Indium gallium nitride (InGaN)-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are considered a promising candidate for red-green-blue (RGB) micro displays. Currently, the blue and green LEDs are efficient, while the red ones are inefficient for such applications. This paper reports our work of creating efficient InGaN-based orange and red LEDs on silicon(111) substrates at low current density. Based on the structure of InGaN yellow LEDs, by simply reducing the growth temperature of all the yellow quantum wells (QWs), we obtained 599 nm orange LEDs with peak wall-plug efficiency (WPE) of 18.1% at 2    A / cm 2 . An optimized QW structure was proposed that changed two of the nine yellow QWs to orange ones. Compared with the sample containing nine orange QWs, the sample with two orange QWs and seven yellow QWs showed similar emission spectra but a much higher peak WPE up to 24.0% at 0.8    A / cm 2 with a wavelength of 608 nm. The improvement of peak WPE can be attributed to the improved QW quality and the reduced active recombination volume. Subsequently, a series of efficient InGaN-based orange and red LEDs was demonstrated. With further development, the InGaN-based red LEDs are believed to be attainable and can be used in micro LED displays.

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An error in the article by Gao, Zhang, Zhu, Wu, Mo, Pan, Liu & Jiang [J. Appl. Cryst. (2019), 52, 637–642] is corrected.

Two InGaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with and without pre-layer were prepared, and both had a similar multi-quantum well (MQW) structure with four green QWs near n-GaN and one blue QW close to p-GaN. The pre-layer established large V-shaped pits in MQWs. In addition to the regular vertical p-n junction along c-axis, a kind of horizontal p-n junction created by n-type MQWs and p-GaN filled in V-shaped pits was introduced. And the effect of the horizontal p-n junction on optoelectronics characteristics, including photoluminescence, electroluminescence, and I-V, were discussed. The horizontal p-n junction creates a strong horizontal built-in electric field which can effectively separate the photogenerated carriers in the QW close to p-GaN, leading to the absence of photoluminescence from the QW close to p-GaN. The horizontal p-n junction also provides a path for hole injection, which changes the turn-on order of QW, and reduces the voltage of the LED with large V-shaped pits. These results suggest a new thought of analyzing and designing InGaN-based LEDs with V-shaped pits.

It is observed that the radiative recombination rate in InGaN-based light-emitting diode decreases with lattice temperature increasing. The effect of lattice temperature on the radiative recombination rate tends to be stable at high injection. Thus, there should be an upper limit for the radiative recombination rate in the quantum well with the carrier concentration increasing, even under the same lattice temperature. A modified and easily used ABC-model is proposed. It describes that the slope of the radiative recombination rate gradually decreases to zero, and further reaches a negative value in a small range of lattice temperature increasing. These provide a new insight into understanding the dependence of the radiative recombination rate on lattice temperature and carrier concentration in InGaN-based light-emitting diode.

Inhomogeneous electroluminescence (EL) of InGaN green LEDs grown on mesh-patterned Si (111) substrate had been investigated. Sample with n-AlGaN inserted between the pre-strained layers and the first quantum well showed the inhomogeneous EL in the low current density range. Near-field EL emission intensity distribution images depicted that inhomogeneity in the form of premature turn-on at the periphery of the LED chip, results in stronger emission intensity at the edges. This premature turn-on effect significantly reduces the luminous efficacy and higher ideality factor value due to locally current crowding effect. Raman measurement and fluorescence microscopy results indicated that the partially relaxed in-plane stress at the edge of the window region acts as a parasitic diode with a smaller energy band gap, which is a source of edge emission. Numerical simulations showd that the tilted triangular n-AlGaN functions like a forward-biased Schottky diode, which not only impedes carrier transport, but also contributes a certain ideality factor.

Five types of GaN-based yellow light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with both a V-pit and a hole blocking layer (HBL) have been investigated numerically. The simulation results show that the GaN hole blocking layer in the p region (HBLP) can not only increase the ratio of the hole current via the V-pit, but also increase the electron leakage into the p layer via the flat region, leading to the lower internal quantum efficiency (IQE). Compared to the GaN HBLP, the Al0.5Ga0.5N HBLP is helpful in suppressing the electron leakage via the flat region to the p layer; however, it increases the electron leakage via the V-pits to the p layer, resulting in an unsatisfactory improvement of IQE. In order to settle out this issue, the AlN hole blocking layer in the n region (HBLN) is designed in the sidewall of the V-pit. It is found that the HBLN can not only alleviate the electron leakage via the V-pits to the p layer, more importantly, but also block the hole leakage via the V-pits to the n layer, leading to the improvement of IQE.