Light Emitting Diodes with ZnO Current Spreading Layers Deposited from a Low Temperature Aqueous Solution

We report on the electrical and optical properties of a GaN based light emitting diode (LED) utilizing a ZnO current spreading layer that was deposited by a low temperature aqueous technique. For comparison, a LED employing a conventional thin Ni/Au current spreading layer was also fabricated. In both cases, the same metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) grown c-plane GaN LED on patterned sapphire wafer was used. Using an integrated sphere measurement, we report a factor of 1.93 power output increase at 20 mA for the ZnO current spreading layer compared to Ni/Au. (C) 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics