Tunnel injection and power efficiency of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes

The results of studying the influence of the finite tunneling transparency of injection barriers in light-emitting diodes with InGaN/GaN quantum wells on the dependences of the current, capacitance, and quantum efficiency on the $p$–$n$ junction voltage and temperature are presented. It is shown that defectassisted hopping tunneling is the main transport mechanism through the space charge region (SCR) and makes it possible to lower the injection barrier. It is shown that, in the case of high hopping conductivity through the injection barrier, the tunnel-injection current into InGaN band-tail states is limited only by carrier diffusion from neutral regions and is characterized by a close-to-unity ideality factor, which provides the highest quantum and power efficiencies. An increase in the hopping conductivity through the space charge region with increasing frequency, forward bias, or temperature has a decisive effect on the capacitance-voltage characteristics and temperature dependences of the high-frequency capacitance and quantum efficiency. An increase in the density of InGaN/GaN band-tail states and in the hopping conductivity of injection barriers is necessary to provide the high-level tunnel injection and close-to-unity power efficiency of high-power light-emitting diodes.