In AlGaN, the dominating emission polarization depends on the Al content. Generally speaking, a higher Al content leads to a stronger TM-polarized emission. Normally, the dominating emission polarization of an AlGaN layer changes from the TE polarization into the TM polarization when the emission wavelength is shorter than 300 nm. Because a TM-polarized photon propagate along the lateral dimension of a c-axis grown LED sample, its light extraction efficiency is lower, when compared with a TE-polarized photon. In this study, the material characterization techniques of transmission electron microscopy observation, reciprocal space mapping and omega-2theta scan in X-ray diffraction measurement, and geometric phase analysis are used for first identifying the existence of the high-Al layers (HALs) on both sides of a quantum well (QW) in three 3-period AlGaN QW structures of different deep-UV emission wavelengths. Then, optical analyses, including transmission and photoluminescence (PL) measurements, particularly the PL measurements under an applied stress along the sample c-axis, are undertaken for understanding the effects of such HALs on the band structures and hence the polarized emission behaviors of the samples. Simulation studies are also performed for providing the favorable comparisons with the experimental data. Basically, the HALs produce an extra compressive strain in the c-plane for lowering the heavy-hole (HH) band edge (lower than the edge of the split-off band) such that the TE-polarized emission through the electron transition between the conduction and HH band becomes dominating. In this situation, the light extraction efficiency of such a deep-UV light-emitting diode can be enhanced.
By increasing the Mg-doping level and hence the hole concentration in the p-AlGaN electron-blocking layer, the polarization field in this layer can be screened for reducing the potential barrier of hole and hence enhancing the hole tunneling efficiency such that the overall LED emission efficiency is increased. The increase of Mg-doping level is implemented based on an Mg pre-flow growth technique, in which Mg source is supplied into the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition chamber for several minutes before the growth of p-AlGaN or p-GaN. Based on a simulation study, we observe that the energy difference between the valence band-edge and the quasi-Fermi level of hole in the EBL is reduced by increasing the Mg-doping level in this layer such that the total hole density in the quantum wells is increased for enhancing the LED emission efficiency. Based on this technique, the high performance of an LED with the total p-type thickness as small as 38 nm is demonstrated. The surface plasmon coupling effects, including the enhancement of internal quantum efficiency, increase of output intensity, reduction of efficiency droop, and increase of modulation bandwidth, among the thin p-type LED samples of different p-type thicknesses are compared. These advantageous effects are stronger as the p-type layer becomes thinner. With a circular mesa size of 10 micron in radius, we achieve the record-high modulation bandwidth of 625.6 MHz among c-plane GaN-based LEDs.
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