Effect of HfO2 Passivation Layer on Light Extraction Efficiency of AlInN Nanowire Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes

Abstract

One of the probable reasons behind the limitation of light extraction efficiency (LEE) in III-nitride nanowire (NW) deep ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is the presence of the high surface density states that significantly contribute to the non-radiative recombination near the surface. Herein, we investigate the LEE of a single AlInN NW UV LED in the entire UV wavelength regime using finite-difference time-domain simulations. It is found that these LEDs favor transverse-magnetic (TM) polarized LEE over transverse-electric (TE) polarized emission. Further, we examine the role of the HfO2 surface passivation layer in the improvement of LEE of AlInN NW LED at ~282 nm wavelength. Our results show that the TM-polarized LEE of such LED without any passivation is only ~25.2%, whereas the maximum recorded LEE is ~40.6% with the utilization of 40 nm HfO2 passivation layer. This study provides a promising approach for enhancing the LEE of NW UV LEDs.