Looking for Auger signatures in III-nitride light emitters: A full-band Monte Carlo perspective
Abstract
Recent experiments of electron emission spectroscopy (EES) on III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have shown a correlation between droop onset and hot electron emission at the cesiated surface of the LED p-cap. The observed hot electrons have been interpreted as a direct signature of Auger recombination in the LED active region, as highly energetic Auger-excited electrons would be collected in long-lived satellite valleys of the conduction band so that they would not decay on their journey to the surface across the highly doped p-contact layer. We discuss this interpretation by using a full-band Monte Carlo model based on first-principles electronic structure and lattice dynamics calculations. The results of our analysis suggest that Auger-excited electrons cannot be unambiguously detected in the LED structures used in the EES experiments. Additional experimental and simulative work are necessary to unravel the complex physics of GaN cesiated surfaces.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Feb 09, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4908154
Entities
People
- E. Bellotti
- Francesco Bertazzi
- Giovanni Ghione
- Marco Calciati
- Masahiko Matsubara
- Michele Goano
- Xiangyu Zhou
Organizations
- Boston University
- Polytechnic University of Turin
- United States Army Research Laboratory