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 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,     

Effect of Interface Nanotexture on Light Extraction of InGaN-Based Green Light Emitting Diodes

We report the enhancement of the light extraction of InGaN-based green light emitting diodes （LEDs） via the interface nanotexturing. The texture consists of high-density nanocraters on the surface of a sapphire substrate with an in situ etching. The width of nanocraters is about 0.5 μm and the depth is around 0.1 μm. It is demonstrated that the LEDs with interface texture exhibit about a 27% improvement in luminance intensity, compared with standard LEDs. High power InGaN-based green LEDs are obtained by using the interface nanotexture. An optical ray-tracing simulation is performed to investigate the effect of interface nanotexture on light extraction.     

Light extraction of GaN LEDs with 2-D photonic crystal structure

Ultraviolet photo-lithography is employed to introduce two-dimensional （2D） photonic crystal （PC） structure on the top surface of GaN-based light emitting diode （LED）. PC patterns are transferred to 460-rimthick transparent indium tin oxide （ITO） electrode by inductively coupled plasma （ICP） etching. Light intensity of PC-LED can be enhanced by 38% comparing with the one without PC structure. Rigorous coupled wave analysis method is performed to calculate the light transmission spectrum of PC slab. Simulation results indicate that total internal reflect angle which modulated by PC structure has been increased by 7°, which means that the light extraction efficiency is enhanced outstandingly.     

A conditioned level-set method with block-division strategy to flame front extraction based on OH-PLIF measurements

A novel approach to extract flame fronts, which is called the conditioned level-set method with block division （CLSB）, has been developed. Based on a two-phase level-set formulation, the conditioned initialization and region-lock optimiza-tion appear to be beneficial to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the flame contour identification. The original block- division strategy enables the approach to be unsupervised by calculating local self-adaptive threshold values autonomously before binarization. The CLSB approach has been applied to deal with a large set of experimental data involving swirl- stabilized premixed combustion in diluted regimes operating at atmospheric pressures. The OH-PLIF measurements have been carried out in this framework. The resulting images are, thus, featured by lower signal-to-noise ratios （SNRs） than the ideal image; relatively complex flame structures lead to significant non-uniformity in the OH signal intensity; and, the mag- nitude of the maximum OH gradient observed along the flame front can also vary depending on flow or local stoichiometry. Compared with other conventional edge detection operators, the CLSB method demonstrates a good ability to deal with the OH-PLIF images at low SNR and with the presence of a multiple scales of both OH intensity and OH gradient. The robustness to noise sensitivity and intensity inhomogeneity has been evaluated throughout a range of experimental images of diluted flames, as well as against a circle test as Ground Truth （GT）.     

Improved light extraction of organic light emitting diodes with a nanopillar pattering structure

We have investigated the properties of organic light emitting diodes(OLEDs)with a nanopillar patterning structure at organic–metal or organic–organic interfaces.The results demonstrate that the introduction of a nanopillar structure can improve the light extraction efficiency greatly.We also find that the number,height,and position of nanopillars all affect the light extraction of OLEDs.The maximum power efficiency of a device with an optimized nanopillar patterning mode can be improved to 2.47 times that of the reference device.This enhancement in light extraction originates from the improved injected carriers,the broadened charge recombination zone,and the intensified wave guiding effects.     

Light-extraction efficiency and forward voltage in GaN-based light-emitting diodes with different patterns of V-shaped pits

We present a new method of making a textured V-pit surface for improving the light extraction efficiency in GaN- based light-emitting diodes and compare it with the usual low-temperature method for p-GaN V-pits. Three types of GaNbased light-emitting diodes （LEDs） with surface V-pits in different densities and regions were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. We achieved the highest output power and lowest forward voltage values with the p-InGaN V-pit LED. The V-pits enhanced the light output power values by 1.45 times the values of the conventional LED owing to an enhancement of the light scattering probability and an effective reduction of Mg-acceptor activation energy. Moreover, this new technique effectively solved the higher forward voltage problem of the usual V-pit LED.     

Pure blue and white light electroluminescence in a multilayer organic light-emitting diode using a new blue emitter

We characterized the 6,12-bis{[N-（3,4-dimethylphenyl）-N-（2,4,5-trimethylphenyl）]amino} chrysene （BmPAC）, which has been proven to be a blue fluorescent emission with high EL efficiency. The blue fluorescent device exhibits good performance with an external quantum efficiency of 5.8% and current efficiency of 8.9 cd/A, respectively. Using BmPAC, we also demonstrate a hybrid phosphorescence/fluorescence white organic light-emitting device （WOLED） with high efficiency of 36.3 cd/A. In order to improve the relative intensity of blue light, we plus a blue light-emitting layer （BEML） in front of the orange light emitting layer （YEML） to take advantage of the excess singlet excitons. With the new emitting layer of BEML/YEML/BEML, we demonstrate the fluorescence/phosphorescence/fluorescence WOLED exhibits good performance with a current efficiency of 47 cd/A and an enhanced relative intensity of blue light.     

Photoluminescence of Nanoporous GaN Films Prepared by Electrochemical Etching

Nanoporous （NP） CaN is prepared by electrochemical etching on a CaN epilayer grown on a sapphire substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Scanning electron microscopy reveals that the average pore diameter and inter-pore spacing are approximately 25 and 45 nm, respectively. The photoluminescence （PL） spectra show that in contrast to the initial as-grown CaN epilayer, the NP CaN exhibits a high near-band-edge UV intensity, significant relaxation of compressive strain, and a lower yellow luminescence intensity. Both the line shape and line width of the PL spectra are almost the same for these two samples. The high quality of the NP CaN can be explained by the enhancement of the PL extraction efficiency and the decrease of impurity and defect density after etching.     

Enhanced performance of GaN-based light-emitting diodes with InGaN/GaN superlattice barriers

GaN-based multiple quantum well light-emitting diodes （LEDs） with conventional and superlattice barriers have been investigated numerically. Simulation results demonstrate using InGaN/GaN superlattices as barriers can effectively enhance performances of the GaN-Based LEDs, mainly owing to the improvement of hole injection and transport among the MQW active region. Meanwhile, the improved electron capture decreases the electron leakage and alleviates the efficiency droop. The weak polarization field induced by the superlattice structure strengthens the intensity of the emission spectrum and leads to a blue-shift relative to the conventional one.     

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.     

The enhancement of light-emitting efficiency using GaN-based multiple quantum well light-emitting diodes with nanopillar arrays

The quest for higher modulation speed and lower energy consumption has inevitably promoted the rapid development of semiconductor-based solid lighting devices in recent years. GaN-based light-emitting diodes （LEDs） have emerged as promising candidates for achieving high efficiency and high intensity, and have received increasing attention among many researchers in this field. In this paper, we use a self-assembled array-patterned mask to fabricate InGaN/GaN multi- quantum well （MQW） LEDs with the intention of enhancing the light-emitting efficiency. By utilizing inductively coupled plasma etching with a self-assembled Ni cluster as the mask, nanopillar arrays are formed on the surface of the InGaN/GaN MQWs. We then observe the structure of the nanopillars and find that the V-defects on the surface of the conventional structure and the negative effects of threading dislocation are effectively reduced. Simultaneously, we make a comparison of the photoluminescence （PL） spectrum between the conventional structure and the nanopillar arrays, achieved under an experimental set-up with an excitation wavelength of 325 mm. The analysis demonstrates that MQW-LEDs with nanopillar arrays achieve a PL intensity 2.7 times that of conventional LEDs. In response to the PL spectrum, some reasons are proposed for the enhancement in the light-emitting efficiency as follows： 1） the improvement in crystal quality, namely the reduction in V-defects; 2） the roughened surface effect on the expansion of the critical angle and the attenuated total reflection; and 3） the enhancement of the light-extraction efficiency due to forward scattering by surface plasmon polariton modes in Ni particles deposited above the p-type GaN layer at the top of the nanopillars.     

无序光子晶体提高GaN基蓝光发光二极管光提取效率的研究

亚波长尺度光子晶体结构可有效提升发光二极管(LED)的光提取效率(LEE),然而在制造过程中会存在缺陷或无序.利用时域有限差分法对理想方形光子晶体结构进行了优化,在此基础上对三种无序光子晶体结构进行了仿真,研究了光子晶体结构参数的无序变化对GaN基蓝光LED LEE的影响.结果表明,光子晶体空气孔位置和半径的无序变化使优化的80 nm光子晶体LED的LEE下降,而可使非优化的60nm光子晶体LED的LEE增加;当光子晶体空气孔位置和半径的无序变化量从0到士20 nm之间变化时,LEE最大会产生53.8％的浮动;光子晶体刻蚀深度的无序变化对LEE影响较小,一般可以忽略,研究结果为高性能蓝光光子晶体LED的设计制作提供了重要的理论参考.     

Functional imprinting structures on GaN-based light-emitting diodes for light pattern modulation and light extraction efficiency enhancement

In this study, we demonstrated a simple method that can be used to simultaneously modulate the far field pattern and enhance the light extraction of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In this method, microstructures were imprinted on a reliable spin-on-glass surface on top of a transparent conductive layer. The far-field pattern was modulated using microoptical structures, and at the same time, the light extraction was enhanced owing to the small refractive index difference and surface roughness. There was no decrease in the electrical performance of these devices. The peak intensity shifted from 0 to 22° in one-dimensional (1D) asymmetrically blazed periodic structures, and a flattened distribution with a uniform intensity within a span of 110° was observed in two-dimensional (2D) symmetrically periodic structures. This method achieved 13 and 40% light enhancements for 1D and 2D structures, respectively.     

GaN基多量子阱蓝光LED的γ辐照效应

本文用4×104Ci(1Ci=3.7×1010Bq)的60Co源(剂量率2×105rad(Si)/h)对GaN基InGaN/GaN多量子阱蓝光LED进行5种剂量的γ射线的辐照实验.通过辐照前后蓝光LED的波长、色纯度、最大半峰宽(FWHM)和电流-电压(I-V)、电流-光通量(I-F)等电光学特性分析,得到γ射线对GaN基LED器件的辐照效应.结果发现,辐照后LED器件的发光一致性和均匀性变差,在20mA工作电流下,最大剂量下器件发光强度衰减近90%,光通量衰减约40%,并得到器件的抗辐照能力的参数τ0Kγ为4.039×10-7rad.s-1,发现较低的正向偏压下(小于2.6V)器件的饱和电流随辐照总剂量增大而增大.     

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.     

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.     

Degradation behaviors of high power GaN-based blue light emitting diodes

The degradation mechanism of high power InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diodes(LEDs)is investigated in this paper.The LED samples were stressed at room temperature under 350-mA injection current for about 400 h.The light output power of the LEDs decreased by 35%during the first 100 h and then remained almost unchanged,and the reverse current at 5 V increased from 10 9A to 10 7A during the aging process.The power law,whose meaning was re-illustrated by the improved rate equation,was used to analyze the light output power-injection current(L–I)curves.The analysis results indicate that nonradiative recombination,Auger recombination,and the third-order term of carriers overflow increase during the aging process,all of which may be important reasons for the degradation of LEDs.Besides,simulating L–I curves with the improved rate equation reveal that higher-than-third-order terms of carriers overflow may not be the main degradation mechanism,because they change slightly when the LED is stressed.