Ultraviolet InGaN and GaN Single-Quantum-Well-Structure Light-Emitting Diodes Grown on Epitaxially Laterally Overgrown GaN Substrates

Abstract

Ultraviolet (UV) InGaN and GaN single-quantum-well-structure light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown on epitaxially laterally overgrown GaN (ELOG) and sapphire substrates. When the emission wavelength of UV InGaN LEDs was shorter than 380 nm, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the LED on ELOG was much higher than that on sapphire only under high-current operation. At low-current operation, both LEDs had the same EQE. When the active layer was GaN, EQE of the LED on sapphire was much lower than that on ELOG even under low-and high-current operations, due to the lack of localized energy states formed by alloy composition fluctuations. When the emission wavelengths were in the blue and green regions, EQE was almost the same between LEDs on both ELOG and sapphire due to a large number of deep localized energy states formed by large alloy composition fluctuations. The localized energy states are responsible for the high efficiency of InGaN-based LEDs in spite of a large number of dislocations.