Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.

Wavelength Tunable LED

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About Wavelength Tunable LED

Blue LEDs are interesting because of their use in modern high-efficiency lighting. Due to
their large bandgap energy, gallium nitrides are widely used for generating blue light. This
application simulates the emission properties of a gallium-nitride-based light-emitting
diode. The material used in the active region of the device is InxGa1xN, which contains a
blend of both gallium and indium where the fraction of indium is given by x. The bandgap
of this optically active region can be controlled by varying the composition of the material
via changing the indium fraction. Because pure InN and GaN emit in the infrared and
ultraviolet parts of the spectral range, respectively, it is possible to tune the emission energy
of InxGa1xN across the entire visible spectrum using this technique.
This application enables the indium fraction and operating voltage of the device to be
controlled. The current, emission intensity, electroluminescence spectrum, and internal
quantum efficiency of the device can then be computed. Either a single operating voltage
or a range of voltages can be input. If a range of voltages is input, the current-voltage curve
is also calculated, which allows the turn-on voltage of the device to be determined.
The application is configured using three panels:
The LED Designer panel enables the indium fraction to be specified in the Specify Material
Composition section and displays the corresponding bandgap energy. The Operational
Voltage section enables the voltage or voltage range to be specified. The Desired Spectral
Range section enables a target emission wavelength range to be specified.
The simulation results are displayed in the Results Viewer panel. If a single voltage value
has been input, the model outputs are viewable in a table and the emission spectrum is
presented as a line graph. If a range of voltage values are input, the model outputs are
viewable in several graphs contained within different tabs in the panel.
The Evaluation panel provides an overall assessment of the device emission wavelength
by comparing the peak emission wavelength with the target spectral range.

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Rest
input

Run
study

Read
documentation

Results output

Create
report

Specify
model
inputs

Select
target
wavelength
Results &
summary

For visible emission, the spectrum

is converted to an approximate color

The Embedded Model

The embedded model uses the Optical Transition feature within the Semiconductor
interface to calculate the electroluminescence throughout a 1D cross section through a
double heterostructure LED device.
MODEL DEFINITION

The model geometry is based on the device described in Ref. 1. Only the active double
heterojunction region is modeled. This region consists of a 50-nm thick layer of InGaN,
sandwiched between 0.15-m thick layers of AlGaN. As the device is laterally invariant, it
can be modeled using a 1D line cut in the z-direction, as shown in Figure 1. The
cross-sectional area of the device is calculated assuming the active region has lateral
dimensions of 200-by-200 m, which is a typical LED mesa size.The lower AlGaN layer

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is n-doped and the upper AlGaN layer is p-doped. The InGaN layer is undoped. This
creates a PIN diode structure, with the light-emitting InGaN layer in the central intrinsic
(undoped) region.

Figure 1: Geometry and doping of the LED device. Left: Structure of the LED on which this
model is based. The modeled section is highlighted with a red bar. Top right: The geometry
models the double heterostructure region of the full device. Bottom right: The doping profile is
a PIN diode with the InGaN layer forming the intrinsic region.
In addition to the radiative transitions modeled in the Optical Transition feature, Auger
recombination and trap-assisted recombination have been included. The material
properties needed for including these non-radiative transitions have been taken from Ref.
2 and Ref. 3. Note that quantum confinement effects within the thin layer of InGaN
material are not included in the model.
A bias can be applied across the device via the two metal contact boundary conditions,
which are applied to the two ends of the geometry.
RESULTS

The electroluminescence spectrum is calculated by the Optical Transitions feature. This is

plotted as a line graph for the case of a single input voltage, and as a height plot as a
function of voltage and wavelength for the case of a voltage range input.

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The current that flows through the device is calculated for each applied voltage. If a
voltage range is input, the current versus voltage graph is displayed in the Results Viewer.
The total intensity is calculated by integrating the emission rate throughout the active area
of the device. Again, this is displayed as a single number in a table for the single voltage
case, and plotted as a function of voltages when a voltage range is input.
The internal quantum efficiency is the fraction of injected carriers that radiatively
recombine within the InGaN layer. This is calculated as a function of current density when
a voltage range is input.
The application extracts the peak wavelength from the electroluminescence for each input
voltage. A comparison is made with the wavelength range selected in the Desired Spectral
Range panel to assess if the device is emitting within the target wavelength range. The
Evaluation panel reports whether the target wavelength has been achieved.
If both the target wavelength and the peak emission fall within the visible range, the
approximate color of the emission is displayed in the Evaluation panel.

Notes About the Implementation

Most of the methods in the application are self-explanatory and simply automate
COMSOL Multiphysics functionality from the Semiconductor interface. However, the
conversion of the electroluminescence into an approximate color is done entirely within a
method. The code for this can be found within the RGB_converter() function within the
compute_and_plot method.
The RGB_converter() function is called with several arguments:
RGB_converter(double[] lam, double[] spec,
double[] xbar, double[] ybar, double[] zbar)

The arrays lam and spec hold wavelength values and the corresponding emission intensity,
respectively. The other three arrays are the red, green, and blue color-matching functions
for human vision, as obtained from the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).
The contribution made by each color to the overall color that is perceived when looking
at a spectrum is found by multiplying the spectrum with the color-matching function for
the corresponding color, such that
X =

spec xbar d

Y =

spec ybar d

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Z =

spec zbar d

These color contributions are then converted into RGB values via a matrix transformation:
R
3,240479 1,537150 0,498535 X
G = 0,969256 1,875992 0,041556 Y
B
0,055648 0,204043 1,057311 Z
Each RGB value is then divided by the total of all three components. For spectra that
correspond to colors that can be represented on the RGB scale, this results in RGB values
between 0 and 1. As not all colors can be represented on the RGB scale, values outside of
this range are sometimes obtained. In order to approximate such colors, negative RGB
values are set to be 0 and values above 1 are set to be one.
Note that the integration is performed numerically within the method using the rectangle
rule.

References
1. S. Nakamura, T. Mukia, and M. Senoh, Candela-class high-brightness InGaN/AlGaN
double-heterostructure blue-light-emitting diodes, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 64, p. 1687,
1994.
2. Y.C. Shen, G.O. Mueller, S. Watanabe, N.F. Gardner, A. Munkholm, and M.R. Krames,
Auger recombination in InGaN measured by photoluminescence, Appl. Phys. Lett.,
vol. 91, 141101, 2007.
3. Q. Dai and others, Internal quantum efficiency and nonradiative recombination
coefficient of GaInN/GaN multiple quantum wells with different dislocation densities,
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 94, 111109, 2009.

Application Library path: Semiconductor_Module/Demo_Applications/

wavelength_tunable_led

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