Impact of surface recombination on efficiency of III-nitride light-emitting diodes

The paper considers surface recombination at the free active region surface as the mechanism of carrier losses which has not yet been discussed with regard to III-nitride LEDs despite of its evident importance for AlGaInP-based light emitters. Using advanced thin-film and triangular volumetric chip de-signs reported in literature as prototypes, we have demonstrated by simulation a noticeable impact of surface recombination on the wall-plug efficiency of InGaN-based LEDs. Various types of LEDs whose efficiency may be especially affected by surface recombination are discussed. (C) 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim