Hole injection and electron overflow
improvement in InGaN/GaN light-emitting
diodes by a tapered AlGaN electron blocking
layer
Bing-Cheng Lin,1 Kuo-Ju Chen,1 Chao-Hsun Wang,1 Ching-Hsueh Chiu,2 Yu-Pin Lan,1
Chien-Chung Lin,3 Po-Tsung Lee,1 Min-Hsiung Shih,1 Yen-Kuang Kuo,4 and Hao-
Chung Kuo1,*
1
Department of Photonics and Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu
30010, Taiwan
2
Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc., No. 13, Gongye 5th Rd., Hukou Township, Hsinchu County 303, Taiwan
3
Institute of Photonics System, National Chiao Tung University, Tainan 71150, Taiwan
4
Department of Physics, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 500, Taiwan
*hckuo@faculty.nctu.edu.tw
Abstract: A tapered AlGaN electron blocking layer with step-graded
aluminum composition is analyzed in nitride-based blue light-emitting
diode (LED) numerically and experimentally. The energy band diagrams,
electrostatic fields, carrier concentration, electron current density profiles,
and hole transmitting probability are investigated. The simulation results
demonstrated that such tapered structure can effectively enhance the hole
injection efficiency as well as the electron confinement. Consequently, the
LED with a tapered EBL grown by metal-organic chemical vapor
deposition exhibits reduced efficiency droop behavior of 29% as compared
with 44% for original LED, which reflects the improvement in hole
injection and electron overflow in our design.
2014 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (230.3670) Light-emitting diodes; (230.2090) Electro-optical devices.
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1. Introduction
III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have various applications due to its widely tunable
wavelength from ultraviolet to blue/green [1,2], and have been in the center of lighting
research due to their high efficiencies. However, the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of the
InGaN LEDs usually reaches a maximum value at low current density and then droops
remarkably with the increase of current density [3,4]. Various possible mechanisms of this
efficiency droop including electron overflow out of the active region, nonuniform distribution
of holes, Auger scattering, carrier delocalization, poor hole injection have been proposed [4
7]. Among these factors, electron overflow and poor hole injection might be the main
mechanisms in GaN-based blue LEDs [4,8]. In recent years, great efforts have been made to
overcome the efficiency droop problem. Some of groups focus on increasing electron-hole
wavefunction overlap by solving charge separation issue in the active region, such as using
staggered InGaN well [9,10] and non/semi-polar InGaN/GaN LEDs [11,12]. Schubert et al.
and Tu et al. have employed the polarization-matched AlGaInN barriers in LEDs and
achieved reduction of carrier leakage [13,14]. Zhao et al. proposed that when the thin layers
of larger bandgap AlGaN barriers were employed, the efficiency droop phenomenon could be
suppressed slightly [15]. To enhance electrons confinement and suppress the leaked electrons,
a high-bandgap Al1-xGaxN electron blocking layer (EBL) is usually inserted between the
#195065 - $15.00 USD Received 23 Aug 2013; revised 11 Oct 2013; accepted 14 Oct 2013; published 3 Jan 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 13 January 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 1 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.000463 | OPTICS EXPRESS 464
active layer and the p-type layer. However, it has been reported that the large polarization
field in Al1-xGaxN EBL reduces the effective potential height for electrons. On the other hand,
the injection of holes could be difficult owing to low mobility, high effective mass, and
downward band-bending induced by the serious polarization at the interface between the last
quantum barrier (QB) of the multiple quantum wells (MQWs) and EBL [13], [16]. Several
suggestions about the designs of EBL have been reported, including employing graded-
composition EBL [17] and adopting the polarization-matched AlGaInN EBL [18]. However,
these designs are difficult to grow, and the crystal quality of the subsequent p-GaN layer will
be degraded. Recently published studies point out that a tapered AlGaN EBL with step-graded
Al content in their laser diodes (LDs) with lower threshold current density and higher slope
efficiency [1921]. Therefore, taking the growth quality into consideration, a tapered four-
layer AlGaN EBL in InGaN/GaN LED is proposed and investigated in this work.
2. Experiments and simulations
The epitaxial InGaN/GaN LED structures with conventional EBL and tapered EBL were
grown on c-plane sapphire substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD).
After depositing a low temperature GaN nucleation layer, a 2.6-m-thick undoped GaN layer,
and a 4-m-thick n-type GaN layer (n-doping = 1.5 1019 cm3) were grown. On the top of
the buffer layer, eight-period 3-nm-thick In0.19Ga0.81N quantum wells (QWs) sandwiched by
nine 14-nm-thick n-type GaN barrier layers (n-doping = 1.1 1017 cm3) were grown,
followed by a 50-nm-thick p-Al0.16Ga0.84N EBL (p-doping = 5 1017 cm3) and a 150-nm-
thick p-type GaN cap layer (p-doping = 1 1018 cm3). For comparison, the EBL of the
original LED is a single p-Al0.16Ga0.84N layer, and that of the tapered EBL LED was formed
by replacing the last 14 nm QB by a 4 nm p-Al0.04Ga0.96N layer, followed by a 5 nm p-
Al0.08Ga0.92N layer, and a 5 nm p-Al0.12Ga0.88N layer (p-doping = 2 1016 cm3 for the three
layers), while the single p-Al0.16Ga0.84N layer was unchanged. The major difference in the
EBL design comes from the variation in the transition of the last QB to the Al0.16Ga0.84N EBL.
The growth temperature of conventional EBL and tapered four-layer AlGaN EBL was the
same (1030 C). During the growth of AlGaN, the flow rates of trimethylaluminium (TMAl)
with Al = 4%, 8%, and 12% were 1.15, 2.36, and 3.76 mol/min, respectively. The flow rates
of trimethylgallium (TMGa), ammonia (NH3), and bis cyclopentadienyl magnesium (Cp2Mg)
were 27.3, 0.12, and 0.127 mol/min, respectively. On the other hand, the activation
temperature and time condition of the p-type doping for the EBL were 760 C and 20 minutes
by nitrogen ambient thermal annealing treatment. The Mg doping concentrations in the p-type
layer, AlGaN EBL were determined from the measurement of the secondary ion mass
spectrometry (SMIS) and the Al composition in AlGaN was estimated by performing
HRXRD measurement. Subsequently, the LED mesa with an area 300 300 m2 was defined
by using standard photolithography and dry etching. In addition, a transparent conduction
indium-tin-oxide (ITO) layer was employed to be the current spreading layer and Ni/Au metal
was deposited as p-type and n-type electrodes, respectively. The emission wavelengths of
both LEDs were around 450 nm.
Prior to the actual fabrication of devices, the band diagrams, electrostatic fields, carrier
distributions, and electron current density profiles, and hole transmitting probability of the
LEDs are first evaluated by APSYS (advance physical model of semiconductor devices)
simulation software [22]. The APSYS simulation program is based on 2-D models and can
deal with optical and electrical properties of the LED devices. The structures, such as layer
thicknesses, doping concentrations, and Al composition are the same as the actual devices.
Commonly accepted physical parameters were adopted to perform the simulations, the
Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination lifetime of 10 ns, and the Auger recombination
coefficient in QWs with order of 1031 cm6/s, respectively. The interface charge densities
caused by spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization are calculated by assuming a screening
factor of 50%. The band-offset ratios are assumed to be 0.7/0.3 and 0.5/0.5 for InGaN and
#195065 - $15.00 USD Received 23 Aug 2013; revised 11 Oct 2013; accepted 14 Oct 2013; published 3 Jan 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 13 January 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 1 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.000463 | OPTICS EXPRESS 465
AlGaN, respectively [23,24]. We use an Mg activation energy of 170 meV for GaN which is
assumed to increase by 3 meV per % Al for AlGaN. Other material parameters used in the
simulation can be found in [25].
3. Results and discussions
The calculated energy band diagram of original LED at 200 mA is shown in Fig. 1. The
positions of the eight QWs are marked with gray areas. Severe band-banding occurs within
the active region, i.e., sloped triangular barriers and wells, are observed in the original LED,
as shown in Fig. 1(a). As shown in Fig. 1(b), an unintentional suppression of conduction band
edge is obvious at the interface of last-QB/EBL. This dip is under electron quasi-Fermi level
and thus electrons would accumulate at this interface. Under this circumstance, a severe
electron overflow could be expected, which degrades the quantum efficiency of light emitter
devices [26,27]. As shown in Fig. 1(c), it is apparent that the polarization-induced band-
bending at the interface of last-QB/EBL is downward, which increase the difficulty for the
holes to transport into the active region.
The built-in charge density induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations within
the interface of the InGaN/GaN LED can be calculated by the method developed by Fiorentini
5
enlarged in (b)
4
3
quasi-Fermi level
2 p-side
enlarged in (c)
1
0
(a) @ 200 mA
-1
4.2
effective potential height
4
(for electrons)
3.8
Energy (eV)
3.6
3.4
3.2
(b)
3
1
0.8
effective potential height
0.6 (for holes)
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
(c)
-0.4
106.72 106.74 106.76 106.78 106.8
Distance (m)
Fig. 1. (a) Energy band diagram of the original LED at 200 mA. (b) Enlarged drawing of the
conduction band near the last-QB/EBL interface. (c) Enlarged drawing of the valance band
near the last-QB/EBL interface.
#195065 - $15.00 USD Received 23 Aug 2013; revised 11 Oct 2013; accepted 14 Oct 2013; published 3 Jan 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 13 January 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 1 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.000463 | OPTICS EXPRESS 466
5
Electrostatic field (10 V/cm)
@ 200 mA
0
5
-5
Original LED
-10 Tapered EBL LED
-15
106.71 106.725 106.74 106.755 106.77
Distance (m)
Fig. 2. Electrostatic fields near the last two QWs and EBL for original and tapered EBL LEDs
at 200 mA.
4.2 1
effective potential height effective potential height
4 0.8
(for electrons) (for holes)
0.6
Energy (eV)
Energy (eV)
3.8
0.4
3.6
0.2
3.4
0
3.2 -0.2
(a) (b)
3 -0.4
106.72 106.74 106.76 106.78 106.8 106.72 106.74 106.76 106.78 106.8
Distance (m)
Fig. 3. Enlarged energy band diagrams near the last-QB/EBL interface of tapered EBL LED in
(a) the conduction band (b) the valance band at 200 mA.
et al. [28]. For the tapered EBL LED, as compared with the original LED, the polarization
induced surface charge density in the last-QW/last-QB interface increases (7.48 10 16 m2
versus 6.69 1016 m2), while that in the last-QB/EBL interface decreases (3.15 10 16 m2
versus 6.78 1015 m2). The use of the tapered EBL instead of conventional EBL can
diminish the polarization charges accumulated in the last-QB/EBL interface, which
accordingly can relax the band banding of EBL. Figure 2 show the electrostatic fields of
original and tapered EBL LEDs near the last two QWs and EBL at 200 mA. Evidently, the
original LED possesses a much stronger electrostatic field at the last-QB/EBL interface
because of high surface charge density. Furthermore, smaller electrostatic field at the last-
QB/EBL interface is also observed in tapered EBL LED due to the strain-induced polarization
charge being spatially re-distributed. As shown in Fig. 2, there are stronger electrostatic fields
in the active regions of original LED especially for the last QW, which may lead to the band
bending, poor overlap of electron and hole wave functions, and hence reduced radiative
recombination rate. Moreover, the weaker electrostatic fields in the active regions are
observed for the tapered EBL LED. For this reason, the tapered EBL LED has higher
radiative recombination rate than that of the original LED.
Figure 3 shows the enlarged energy band diagrams near the last-QB/EBL interface of
tapered EBL LED at 200 mA. As shown in Fig. 3(a) the conduction band offset at the
interface is small due to the stepped aluminium composition of tapered EBL LED.
Consequently, the small dip lies high above the electron quasi-Fermi level. As indicated in
Fig. 3(b), because of the smaller electrostatic field, the downward band-bending at the
interface near EBL of tapered EBL LED is slighter than that of the original LED, which will
lead to enhancement of hole injection efficiency.
Figure 4 shows the calculated electron and hole distributions within the active regions for
original and tapered EBL LEDs at 200 mA. In Fig. 4(a), more severe electron accumulation at
the last-QB/EBL interface caused by band bending can be found obviously in original LED.
#195065 - $15.00 USD Received 23 Aug 2013; revised 11 Oct 2013; accepted 14 Oct 2013; published 3 Jan 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 13 January 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 1 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.000463 | OPTICS EXPRESS 467
Electron concentration (10 cm )
3
50 60
Hole concentration (10 cm )
3
(a) (b)
18
40 Original LED 50 Original LED
18
Tapered EBL LED 40
Tapered EBL LED
30
30
20
20
@ 200 mA @ 200 mA
10 10
0 0
106.6 106.7 106.8 106.6 106.7 106.8
Distance (m)
Fig. 4. (a) Electron and (b) hole concentrations within the active regions for original and
tapered EBL LEDs at 200 mA.
Electron current density (A/cm )
1400 1
2
(b)
Hole transmitting probability
(a)
1200
0.8
1000
800 Electron leakage 0.6
Original LED current Original LED
600 Tapered EBL LED 0.4 Tapered EBL LED
400
@ 200 mA 0.2
200
0 0
106.6 106.65 106.7 106.75 106.8 -2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0
Distance (m) Energy (meV)
Fig. 5. (a) Electron current density profiles near the active regions and (b) hole transmitting
probability near the last QB and EBL for original and tapered EBL LEDs.
However, the electron accumulation disappears in tapered EBL LED. As shown in Figs.
1(b) and 1(c), the effective potential height for electrons at the conduction band near the last
QB and the EBL of original LED (308 meV) is smaller than that of the tapered EBL LED, and
accordingly, its effective potential height for holes at the valance band (355 meV) is larger.
As a result, the original LED has bad electron confinement and hole injection efficiency. The
electron and hole concentrations in the active region of original LED are smaller than that of
the tapered EBL LED, as shown in Fig. 4. Tapered EBL LED, with a special designed last
QB, has slighter band bending. As shown in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b), it has higher effective
potential height for electrons of 410 meV and lower effective potential height for holes of 290
meV. Thus, tapered EBL LED has higher electron and hole concentrations in the MQWs due
to excellent electron confinement and higher hole injection efficiency.
Figure 5(a) shows the electron current density profiles near the active regions for original
and tapered EBL LEDs at 200 mA. The electron current density and the electron
concentration are connected by drift-diffusion model. The electron current is injected from n-
type layers into QWs and recombines with holes, which results in the decrease of electron
current density. Electron current overflow across the EBL is considered as the leakage
current. As shown in Fig. 5(a), electron leakage current can be suppressed by employing the
tapered EBL LED. This result shows that the tapered EBL structure is also an efficient
electron blocker for InGaN/GaN LEDs. Figure 5(b) shows the tunneling probability of holes
with respect to hole energy near the last QB and EBL for original and tapered EBL LEDs.
Note that the negative energy corresponds to the hole transport. As shown in Fig. 5(b), the
transmitting probability of holes for tapered EBL LED is larger than that of the original LED,
especially for hole energy is low.
Finally, the devices with such designs are fabricated by regular LED process procedures,
and the measured external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) under various currents are shown in
Fig. 6. It can be seen that the experimental data have similar droop behavior to simulation
results. However, the efficiency of tapered EBL LED shows slightly lower value in experime-
#195065 - $15.00 USD Received 23 Aug 2013; revised 11 Oct 2013; accepted 14 Oct 2013; published 3 Jan 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 13 January 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 1 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.000463 | OPTICS EXPRESS 468
70
60
50
EQE (%)
40
30
Experiment original LED
20 Simu. original LED
Experiment tapered EBL LED
10 Simu. tapered EBL LED
0
0 50 100 150 200
Current (mA)
Fig. 6. Experiment and simulation external quantum efficiency for original and tapered EBL
LEDs.
nt. This could be attributed to non-optimized epitaxial parameters. According to Fig. 6, the
original LED has serious efficiency droop. Tapered EBL LED shows significantly mitigated
efficiency droop. The efficiency droop was reduced from 44% in original LED to 29% in
tapered EBL LED. This result confirms that the tapered EBL design did contribute to reduce
the efficiency droop. This significant improvement in efficiency can be mainly attributed to
the enhancement of hole injection as well as electron confinement, especially at high injection
current.
4. Conclusion
When the tapered EBL structure is used, the hole injection efficiency into the active region
can be increased, and the electron overflow can be significantly reduced. The physical origin
for the performance improvement could be attributed to the mitigated downward band
bending and the higher effective potential height for electrons. The tapered EBL LED was
realized by MOCVD, and the efficiency droop was reduced from 44% in original LED to
29% in tapered EBL LED.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the National Science Council in Taiwan under grant number,
NSC102-3113-P-009-007-CC2 and NSC-102-2221-E-009-131-MY3.
#195065 - $15.00 USD Received 23 Aug 2013; revised 11 Oct 2013; accepted 14 Oct 2013; published 3 Jan 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 13 January 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 1 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.000463 | OPTICS EXPRESS 469
