Enhancement of the light extraction of GaN-based green light emitting diodes via nanohybrid structures

Improvement in the light extraction efficiency (LEE) of GaN-based green light emitting diodes (LEDs) with ZnO nanostructures synthesized by a hydrothermal method is reported. Formation of ZnO nanorods, hemispheres, and cones was controlled by varying the pH of the aqueous synthesis solution. The shape of the ZnO nanostructures integrated onto the LEDs shows a strong relationship with the LEE characteristics of GaN-based green LEDs. The electroluminescence (EL) intensity of LEDs covered by ZnO nanostructures increased compared to conventional LEDs. In terms of LEE, LEDs with surface-textured ZnO hemispheres showed the highest EL intensity, which can be attributed to an increase in the effective critical angle, the escape cone, and multiple scattering. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation was conducted to theoretically confirm the experimental results.     

GaN基LED倒装芯片蓝宝石衬底半球型图形优化设计

为了提高GaN基LED芯片的光提取效率,以GaN基LED芯片为研究对象,建立了在蓝宝石衬底出光面和外延生长面上具有半球型图形的LED倒装芯片模型,并利用光学仿真软件对图形参数进行优化设计。实验结果表明:在蓝宝石衬底的出光面和外延生长面双面都制作凹半球型图形对芯片光提取效率的提高效果最好,并且当半球的半径为3 m,周期间距为7 m时,GaN基LED倒装芯片的最大光提取效率为50.8%,比无图形化倒装芯片的光提取效率提高了115.3%。     

Optimization of top polymer gratings to improve GaN LEDs light transmission

We present a grating model of two-dimensional (2D) rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) to study top diffraction gratings on light-emitting diodes(LEDs). We compare the integrated-transmission of the non-grating,rectangular-grating,and triangular-grating cases for the same grating period of 6μm,and show that the triangular grating has the best performance. For the triangular grating with 6-μmperiod, the LED achieves the highest light transmission at 6-μ gratingbottom width and 2.9-μm grating depth. Compared with the non-grating case, the optimized light transmission improvement is about 74.6%.The simulation agrees with the experimental data of the thin ploymer grating encapsulated flip-chip(FC) GaN-based LEDs for the light extraction improvement.     

Design of patterned sapphire substrates for GaN-based light-emitting diodes

A new method for patterned sapphire substrate(PSS) design is developed and proven to be reliable and cost-effective.As progress is made with LEDs' luminous efficiency,the pattern units of PSS become more complicated,and the effect of complicated geometrical features is almost impossible to study systematically by experiments only.By employing our new method,the influence of pattern parameters can be systematically studied,and various novel patterns are designed and optimized within a reasonable time span,with great improvement in LEDs' light extraction efficiency(LEE).Clearly,PSS pattern design with such a method deserves particular attention.We foresee that GaN-based LEDs on these newly designed PSSs will achieve more progress in the coming years.     

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.     

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.     

Surface spherical crown arrays structure increases GaN-based LED efficiency

To increase the light extraction efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED) with nano-spherical hexagonal arrays, the finite-difference time-domain method was used to optimize the structure parameters such as radius and height of GaN, $\text{ SiO}_{2}$ and ZnO spherical crown. The light extraction efficiency (LEE) of the GaN spherical crown hexagonal arrays with a radius of 473 nm and a height of 250 nm over the LED surface exhibited 5.7 times the enhancement compared with that of the planar LED, and better than the LEE of the same type of structures with other parameters.     

GaN基薄膜LED倒装芯片表面结构设计及光萃取效率研究

利用FDTD方法研究具有表面微纳结构氮化镓基倒装薄膜LED芯片的光萃取效率。通过优化表面结构并研究了器件的光萃取效率随p-Ga N层厚的变化。研究发现,具有表面光子晶体和六棱锥结构的器件的光萃取效率最大值比无表面微结构器件分别提高了56%和97%。尽管两种表面结构都能有效提高器件的光萃取效率,然而采用光子晶体的方案对p-Ga N厚度和腔长要求极为苛刻。采用六棱锥结构则不仅可以获得更高的光萃取效率,并且还将大大降低实验上材料外延生长及器件制备的难度。     

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.     

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.     

Study on GaN-based light emitting diode with InGaN/GaN/InGaN multi-layer barrier

The current study investigates GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with InGaN/GaN/InGaN multi-layer barrier (MLB). Simulation results show that GaN-based LEDs with MLB have better performance than conventional GaN-based LEDs with only one GaN barrier because of the enhancement in hole injection into the quantum well and decrease in electron leakage current.     

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.     

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.     

Enhanced light extraction with silicon nanoantenna arrays for white light LED applications

High conversion efficiency and quantum efficiency is essential for the phosphor in an efficient phosphor-based white light LEDs. Here, based on the coherent harmonic and the random independent emitter model, we demonstrate theoretically that the silicon nanoantenna array can dramatically enhance the output power of emitters in a phosphor layer by investigating the far-field radiation enhancement of an electric dipole assisted by silicon nanopillars in a waveguide structure. Compared with the plasmonic silver nanoantenna array, the silicon nanoantenna array can increase the enhancement factor of light extraction efficiency (LEE) over 50% for the dipole source at the wavelength of 620 nm, thus showing potential applications in white light LEDs. The enhanced LEE is ascribed to the low-loss directional light scattering of silicon nanoantennas and the strong guided mode resonances caused by their array. The calculation results also indicate that the far-field radiation can be tailored significantly by changing the aspect ratio of silicon nanopillars while presenting a good directivity. Our research is expected to give more insights into the design and optimization of the solid-state lighting, gaining and lasing systems by integrating silicon-based nanoantennas.     

纳米半球微镜阵列结构对GaN基LED光提取效率的影响

为了分析表面纳米半球微镜结构对GaN基发光二极管（LED)光提取效率的影响,利用时域有限差分法(FDTD)分别对GaN、ZnO、SiO2、聚苯乙烯组成的半球微镜结构进行了分析和比较,同时用模式分析方法从理论上对FDTD计算结果进行了进一步验证。研究发现,在亚波长范围,折射率较小的材料不利于导模与表面结构层的耦合,不会对光提取效率的提高产生明显影响。相比之下,折射率较大的材料会使更多的模式耦合到半球微镜阵列层,更有利于光提取效率的提高;当材料选定,纳米半球半径增加时,光提取效率也逐渐增加,优化后半径为600 nm的半球微镜阵列结构GaN基LED,其光提取效率比没有结构的普通平板LED增强5.66倍,在以上波导材料结构中最为优化。在此基础上,通过等效折射率的计算得到半球微镜结构的等效折射率模型,并利用非对称平板模式分析的办法对以上得到的结论进行了分析和验证。这些结果对实际的高性能GaN基LED的设计与优化具有重要意义。     

Tuning a nano-pillar array for enhancing the photoluminescence extraction efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes

We demonstrate the fabrication of hexagonal nano-pillar arrays at the surface of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by nanosphere lithography. By varying the oxygen plasma etching time, we could tune the size and shape of the pillar. The nano-pillar has a truncated cone shape. The nano-pillar array serves as a gradual effective refractive index matcher, which reduces the reflection and increases light cone. It is found that the patterned surface absorbs more pumping light. To compare extraction efficiencies of LEDs, it is necessary to normalize the photoluminescence power spectrum with total absorption rate under fixed pumping power, then we could obtain the correct enhancement factor of the photoluminescence extraction efficiency and optimized structure. The highest enhancement factor of the extraction efficiency is 10.6.     

Enhancement of LED light extraction via diffraction of hexagonal lattice fabricated in ITO layer with holographic lithography and wet etching

A novel method for enhancing light extraction efficiency of LEDs via diffraction of the lattice fabricated in ITO layers of LEDs is proposed. The lattice fabrication process includes holographic lithography and wet etching. 3-beam interference holographic approach was used to fabricate large-area hexagonal lattice mask which can cover 2-inch semiconductor wafer, and acid etching was used to transfer the lattice structure into p-contact ITO layer. 1.4 fold enhancement of light output at 20 mA injection current was obtained from GaN-based LEDs in the primary experiment. The lattice fabrication process is rapid and cost-effective thus enabling industrial mass production of high brightness LEDs.     

Improved Light Extraction of GaN-based LEDs with Nano-roughened p-GaN Surfaces

p-GaN surfaces axe nano-roughened by plasma etching to improve the optical performance of GaN-based light emitting diodes （LEDs）. The nano-roughened GaN present a relaxation of stress. The light extraction of the LEDs with nano-roughened surfaces is greatly improved when compared with that of the conventional LEDs without nano-roughening. PL-mapping intensities of the nano-roughened LED epi-wafers for different roughening times present two to ten orders of enhancement. The light output powers are also higher for the nano-roughened LED devices, This improvement is attributed to that nano-roughened surfaces can provide photons multiple chances to escape from the LED surfaces,     

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.     

Surface Light Extraction Mapping from Photonic Quasicrystal on Current Two-Dimensional Array of 12-Fold Injected GaN-Based LEDs

A two-dimensional array of dodecagonal photonic quasicrystal （12PQC） is fabricated on the surface of current injected GaN-based LEDs to out-couple guided modes. The spatially-resolved surface light extraction mapping of 12PQC is observed and compared with that of triangular lattice photonic crystal （3PC） by microscopic electrical luminescence and scanning near-field microscopy. The higher enhancement factor of 12PQC is obtained to be larger than that of 3PC. It is shown that 12PQC is more favourable and efficient for light extraction of guided lights.