Surface Microstructure Enhanced Cryogenic Infrared Light Emitting Diodes for Semiconductor Broadband Upconversion

Broadband upconversion has various applications in solar photovoltaic, infrared and terahertz detection imaging, and biomedicine. The low efficiency of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) limits the broadband upconversion performance. In this paper, we propose to use surface microstructures to enhance the electroluminescence efficiency (ELE) of LEDs. Systematical investigations on the cryogenic-temperature performances of microstructure-coupled LEDs, including electroluminescence efficiency, luminescence spectrum, and recombination rate, have been carried out by elaborating their enhancement mechanism and light emitting characteristics both experimentally and theoretically. We have revealed that the reason for the nearly 35% ELE enhancement of the optimized structure under cryogenic temperature and weak injection current is the efficient carrier injection efficiency and the high recombination rate in the active region. We also compare studies of the surface luminescence uniformity of the optimized LED with that of the unoptimized device. This work gives a precise description, and explanation of the performance of the optimized microstructure coupled LED at low temperatures, providing important guidance and inspiration for the optimization of broadband upconverter in the cryogenic temperature region.