Efficiency improvement of blue LEDs using a GaN burried air void photonic crystal with high air filling fraction

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the efficiency enhancement of blue InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by incorporating a burried air void photonic crystal (BAVPC) layer within the epitaxial structure. As compared with the conventional patterned sapphire substrate (C-PSS) LEDs and flat sapphire substrate LEDs with BAVPC, the fabricated patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) LEDs with BAVPC exhibit the lowest full-width at half-maximum of (002) and (102) diffraction peaks, the highest light output power of 20.6 mW, and the highest external quantum efficiency of 37.4%. Remarkable performance improvement in the PSS LED with BAVPC is attributed to the better epitaxial quality with threading dislocations terminated by the BAVPC and the higher scattering at interface between GaN and air-void. By positioning the BAVPC directly below the multiple quantum wells (MQWs), it would cause the reduction in the number of trapped optical modes. The methodology optically isolates the MQWs from the underlying substrate and increases the optical output power. Moreover, threading dislocations are significantly suppressed using the BAVPC with high air filling fraction of ∼50. It is well proposed that this methodology provides a promising alternative to C-PSS LEDs. © 1965-2012 IEEE.