High Current Injection Research Articles

Full‐Color Electroluminescence from ZnO Nanoparticles‐Based Homojunction Diodes

Wide‐bandgap zinc oxide (ZnO)‐based light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted considerable interest for application in solid‐state lighting; however, the absence of dependable high‐quality homojunction has impeded their progress. A p–n homojunction LED is fabricated in this study using arc discharge‐fabricated N‐doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) spin coated over a Ga‐doped ZnO thin film. The homojunction LEDs demonstrate pure ultraviolet (UV) emissions with a narrow linewidth even at elevated temperatures. The UV intensity initially increases as the injection current increases to the saturation limit with a change in the peak position, followed by a decrease at higher injection currents. A proportion of UV light is downconverted into visible light using phosphors. Furthermore, the mixing of phosphors and their application to UV‐LED results in white emission with high color rendering and superior optical stability. Notably, the visible spectral peaks do not discernibly change with variations in the operating current. These findings represent significant advancements in the development of stable p‐type ZnO nanostructures, leading to the development of cost‐effective photonic devices.

Spectral features of pristine and irradiated white emitting InGaN LEDs with quantum wells

The emission spectra of InGaN/GaN white light emitting diodes (WLEDs) were measured. The main emission components were a LED blue line with λmax = 443 nm and a wide double band in the range of 500…650 nm of the secondary emission of AIT-YAG phosphor (Ce). The observed non-monotonic temperature dependence of the emission was attributed to the electric-field screening effect by mobile carriers as well as to thermal quenching due to the increased density of the phonon gas. The power conversion factor of phosphor emission increased in the temperature range of 200…290 K. The total energy losses for the Stokes shift were 82% and 77% for the first (blue) and the second band, respectively. The decrement of emission at high injection currents (over 20 mA) was attributed to ballistic transfer of carriers above the quantum wells and subsequent non-radiative recombination in the barrier layers. The existence of long-term relaxation processes in the white LEDs was assumed to be due to the accumulation of In atoms. Electron beam irradiation caused WLED efficiency degradation due to the introduction of deep traps in the quantum well region. The radiation resistance of the AIT-YAG phosphor was ~1.6 times higher than that of the InGaN part.

Comparative Study on Temperature‐Dependent Internal Quantum Efficiency and Light–Extraction Efficiency in III‐Nitride–, III‐Phosphide–, and III‐Arsenide–based Light‐Emitting Diodes

This study attempts to understand and elucidate the factors limiting/determining the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) depending on material systems, i.e., III‐arsenide (GaAs), III‐phosphide (AlGaInP), and III‐nitride (GaInN), via the temperature measurements (30–500 K). The behaviors of EQEs are investigated carefully in terms of the thermal droop and efficiency droop, revealing that the thermal droop in the AlGaInP and GaAs LEDs, while the efficiency droop in the GaInN LEDs, is a critical factor limiting the EQE. To deepen the insight, the EQE is separated into internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and light‐extraction efficiency (LEE). Further, the IQE is separated into radiative efficiency (RE) and injection efficiency (IE). The analysis shows that the LEE plays a significant role in the thermal droop for the AlGaInP and GaAs LEDs. Meanwhile, the IE and RE play a significant role in the EQE reduction of the blue and red LEDs at high temperatures and high current injection.

Modeling the carrier density in the exciton formation zone of organic light-emitting diode under high current injection

The carrier density in exciton formation zone is the electrical parameter most relevant to the stability of organic light-emitting diode: the decrease of carrier density improves the device stability. Here, based on the general mode of carrier device lifetimes, the carrier densities in the exciton formation zone of organic light-emitting diode have been calculated at current densities (J) ≥ 2.0 kA cm−2. With J increasing, the carrier density increases accordingly. At a given J, the carrier density decreases with the emissive layer’s thickness increasing, but increases with the emissive layer’s charge carrier mobilities. The increase of the energetic disorder of emissive layer leads to a marked decrease of carrier density. Increasing the hole (electron) mobility of hole (electron) transport layer helps reduce carrier density. The current research is believed very beneficial to the development of electrically pumped organic lasers.

Effect of junction temperature on 1.3 µm InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers directly grown on silicon

Laser junction temperature (Tj) is an essential parameter that directly affects the light power and lifetime of semiconductor lasers. Here, we investigate the effect of Tj on an InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) laser grown on a Si(001) substrate. Under 1% low pulsed current (1 µs pulse width and 100 µs period), the pure temperature-induced mode shift rate is 0.084 nm/°C. By increasing the duty cycle and measuring the corresponding mode wavelength shift, the laser’s Tj under the continuous-wave (Tj-CW) mode is predicted to be from 31.1 to 81.6 °C when the injection current increases from 100 to 550 mA. Next, the average thermal resistance is 36.2 °C/W. Moreover, the non-negligible increase in Tj-CW is analyzed to significantly reduce the mean-time-to-failure of Si-based QD laser, especially for cases under high CW injection currents. These results provide an accurate reference for the thermal analysis of silicon-based QD lasers and point the way to high performance on-chip light sources by improving the laser heat accumulation.

Spontaneous Emission Studies for Blue and Green InGaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes and Laser Diodes

We investigated the efficiency droop phenomenon in blue and green GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs), which poses a significant challenge in high-power LEDs and is characterized by a reduction in external quantum efficiency at higher injection currents. Utilizing identical epi-structures for blue and green LEDs and LDs, with variations only in indium composition, our experiments revealed a gradual blue shift in the emission wavelengths as the injection current increased. Notably, the blue LED demonstrated a smaller shift compared to the green LED. In addition, the full width at half maximum of emission spectra increased with increasing injection current density, indicative of efficiency droop. Significantly, LDs consistently exhibited lower junction temperatures despite operating at higher current densities. This is attributed to the enhanced heat dissipation capability of the ridge waveguide LD structure, which results in a narrower emission spectrum and reduced efficiency droop compared to mesa LED structures. These outcomes highlight the efficiency of the ridge waveguide LD structure in heat dissipation from the active layer, offering crucial insights for the advancement of high-power light-emitting devices.

Harmonic Penetration Analyses for DC-Link Frequency Converter Drive Systems by Considering the Motor-Side Converter as an Ideal Current Generator

Nowadays increasing attention turns to the harmonic penetration analysis of the alternating voltage network connected devices operating with pulse width modulation (PWM). The PWM operation causes high frequency current injection to the grid (at the frequency range: 1kHz to 100kHz, depending on the power and the structure of the device). However, devices are now rolling out, that are infected by these current components, for example: power line communication (PLC) devices, smart metering devices, etc. It is very difficult to analyse such high frequency harmonic components with measurements. Therefore, the simulation analyses of the PWM devices harmonic penetration are revalued. These are cost efficient and fast. This article is dealing with the harmonic penetration analyses of alternating voltage network connected DC-link frequency converters equipped with active rectifier. In our study we were focusing on the variable frequency drive (VFD) of squirrel cage induction motors (SCIM). Simulation models of the motor and a DC-link frequency converter were built in time domain. The main purpose of this paper is, to study whether the effect of the motor-side converter of the VFD and the motor can be neglected for the harmonic penetration analyses of the DC-link frequency converter.

High defect tolerance β-CsSnI3 perovskite light-emitting diodes.

All-inorganic lead-free CsSnI3 has shown promising potential in optoelectronic applications, particularly in near-infrared perovskite light-emitting diodes (Pero-LEDs). However, non-radiative recombination induced by defects hinders the optoelectronic properties of CsSnI3-based Pero-LEDs, limiting their potential applications. Here, we uncovered that β-CsSnI3 exhibits higher defect tolerance compared to orthorhombic γ-CsSnI3, offering a potential for enhancing the emission efficiency. We further reported on the deposition and stabilization of highly crystalline β-CsSnI3 films with the assistance of cesium formate to suppress electron-phonon scattering and reduce nonradiative recombination. This leads to an enhanced photoluminescence quantum yield up to ∼10%. As a result, near-infrared LEDs based on β-CsSnI3 emitters are achieved with a peak external quantum efficiency of 1.81% and excellent stability under a high current injection of 1.0 A cm-2.

The effects and mechanisms of 2 MeV proton irradiation on high bias conditions of InP/InGaAs DHBTs

In this work, a 2 MeV proton irradiation experiment has been carried out on self-fabricated InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with fluence of 5 × 1013 H+/cm2 and 1 × 1014 H+/cm2. The degradation and mechanisms have systematically been studied under different bias conditions. The irradiated InP-based HBTs have suffered more sever degradation at low and high bias voltages with larger damage coefficient of current gain (Kβ), due to the increased base recombination current and the slacken collector current respectively. Under high injection current densities, the slow-down of collector current and the collapse of current gain (β) have occurred at increasingly smaller biases as irradiation fluence increases. Consistently, the ideality factor of base current collapses to 1 at high injection current, moreover, the collapse point decreases as fluence increases. The aggravated degradation at high current densities is attributed to the influence of heterojunction barrier effect (HBE) by the structure of the multi-layer collector region. The study would be of great significance for optimizing the device structure and improving the irradiation tolerance.

Improvement of Power and Efficiency of High-Mesa Semi-Insulating InP: Fe Buried Heterostructure Lasers with Wide Bandgap Layers

High-mesa semi-insulating buried heterostructure (SIBH) lasers with InP: Fe have great potential in high-speed and high-power scenarios, but the leakage current problem under high current injections has always limited their application. In order to solve the issue of low output power and low efficiency for high-mesa SIBH lasers, the mechanism of leakage current generation in InP-based semi-insulating (SI) layers at high injection levels was analyzed through numerical simulation. The deterioration of the device performance is due to the hole current-induced electron leakage current, which results from the reduction of the potential barrier and Fe-Zn interdiffusion. Thus, lasers with wide bandgap layers of InAlAs and ZnCdSe were employed for current blocking, the power and wall-plug efficiency of which were improved by more than 36% and 5%, respectively. For the first time, a SIBH laser based on lattice-matched ZnCdSe barrier layers is proposed, which shows good output performance and high reliability. The introduction of the wide bandgap layer in the SIBH structure establishes potential barriers to confine both carrier leakages at high injection levels, which realizes the high-power and high-efficiency operation of the laser.

Luminescence properties of Eu2+/3+ co-activated La6Sr4(SiO4)6F2 polychromatic phosphors towards white light-emitting diodes and anti-counterfeiting

To obtain emitting color regulation, series of Eu2+/3+-coactivated La6Sr4(SiO4)6F2 phosphors were synthesized. The crystal structure, morphology, elemental compositions and luminescence performances of the final products were discussed. Excited by 365 nm, all of the studied samples can emit the characteristic emissions of Eu2+ and Eu3+, in which their fluorescence intensities have various responses to doping content. Specially, as the dopant content increases, the emitting color is changed from green to yellow. Moreover, via changing the excitation wavelength, tunable emissions are also realized in the studied samples. On the basis of the temperature dependent emission spectra, it is found that Eu2+/3+-coactivated La6Sr4(SiO4)6F2 phosphors possess good thermal stability. Through selecting the designed phosphors as yellow emitting components, a warm white light-emitting diode (white-LED) was packaged, in which its electroluminescence properties are hardly altered at high injection current. When the working current is 100 mA, the color coordinate, correlated color temperature and color rendering index of the fabricated white-LED are (0.358,0.358), 4580 K and 87.39, respectively. In addition, using the resultant compounds as luminescent labels, different patterns were prepared for the application in information encryption. The results demonstrated that Eu2+/3+-coactivated La6Sr4(SiO4)6F2 phosphors with multicolor emissions and outstanding thermal stability are suitable for white-LED and optical anti-counterfeiting as emitting components.

High power GaSb-based superluminescent diode with cascade cavity suppression waveguide geometry and ultra-low antireflection coating

We report on a GaSb-based superluminescent diode optimized for high-power broadband operation around a wavelength of 2 μm. The high optical power was achieved by the high-quality epitaxial InGaSb/AlGaAsSb type-I quantum well gain material, which was processed into a double-pass amplification configuration. To prevent lasing at high current injection while enabling strong amplified spontaneous emission, a cascade cavity suppression waveguide geometry was designed to connect the vertical rear facet with the reflectivity-suppressed angled front facet. A Ta2O5/SiO2 ultra-low antireflection coating with a minimum reflectivity of 0.04% was applied to the front facet for further cavity suppression. This combination allowed the superluminescent diodes to demonstrate a record high single-transverse-mode output power of up to 152 mW under continuous-wave operation at room temperature, with a broad spectral band of 42 nm full width at half maximum. A 25% promotion in optical power has been realized compared to current state-of-the-art devices in this wavelength range, without sacrificing spectral bandwidth. The high-power spectral density characteristics, along with a good beam quality, are well suited for absorption spectroscopy applications and hybrid integration with silicon technology.

State-of-the-Art Grid Stability Improvement Techniques for Electric Vehicle Fast-Charging Stations for Future Outlooks

The growing trend for electric vehicles (EVs) and fast-charging stations (FCSs) will cause the overloading of grids due to the high current injection from FCSs’ converters. The insensitive nature of the state of charge (SOC) of EV batteries during FCS operation often results in grid instability problems, such as voltage and frequency deviation at the point of common coupling (PCC). Therefore, many researchers have focused on two-stage converter control (TSCC) and single-stage converter (SSC) control for FCS stability enhancement, and suggested that SSC architectures are superior in performance, unlike the TSCC methods. However, only a few research works have focused on SSC techniques, despite the techniques’ ability to provide inertia and damping support through the virtual synchronous machine (VSM) strategy due to power decoupling and dynamic response problems. TSCC methods deploy current or voltage control for controlling EVs’ SOC battery charging through proportional-integral (PI), proportional-resonant (PR), deadbeat or proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, but these are relegated by high current harmonics, frequency fluctuation and switching losses due to transient switching. This paper reviewed the linkage between the latest research contributions, issues associated with TSCC and SSC techniques, and the performance evaluation of the techniques, and subsequently identified the research gaps and proposed SSC control with SOC consideration for further research studies.

Red InGaN nanowire LED with bulk active region directly grown on p-Si (111).

A red nanowire LED with an InGaN bulk active region, directly grown on a p-Si (111) substrate, is demonstrated. The LED exhibits relatively good wavelength stability upon increasing injection current and narrowing of the linewidth without quantum confined Stark effect. Efficiency droop sets in at relatively high injection current. The output power and external quantum efficiency are 0.55 mW and 1.4% at 20 mA (20 A/cm2) with peak wavelength of 640 nm, reaching 2.3% at 70 mA with peak wavelength of 625 nm. The operation on the p-Si substrate results in large carrier injection currents due to a naturally formed tunnel junction at the n-GaN/p-Si interface and is ideal for device integration.

Efficiency droop in AlGaN crystal-based UVB LEDs in the context of electron blocking mechanism

Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) based UVB LEDs are delivering an increase in efficiency under low current drive, however, the devices are confronted with high efficiency droop and high operating voltages during the measurement on bare-wafer under high current drive. Such issues in UVB LEDs are attributed to using conventional p-type multi-quantum-barrier electron-blocking layer (p-MQB EBL) and fixed Al-contents in the p-AlGaN hole-source layer (HSL). When the conventional p-MQB EBL and bulk p-AlGaN HSL was replaced by Al-graded ud-AlGaN EBL and Al-graded p-AlGaN HSL, respectively, the efficiency droop has been remarkably suppressed and almost uniform external-quantum efficiency (EQE) under high injection current was confirmed. Also, the operating voltages under 150 mA drive were significantly reduced from 64 V (conventional p-MQB EBL) to 24 V (new polarized ud-AlGaN EBL) in UVB LEDs. These improvements are attributed to the smooth valance band edge without any potential barrier in both Al-graded ud-AlGaN EBL and Al-graded p-AlGaN HSL for efficient injection efficiency. At the same time the new structure was considered useful for both blocking of high energy electron overshooting toward the p-side as well as Mg-diffusion toward the multi-quantum wells (MQWs) under high current drive. These experimental results were also confirmed by simulations.

Performance Improvement of InGaN-Based LEDs via a Current-Blocking Region Prepared via Hydrogen Passivation

We report p-GaN passivation via hydrogen plasma used to create current blocking regions (CBRs) in InGaN-based green LEDs with standard dimensions of 280 × 650 μm2. The CBRs are created before mesa etching in two variants: underneath the opaque metal p-pad and both underneath the p-pad and along the device’s mesa perimeter. The peak EQE increased by 13% and 23% in the first and the second cases, respectively, in comparison to the reference LED with no CBR. With a high injection current of 50 A/cm2, the EQE value increased by 2% in the case of CBRs underneath the p-pad as well as by 14% in the case of CBRs both underneath the p-pad and along the mesa perimeter (relative to the reference sample with no CBR).

High current limits in chemical vapor deposited graphene spintronic devices

Understanding the stability and current-carrying capacity of graphene spintronic devices is key to their applications in graphene channel-based spin current sensors, spin-torque oscillators, and potential spin-integrated circuits. However, despite the demonstrated high current densities in exfoliated graphene, the current-carrying capacity of large-scale chemical vapor deposited (CVD) graphene is not established. Particularly, the grainy nature of chemical vapor deposited graphene and the presence of a tunnel barrier in CVD graphene spin devices pose questions about the stability of high current electrical spin injection. In this work, we observe that despite structural imperfections, CVD graphene sustains remarkably highest currents of 5.2 × 108 A/cm2, up to two orders higher than previously reported values in multilayer CVD graphene, with the capacity primarily dependent upon the sheet resistance of graphene. Furthermore, we notice a reversible regime, up to which CVD graphene can be operated without degradation with operating currents as high as 108 A/cm2, significantly high and durable over long time of operation with spin valve signals observed up to such high current densities. At the same time, the tunnel barrier resistance can be modified by the application of high currents. Our results demonstrate the robustness of large-scale CVD graphene and bring fresh insights for engineering and harnessing pure spin currents for innovative device applications.

High Breakdown Voltage and High Current Injection Vertical GaN-on-GaN p-n Diodes With Extremely Low On-Resistance Fabricated on Ammonothermally Grown Bulk GaN Substrates

In this work, we report fabrication and characterization of high breakdown voltage and high current injection vertical gallium nitride (GaN)-on-GaN p-n diodes with an etched mesa structure with guard rings termination on ammonothermally grown bulk GaN substrates. Bright electroluminescence from active region under forward bias was observed with high intensity near band edge emission and low intensity defect and unintentional impurities-related bands. Fabricated devices were characterized by a high breakdown voltage up to 1940 V, a high on/off current ratio over <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{{13}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , a high current density above 10 kA/cm2, and an extremely low ON-resistance below 0.1 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{m}\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm2 under high current injection.

Proposing the n+-AlGaN tunnel junction foranefficient deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diodeat254 nm emission.

Toxic and low-pressure deep-ultraviolet (DUV) mercury lamps have been used widely for applications of surface disinfection and water sterilization. The exposure of pathogens to 254nm DUV radiations has been proven to be an effective and environmentally safe way to inactivate germs as well as viruses in short time. To replace toxic mercury DUV lamps, an n +-A l G a N tunnel junction (TJ)-based DUV light-emitting diode (LED) at 254nm emission has been investigated. The studied conventional LED device has maximum internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 50% with an efficiency droop of 18% at 200A/c m 2. In contrast, the calculated results show that a maximum IQE of 82% with a 3% efficiency droop under a relatively higher injection current was estimated by employing a 5nm thin n +-A l G a N TJ with a 0.70 aluminum molar fraction. In addition, the TJ LED emitted power has been improved significantly by 2.5 times compared with a conventional LED structure. Such an efficient n +-A l G a N TJ-based DUV LED at 254nm emission might open a new way, to the best of our knowledge, for the development of safe and efficient germicidal irradiation sources.

Fabrication of GaN-based LEDs

The authors propose a simple Ar plasma treatment method to selectively damage the area underneath p-pad electrode of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It was found that we could form a highly resistive area so that the injected carriers will be forced to spread out horizontally for the LED. Under 20 mA current injection, it was found that the output powers were 16.0, 17.9 and 17.3 mW while the forward voltages were 3.17, 3.19 and 3.20 V for conventional LED and LED with SiO2 layer, respectively. Moreover, the LED with Ar plasma treatment is superior to the other LEDs while operating at a higher injection current.