Analysis of InGaN light-emitting diodes with GaN-AlGaN and AlGaN-GaN composition-graded barriers

The effects of InGaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with Al composition increasing and decreasing GaN-AlGaN barriers along the growth direction are studied numerically. Simulation results suggest that the LEDs with GaN-AlGaN composition-decreased barriers show more significant enhancement of light-output power and internal quantum efficiency than LEDs with composition-increasing GaN-AlGaN barriers when compared with the conventional LED with GaN barriers, due to the improvement in hole injection efficiency and electron blocking capability. Moreover, the optical performance is further improved by replacing GaN-AlGaN barriers with AlGaN-GaN barriers of the same Al composition-decreasing range, which are mainly attributed to the modified band diagrams. In addition, the major causes of the different efficiency droop behaviors for all the designed structures are explained by the electron leakage current and the different increase rates of hole concentration with injection current.