Epitaxial Structure Optimization of Nonpolar a-plane GaN Light-emitting Diodes

Abstract

In this research, the number of quantum well (QW) were optimized to improve the device performance of nonpolar a-plane (11-20) GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Based on a theoretical consideration, we applied four periods of 3.5-nm-thick In0.23Ga0.77N quantum wells and 6-nm-thick GaN quantum barriers in order to reduce the carrier overflow and thereby to increase the radiative recombination rates. As a result, we found that the radiative recombination rate was increased by 29% at 20 mA while the forward voltage and the light output-power were improved by 7.4% and 12.3%, respectively, compared with a single QW nonpolar a-plane GaN LED.