Improvement of UV electroluminescence of n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction LED by ZnS interlayer

Abstract

n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction light emitting diodes with different interfacial layers were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra of the n-ZnO/p-GaN diodes display a broad blue-violet emission centered at 430 nm, whereas the n-ZnO/ZnS/p-GaN and n-ZnO/AlN/p-GaN devices exhibit ultraviolet (UV) emission. Compared with the AlN interlayer, which is blocking both electron and hole at hetero-interface, the utilization of ZnS as intermediate layer can lower the barrier height for holes and keep an effective blocking for electron. Thus, an improved UV EL intensity and a low turn-on voltage (~5V) were obtained. The results were studied by peak-deconvolution with Gaussian functions and were discussed using the band diagram of heterojunctions.