Enhanced blue and green emission in rare-earth-doped GaN electroluminescent devices by optical photopumping

Electroluminescence (EL) from rare-earth-doped GaN (GaN:RE) EL devices (ELD) emission has been observed to be greatly enhanced by ultraviolet (UV) photopumping. With radiation from a HeCd laser (325 nm) both blue (from GaN:Tm) and green (from GaN:Er) EL brightness have been enhanced up to 2 orders of magnitude, depending on bias conditions. We explain the luminescence increase by the following mechanism: photoelectrons generated by above GaN band-gap excitation are accelerated by the electric field along with electrically injected electrons and both types of carriers contribute to EL emission through RE impact excitation. The EL intensity increases monotonically with increasing applied bias and with photopumping power. The photopumped-induced EL gain is most efficient at relatively low bias, reaching values of 50-100x. This increase in EL emission can be applied to flat panel displays with enhanced brightness, especially blue, and with improved color balance. Other applications include UV indicators and detectors, and infrared emitters. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.