World Applied Programming, Vol (1), No (4), October 2011.

269-273
ISSN: 2222-2510
2011 WAP journal. www.waprogramming.com

Study of Electrical and Optical Properties

in GaN homostruture LEDs
H. Arabshahi

M. Mahmoodi

Physics Department
Payame NourUniversity of Fariman
Fariman, Iran
hadi_arabshahi@yahoo.com

Physics Department
Payame NourUniversity of Fariman
Fariman, Iran

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to consider optical and electrical properties of MOVPE GaN homostruture LEDs. The sample that
has been selected for the study, doped with Si and Mg for n and p region of junction, respectively. The V-I and L-I characteristics of
this device indicate that diffusion and space charge currents have the main role in luminescence, because in this current range defects
levels have been saturated and thus band to band recombination is dominance. According to these analyses, when levels associated
with defects are saturated in the smaller current, higher efficiency in converting input electrical power to output optical power is
achieved.
Key word: Homostructure LEDs, junction, luminescence, efficiency.
I.

INTRODUCTION

Light emission diode that study in this paper, is derived from Calle et . al . experiments [1]. In this device, Si is used for doping
type of n and Mg for doping type of p. The diode structure that its cross section is shown in figure 1, grown by metal organics
vapor phase epitaxial ( MOVPE) method.

Figure 1. Cross section view of homostructure LED.

]
An undoping GaN buffer is grown on sapphire sub layer. On top of it, Si and Mg doped GaN layer were deposited with1.4m and
0.5m thickness, respectively. In this figure, dark sections are ohmic contacts of devices. Because activation energy of Si is low
and about 20-30 Mev [2], expected that at room temperature most donor atoms are ionized and their electrons has existed in
conduction band in n-region as free electrons. In p-region, due to high activation energy of Mg atoms, about 0.55 eV ,only part of
them are excited and expected density of holes be 10-17 cm3. Figure 2 show band structure of this diode with impurity levels that
participate in transition of carriers.

Figure 2. Band structure of LED.

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In this figure, residual donor (RD) which is related to Si atoms and deep level donor (DLD) are unwanted levels that caused in
growing phase in p-region. The presence of residual donor is due to doping Si at first and Mg later. Therefore some of Si has
penetrated in material when Mg-doped GaN has grown and produce undesirable donor level in p-region. DLA is deep level
acceptor related to Mg atoms. Yellow band acceptor (YBA) is unwanted level acceptor that caused by dislocations in n-region and
leading to yellow emission.
There are two emissions in n-region: one, Yellow emission. It could be produced by the recombination of conduction band
electrons to YBA holes and other, ultra violet emission caused by band to band recombination. Also, there are two emissions in pregion: blue emission. Source of this emission is recombination of conduction band electrons or residual donor to deep level
acceptor holes and ultra violet emission caused by band to band recombination. Deep level donor has not any role in
recombination.
Since the electron effective mass (0.22 m0) is smaller than of holes (0.8 m0) [3], the electrons have more mobility, with applied
forward bias and shortening of the potential barrier height of charge space layer, electrons pass potential barrier with a great
probability and get into p-region. Therefore, we expect major radiant recombination done in p-region.
II.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 3 shows current-voltage characteristic in forward bias conditions. As seen in this diagram, two different regimes can be
observed depending on the applied bias.

Figure 3. Voltagecurrent characteristic.

1- In low voltage (V<2.5 V), current increases exponentially with voltage as equation: I ~ ev.
In according to Call et .al slope of this current hasn't changed in temperature range 4-300 K. on this voltage range, dominance
current is attributed too tunneling current assisted by shallow or deep traps[4]. The value of that obtained with method of least
square fitting is 4.9 V-1 and excellent agreement with the experimental value [1].
2- In higher voltage (V>2.5 V), the current change with forward bias as I ~ (V-V0)2 .where V0=2 V at room temperature and
increases when cooling the device( 4.75 V at 4 K). this behavior ascribed to generation-recombination and tunneling current in
space charge region and also diffusion current, reported for wide and direct band-gap semiconductors as SiC [5]. In the range of
applied voltage, due to small barrier height, recombination current in space charge region and diffusion current are possible. In
semiconductor device with narrow band-gap, like GaAs and GaP(1.4 eV and 2.26 eV, respectively), diffusion current is dominant.
This current occurs at the junction that has a good crystalline quality of grown layers and its dislocations are low. In GaN diode
that has a wide band-gap (3.4 eV) and its grown layers hasn't high quality, the main current can not predicted with certainly, in the
range of not very high voltage. But in high voltage, above of 4 V, diffusion current is the major contribution.
Figure 4 shows Electroluminescence intensity- current characteristic of this device in the room temperature.

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Figure 4. Electroluminescencecurrent characteristic of LED.

As it can be seen in figure 4, total intensity of Electroluminescence is function of electrical current through the device. This
dependence follows of L~Im equation. Our calculations have shown this equation is in according to experimental data when in I
<30 mA, m is equal to 2.3 and in I >30 mA, m is equal to 0.9. These values are corresponded with results obtained in the previous
section (I-V characteristic), that predicted recombination and diffusion current in low and high voltage, respectively.
Figure 5 show relative efficiency depending on injection current. According to the data, the maximum efficiency has happened for
I=40 mA , that corresponding with current which the slope of figure 4 has changed.

Figure 5. Efficiency-current characteristic of LED.

Based on result of figures 4 and 5, if saturation of crystalline defect levels occur in smaller current, expected maximum
efficiency of conversion electrical energy to radiant energy will be located in smaller current too. Also, regarding the data of
figure 5, efficiency reduces in high currents. This can be due to the heating device and increasing the density of phonons in
device. Figure 6 shows Electroluminescence spectrum of this LED at different temperature. These spectrums resulting of apply
low forward current 10 A at 4 K and 10 mA at room temperature.

Figure 6. Electroluminescence spectrum of LED at difference temperature [1].

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As it can be seen from the figure, with decreasing of temperature, the EL intensity increases in all wavelength range and the
peak of emission is transmitted to lower wavelengths. These results suggest at 4 K peak of emission, =388 nm, UV emission
being due to recombination between electrons of donor atoms and injective holes in valance band. With increasing temperature
(about room temperature), part of shallow acceptors have been occupied and therefore, dominant recombination process occurs
between electrons of conduction band and relatively deep levels, that related to acceptor atoms of Mg, in middle of gap-band and
Thus a peak appears in 430 nm (2.28 eV), blue light. Decreasing of total luminescence intensity with increasing temperature is
due to the relatively high mobility of electrons in the conduction band and this reduces the probability of recombination them with
holes and acceptor levels. According to reports obtained from the photoluminescence spectrum, have been found that in Mgdoped GaN layer, this spectrum is broad and has a peak in the blue region [6]. This result could mean that in the presence of any
current, blue emission tale places in the n-region of junction. Ultraviolet emission can take places in both regions. In addition to
blue and violet light, another spectral line presents in total emitting spectrum. This line related to yellow light that due to electron
transition to an acceptor level in n-region. The witness of this claim is the absence such line in photoluminescence spectrum of pdoped GaN sample [6]. These deep acceptors in n-region have been attributed to defects of Ga vacancy sites and combine Ga with
H [7].
Other points of figure 6 is the broadening of EL emission spectrum that introduced by the "Full Width for Half Maximum"
(FWHM). This quantity increases with a rise in temperature. This means that emission light will be far from ideal state
(monochromatic) with increasing temperature. With the corresponding values extracted from the spectrum of EL, can be achieved
diagram of figure 7.

Figure 7. Full Width for Half Maximum of LED.

According to these results, temperature dependence of width can be approximated with the following equation,
FWHM

( T ) = FWHM

(4 K ) + T + T

where, FWHM and T scale are based on nm and K, respectively. For our LED it be written as follow,

FWHM (T ) = 21.2 + 0.2Tt 2.2 10 4 T 2

DISCUSSION

A study of the electrical and optical properties of MOVPE GaN p-n structure LEDs has been performed. Analyze of voltagecurrent characteristic shows that dominant mechanism in carrier transition, at low voltage (9 V<2.5 V), is tunneling between deep
or shadow levels and in high voltage (v>2.5 V), is space charge recombination. Study of electroluminescence-current
characteristic indicates that tunneling currents (at I<40 mA) have a weak role in production of luminescence and dominant current
is largely composed of diffusion and space charge recombination currents (at I>40 mA). These mechanisms are quite apparent
from the slope of EL-I curve. According to relative efficiency, the maximum value of efficiency take places in I=40 mA. Having
this information can be expected if defects levels are saturated in the smaller current, less thermal energy is produced and the
higher efficiency in converting electrical input power to optical output power is obtained. Analyze of emission spectrum of LED
at different temperatures shows with increasing temperature, mechanism of recombination between levels related to donor and
holes shifts to recombination between conduction electrons and acceptor deep levels (blue range). Also with increasing

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temperature, full width for half maximum (FWHM) parameter increases and lead to broadening of spectrum and will be far from
monochromatic conditions at room temperature.
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