Molecular beam epitaxial growth of high efficiency AlInN nanowire ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

We report on the achievement of a new type of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using AlInN nanowire heterostructures. The molecular beam epitaxial grown AlInN nanowires have relatively high internal quantum efficiency of > 52% at 295nm. The peak emission wavelength is in the range of 280 - 355nm. Moreover, we show that the light extraction efficiency of AlInN nanowire LEDs could reach ~ 63% for hexagonal photonic crystal nanowire structures which is significantly higher compared to the random nanowire arrays. This study provides significant insights into the design and fabrication of new type of high performance AlInN nanowire ultraviolet light-emitters.