More Like this

1. Advantages of concave quantum barriers in AlGaN deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

   https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2650411  

   Jain, Barsha T.; Muthu, Manobalasankar; Velpula, Ravi Teja; Nguyen, Ngoc T.; Nguyen, Hieu Pham (March 2023, Gallium Nitride Materials and Devices XVIII)

   Morkoç, Hadis; Fujioka, Hiroshi; Schwarz, Ulrich T. (Ed.)

   Although AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been studied extensively, their quantum efficiency and optical output power still remain extremely low compared to the InGaN-based visible color LEDs. Electron leakage has been identified as one of the most possible reasons for the low internal quantum efficiency (IQE) in AlGaN based UV LEDs. The integration of a p-doped AlGaN electron blocking layer (EBL) or/and increasing the conduction band barrier heights with prompt utilization of higher Al composition quantum barriers (QBs) in the LED could mitigate the electron leakage problem to an extent, but not completely. In this context, we introduce a promising approach to alleviate the electron overflow without using EBL by utilizing graded concave QBs instead of conventional QBs in AlGaN UV LEDs. Overall, the carrier transportation, confinement capability and radiative recombination are significantly improved. As a result, the IQE, and output power of the proposed concave QB LED were enhanced by ~25.4% and ~25.6% compared to the conventional LED for emission at ~254 nm, under 60 mA injection current. 

   more » « less
2. Improved Performance of Electron Blocking Layer Free AlGaN Deep Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes Using Graded Staircase Barriers

   https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12030334  

   Jain, Barsha; Velpula, Ravi Teja; Patel, Moulik; Sadaf, Sharif Md.; Nguyen, Hieu Pham (March 2021, Micromachines)

   null (Ed.)

   To prevent electron leakage in deep ultraviolet (UV) AlGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Al-rich p-type AlxGa(1−x)N electron blocking layer (EBL) has been utilized. However, the conventional EBL can mitigate the electron overflow only up to some extent and adversely, holes are depleted in the EBL due to the formation of positive sheet polarization charges at the heterointerface of the last quantum barrier (QB)/EBL. Subsequently, the hole injection efficiency of the LED is severely limited. In this regard, we propose an EBL-free AlGaN deep UV LED structure using graded staircase quantum barriers (GSQBs) instead of conventional QBs without affecting the hole injection efficiency. The reported structure exhibits significantly reduced thermal velocity and mean free path of electrons in the active region, thus greatly confines the electrons over there and tremendously decreases the electron leakage into the p-region. Moreover, such specially designed QBs reduce the quantum-confined Stark effect in the active region, thereby improves the electron and hole wavefunctions overlap. As a result, both the internal quantum efficiency and output power of the GSQB structure are ~2.13 times higher than the conventional structure at 60 mA. Importantly, our proposed structure exhibits only ~20.68% efficiency droop during 0–60 mA injection current, which is significantly lower compared to the regular structure. 

   more » « less
3. Effects of polarized-induced doping and graded composition in an advanced multiple quantum well InGaN/GaN UV-LED for enhanced light technology

   https://doi.org/10.1088/2631-8695/ac4fb1  

   Das, Samadrita; Lenka, Trupti Ranjan; Talukdar, Fazal Ahmed; Velpula, Ravi Teja; Jain, Barsha; Nguyen, Hieu Pham; Crupi, Giovanni (March 2022, Engineering Research Express)

   Abstract In this paper, a light-emitting diode in the ultra-violet range (UV-LED) with multiple-quantum wells (MQWs) of InGaN/GaN is designed and analyzed through Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) simulations. The polarization effects in III-nitride heterojunction and the effects of graded composition in the electron blocking layer (EBL) are exploited to enhance the performance of the proposed UV-LED. It is observed that the effect of graded composition in the EBL helps to enhance the electrical and optical performance of the LED, thereby enabling the achievement of some promising results. The simulation-based results demonstrated that superior internal efficiency and an inferior leakage current are achieved by using a graded Al composition in the EBL rather than a uniform composition. The reported results also confirm the remarkable improvement of the light output power by 17% at ∼100 mA when using the graded composition and also show a reduction in series resistance leading to more current. Graded Al composition in the EBL results in the enhancement of electroluminescence spectra (i.e., an increase in the peak of the spectral density). 

   more » « less
4. Interband tunnel junctions for AlGaN Ultra-Violet light emitting diodes (Conference Presentation)

   https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2658149  

   Dominic Merwin Xavier, Agnes Maneesha; Ghosh, Arnob; Rahman, Sheikh Ifatur; Arafin, Shamsul; Rajan, Siddharth (March 2023, SPIE Conference Proceeding)

   Strassburg, Martin; Kim, Jong Kyu; Krames, Michael R. (Ed.)

   AlGaN-based ultra-violet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) are promising for a range of applications, including water purification, air disinfection and medical sensing. However, widespread adoption of UV LEDs is limited by the poor device efficiency. This has been attributed to the strong internal light absorption and poor electrical injection efficiency for the conventional UV LED structures, which typically use an absorbing p-GaN layer for p-type contact. Recent development of ultra-wide banggap AlGaN tunnel junctions enabled a novel UV LED design with the absence of the absorbing p-GaN contact layer. In this presentation, we will discuss recent progress of the AlGaN tunnel junctions and the development of tunnel junction-based UV LEDs, and discuss the challenges and future perspectives for the realization of high power, high efficiency UV LEDs. 

   more » « less
5. High-performance electron-blocking-layer-free deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes implementing a strip-in-a-barrier structure

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.400917  

   Velpula, Ravi_Teja; Jain, Barsha; Velpula, Swetha; Nguyen, Hoang-Duy; Nguyen, Hieu_Pham_Trung (September 2020, Optics Letters)

   In this Letter, the electron-blocking-layer (EBL)-free AlGaN ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using a strip-in-a-barrier structure have been proposed. The quantum barrier (QB) structures are systematically engineered by integrating a 1 nm intrinsic ${\mathrm{A}\mathrm{l}}_x{\mathrm{G}\mathrm{a}}_{(1-<\#comment/>x)}\mathrm{N}$strip into the middle of QBs. The resulted structures exhibit significantly reduced electron leakage and improved hole injection into the active region, thus generating higher carrier radiative recombination. Our study shows that the proposed structure improves radiative recombination by $\sim <\#comment/>220\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$, reduces electron leakage by $\sim <\#comment/>11$times, and enhances optical power by $\sim <\#comment/>225\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$at 60 mA current injection compared to a conventional AlGaN EBL LED structure. Moreover, the EBL-free strip-in-a-barrier UV LED records the maximum internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of $\sim <\#comment/>61.5\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$which is $\sim <\#comment/>72\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$higher, and IQE droop is $\sim <\#comment/>12.4\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$, which is $\sim <\#comment/>333\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$less compared to the conventional AlGaN EBL LED structure at $\sim <\#comment/>284.5\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}$wavelength. Hence, the proposed EBL-free AlGaN LED is the potential solution to enhance the optical power and produce highly efficient UV emitters. 

   more » « less