Internal quantum efficiency of nitride light emitters: a critical perspective

Abstract

The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) is a key property of light-emitting semiconductor structures. We critically review the most popular methods for determining the IQE. In particular, we discuss the impact of low- temperature non-radiative recombination on temperature-dependent CW photoluminescence measurements. Using temperature-dependent time-resolved photoluminescence we establish a method to verify 100 % IQE at low temperature and thus to obtain absolute internal quantum efficiencies at all temperatures.