AC Operation of GaN:Er Thin Film Electroluminescent Display Devices

Abstract

Thin-film electroluminescence has been obtained from GaN:Er deposited directly on amorphous dielectric layers. Electroluminescent device (ELD) structures consisting of a dielectric/GaN/dielectric were formed on p(+)-Si substrates. In contrast to previous GaN:Er ELDs which used epitaxial growth conditions on crystalline substrates and were operated under direct current (DC) bias, these ELDs were operated under an alternating (AC) bias. A maximum luminance value of 300, 60, and 15 cd/m(2) has been achieved from GaN:Er and AlGaN:Er AC-ELDs biased at 180 V and 100, 10, and 1 kHz, respectively. The emission spectra, which originate from Er(3+) 4frequency-4frequency transitions, consist of dominant visible emission at ~537/558 nm and infra-red (IR) emission at 1.5 micrometer. A violet emission peak at 415 nm indicates that hot carriers can gain up to ~3 eV energy for an applied voltage corresponding to 1.5 MV/cm applied field. The emitted intensity initially increases linearly with frequency, followed by a trend towards saturation. The frequency for 3 dB reduction from the linear relation is at ~65 kHz for visible emission and ~8 kHz for infrared emission. The saturation trends can be explained in terms of the spontaneous emission lifetimes of the visible (~10 microsecond) and IR (~1ms) Er(3+) emissions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA448186

Entities

People

  • A. J. Steckl
  • J. Heikenfeld

Organizations

  • University of Cincinnati

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Brightness
  • Diffraction
  • Efficiency
  • Emission Spectra
  • Films
  • Frequency
  • Intensity
  • Luminance
  • Materials
  • Saturation
  • Scattering
  • Semiconductors
  • Spectra
  • Square Waves
  • Substrates
  • Thin Films

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

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  • Materials Science and Engineering.
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