Experimental evidence of hole injection through V-defects in long wavelength GaN-based LEDs

Hole injection through V-defect sidewalls into all quantum wells (QWs) of long wavelength GaN light emitting diodes had previously been proposed as means to increase efficiency of these devices. In this work, we directly tested the viability of this injection mechanism by electroluminescence and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements on a device in which QW furthest away from the p-side of the structure was deeper, thus serving as an optical detector for presence of injected electron–hole pairs. Emission from the detector well confirmed that, indeed, the holes were injected into this QW, which could only take place through the 101¯1 V-defect sidewalls. Unlike direct interwell transport by thermionic emission, this transport mechanism allows populating all QWs of a multiple QW structure despite the high potential barriers in the long wavelength InGaN/GaN QWs.