Temperature-dependent electroluminescence in InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes

We present a comparative study on temperature dependence of electroluminescence (EL) of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with identical structure but different indium contents in the active region. For the ultraviolet (UV) and blue LEDs, the EL intensity decreases dramatically with decreasing temperature after reaching a maximum at 150 K. The peak energy exhibits a large redshift in the range of 20–50 meV with a decrease of temperature from 200 K to 70 K, accompanying the appearance of longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon replicas broadening the low energy side of the EL spectra. This redshift is explained by carrier relaxation into lower energy states, leading to dominant radiative recombination at localized states. In contrast, the peak energy of the green LED exhibits a minimal temperature-induced shift, and the emission intensity increases monotonically with decreasing temperature down to 5 K. We attribute the different temperature dependences of the EL to different degrees of the localization effects in the MQW regions of the LEDs.