Development of highly efficient ultraviolet LEDs on hybrid patterned sapphire substrates

A hybrid patterned sapphire substrate (HPSS) aiming to achieve high-quality Al(Ga)N epilayers for the development of GaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs) has been prepared. The high-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the Al(Ga)N epilayers grown on a HPSS and conventional patterned sapphire substrate (CPSS) have similar structural quality. More importantly, benefiting from the larger refractive index contrast between the patterned silica array and sapphire, the photons can escape from the hybrid substrate with an improved transmittance in the UV band. As a result, in comparison with the UV LEDs grown on the CPSS, the LEDs grown on the HPSS exhibit a significantly enhanced light output power by 14.5% and more than 22.9% higher peak external quantum efficiency, owing to the boost of the light extraction efficiency from the adoption of the HPSS which can be used as a promising substrate to realize high-efficiency and high-power UV LEDs of the future.