Quaternary InAlGaN-based high-efficiency ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

In order to realize 250-350-nm-band high-efficiency deep ultraviolet (UV) emitting devices using group-III-nitride materials, it is necessary to obtain high-efficiency UV emission from wide-band-gap (In)AlGaN. The use of the In-segregation effect, which has already been used for InGaN blue emitting devices, is quite effective for achieving high-efficiency deep UV emission. We have demonstrated high-efficiency UV emission from quaternary InAlGaN-based quantum wells in the wavelength range between 290 and 375 nm at room temperature (RT) using the In-segregation effect. Emission fluctuations in the submicron region due to In segregation were clearly observed for quaternary InAlGaN epitaxial layers. An internal quantum efficiency as high as 15% was estimated for a quaternary InAlGaN-based single quantum well at RT. Such high-efficiency UV emission can even be obtained on high threading-dislocation density buffer layers. A comparison of electroluminescence is made between light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with InAlGaN, AlGaN, and GaN active regions fabricated on SiC substrates with emission wavelengths between 340 and 360 nm. The emission intensity from the quaternary InAlGaN UV-LED was more than one order of magnitude higher than that from the AlGaN or GaN UV-LEDs under RT cw operation. We therefore fabricated 310-350-nm-band deep UV-LEDs with quaternary InAlGaN active regions. We achieved submilliwatt output power under RT pulsed operation for 308-314-nm LEDs. We also demonstrated a high output power of 7.4 mW from a 352-nm quaternary InAlGaN-based LED fabricated on a GaN substrate under RT cw operation. The maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the 352-nm InAlGaN-based LED was higher than that obtained for an AlGaN-based LED with the same geometry. From these results, the advantages of the use of quaternary InAlGaN in 350-nm-band UV emitters were revealed. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.