Using band engineering to tailor the emission spectra of trichromatic semipolar InGaN light-emitting diodes for phosphor-free polarized white light emission

Abstract

We report a polarized white light-emitting device that monolithically integrates an electrically injected blue light-emitting diode grown on the (202¯1¯) face of a bulk GaN substrate and optically pumped InGaN quantum wells (QWs) with green and red light emission grown on the (202¯1) face. To overcome the challenges associated with growing high indium content InGaN QWs for long wavelength emission, a p-i-n doping profile was used to red-shift the emission wavelength of one of the optically pumped QWs by creating a built-in electric field in the same direction as the polarization-induced electric field. Emission peaks were observed at 450 nm from the electrically injected QW and at 520 nm and 590 nm from the optically pumped QWs, which were situated in n-i-n and p-i-n structures, respectively. The optically pumped QW in the p-i-n structure was grown at a growth temperature that was 10 °C colder compared to the QW in the n-i-n structure, so the emission from the QW in the p-i-n structure was red-shifted due to increased indium content as well as the built-in electric field. Modeling work confirmed that the built-in electric field made a greater contribution than the change in alloy composition to the red-shift in emission from the QW in the p-i-n structure. The combined emission from the red, green, and blue QWs resulted in white-light emission with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage x- and y-chromaticity coordinates of (0.33, 0.35) and an optical polarization ratio of 0.30.