Interband tunnel junctions for AlGaN Ultra-Violet light emitting diodes (Conference Presentation)

AlGaN-based ultra-violet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) are promising for a range of applications, including water purification, air disinfection and medical sensing. However, widespread adoption of UV LEDs is limited by the poor device efficiency. This has been attributed to the strong internal light absorption and poor electrical injection efficiency for the conventional UV LED structures, which typically use an absorbing p-GaN layer for p-type contact. Recent development of ultra-wide banggap AlGaN tunnel junctions enabled a novel UV LED design with the absence of the absorbing p-GaN contact layer. In this presentation, we will discuss recent progress of the AlGaN tunnel junctions and the development of tunnel junction-based UV LEDs, and discuss the challenges and future perspectives for the realization of high power, high efficiency UV LEDs.