GaN light-emitting triodes for high-efficiency hole injection and light emission

Experimental results on a new type of light-emitting device, the light-emitting triode (LET), are presented. The LET is a three-terminal p-n junction device that accelerates carriers in the lateral direction, i.e. parallel to the p-n junction plane, by means of an electric field between two anodes. The lateral field provides additional energy to carriers thereby allowing them to overcome barriers and increasing the carrier injection efficiency into the active region. LETs were fabricated using a ultraviolet LED structure that has an AlGaN/GaN superlattice in the p-type confinement region for high-conductivity 2 dimensional hole gas. LET mesa structures were obtained by standard photolithographic patterning followed by chemically-assisted ion-beam etching using Cl₂ and Ar to expose the n-type cladding layer. The n-type contact was fabricated by electron-beam evaporation of Ti/Al/Ni/Au. Ni/Au (50/50 Å) metallization was deposited for both anodes, Anode 1 and Anode 2, and subsequently annealed at 500 ^oC in an O₂ ambient. It is shown that both the current between Anode 1 and the cathode, and the light-output power increase with increasing negative bias to the Anode 2. This is consistent with the expectation that a negative bias to the second anode allows carriers to acquire a high kinetic energy thereby enabling them to overcome the barrier for holes, resulting in high injection efficiency into the active region that lies beyond the barrier.