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I. INTRODUCTION
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Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of the studied devices B (with ten-period p-GaN/iInGaN SL structure) and A (without SL structure). The equivalent circuit model
(a) and corresponding energy band diagram of the InGaN/GaN SL (b) are also
included. In (a), the current flowing paths are represented by dashed lines.
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Fig. 4. SIMS profile near the MQW layers for the device B.
Fig. 2. TEM image near the MQW layers for the device B.
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Fig. 5. AFM images of the p-GaN surfaces, for the devices A(a) and B(b),
respectively.
Fig. 5 shows the AFM images of devices A (a) and B (b), respectively. Based on these measurements, the values of surface
root-mean square roughness
of devices A and B are about
77.6 and 25.3 nm, respectively. There are many deep V-defects
on the p-GaN surface for the device A, while the suppression
of V-defects can be found for the device B. The higher surface roughness could be attributed to the formation of V-defects.
Clearly, with help of the inserted SL layers, the propagation of
threading dislocations can be suppressed underlying the p-GaN
layer, thus both improved leakage current and electrostatic discharge tolerance are anticipated. The inserted SL layer could reduce the strain-induced deformation in p-GaN layer, along with
an additional improvement on the surface morphology. Moreover, it is known that, for a device, a rougher surface is usually accompanied with a poorer surface contact property [21].
Thus, a higher specific contact resistance of device A is expected
which is consistent with the corresponding higher series resistance. By using an s-TLM method, the measured specific contact resistances (the p-pad/ITO/p-GaN interface) of devices A
and B are
and
-cm , respectively.
This is in agreement with the previous prediction.
Fig. 6(a) shows IV characteristics of devices A and B. The
turn-on voltages, under a forward operation current of 20 mA,
for devices A and B are 3.32 and 3.14 V, respectively. A decreased 0.18 V of voltage drop of device B is observed. This
is certainly caused by the superior current-spreading ability of
device B which substantially leads to the reduction of parasitic resistance and forward voltage. Another possible reason is
the smoother p-GaN surface of device B. Fig. 6(b) illustrates
the corresponding detailed IV characteristics. Clearly, the devices B exhibits a substantially lower reserve-biased leakage behavior. Experimentally, the inserted SL structure considerably
Fig. 6. (a) IV characteristics of devices A and B. (b) The corresponding detailed IV characteristics and the ESD-induced reverse characteristics of devices
A and B.
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in EQE. This enhancement is principally caused by the uniform current spreading and reduced injection loss generated by
the presence of SL structure. Furthermore, as described above,
mA), device A exhibits
under a high injection condition (
pronounced heating effect, along with Auger recombination,
both which certainly deteriorate the efficiency [26]. However,
for device B, due to the reduced current crowding effect, the
EQE droop is alleviated. In addition, from the (1), under a low
injection level, the injection current is dominated by the term
An which is related to nonradiative recombinations. The higher
mA) can be asEQE of device B at a low injection level (
cribed to the smaller coefficient A induced by reduced defects in
the p-GaN layer. Thus, the device B shows more pronounced radiative recombination over defect-induced nonradiative recombination, while device A does oppositely.
Fig. 8 shows the micrographs of LEDs A and B under 20 mA
(room temperature), respectively. Clearly, device A shows lower
injection density which is limited by the poorer p-GaN quality.
The result is consistent with the previous expectation in Fig. 7.
On the other hand, the injection density and current spreading
ability of device B are indeed superior to those of device A. As
a result, the high electrical and optical performance of a GaNbased LED with an inserted SL structure is achieved.
IV. CONCLUSION
In summary, an interesting GaN-based LED with a ten-period
i-InGaN/p-GaN (2.5 nm/5 nm) SL structure is fabricated and
studied. As compared with a conventional LED without the SL
structure, the studied LED exhibits improved current spreading
performance and a high-quality p-GaN layer. The turn-on
voltage at 20 mA is decreased from 3.32 to 3.14 V due to
the reduced contact resistance as well as the more uniformity
of carriers injection. A substantially reduced leakage current
for the studied device is also obtained. After the ESD testing
(1400-V reverse voltage), the studied device exhibits only a
small increase in leakage current, while the LED device without
the SL structure shows a big increase. For the studied LED, the
significant enhancement of 25.4% in output power as well as
the increment of 5% in EQE are observed due to the superior
current spreading ability and a better film quality produced by
the presence of SL structure. In addition, these improvements
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