Investigation of optical and electrical properties of GaN-based blue light-emitting diodes with various quantum well thicknesses

Optical and electrical properties of gallium nitride (GaN)-based blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with various indium gallium nitride (InGaN) quantum well (QW) thicknesses were investigated. As the QW thickness was increased, the light output power of GaN-based LEDs also increased. The increase can be attributed to the increase in the carrier radiative recombination rate in the active region. However, the turn-on voltages of these fabricated LEDs are different. This was attributed to the increase in the polarization field with increasing QW thickness. In regard to the hot/cold factor, LEDs with a thicker QW achieved better performance at a low-injection current owing to the lower defect density. The hot/cold factor at a high-injection current would be mainly influenced by the efficiency droop mechanism.