InGaN based light emitting diodes utilizing Ga doped ZnO as a highly transparent contact to p‐GaN

H. Y. Liu, X. Li, S. Liu, X. Ni, Meng‐Chyi Wu, V. Avrutin, N. Izyumskaya, Ümit Özgür, Andrew B. Yankovich, A. Kvit,

Physica status solidi. C, Conferences and critical reviews/Physica status solidi. C, Current topics in solid state physics · 2011 · 12 citations · 0 references

Concepts

Abstract

Abstract We report on the electrical and optical properties of InGaN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) utilizing Ga doped ZnO (GZO) grown by MBE as a highly transparent contact p ‐electrode (GZO‐LEDs). For comparison, the LEDs with semi‐transparent thin Ni/Au (5nm/5nm) current spreading layers were also fabricated on the same wafer (Ni/Au‐LEDs). Pulsed electroluminescence measurements revealed that the relative external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the GZO‐LED is 1.7‐2 times higher than that of Ni/Au‐LED at high current densities. Moreover, GZO‐LEDs can withstand much higher current densities (4700 A/cm 2 ) than the Ni/Au LEDs (3500 A/cm 2 ) under pulsed mode. Unpackaged GZO‐LEDs with 200 μm diameter showed negligible light output degradation for up to 30 mins under CW current of 100 mA (corresponding to a 318 Acm ‐2 current density), while the light output for Ni/Au‐LEDs was reduced by 85% after only 5 mins of operation due to the severe current crowding effect (or current filamentation). (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)