Carrier confinement in 232 nm emission AlGaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diodes with p-AlN layer

Abstract

The influence of the p-AlN layer on the electron leakage, in 232 nm ultraviolet wavelength light-emitting diodes, has been numerically investigated. We sandwiched last quantum barrier (LQB) with p-AlN layer to lower effective barrier heights in the p-region of the device. The simulation results demonstrate that employing p-AlN not only enhances hole concentration but also suppresses electron leakage notably. Employing p-AlN layer, after LQB, works as an efficient p-EBL due to its higher effective conduction band offset. LED with p-AlN layer exhibits almost no droop. Based on these results, we believe that this study may provide a feasible approach for the development of efficient 232 nm deep ultraviolet (DUV) LEDs, which is a crucial wavelength in the disinfection processes.