Enhanced current transport and injection in thin-film gallium-nitride light-emitting diodes by laser-based doping.

This paper reports improvements in the electrical and optical properties of blue-emission gallium nitride (GaN)-based thin-film light-emitting diodes (TFLEDs) after laser-based Si doping (LBSD) of a nitrogen-face n-GaN (denoted as hereafter n-GaN) layer. Experimental results show that the light-output powers of the flat- and rough-surface TFLEDs after LBSD are 52.1 and 11.35% higher than those before LBSD, respectively, at a current of 350 mA, while the corresponding operating voltages are decreased by 0.22 and 0.28 V for the flat- and rough-surface TFLEDs after LBSD, respectively. The reduced operating voltage after LBSD of the top n-GaN layer may result from the remarkably decreased specific contact resistance at the metal/n-GaN interface and the low series resistance of the TFLED device. The LBSD of n-GaN increases the number of nitrogen vacancies, and Si substitutes for Ga (SiGa) at the metal/n-GaN interface to produce highly Si-doped regions in n-GaN, leading to a decrease in the Schottky barrier height and width. As a result, the specific contact resistances are significantly decreased to 1.56 × 10(-5) and 2.86 × 10(-5) Ω cm(2) for the flat- and rough-surface samples after LBSD, respectively. On the other hand, the increased light-output power after LBSD can be explained by the uniform current spreading, efficient current injection, and enhanced light scattering resulting from the low contact resistivity, low lateral current resistance, and additional textured surface, respectively. Furthermore, LBSD did not degrade the electrical properties of the TFLEDs owing to low reverse leakage currents. The results indicate that our approach could potentially enable high-efficiency and high-power capabilities for optoelectronic devices.

Light-output enhancement of GaN-based vertical light-emitting diodes using periodic and conical nanopillar structures.

We investigated GaN-based vertical light-emitting diodes (VLEDs) with periodic and conical nanopillar arrays (CNAs) to improve the light-output efficiency. We found that a 470 nm diameter and 0.8-0.9 µm height increased the light output, and the devices suffered no significant electrical property degradations. The light-output power was 272% and 5.1% greater than flat- and rough-surface VLEDs at 350 mA, respectively. These improved optical properties are attributed to the optimized CNAs, which increase the effective photon escape cone and reduce the total internal reflection at the n-GaN-air interface. We also investigated the emission characteristics and mechanisms with finite-difference time-domain simulations.

High-efficiency GaN-based vertical light-emitting diodes with periodic beveled rod-shaped structures.

The periodic beveled micro-rods (BMRs) were constructed on the emission surface of GaN-based vertical light-emitting diodes (VLEDs) in order to improve the light-extraction efficiency. It was experimentally demonstrated that the light output power of the VLEDs with a periodic BMR (BMR-VLED) were enhanced about 15.6%, compared with that of the VLEDs with randomly textured surface (RT-VLED) at an injection current of 350 mA. This finding indicates that the photons emitted from the active layer were well out-coupled at an n-GaN surface having a periodic BMR structure, resulting in an increase in the probability of escaping from the VLED structure.

An improvement of light extraction efficiency for GaN-based light emitting diodes by selective etched nanorods in periodic microholes.

We have demonstrated the enhancement of a GaN-based light emitting diode (LED) by means of a selective etching technique. A conventional LED structure was periodically etched, to form periodic microholes. It showed an improvement of the light extraction efficiency (LEE) of approximately 15%, compared to that of a conventional LED. Furthermore, nano-sized rods inside the microholes were randomly formed by using a powder mask, resulting in an LEE of 43%. From the result of confocal scanning electroluminescence measurement, the light emission arises mainly from the vicinity of the nanorods in the periodic microholes. Therefore, we found that nanorods randomly distributed in periodic microholes in a LED structure play a significant role in the reduction of total internal reflection, by acting as photon wave-guides and scattering centers. This method would be valuable for the fabrication of high efficiency GaN-based LED, in terms of technical simplification and cost.

Enhanced luminous efficacy in phosphor-converted white vertical light-emitting diodes using low index layer.

We demonstrated improved luminous efficacy for GaN-based vertical light emitting diodes (VLEDs) employing a low index layer composed of silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) on the top surface. Three-dimensional ðnite-difference time-domain simulations for the fabricated VLED chip show that the penetration ratio of the emitted/reflected light into the VLED chip decreased by approximately 20% compared to a normal VLED chip. This result is in good agreement with an empirical study stating that white VLEDs having a SiO(2) layer exhibit an 8.1% higher luminous efficacy than white VLEDs with no layer at an injection current of 350 mA. Photons penetrating into the VLED chip, which become extinct in the VLED chip, are reflected from the SiO(2) layer due to the index contrast between the SiO(2) layer and epoxy resin containing phosphor, with no degradation of the light-extraction efficiency of the VLED chip. As such, this structure can contribute to the enhancement of the luminous efficacy of VLEDs.