Composite axial/core-shell nanopillar light-emitting diodes at 1.3 μm

Selective-area growth of III-V nanopillars (NPs) is used to demonstrate near-infrared emitters that employ a composite axial/core-shell heterostructure. The axial p-i-n heterostructure allows growth of strain relaxed InGaAs inserts emitting at 1.3 pm. Radial growth of an InGaP shell provides in-situ surface passivation to reduce non-radiative recombination and space-charge limited transport due to mid-gap surface states. The resulting light-emitting diode is comparable to bulk devices with an ideality factor of eta = 1.67 and reverse bias leakage of 12 nA at 5 V. This device performance makes the combination of axial current injection with in-situ passivation a promising approach to NP based emitters. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4738997]