Temperature-dependent study on AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet light-emitting diode for the origin of high ideality factor

Deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV LEDs) are promising light sources for disinfection, especially during the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Despite much effort in the development of DUV LEDs, the device temperature and ideality factor are key parameters of devices, which are often neglected. Here, we developed a simple and convenient method to study the behavior of a 280 nm AlGaN-based DUV LED, obtaining the electrical, optical, and thermal properties within one measurement. From the experimental results, we find that the light output power and wall-plug efficiency of the AlGaN-based DUV LED are strongly affected by device temperature, ideality factor (β), and series resistance (Rs). β decreases from 9.3 to 8.1 at 40 mA when the temperature increases from 302 to 317 K. We compared these results with simulations and found that the high potential barriers inside the device and the carrier concentration in n-type or p-type layers, especially the hole concentration in p-type layers, are the two key factors for the high value of the ideality factor from the LED structure. As the device temperature increases, carriers with higher energy would overcome some potential barriers and Mg acceptor activation would be more efficient, which are beneficial for carrier transportation. However, these also lead to the carrier overflow and weaken the radiative recombination rate. The trade-off role of device temperature in carriers between transportation and overflow is needed to be considered in the future development of DUV LEDs with higher efficiency and higher brightness.