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The temperature-dependent external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) were investigated for a 620 nm AlGaInP red light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a 450 nm GaInN blue LED, and a 285 nm AlGaN deep-ultraviolet (DUV) LED. We observed distinct differences in the variation of the EQE with temperature and current density for the three types of LEDs. Whereas the EQE of the AlGaInP red LED increases as temperature decreases below room temperature, the EQEs of GaInN blue and AlGaN DUV LEDs decrease for the same change in temperature in a low-current density regime. The free carrier concentration, as determined from the dopant ionization energy, shows a strong material-system-specific dependence, leading to different degrees of asymmetry in carrier concentration for the three types of LEDs. We attribute the EQE variation of the red, blue, and DUV LEDs to the different degrees of asymmetry in carrier concentration, which can be exacerbated at cryogenic temperatures. As for the EQE variation with temperature in a high-current density regime, the efficiency droop for the AlGaInP red and GaInN blue LEDs becomes more apparent as temperature decreases, due to the deterioration of the asymmetry in carrier concentration. However, the EQE of the AlGaN DUV LED initially decreases, then reaches an EQE minimum point, and then increases again due to the field-ionization of acceptors by the Poole-Frenkel effect. The results elucidate that carrier transport phenomena allow for the understanding of the droop phenomenon across different material systems, temperatures, and current densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graded-refractive-index (GRIN) coatings, composed of multiple dielectric layers of TiO2 and SiO2 are sputter-deposited on the nitrogen-face of thin-film GaInN/GaN light emitting diodes (LEDs). The thickness and refractive index of each layer in the GRIN stack is designed to minimize light trapping inside the LED caused by total internal reflection at the semiconductor-air interface. Patterning the GRIN stack forms an optically functional surface, which converts trapped modes of light into desirable extracted modes that have preferential directions. Inductively coupled-plasma reactive-ion-etching is used to fabricate various patterns, including arrays of cylindrical pillars and diamond-shaped pillars on the GRIN coatings. In comparison to an uncoated planar reference device, the light-output power is enhanced by 131% and 104% for an array of GRIN diamond-shaped pillars and an array of GRIN cylindrical pillars, respectively. This enhancement in light-output power is comparable to N-face roughened LEDs, which show an enhancement of 124%. In addition, the peak emission intensity of the GRIN LEDs with an array of GRIN pillars is between 25° and 55° off-surface-normal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodic multilayer thin-film color filters (CFs) entirely made of nano-porous indium-tin-oxide (ITO) with tunable refractive index are explored. The interference CFs are electrically conductive and transmit light in the pass-band spectral region without absorbing light outside of the pass-band region. The transfer matrix method, implemented in conjunction with a genetic algorithm optimization method, is used to design the optimal thickness and refractive index of layers for red, green, and blue (RGB) filters. RGB filters with 2 pairs (4 layers) are experimentally demonstrated by using a porosity-controlling deposition technique for a single material-ITO. A maximum transmittance of 95.2% and a minimum transmittance of 26.2% are demonstrated for the four pairs of a red filter structure. A light recycling structure using these RGB filters is proposed to reduce the optical loss occurring in conventional liquid-crystal display systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate GaInN multiple quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) having ternary GaInN quantum barriers (QBs) instead of conventional binary GaN QBs for a reduced polarization mismatch between QWs and QBs and an additional separate confinement of carriers to the MQW active region. In comparison with GaInN LEDs with conventional GaN QBs, the GaInN/GaInN LEDs show a reduced blueshift of the peak wavelength with increasing injection current and a reduced forward voltage. In addition, we investigate the density of pits emerging on top of the MQW layer that are correlated with V-defects and act as a path for the reverse leakage current. The GaInN/GaInN MQW structure has a lower pit density than the GaInN/GaN MQW structure as well as a lower reverse leakage current. Finally, the GaInN/GaInN MQW LEDs show higher light output power and external quantum efficiency at high injection currents compared to the conventional GaInN/GaN MQW LEDs. We attribute these results to the reduced polarization mismatch and the reduced lattice mismatch in the GaInN/GaInN MQW active region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on optical, structural, and magnetic properties of two substantially different cobalt nanostructure thin films deposited at an oblique angle of incidence of 85° away from the substrate normal. Comparison is made between an achiral columnar thin film grown without substrate rotation and a chiral nanocoil sculptured thin film by glancing angle deposition with substrate rotation. Generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry is employed to determine geometrical structure properties and the anisotropic optical constants of the films in the spectral range from 400 to 1000 nm. The magnetic properties are analyzed with a superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer. Both nanostructure thin films show highly anisotropic optical properties such as strong form birefringence and large dichroism. In particular, Co slanted columnar thin films are found to possess monoclinic optical properties. Magnetic measurements at room temperature show hysteresis anisotropy with respect to a magnetic field either parallel or perpendicular to the nanostructures’ long axis. We find extremely large coercive fields of approximately 3 kOe for our achiral columnar nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-refractive-index (high-n) encapsulant is highly desirable because it can result in enhancement of light-extraction efficiency from high-n semiconductor light-emitting diode (LED) chips. A uniform dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles in epoxy for LED encapsulation is demonstrated for surfactant-coated TiO2 nanoparticles by drying, mixing with a solvent, refluxing, centrifuging, and mixing with epoxy. The refractive index of surfactant-coated TiO2-nanoparticle-loaded epoxy is 1.67 at 500 nm, significantly higher than that of conventional epoxy (n=1.53). Theoretical analysis of optical scattering in nanoparticle-loaded encapsulants reveals that the diameter of nanoparticles and the volume loading fraction of nanoparticles are of critical importance for optical scattering. Quasispecular transparency of the encapsulant film can be achieved if the thickness of the film is kept below the optical scattering length. A graded-refractive-index multilayer encapsulation structure with the thickness of each layer being less than the mean optical scattering length is proposed in order to reduce optical losses from scattering and Fresnel reflection. Furthermore, three-dimensional optical ray-tracing simulations demonstrate that encapsulants with an optimized scattering coefficient, ks, benefit from optical scattering by extracting deterministic trapped modes. Theoretical light-extraction enhancements larger than 50% are found when comparing scattering-free to scattering encapsulation materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes with AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN multiple quantum well active regions, doped in the barriers with different Si doping levels, show a sharp near-band edge emission line (UV luminescence). Some samples have a broad subband gap emission band centered at about 500 nm (green luminescence) in addition to the near-band edge emission. The electroluminescence intensities of the UV and green emission line are studied as a function of the injection current. For the sample grown on the AlN substrate under optimized growth conditions, the UV luminescence intensity increases linearly with the injection current, following a power law with an exponent of 1.0, while the green luminescence intensity increases sublinearly with the injection current. On the contrary, the samples grown on the sapphire substrate show a superlinear (to the power of 2.0) and linear (to the power of 1.0) dependence on the injection current for the UV and green luminescence, respectively. A theoretical model is proposed to explain the relationship between the luminescence intensities and the injection current. The results obtained from the model are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. The model provides a method to evaluate the dominant recombination process by measuring the exponent of the power-law dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichromatic white-light sources based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) offer a high luminous efficacy of radiation, a broad range of color temperatures and excellent color-rendering properties with color-rendering indices (CRIs) exceeding 85. An analysis of the luminous efficacy and CRI of a trichromatic light source is performed for a very broad range of wavelength combinations. The peak emission wavelength, spectral width, and the output power of LEDs strongly depend on temperature and the dependencies for red, green, and blue LEDs are established. A detailed analysis of the temperature dependence of trichromatic white LED sources reveals that the luminous efficacy decreases, the color temperature increases, the CRI decreases and the chromaticity point shifts towards the blue as the junction temperature increases. A high CRI>80 can be maintained, by adjusting the LED power ratio so that the chromaticity point is conserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carrier transport and recombination dynamics of monolithic InGaN/GaN light-emitting p-n junction structures with two active regions are investigated. Room-temperature and low-temperature photoluminescence and room-temperature electroluminescence measurements show two emission bands originating from the two active regions. In electroluminescence, the intensity ratio of the two emission bands is independent of injection current. In contrast, the intensity ratio depends strongly on the excitation intensity in photoluminescence measurements. The dependency of the emission on excitation is discussed and attributed to carrier transport between the two active regions and to the different carrier injection dynamics in photoluminescence and electroluminescence. The luminous efficacy of a Gaussian dichromatic white-light source is calculated assuming a line broadening ranging from 2kT to 10kT. Luminous efficacies ranging from 380 to 440 lm/W are obtained for broadened dichromatic sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diode ideality factors much higher than the expected values of 1.0 to 2.0 have been reported in GaN-based p-n junctions. It is shown that moderately doped unipolar heterojunctions as well as metal-semiconductor junctions, in particular the metal contact to p-type GaN, can increase the ideality factor to values greater than 2.0. A relation is derived for the effective ideality factor by taking into account all junctions of the diode structure. Diodes fabricated from a bulk GaN p-n junction and a p-n junction structure with a p-type AlGaN/GaN superlattice display ideality factors of 6.9 and 4.0, respectively. These results are consistent with the theoretical model and the fact that p-type AlGaN/GaN superlattices facilitate the formation of low-resistance ohmic contacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]