Enhancing the light output power of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes with a ultra-thin p-type layer through etching non-ohmic contact p-GaN region

In this study, we employ the etching non-ohmic contact p-type region to enhance the performance of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV-LEDs) with ultra-thin (62 nm) p-type layers. Experimental results demonstrate that a shallow etching depth (12 nm) can enhance the light output power (LOP) of DUV-LEDs by 10.9%. However, when the etching depth is increased slightly to 18 nm, the LOP of DUV-LEDs decreases by 42%. Moreover, the forward leakage current of the device is severely deteriorated, while the reverse leakage current remains unaffected. This is because ultra-thin p-type layers fail to prevent the etch-inducing defects from propagating into the active region, thereby inducing a defect-related parallel diode and reducing the internal quantum efficiency. Conversely, a shallower etching depth can enhance light extraction efficiency and mitigate etch-inducing defects in the DUV-LEDs with ultra-thin p-type layers. These findings indicate that the p-type layer etching process for improving the performance of advanced DUV-LEDs with an ultra-thin p-type layer must be carefully optimized.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Applied Physics
Published
2025-10-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0291142
Primary Topic
GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Enhancing the light output power of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes with a ultra-thin p-type layer through etching non-ohmic contact p-GaN region

Linhao Wang, Kai Guo, Jianchang Yan, Hengwei Qiu et al.
Journal of Applied Physics
GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
article

Enhancing the light output power of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes with a ultra-thin p-type layer through etching non-ohmic contact p-GaN region

Linhao Wang, Kai Guo, Jianchang Yan, Hengwei Qiu, Yonghui Zhang, Yanan Guo, Naixin Liu, Junxi Wang, Zi‐Hui Zhang, Xuecheng Wei, Shen Wang, Tong Zhang, Xiaolong Jia, Xiaona Zhang, Xuejiao Sun, Jinmin Li, Congmin Shen
article en

Abstract

In this study, we employ the etching non-ohmic contact p-type region to enhance the performance of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV-LEDs) with ultra-thin (62 nm) p-type layers. Experimental results demonstrate that a shallow etching depth (12 nm) can enhance the light output power (LOP) of DUV-LEDs by 10.9%. However, when the etching depth is increased slightly to 18 nm, the LOP of DUV-LEDs decreases by 42%. Moreover, the forward leakage current of the device is severely deteriorated, while the reverse leakage current remains unaffected. This is because ultra-thin p-type layers fail to prevent the etch-inducing defects from propagating into the active region, thereby inducing a defect-related parallel diode and reducing the internal quantum efficiency. Conversely, a shallower etching depth can enhance light extraction efficiency and mitigate etch-inducing defects in the DUV-LEDs with ultra-thin p-type layers. These findings indicate that the p-type layer etching process for improving the performance of advanced DUV-LEDs with an ultra-thin p-type layer must be carefully optimized.

Journal of Applied PhysicsVol. 138(14)
North University of China (CN), Tianjin University of Technology (CN), Shanxi University (CN), Hebei University of Technology (CN), Integrated Optoelectronics (Norway) (NO), Institute of Semiconductors (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Nova Program, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Shanxi Provincial Key Research and Development Project
Openalex Percentile: Top 83%
GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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