LED

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

If we take a GaAs/air interface where ni =

3.6 and n2 = 1, what is the critical angle,
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

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 ~ 10µ m-15 µ m.
• The surface layer is kept as thin as
possible (10-15 µ m) to minimise
reabsorbtion
 Homo- and Hetro-
Junction

• 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 p-region 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.
1. Thick p–region  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 Photon
confinement Confinement

Band-gap and refractive index engineering.

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

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 2eV

n-AlGaAs p-GaAs p-AlGaAs

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

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
Light emits
n- GaAlAs
from the
Metal edge
contact
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
Cladding
Layer
Active Layer
growth

Cladding
Layer
Epi

Substrat
e
Another Example of
Edge Emitter