Tunneling current and electroluminescence in InGaN: Zn,Si/AlGaN/GaN blue light emitting diodes

We investigate electrical and optical characteristics of Nichia NLPB-500 double-heterostructure blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), measured over a wide temperature range from 10 to 300K. Current-voltage characteristics have complex character and suggest involvement of at least two different tunneling mechanisms. The peak energy of the optical emission follows the applied bias for voltages between 2.3-2.6 V and can be tuned in large spectral range from 2.3 up to 2.8 eV (yellow to blue). This behavior can be understood invoking the photon-assisted tunneling model which was previously successfully applied to highly doped GaAs LEDs. Even at the lowest temperatures, light emission still continues while the increase. in the series resistance does not exceed a few tens of k Omega, which indicates absence of complete carrier freeze-out.