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Characteristics
EBB 424E
Lecture 4– LED 3
Dr Zainovia Lockman
Last Lectures..
Candidate Materials
Definition of LED
Group III-V
Group II-V
Applications of LED
GaAsP
LED I&2 GaAsP:N
LED Configuration
Band-gap
Designing efficient engineering
How does LED LED
Works? Epitaxial growth
P-n diode, Right Eg
adiative transmission
Materials UV,
Requirements VIS,IR LED
LED Construction –
Aim – 100% light emitting
efficiency
◘ Important consideration - radiative
recombination must take place from the
side of the junction nearest to the surface to
reduce reabsorption.
◘ Carrier from n must be injected into the p-
side efficiently.
◘ Consider the fraction of the total diode
current that is carried by electrons being
injected into the p-side of the junction (η e)
Why n -p? + If we use Einstein’s
equation to substitute
this equation. Then,
∀η e= Denp/Le
Denp/Lp + Dhpn/Lh III-V compounds, µ e >>
µ h then, η e needs to be
Or η e = DhpnLe close to unity. This can
be circumvent by doping
DennLp
n with more electrons (n
η e = µ e nn Lp >> p)
1+ µ hpnLe
If (nn >> pn) = one sided
junction n+ -p diode
Typical exam question
Justify the reason why in a typical
construction of an LED, the n side in
the p-n diode must be made heavily
doped.
(50 marks)
LED Characteristic
The energy of an emitted photon = to the size of
the band gap
BUT this is a simplified statement.
The energy of an emitted photon from LED is
distributed appropriately according to the energy
distribution of electrons on the conduction band and
holes in the valance band.
You need to know the distribution of electrons
and holes in the CB and VB respectively.
Calculation I. LED Output
spectrum (Kasap)
Calculation II. Output
wavelength variations
(Kasap)
Calculation III. InGaAs on
InP substrate (Kasap)
The quantum efficiency
• Internal quantum efficiency can of some
LED approaches 100% but the external
efficiencies are much lower. This is due
to reabsorption and TIR.
• III-V materials have small critical angles therefore the
radiation emitted suffers from TIR
Poutput (optical )
ηexternal = x100 %
IV
Recap- Total Internal
Reflection
TIR
Incident beam
Why do we need the dome?
Semiconductor
material is
shaped like a
hemisphere
Plastic
dome
p
n+ Pn junction
Electrodes
Electrodes
to reduce TIR…
How to solve TIR
problem
• GaAs-air interface, the θ C = 16o which means that much
of the light suffers TIR.
• To solve the problem we could:
1. Shape the surface of the semiconductor into a dome or
hemisphere so that light rays strike the surface angles
< θ C therefore does not experience TIR. But expensive
and not practical to shape p-n junction with dome-like
structure.
2. Encapsulation of the semiconductor junction within a
dome-shaped transparent plastic medium (an epoxy)
that has higher refractive index than air.
Calculation IV.
Calculating θ C
θ C = sin-1 (n2/n1)
Fraction of light being
emitted, F
• If light is isotropically generated in a
medium then the fraction transmitted to
the outside world is given by:
Calculation V. Fraction of light
being emitted
LED Structure
Basic Layer by Layer
Structure
Carrier Photon
confinement Confinement
Heterostructured LED
Double Heterojunction LED
(important)
Fiber
Optics
Double
Epoxy
Metal contact
heterostructure
n AlGaAs
p GaAs (active region)
Burrus type
p Al GaAs LED
n+
GaAs
Metal contact
Shown
bonded to a
fiber with
index-matching
Double Heterostructure
• The double heterostructure is invariably used for
optical sources for communication as seen in the
figure in the pervious slide.
• Heterostucture can be used to increase:
– Efficiency by carrier confinement (band gap engineering)
– Efficiency by photon confinement (refractive index)
• The double heterostructure enables the source
radiation to be much better defined, but further, the
optical power generated per unit volume is much
greater as well. If the central layer of a double
heterostructure, the narrow band-gap region is
made no more than 1µ m wide.
Photon confinement -
Reabsorption problem
Source of electrons
Epoxy
Metal contact
n AlGaAs Active region – Photons will
p GaAs (active region) not be absorbed by the n-
p Al GaAs AlGaAs since the band gap
n+ is much higher than GaAs
GaAs
Metal contact
Carrier confinement
electro
ns
holes
n+-AlGaAs p-GaAs p+-AlGaAs
Metal contact
GaAs(n) substrate
N+- GaAlAs
N GaAlAs
Active layer n-
GaAlAs
P GaAlAs
P+ GaAlAs
Light emits
n- GaAlAs
from the
Metal edge
contact
The waveguide
Cladding
Layer
Epi
Substrat
e
Another Example of
Edge Emitter