Diode ideality factor in modern light-emitting diodes

The diode ideality factor has been subjected to theoretical discussions from the viewpoint of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). As radiative recombination in LEDs is incongruent with the Sah-Noyce-Shockley (SNS) analysis, the SNS recombination plane was replaced with carrier confinement structures of modern LEDs, e. g., quantum wells (QWs). We calculated the voltage partitioning factors to indicate how carrier concentration changes as a function of terminal voltage. As local minority carriers determine the net recombination rate at QWs, we have deduced that the partitioning factor of the local minority carriers becomes the ideality factor of the LED. By applying incomplete ionization of acceptors in InGaN/GaN LEDs, a conclusion has been reached such that the partitioning factor of local minority carriers as well as the diode ideality factor can be nearly as large as 3.