEE of the UV vertical LED structures remains to be only 6–7 % for the transverse-electric mode and 2–3 % for the transverse-magnetic mode, respectively. The effective LEE of UV LEDs is calculated by considering the optical polarization-dependent LEE, and is found to increase from 4 to 5.5 % as the wavelength increases from 260 to 360 nm. It is shown that the wavelength-dependence of LEE can partially explain the decrease in external quantum efficiency with decreasing wavelengths in AlGaN-based UV LEDs.     

顶端ZnO纳米结构对GaN基LED光提取效率的影响

为了提高GaN基蓝光LED的光提取效率,本文建立了LED顶面分别铺设ZnO纳米柱和纳米锥结构的两种模型,利用时域有限差分法对两种模型进行仿真并对结果进行了比较.仿真结果表明,ZnO纳米结构的各项几何结构参量(包括排列周期P、高度L、宽度W以及斜率k等),对LED顶端光提取效率影响显著.仿真分别得到了两种结构的最佳模型,通过比较,LED顶面纳米柱和纳米锥结构对光提取效率的提高效果相近,其最佳提取效率分别增强至无任何结构时的2.5倍和2.3倍.同时,通过对各项参量扫描获得的对光提取效率的变化曲线进行了分析,并给出了相应相应的理论解释.这些模型优化和理论分析对实际的高性能GaN基LED的设计制造有着指导意义.     

Study of light extraction efficiency of GaN-based light emitting diodes by using top micro/nanorod hybrid arrays

Recently a new kind of hybrid micro/nanorod top array has become a promising structure to improve the light extraction efficiency (LEE) of GaN-based light emitting diodes, but simulation of the hybrid structure is extremely difficult owing to the various limitations of different simulation methods. In this study, a novel approach was explored to calculate the LEE by combining the Finite difference time domain method and the ray tracing method through the gradient refractive index layers. In this novel method, the LEE enhancement mechanism of the hybrid structure was investigated. In addition, we further sought the optimal parameters of the hybrid micro/nanorod structure, and an optimized structure with an enhancement factor of greater than 95 % was achieved.     

GaN-based light-emitting diode with ZnO nanotexture layer prepared using hydrogen gas

ZnO films were deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO), which formed the transparent conductive layer (TCL) of a GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED), by ultrasonic spraying pyrolysis to increase the light output power. The ZnO nanotexture was formed by treating the as-deposited ZnO films with hydrogen. The root mean square (RMS) roughness increased from 4.47 to 7.89 nm before hydrogen treatment to 10.82-15.81 nm after hydrogen treatment for 20 min. Typical current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the GaN-based LEDs with a ZnO nanotexture layer have a forward-bias voltage of 3.25 V at an injection current of 20 mA. The light output power of a GaN-based LED with a ZnO nanotexture layer improved to as much as about 27.5% at a forward current of 20 mA.     

The influence of ZnO seed layers on n-ZnO nanostructure/p-GaN LEDs

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were formed by hydrothermally growing n-ZnO nanostructures on p-GaN with or without seed layers. The performance of the fabricated LEDs was studied. The seed layers not only have a great influence on the morphology and density of the ZnO nanostructures but also determine the lighting bias and emitting mechanism. The LEDs without seed layers and with sputtered seed layers exhibit light emission only under reverse bias, which is believed due to the GaN buffer layer/p-GaN p–n junction. The LEDs with sol–gel seed layers exhibit light emission under both forward and reverse biases. With the increase of the forward bias, the LEDs first demonstrate a red electroluminescence emission coming from the sol–gel seed layers and then demonstrate an orange emission coming from the ZnO nanorods. The sol–gel seed layer and the interface play a very important role in the electroluminescence.     

Temperature-dependent efficiency droop behaviors of GaN-based green light-emitting diodes

The efficiency droop behaviors of GaN-based green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are studied as a function of temperature from 300 K to 480 K. The overall quantum efficiency of the green LEDs is found to degrade as temperature increases, which is mainly caused by activation of new non-radiative recombination centers within the LED active layer. Meanwhile, the external quantum efficiency of the green LEDs starts to decrease at low injection current level (<1 A/cm2 ) with a temperature-insensitive peak-efficiency-current. In contrast, the peak-efficiency-current of a control GaN-based blue LED shows continuous up-shift at higher temperatures. Around the onset point of efficiency droop, the electroluminescence spectra of the green LEDs also exhibit a monotonic blue-shift of peak energy and a reduction of full width at half maximum as injection current increases. Carrier delocalization is believed to play an important role in causing the efficiency droop in GaN-based green LEDs.