HOW DO WE LOSE EXCITATION IN THE GREEN?

Efficiency droop and green gap are terms that summarize performance limitations in GaInN/GaN high brightness light emitting diodes (LEDs). Here we summarize progress in the development of green LEDs and report on time resolved luminescence data of polar c-plane and non-polar m-plane material. We find that by rigorous reduction of structural defects in homoepitaxy on bulk GaN and V-defect suppression, higher efficiency at longer wavelengths becomes possible. We observe that the presence of donor acceptor pair recombination within the active region correlates with lower device performance. To evaluate the aspects of piezoelectric polarization we compare LED structures grown along polar and non-polar crystallographic axes. In contrast to the polar material we find single exponential luminescence decay and emission wavelengths that remain stable irrespective of the excitation density. Those findings render high prospects for overcoming green gap and droop in non-polar homoepitaxial growth.