Solid-State Electronics 44 (2000) 10551058

Luminescence of an InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well

light-emitting diode

J.K. Sheu a, G.C. Chi a,*, Y.K. Su b, C.C. Liu c, C.M. Chang c, W.C. Hung c,
M.J. Jou c
a

Optical Sciences Center, Department of Physics, National Central University, Chung-Li 32054, Taiwan, ROC
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan 701, ROC
c
Epistar Corporation, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC
Received 17 September 1999; accepted 16 November 1999

Abstract
In GaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQW) and blue MQW light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Band-gap narrowing of the PL spectra for the InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs can
be observed at room temperature. In addition, the emission wavelength of EL and PL spectra for the MQW blue LEDs
exhibit a blue-shift phenomenon while increasing the injection current and laser power, respectively. This luminescence
behavior can tentatively be understood as a competition between a spectral red-shift mechanism of piezoelectricityinduced quantum-conned Stark eect (PQCSE) and a blue-shift mechanism of band-lling and charge screening effects. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In the past several years, the most widely studied of
wide band-gap semiconductors have been the III-nitrides. Among them, GaN and its alloys with InN and
AlN have attracted much attention as the successful
commercialization of bright blue/green light-emitting
diodes (LEDs) followed later by the demonstration of
injection lasers [13]. GaN-based nitride semiconductors
have several advantages over the other wide band-gap
semiconductors such as SiC and diamond. They can be
doped as both p- and n-type, have direct band gaps, and
can form heterostructures conducive to device applications. Blue/green laser diodes have also been achieved in
ZnSe and its related materials. However, their short
lifetime prevents ZnSe-based devices from commercialization at present. It is considered that the short lifetime
of these ZnSe-based devices is caused by crystal defects
at a density of 103 /cm2 , because one crystal defect would

Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-3-425-7681; fax: +886-3425-8816.

E-mail address: gcchi@halley.phy.ncu.edu.tw (G.C. Chi).

cause the propagation of other defects leading to failure

of the devices. In contrast, the IIIV nitrides are mechanically strong and chemically rather inert and do not
have any gross reliability problems, at least judging from
the preliminary studies of LED and LD operation.

2. Experiment
In GaN/GaN, double heterostructure (DH) LEDs
were grown by the MOVPE system using a high-speed
rotating disk in a vertical growth chamber. Briey,
trimethylgallium (TMGa) and ammonia (NH3 ) were
used as Ga and N precursors, respectively. Biscyclopentadienyl magnesium (CP2 Mg) and Si2 H6 were used
as the p- and n-type dopant, respectively. The trimethylindium (TMIn) was used as the In precursors. The
carrier gas was hydrogen, and the growth pressure was
maintained at 100 Torr for the growth of Si-doped GaN
lms. The carrier gas was nitrogen, and the growth
pressure was maintained at 300 Torr for the growth of
InGaN layers. The typical growth procedures are described as follows: Before growing IIIV nitride lms,
the substrates were treated by thermal baking at 1100C

0038-1101/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 3 8 - 1 1 0 1 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 3 1 9 - 6

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J.K. Sheu et al. / Solid-State Electronics 44 (2000) 10551058

Fig. 1. The schematic structure of MQW LED.

in hydrogen to remove surface contamination. A lowtemperature GaN nucleation layer, with a thickness of
 was grown at 560C. After the growth of
about 300 A,
low-temperature GaN nucleation layer, the wafer temperature was raised to 1060C to grow the Si-doped
GaN buer layer. Fig. 1 shows the schematic structure

of the MQW blue LED which consists of 300 A-thick
GaN nucleation layer grown at a low temperature of
560C, a 3.5 lm-thick layer of Si-doped GaN, 9-period

of InGaN/GaN MQW structure consisting of 30 A-thick

In0:3 Ga0:7 N well layers and 70A-thick
GaN barrier layers grown at a temperature of 780C. Finally, 0.3 lmthick Mg-doped contact layers were grown. For the
fabrication of LED chips, the processing procedures
were described as follows: (a) Ni was deposited onto the
epi-wafer as the etching mask before ICP dry etching [4].
(b) The p-GaN layer was partially etched until the nGaN was exposed. (c) An ultrathin Ni/Au (2 nm/6 nm)
bi-layer was evaporated onto the p-GaN layer as the
transparent p-type electrode [5]. (d) A Ti/Al (50 nm/
2000 nm) bi-layer was deposited onto the n-GaN surface
as the n-type electrode. (e) Wafer lapping was performed
until the thickness becomes 80 lm. The wafer was then
polished to remove the stress which results from the
large roughness dierence between the lapped surface
and epitaxial surface. (f) The thin wafer was cut into a
square shape 350 lm  350 lm by a diamond scriber
and cutter.

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 2 shows the typical currentvoltage characteristic of the InGaN/GaN MQW blue LED. The forward
voltage is less than or equal to 3.8 V at 20-mA injection
current. In addition, the breakdown voltages are greater
than or equal to 12 V, which are dened as the voltage
where the leakage current reaches 1 105 A. We can
distinguish three dierent regions in the forward semi-

Fig. 2. Typical currentvoltage characteristics of the InGaN/

GaN MQW blue LED.

logorithmic IV characteristics of the InGaN/GaN

MQW blue LED. First, at bias voltage (V) lower than
2 V, tunneling seems to be related to nonradiative processes, because of no detectable light emission. For the
second region, at 2 < V < 3 volts, the carrier transport is
related to diusion-limited (ideality factor is unity) and
recombination-limited process (ideality factor is 2)
which can subsequently recombine radiatively. Third, at
voltages higher than 3 V, the IV curve is dominated by
the potential drop on the series resistance of the device
and the slope gradually decreases. It should however, be
pointed out that we have not observed any evidence of
the so-called photon-assisted tunneling, contrary to the
situation in Nichias DH blue LEDs [6].
For an In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN MQW LED, the emission
peak should be less than or equal to 450 nm. However,
the emission peak of the In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN MQW LED is
around 465 nm. The energy dierence between the
strained-free band-edge emission peak of In0:3 Ga0:7 N
bulk layer, which the In content was determined by PL
measurement, and the PL peak wavelength of the
In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN MQW LED is approximately 80 meV.
Note that the growth condition of In0:3 Ga0:7 N bulk layer
is the same as the active layers (well region) of the MQW
LED. Plausible causes of such a band-gap narrowing
eect have been tentatively proposed by Nakamura, but
no quantitative explanations have been made [7]. The
possible explanations of this band-gap narrowing of
Inx Ga1x N/GaN quantum well can be attributed to the
exciton eects (Coulomb eects correlated to the electronhole pair) of the active layer or strain eects caused
by the lattice mismatch and the thermal expansion coecients dierence between well layers and barrier

J.K. Sheu et al. / Solid-State Electronics 44 (2000) 10551058

1057

layers. In the former case, it might be anticipated that

radiative recombination in these devices is related to the
presence of highly localized excitons, localized on uctuations of indium contents in the active layer. In other
words, a continuous density of states may be present
within the band gap of the active layer. Perhaps, the
emission mechanisms of the Inx Ga1x N/GaN multiquantum well LEDs results from a competition between
above-mentioned eects and quantum connement. In
order to understand better the luminescence properties
of the Inx Ga1x N/GaN multi-quantum wells, the excitation power dependence of the PL spectra were performed at room temperature. Fig. 3. shows the PL
spectra of In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN multi-quantum well LED
measured at dierent excitation power. In the MQW
blue LEDs, the well region of the active layer is
In0:3 Ga0:7 N, and its band-edge emission peak is around
450 nm if there was strained-free in the QW structure.
The emission peak of the MQW blue LED should be
shorter than 450 nm when the quantum size eect is in
action. However, our In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN MQW LED exhibits a peak wavelength of around 465 nm. This unexpected observation may be caused by the
piezoelectricity-induced quantum-conned Stark eect
(PQCSE) [8,9]. In other words, it may tentatively be
understood as an eect of the QW potential, which was
severely distorted by the piezoelectric eld. In addition,
it is clear that the PL peak shifts toward a shorter
wavelength when the laser power is increased. Between
I I0 and I I0 /20 of the excitation intensity, the shift

can be as large as 8.5 nm (50 meV). Basically, the

transition energy of the InGaN strained QWs was
smaller than that of unstrained QWs as the band
alignment of InGaN strained well layer was tilted by
piezoelectric elds. When the samples were pumped with
the excitation sources, the piezoelectric elds in the InGaN strained well layer were screened by generated
carriers, thus weakening the PQCSE. Increasing the
excitation intensity further weakened the PQCSE and
increased the transition energy, i.e., a blueshift occurred.
To further, explore the origin of the band-gap shifting eect of In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN quantum well, the EL
measurements were performed at room temperature
with dierent driving currents. Fig. 4. shows the EL
spectra for current ranging from 1 to 500 mA. At currents above 60 mA, 50 ls pulses at 1% duty cycle were
used to prevent heating. The EL peak energy of the
MQW blue LED exhibits a blueshift when the injection
current is increased. The blue shifts are about 140 meV
as the forward current is increased from 1 mA to 500 mA.
In addition to the description mentioned above, these
blue shifts may also be due to band-tail lling eect.
According to the report of Narukawa et al. [10], the
peak of the spontaneous emission shifts toward the high
energy side with increasing excitation intensity. This
emission behavior is observed only in the LEDs which
have a heavily doped and compensated active layer [10].
However, the active layer of the MQW blue LED which
is used in this study is undoped. The blue shifts could be
attributed to a lling of band-tail states (i.e., localized

Fig. 3. The PL spectra of In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN multi-quantum well

LED measured at dierent exciting intensities.

Fig. 4. The EL spectra of InGaN/GaN MQW blue LED at

dierent injection currents.

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J.K. Sheu et al. / Solid-State Electronics 44 (2000) 10551058

states) where carrier or excitons are recombined for

emission with an increasing injection current. The localized states may be formed by indium composition
uctuation in the In0:3 Ga0:7 N well layer due to a phase
separation or indium segregation of the In0:3 Ga0:7 N
during growth. In other words, the radiative recombination may be attributed to excitons localized at deep
traps which probably originate from the In-rich region
in the well as quantum dots [11]. Recently, Peng et al. [9]
reported that a spectral blue shift was observed as the
injection current increases from 1 mA to 1 A. According
to their reports, the emission spectrum of the InGaN
QW is determined by a competition between a spectral
red-shifting mechanism of PQCSE and a blue-shifting
mechanism of band lling and charge screening eects.
The output power of the InGaN/GaN MQW blue
LED (bare chip) is shown as a function of the forward
injection current as shown in Fig. 5. The output power
of the LED increases linearly up to 40 mA as a function
of the forward current. Above 40 mA, the output power
is sublinearly increased and the maximum output power
of 3450 lW is obtained at the forward current of 65 mA.
The output power saturates at an injection current
around 60 mA and decays at higher injection currents.
Joule heating, carrier leakage, and non-radiative recombination from the InGaN active region are also of
importance in causing this saturation. However, the
generation of Joule heat is probably dominant when

compared with those due to the somewhat high series

resistance which may be caused by the interface of
In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN QWs or the p-GaN contact layer.

4. Conclusions
In summary, In0:3 Ga0:7 N/GaN multi-quantum well
LEDs, which consist of 9-period of InGaN/GaN MQW
were fabricated. The output power was higher than
1450 lW (bare chip), and the forward voltage was less
than 3.8 V at a forward current of 20 mA. The peak
wavelength and the FWHM of the typical EL spectra at
20 mA were about 465 and 30 nm, respectively. The blue
shifts and band-gap narrowing of the PL and EL spectra
for the InGaN/GaN MQW may tentatively be understood as a competition between a spectral red-shifting
mechanism of PQCSE and a blue-shifting mechanism of
band-lling and charge screening eects.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the nancial
support from the National Science Council for their
research grant of NSC87-2811-E-006-001 and NSC872115-E-008-001.

References

Fig. 5. Typical output power of the bare chip as a function of

the forward injection current.

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