Photoluminescence study of AlGaN-based 280 nm ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

We investigated optical properties of single quantum well AlGaN-based UV 280 nm light-emitting diodes using temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurement. We found an S-shaped temperature dependence of the peak energy. From the Arrhenius plot of integrated PL intensity, we speculate that dislocations as well as thermal emission of carriers out of the quantum well are responsible for the PL quenching behavior. Also a second nonradiative channel with much lower activation energy was found, the origin of which we believe to be quenching of the bound excitons. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.