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Degradation under high current stress of AlGaN quantum well based light emitting diodes emitting at 285 and 310 nm has been studied using electroluminescence, time-resolved photoluminescence and current-voltage experimental techniques. The measurements have revealed that during aging decrease of the emission intensity is accompanied by increase of the tunneling current, increase of the nitrogen vacancy concentration and partial compensation of the p-doping. The main role in the device degradation has been ascribed to formation of tunneling conductivity channels, probably, via activation of the closed core screw dislocations with the help of nitrogen vacancies. Carrier lifetimes in the quantum wells and the p-cladding were found to be unaffected by the aging process, suggesting that the nonradiative recombination has a lesser influence on the device degradation.

Articles you may be interested inDiscrimination of local radiative and nonradiative recombination processes in an InGaN/GaN single-quantumwell structure by a time-resolved multimode scanning near-field optical microscopy Scanning near field optical microscopy ͑SNOM͒ was applied to study the carrier localization in single InGaN/GaN quantum well structures grown on nonpolar m-plane GaN substrates. Dual localization potential consisting of hundreds of nanometers-to micrometer-size areas as well as smaller localization centers were identified from the SNOM scans and near field photoluminescence spectral widths. The localization areas were found to align along the ͓0001͔ direction, which was attributed to partial strain relaxation at the monolayer steps.

Scanning near-field photoluminescence spectroscopy has been applied to evaluate bandgap fluctuations in epitaxial AlGaN films with the AlN molar fraction varying from 0.30 to 0.50. A dual localization pattern has been observed. The potential of the small-scale (<100 nm) localization, evaluated from the width of the photoluminescence spectra, is between 0 and 51 meV and increases with increased Al content. These potential variations have been assigned to small-scale compositional fluctuations occurring due to stress variations, dislocations, and formation of Al-rich grains during growth. Larger area potential variations of 25–40 meV, most clearly observed in the lower Al-content samples, have been attributed to Ga-rich regions close to grain boundaries or atomic layer steps. The density, size, and bandgap energy of these domains were found to be composition dependent. The lower bandgap domains were found to be strongly correlated with the regions with efficient nonradiative recombination.

Emission from a 285 nm AlGaN quantum well light emitting diode has been studied by scanning near-field optical spectroscopy. The scans revealed micrometer-size domainlike areas emitting with a higher intensity and at a longer wavelength; presumably, because of a lower AlN molar fraction in these regions. Experiments performed on different days have shown that with time, intensity from these spots increases and emission wavelength shifts to the red, indicating a further change in the quantum well alloy composition. This has allowed distinguishing an aging mechanism that involves locally increased current, heating, and atom migration.