Smart, high-power ultraviolet (UV)-B light-emitting diode (LED) light sources are demanded for both medical and agricultural applications, including vitamin D3 production in human skin (294-304 nm), immunotherapy (310 nm), cancer therapy (295-310 nm) and enriching phytochemicals in plants (310 nm). To achieve this, we have combined graded stacks of AlGaN buffer layer (BL), AlGaN multi quantum wells (MQWs) with high internal quantum efficiency (IQE), a transparent p-AlGaN contact layer, and a highlyreflective p-type electrode for the fabrication of a UV-B LED. By optimizing the growth conditions, we demonstrated an output power of 7.1 mW for a 310 nm UV-B LED under bare-wafer conditions using a highly reflective Ni/Mg p-electrode. We also demonstrated a high IQE of 47% for UV-B emission from UV-B LED at 295 nm, by using a graded n-AlGaN BL. The light-extraction efficiency (LEE) was increased by introducing both a highly-transparent p-AlGaN and a highly reflective Ni/Mg p-electrode. As a result, we achieved an EQE of 4.4% at a dc drive current of 20 mA under CW-operation at RT and a maximum output power of 13 mW for a 295 nm UV-B LED for medical applications.

As per the Minamata Convention on Mercury, regulation on mercury use will be stricter from the year of 2020, and safe AlGaNbased ultraviolet (UV) light sources are urgently needed for killing SARS-CoV-2 (corona virus). AlGaN-based ultraviolet-B (UVB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and UVB laser diodes (LDs) have the potential to replace toxic mercury UV lamps. Previously, the internal-quantum-efficiency (η int ) was enhanced from 47 to 54% in AlGaN UVB multiquantum wells (MQWs). However, some nonlinear behaviors in both light output power (L) and external quantum efficiency (η ext ) in the 310 nm band UVB LEDs were observed, and later on, such nonlinearities were overcome by reducing the thicknesses of quantum well barriers (T QWB ) in MQWs. After relaxing the n-AlGaN electron injection layer up to 50% underneath the MQWs and using a highly reflective Ni/Al p-electrode, L and η ext of the 310 nm band UVB LED were greatly improved from 12 mW and 2.3% to record values of 29 mW and 4.7%, respectively. Similarly, for the 294 nm band UVB LED, η ext and L values, respectively, were also remarkably improved up to 6.5% and 32 mW at room temperature under bare wafer conditions using a better carrier confinement scheme in the MQWs as well as using a moderately Mgdoped p-type multiquantum-barrier electron-blocking layer (p-MQB EBL). The moderately doped p-MQB EBL was used to achieve better hole transport to enhance the hole injection toward the MQWs as well as to block the high-energy electron from overshooting. Possible explanations and recommendations for the improvements in the performances of 294−310 nm UVB LEDs are broadly discussed. Most importantly, such controllable multi-UVB-wavelength emitters may extend nitride-based LEDs to previously inaccessible areas, for example, electrically pumped AlGaN-based UVB LDs.

Ultraviolet (UV)-A light-emitting diode (LED) light sources are strongly demanded for both medical and photochemical applications. In our previous report, we investigated the conventional n-AlGaN buffer layer (BL)-based UV-A LED devices and a very low output power was achieved. In this work, we aim for the suppression of vertically propagating threading dislocation densities (TDDs) in the n-AlGaN BL including the current spreading layer (CSL) by introducing Si-doped n-Al 0.37 Ga 0.63 N/n-Al 0.27 Ga 0.73 N superlattices (SLs) between the AlN template and n-AlGaN BL for the demonstration of 341 nm UV-A LEDs. When the conventional n-AlGaN BLs were replaced with n-AlGaN SL-based BLs (with a suitable number of periods up to ~70) in the UV-A multi-quantum wells, then the full width at half maximum of the x-ray rocking curves in the n-AlGaN CSL for the (0 0 0 2) and (10-12) planes, respectively, were reduced to 346 and 431 arcsec and the total TDDs were suppressed to approximately ~1 × 10 9 cm −2 . Finally, when the conventional Ni (20 nm)/Au (150 nm) p-electrodes were replaced with new Ni (1 nm)/Mg (200 nm) p-electrodes in the n-AlGaN SL-based UV-A LEDs, the maximum output power was improved from 2.1 to 2.5 mW.

Crystal growth of eco-friendly, ultrawide bandgap aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) semiconductor-based ultraviolet-B (UVB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) hold the potential to replace toxic mercury-based ultraviolet lamps. One of the major drawbacks in the utilisation of AlGaN-based UVB LEDs is their low efficiency of about 6.5%. The study investigates the influence of Al-graded p-type multi-quantum-barrier electron-blocking-layer (Al-grad p-MQB EBL) and Al-graded p-AlGaN hole source layer (HSL) on the generation and injection of 3D holes in the active region. Using the new UVB LED design, a significant improvement in the experimental efficiency and light output power of about 8.2% and 36 mW is noticed. This is accomplished by the transparent nature of Al-graded Mg-doped p-AlGaN HSL for 3D holes generation and p-MQB EBL structure for holes transport toward multi-quantum-wells via intra-band tunnelling. Based on both the numerical and experimental studies, the influence of sub-nanometre scale Ni film deposited underneath the 200 nm-thick Al-film p-electrode on the optical reflectance in UVB LED is investigated. A remarkable improvement in the efficiency of up to 9.6% and light output power of 40 mW, even in the absence of standard package, flip-chip, and resin-like lenses, is achieved on bare-wafer under continuous-wave operation at room temperature. The enhanced performance is attributed to the use of Al-graded p-MQB EBL coupled with softly polarised p-AlGaN HSL and the highly reflective 0.4 nm-thick Ni and 200 nm-thick Al p-electrode in the UVB LED. This research study provides a new avenue to improve the performance of high-power p-AlGaN-based UVB LEDs and other optoelectronic devices in III–V semiconductors.

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AlGaN-based ultraviolet-B (UVB) LEDs at 310 nm emissions are expected to offer safe and smart size UVB-light sources compared to the toxic mercury UV-lamp. Previously, the issue of nonlinearity in the emitted light output power (L) as well as in the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 310 nm band UVB LEDs were observed. First, the influence of both the number of n-AlGaN buffer layers (BLs) and the type of p-electrodes on the recovery of linear behavior in the L and EQE were investigated. It was found that the nonlinearity in the L and EQE of UVB LED is independent of the number of BLs as well as type of p-electrodes. Therefore, finally the dependence of nonlinearity in the L and EQE on the thickness of quantum-well-barrier (T QWB) of multi-quantum-wells (MQWs) were also considered. Subsequently, the issue of nonlinear behavior in the L and EQE was resolved by the thickness reduction of T QWB from 25 to 10 nm in the MQWs. Similarly, a reasonable value of improvement in both L and EQE, respectively, up to 12 mW and 2.2% of 310nm band UVB LED were realized.

B-doped p-BaSi2 layer growth by molecular beam epitaxy and the influence of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on hole concentrations were presented. The hole concentration was controlled in the range between 1017 and 1020 cm−3 at room temperature by changing the temperature of the B Knudsen cell crucible. The acceptor level of the B atoms was estimated to be approximately 23 meV. High hole concentrations exceeding 1 × 1020 cm−3 were achieved via dopant activation using RTA at 800 °C in Ar. The activation efficiency was increased up to 10%.

Smart, low cost and environmentally safe AlGaN-based UVB LEDs are promising in many real world applications including medical as well as agricultural sciences. The main purpose of this work is to develop a crystal growth technique for an n-AlGaN buffer layer (BL) including an n-AlGaN current spreading layer (CSL) for obtaining a high internal quantum efficiency (IQE) from UVB-emitting multi quantum wells (MQWs). By the reduction of the edge type threading dislocation densities in the n-AlGaN CSL, as well as the optimization of the quantum well (QW) thickness, the IQE of about 42% was improved for UVB MQWs, with an emission wavelength of 294 nm. Subsequently, the external quantum efficiency improved from 2.7% to 3.3% at 20 mA under the continuous wave (CW) operation and the maximum output power also improved from 10.8 mW to 12.5 mW at 126 mA, respectively. 293 nm UVB LED light sources are very useful for the application of vitamin D3 production in the human body.