Variation of efficiency droop with quantum well thickness in InGaN/GaN green light-emitting diode**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61574135, 61574134, 61474142, 61474110, 61377020, 61376089, 61223005, and 61321063), the One-Hundred Person Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Basic Research Project of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK20130362), the Scientific Research Fund of Chongqing

Abstract

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with varying InGaN quantum well layer thickness are fabricated and characterized. The investigation of luminescence efficiency versus injection current reveals that several physical mechanisms may jointly influence the efficiency droop, resulting in a non-monotonic variation of droop behavior with increasing quantum well (QW) thickness. When the QW is very thin, the increase of InGaN well layer thickness makes the efficiency droop more serious due to the enhancement of polarization effect. When the QW thickness increases further, however, the droop is alleviated significantly, which is mainly ascribed to the enhanced nonradiative recombination process and the weak delocalization effect.