Ultraviolet-C AlGaN Resonant-Cavity Light-Emitting Diodes with Thermal Stability Pipe-AlGaN-Distributed Bragg Reflectors

Ultraviolet-C AlGaN resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes with top and bottom pipe-AlGaN-distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) have been demonstrated. For the top/bottom DBR structures, 20 pairs of n(+)-AlGaN:Si/n-AlGaN:Si stack structures were transformed into the pipe-AlGaN:Si/n-AlGaN:Si DBRs through a doping-selective electrochemical wet etching process. The reflectivity of the pipe-AlGaN DBR structure was measured as 90% at 276.7 nm with a 20.9 nm flat stopband width. The anisotropic optical properties of the pipe-AlGaN DBR structure had been analyzed through the polarization-dependent reflectance spectra. For temperature-dependent reflectance spectra, the central wavelengths were slightly redshifted from 275 nm (100 K) to 281 nm (600 K) due to thermal expansion, refractive index increase, and partial strain release phenomena in the pipe-DBR structure. High photoluminescence emission intensity and line-width reducing phenomena were observed at 10 K in the UVC-LED with the resonant-cavity structure, which has potential for high-efficiency UV-C light source applications.