Carrier Dynamics in High-Efficiency Blue GaN Light-Emitting Diodes Under Different Bias Currents and Temperatures

Distinct temperature-dependent dynamic behaviors of GaN-based blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are observed by use of the very-fast electrical-optical pump-probe technique. Our static and impulse response measurement results indicate that the behaviors of internal carrier dynamics under different ambient temperatures can be classified into three regimes covering a wide range of bias current densities (20-2000 A/cm
²
). The first regime is when the bias current density ranges from low to moderate (20-100 A/cm
²
). The measured external quantum efficiency (EQE) degrades dramatically from 57 to 44%, and the measured waveform and extracted time constants of measured impulse responses are invariable from room temperature (RT) to 200 °C, which indicates that the carrier leakage is not an issue for the observed droop phenomenon. When the bias current density further increases to near 1 kA/cm
²
, the droop phenomenon are mitigated (44 to 24%). However, a significant shortening of the measured impulse response happens under 200 °C operation due to the device-heating effect. This phenomenon is diminished when the bias current densities are further increased to over 1 kA/cm
²
, due to the screening of the piezoelectric field. The extracted time constants can also be used to explain the droop phenomenon in GaN LED under high bias currents.