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Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting

Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop by Imposing Improved Si-Doped Barrier
Model

Article · September 2012

DOI: 10.1166/eef.2012.1007

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 Copyright © 2012 by American Scientific Publishers
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Energy Focus
Vol. 1, pp. 1–7, 2012
(www.aspbs.com/efoc)

Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi

Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing
Efficiency Droop by Imposing Improved Si-Doped
Barrier Model
Dipika Robidas∗ and D. Arivuoli
Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University, Chennai 600026, India

ABSTRACT
Simulation studies on Reduction in Efficiency droop of InGaN/GaN Multi Quantum Well (MQW) Light Emitting
Diode (LEDs) by varying the Si doping concentrations in the GaN quantum-well barriers (QWB) of the MQW
active region was studied. Special Si doped barrier profile was imposed and was compared to constant doped
QWB and we observed improved LED performance characteristics. Improvement in suggested LED structure
is attributed due to decreased in non-radiative recombination like Auger recombination inside the active region

ARTICLE
and overflow of carriers from the active region. Simulation workout shows improved results by distribution of
different concentration of Si in QWB rather than the unintentional doping and shows an improved structure to
be used for Blue LED application.
KEYWORDS: GaN/InGaN, LED, Efficiency Droop, Barrier Doping, Simulation.

1. INTRODUCTION confinement effect within the active region by increasing

the number of carriers recombining inside the active region
Recent days the III–V nitride semiconductor materials are and reducing the number of carriers recombining outside
spreading much wide field in optoelectronics application the active region. Although a narrow quantum-well can
for research field and commercial purpose. Especially, the provide a large carrier confinement, still lots of carriers
InGaN/GaN MQWs are widely used as the active layer recombine outside the active layer since the carrier capture
in violet, blue, green LED and LD applications. However rate of a narrow quantum well is low. As a result, LEDs
researcher reported many report stating that InGaN/GaN with a narrow quantum-well will still have low quantum
based MQW LED structures, have a low internal quan- efficiency. So for this work we consider a thicker well
tum efficiency due to the poor confinement of carriers by width of 4nm with barrier width of 9nm. Stacks of works
the small band offset between the InGaN well layer and have been reported towards optimizing the performance of
the GaN barrier and also for the most pronouncing prob- MQW GaN based LEDs in order to overcome the effi-
lem of Efficiency Droop1–3 i.e., decrease in Internal quan- ciency droop problem.7–10
tum efficiency as current density increases. There are lots Even we can found lots of reports proposing excel-
of factors put forwarded to explore the efficiency droop lent results for fabricating the InGaN/GaN based epilayers
mechanisms such as the effect of dislocation densities,4 for high efficient light-emitting diodes. But there are very
heat effects, Auger recombination,5 and carrier leakage few discussions on the effects of doping in the quantum-
from active region6 but yet it is in the hot topics. So in well and/or quantum-well barriers to increase the LED
InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs, the carrier injection and distri- efficiency. Those reported paper describing Si doping in
bution in the active region may be a key issue to explore the QWB and/or QW has been reported to be advanta-
the efficiency reduction facts. geous in MQW structures.11–13 Tzong-Liang Tsai et al.14
To improve the internal quantum efficiency of LEDs we reported that for high performance of LEDs an appropri-
need to increase both the carrier capture rate and the carrier ate combination of barrier thickness and carrier concen-
tration needed. The emission energy of PL&EL increases
∗
with barrier thickness decreased and with Si doping level
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Email: arivuoli@gmail.com
increased. Kwon et al.15 reported that by Si delta doped
Received: xx Xxxx xxxx GaN barrier layer in to the InGaN quantum well layer
Accepted: xx Xxxx xxxx helped to improve the thermal stability and optical power

Energy Focus 2012, Vol. 1, No. 1 XXXX-XXXX/2012/1/001/007 doi:10.1166/efoc.2012.1007 1

 Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop Robidas and Arivuoli

of MQW LED by increasing electron and hole injection GaN barriers respectively and compared with the structure
in the active region. Recently the paper by Han et al.16 with a constant Si doping of 5e18 cm−3 in all the six GaN
reported the effect of Mg doping in the barrier of MQWs QWB. The p-GaN (doping = 12 × 1019 cm−3  resides on
of InGaN/GaN LEDs and also improvement of IQE and a 20 nm thick P -AlGaN Electron Blocking Layer. The
thermal stability by Mg doping. effect of the selected barrier doping on an energy band
In this study, we investigate the effect of Si doped bar- and a hole carrier distribution in each of the wells was
rier concentration in InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs. We try works out by using the commercial software- SiLENSe,
to impose an improved model with different barrier con- Software for Modelling of Light Emitters based on Nitride
centration in LED structure and studied the Optical and Semiconductors. In this simulation, electron mobility, hole
electrical properties of InGaN/GaN MQWs in order to mobility, were assumed as 150 cm2 /V s and 10 cm2 /V s
overcome the efficiency droop problem by Simulating the respectively. The simulations were performed at a typical
InGaN/GaN MQW LED Heterostructure with SiLENSe LED operation forward voltage, 3.4 V.
4.2 software. The software simulates the LED band dia- In this paper, we will consider the total current density
grams as a function of bias, electron and hole transport Jtotal and carrier recombination rate R by Eqs. (1) and (2).
inside a hetero-structure, and non-radiative and radiative Jtotal = Jrad + Jnrad + Joverflow (1)
carrier recombination that provides light emission.
R = Rrad + Rdis + RAuger (2)
Jnrad = Jdis + JAuger (3)
2. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
Where,
A typical InGaN/GaN based blue LED structure with a Jtotal = total current density injected into LEDs
2 m-thick undoped GaN layer with a 2 m-thick n-GaN Jrad = radiative recombination current density
ARTICLE

layer (doping = 5 × 1018 cm−3  has been considered as a Jnrad = non-radiative recombination current density in
reference. The active region consists with five 2-nm thick active region
undoped In023 Ga077 N QWs sandwiched by six 9-nm thick Joverflow = carriers overflow current density outside the
undoped GaN barrier layers. To overcome the overflow active region.
problem especially in Single Quantum Well (SQW) and R = carrier recombination rate
double hetero-structures of LED, MQW structure is report- Rrad = radiative recombination rate
edly considered as the best one. The operating temperature Rdis = dislocation recombination rate
is assumed to be 300 K, Figure 1 shows a basic LED RAuger = Auger recombination rate
structure and schematic diagram of MQW LED, which has Jdis = dislocation recombination current density
been considered for the simulation in this work. JAuger = Auger recombination current density
The basic structure of the InGaN/GaN based LED is Here we consider the radiative and non-radiative recom-
shown in Figure 1 The active region in the LED consists of bination occurs only in active region. In the structures for
five In023 Ga077 N QW having doping of 1e15 cm−3 sepa- simulation parameters, the dislocation densities and the
rated by six GaN barrier layers of doping 5e18 cm−3 , sand- Auger coefficient are set to 12 × 108 cm−2 set to 18 ×
wiched between p and n-GaN. In this paper we impose a 10−30 cm6 /s. In this paper we calculated out the Joverflow
new profile with different barrier concentrations of 5e18, and RAuger value of the concern structure from Eqs. (1)
5e17, 5e16, 5e16, 5e17, 5e18 cm−3 successively in the six and (2).

Fig. 1. (a) Basic LED structure (b) schematic InGaN/GaN MQW structure revealing both the structure with different Si doped GaN QWB and
constant Si doped GaN QWB.

2 Energy Focus, 1, 1–7, 2012

Robidas and Arivuoli Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION leakage. Therefore electron–hole distribution in the active

region is uniformed and leading radiative recombination
The band diagram for both the structure with different Si also uniformly distributed among the active region layers
doping in QWB and with constant doping were studied. for the LED structure with different Si doping in QWB
The Structure with different Si doping in QWB profile than the structure with constant Si doping in QWBs.
may help the holes to transport in the QW region more Figures 2, 3 & 4 shows the band diagram, electron–hole
easily because of the lower barrier height in valence band, concentration and Radiative and Non- radiative recombina-
which is also beneficial for reducing the electron current tion of InGaN/GaN MQW structure for both the structure

ARTICLE

Fig. 2. Band diagram of InGaN/GaN MQW structure for (a) constant Si doped GaN QWB and (b) the structure with different Si doped GaN QWB.

Energy Focus, 1, 1–7, 2012 3

 Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop Robidas and Arivuoli
ARTICLE

Fig. 3. Electron–hole distribution of InGaN/GaN MQW structure for (a) constant Si doped GaN QWB and (b) the structure with different Si doped
GaN QWB.

with different Si doped GaN QWB and constant Si doped electrons and holes concentration to be more uniformly
GaN QWB. distributed.
The above figures clearly reveals the barriers with differ- The Auger recombination current density and carri-
ent type of Si doping concentration shows higher and uni- ers overflow current density outside the active region
form radiative recombination rates than constant Si doping were plotted with current density and studied. The nature
in QWB, because the graded type of doping, makes the of the structure were observed by plotting the graphs

4 Energy Focus, 1, 1–7, 2012

Robidas and Arivuoli Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop

ARTICLE

Fig. 4. Radiative and Non-radiative recombination of InGaN/GaN MQW structure for (a) constant Si doped GaN QWB and (b) the structure with
different Si doped GaN QWB.

for total non-radiative recombination current density in structure for the both structure with different Si doped
active region to total current density injected into LEDs GaN QWB and constant Si doped GaN QWB and were
of InGaN/GaN MQW structure and total non-radiative described by the Figures 5(a and b) as below.
recombination current density in active region to radia- From the Figures 5(a and b) it clearly observed that the
tive recombination current density of InGaN/GaN MQW non-radiative recombination inside and outside the LED

Energy Focus, 1, 1–7, 2012 5

 Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop Robidas and Arivuoli
ARTICLE

Fig. 5. (a) Auger recombination current density versus current density

plot and total non-radiative recombination current density in active region
to total current density injected into LEDs of InGaN/GaN MQW struc-
ture for the structure with different Si doped GaN QWB and constant Si
doped GaN QWB, (b) carriers overflow current density outside the active Fig. 6. (a) Emission Intensity and (b) Internal Quantum Efficiency
region vs. current density plot and total non-radiative recombination cur- (IQE) curves for InGaN/GaN MQW structure for the structure with dif-
rent density in active region to radiative recombination current density ferent Si doped GaN QWB and constant Si doped GaN QWB.
of InGaN/GaN MQW structure for the structure with different Si doped
GaN QWB and constant Si doped GaN QWB.
barrier with the different concentration profile, the inten-
model structure is quite high for the structure with constant sity is significantly high and at the same time, the emission
Si doping in the QWB. There is a huge variation in the covers the required blue region of the spectrum suitable
simulated data for both the structure. And it is suggested for fabricating InGaN/GaN based MQW Blue LEDs.
that the imposing the new variation Si doping in the QWB The Internal Quantum Efficiency (IQE) curves in
can reduce the Auger and overflow quantity in a partic- Figure 6(b) exhibit an improved result for the structure
ular LED device design with a low rate of non-radiative with different Si concentration in QWBs than the barrier
recombinations. with constant Si doped concentration. The insert figure of
In the next step, the nature of emission intensity as IQE shows that at low current density (upto 10 A/cm2  the
well as the emission wavelength have been studied with suggested design having no efficiency droop but for higher
the constant and variation of barrier concentration profile current, droop behaviour supressed over the LED and from
model. It is observed that as the barrier layer with constant this paper we found out the main reasons for this behaviour
concentartion having lower emission intensity compared is the non-radiative recombination like Auger and carrier
to barrier with the different concentration profile and at escaping from the active region. But by using the new
the same time peak is shifted slightly towards lower wave- LED device structure with different Si-doping over QWB
length side. It is clearly observed from Figure 6(a) that for can reduce the droop problem to an extent.

6 Energy Focus, 1, 1–7, 2012

 Robidas and Arivuoli Simulation Studies on GaN/InGaN Based Multi Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode for Reducing Efficiency Droop

From the simulation studies it can be assured that dop- References and Notes
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