LED

Characteristics
EBB 424E
Lecture 4 LED 3
Dr Zainovia Lockman

Last Lectures..
Definition of LED

Candidate Materials
Group III-V
Group II-V

Applications of LED

LED I&2

GaAsP
GaAsP:N

LED Configuration

How does LED

Works?
P-n diode,
radiative transmission

Designing efficient
LED

Materials
Requirements

Band-gap
engineering
Epitaxial growth
Right Eg
UV,
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 pside efficiently.
Consider the fraction of the total diode
current that is carried by electrons being
injected into the p-side of the junction (e)

Why n -p?
+

e =

Denp/Le

Denp/Lp + Dhpn/Lh
Or e

De n n L p
e =

ennLp

1+ hpnLe

If we use Einsteins
equation to substitute
this equation. Then,

Dh p n L e

III-V compounds, e >>

h then, e needs to be
close to unity. This can
be circumvent by doping
n with more electrons (n
>> p)
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

external

Poutput (optical)
IV

x100%

Recap- Total Internal

Reflection

TIR

Incident beam

Why do we need the dome?

Semiconductor
material is
shaped like a
hemisphere

Plastic
dome
p

Pn junction

n+

Electrodes

Electrodes

to reduce TIR

How to solve TIR

problem
GaAs-air interface, the 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 < 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 C
If we take a GaAs/air interface where ni = 3.6
and n2 = 1, what is the critical angle, C?.
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

LED

1. Surface emitter
2. Edge emitter

1. Surface Emitter
In surface emitter the emitting
area is defined by oxide isolation,
with the metal contact area a
circle of diameter ~ 10m-15 m.
The surface layer is kept as thin
as possible (10-15 m) to
minimise reabsorbtion

Homo- and HetroJunction

Homojunction = a p-n junction made out of two
differently doped semiconductors that are of the
same material (i.e having the same band gap).
Heterojunction = junction formed between two
different band gaps semiconductors.
Heterostructure device = semiconductor device
structure that has junctions between different
bandgap materials.

Why Homojunction is
bad?
1.

Shallow p-region narrow to allow photons to escape

without reabsorption.
If the p-region is too shallow, electrons can escape the pregion by diffusion and recombine through crystal defect in
the surface of the layer.
This recombination is non-radiative and decreases the
efficiency of the LED.
2. Thick pregion then reabsoprtion will be the main problem
as the photons will have a long way to go before can be
successful emitted.
Create a heterojunction instead since heterojunction solves:
Reabsoption problem (photon confinement)
Also carrier confinement

Avoiding
losses in LED
Carrier
confinement

Photon
Confinement

Band-gap and refractive index engineering.

Heterostructured LED

Double Heterojunction LED

(important)
Fiber
Optics

Epoxy
Metal contact
n AlGaAs
p GaAs (active region)
p Al GaAs
n+
GaAs
Metal contact

Double
heterostructure
Burrus type
LED
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 1m wide.

Photon confinement Reabsorption problem

Source of electrons
Active region (micron in
thickness)
Source of holes

Active region (thin layer of GaAs) has smaller band gap, energy of photons
emitted is smaller then the band gap of the P and N-GaAlAs hence could not
be reabsorbed.

Reabsorption Problem
In order to prevent reabsorption, the upper layer (one that is above
the active region) needs to have higher band gap therefore the
emitted photons will not be absorbed by the upper layer (photons will
be absorbed when Ep < Eg).
1.4eV

n-AlGaAs p-GaAs

2eV

p-AlGaAs

Epoxy
Metal contact
n AlGaAs
p GaAs (active region)
p Al GaAs
n+
GaAs
Metal contact

Active region Photons will

not be absorbed by the nAlGaAs since the band gap
is much higher than GaAs

Carrier confinement
electro
ns

n+-AlGaAs

p-GaAs

holes
p+-AlGaAs

Simplified band diagram of the sandwich top show carrier

confinement

Burrus-Type LED

Communication LED

Typical Exam Question

Sketch a typical surface emitted
LED that can emit red light.
Explain why for such configuration,
the light source can be suitable for
optical communication. Start your
answer with the reasons why
photon and carrier confinement
are needed.
(80 marks)

2. Edge Emitter
In edge emitter a double heterostructure
band gap engineering is used to achieve
carrier confinement and recombination in
an active layer but in addition layers of
relatively low refractive index are
included to produce optical guide.
A
large fraction of the photons are therefore
confined between two plates of material
and emerge at the edge of the device as
highly directional flux compatible with
coupling to a fibre optic cable.

Edge emitter using double

heterostructure
Metal contact

GaAs(n) substrate
N+- GaAlAs
N GaAlAs
Active layer n- GaAlAs
P GaAlAs
P+ GaAlAs
n- GaAlAs
Metal contact

Light emits
from the
edge

The waveguide

We can use refractive index engineering to create a

multilayer structure in which light can be trapped within
the central layers. This layer act as waveguide. (TIR is
used in Edge Emitter)

Contact
Layer

Epi growth

Cladding
Layer
Active Layer

Cladding
Layer
Substrat
e

Another Example of
Edge Emitter