Suppression of Auger-stimulated efficiency droop in nitride-based light emitting diodes

We calculate the rate of nonradiative Auger recombination in InGaN/GaN quantum wells with rectangular and smooth confining potentials. The calculations show that the rate of Auger recombination in rectangular quantum wells is sufficiently high to explain the efficiency droop in nitride-based light emitting diodes (LEDs). This rate, however, can be reduced by softening of the confining potential and a three-fold suppression is demonstrated in the studied quantum wells. The suppression of the Auger recombination rate improves LED radiative efficiency and reduces the droop effect, as we show using the standard recombination (ABC) model. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4789364]