Towards quantification of the crucial impact of auger recombination for the efficiency droop in (AlInGa)N quantum well structures

Opt Express. 2016 Feb 8;24(3):2971-80. doi: 10.1364/OE.24.002971.

Abstract

Recent experimental investigations on the reduction of internal quantum efficiency with increasing current density in (AlInGa)N quantum well structures show that Auger recombination is a significant contributor to the so-called "droop" phenomenon. Using photoluminescence (PL) test structures, we find Auger processes are responsible for at least 15 % of the measured efficiency droop. Furthermore, we confirm that electron-electron-hole (nnp) is stronger than electron-hole-hole (npp) Auger recombination in standard LEDs. The ratio of respective Auger coefficients is determined to be in the range 1 < Cnnp/Cnpp ≤ 12. This asymmetry is shown to limit the detection efficiency of Auger processes in our PL-based approach.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't