Effect of current spreading on the efficiency droop of InGaN light-emitting diodes

We investigate the effects of current spreading on the efficiency droop of InGaN blue light-emitting diodes with lateral injection geometry based on numerical simulation. Current crowding near the mesa edge and the decrease in the current spreading length with current density are shown to cause significant efficiency droop. It is found that the efficiency droop can be reduced considerably as the uniformity of current spreading is improved by increasing the resistivity of the p-type current spreading layer or decreasing the sheet resistance of the n-GaN layer. The droop reduction is well interpreted by the uniformity of carrier distribution in the plane of quantum wells. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America