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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. 

In this paper, we report on the enhanced light extraction efficiency (LEE) of AlInN nanowire ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at an emission wavelength of 283 nm using the surface passivation approach and hexagonal photonic crystal structures. Several dielectric materials including SiO 2 , Si 3 N 4 , HfO 2 , AlN, and BN, have been investigated as the surface passivation layer for the AlInN nanowire LEDs. The LEDs using these dielectric materials show significantly improved LEE compared to that of the unpassivated ultraviolet nanowire LEDs. With a 35nm Si 3 N 4 as surface passivation, the AlInN LED could achieve a LEE of ~ 42.6%, while the unpassivated LED could only have an average LEE of ~ 25.2%. Moreover, the LEE of the AlInN nanowire LEDs could be further increased using hexagonal photonic crystal structures. The periodically arranged nanowire LED arrays could reach up to 63.4% which is almost two times higher compared to that of the random nanowire LEDs. Additionally, the AlInN nanowire ultraviolet LEDs exhibit highly transverse-magnetic polarized emission. 

We report on the demonstration of electron blocking layer free AlInN nanowire light-emitting diodes (LEDs) operating in the 280–365 nm wavelength region. The molecular beam epitaxial grown AlInN nanowires have a relatively high internal quantum efficiency of > 52%. Moreover, we show that the light extraction efficiency of the nanowires could reach ~ 63% for hexagonal photonic crystal nanowire structures which is significantly higher compared to that of the random nanowire arrays. This study provides significant insights into the design and fabrication of a new type of high-performance AlInN nanowire ultraviolet light-emitters. 

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). 

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. 

Electron overflow from the active region confines the AlGaN deep-ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode (LED) performance. This paper proposes a novel approach to mitigate the electron leakage problem in AlGaN deep-UV LEDs using concave quantum barrier (QB) structures. The proposed QBs suppress the electron leakage by significantly reducing the electron mean free path that improves the electron capturing capability in the active region. Overall, such an engineered structure also enhances the hole injection into the active region, thereby enhancing the radiative recombination in the quantum wells. As a result, our study shows that the proposed structure exhibits an optical power of 9.16 mW at$\sim <\#comment/>284\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}$wavelength, which is boosted by$\sim <\#comment/>40.5\mathrm{\%<\#comment/>}$compared to conventional AlGaN UV LED operating at 60 mA injection current.