Issue 13, 2022

Application of patterned sapphire substrate for III-nitride light-emitting diodes

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed flourishing prosperity of III-nitride emitters in solid-state lighting and high-resolution displays. As one of the widely used substrates, sapphire shows superiority for heteroepitaxial growth of III-nitride light-emitting diode (LED) structure, due to the advantages of stability, low cost, high mechanical strength, as well as mature fabrication technology. However, realization of efficient LEDs grown on sapphire substrate is impeded by high density of defects in epilayers and low light extraction efficiency. The emergence of patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) turns out to be a promising and effective technology to overcome these problems and enhance the LED performances. In this review, we first introduce the background and recent advances of PSS applied in III-nitride visible and ultraviolet LEDs are. Then, we summarize the fabrication methods of PSS, together with novel methods to define nanometre-scale patterned structures. We further demonstrate the effect of PSS that contributes to reduce the threading dislocation density (TDD) of epilayers in detail. Meanwhile, mechanism of light extraction efficiency enhancement by adopting PSS is presented based on numerical analysis. Next, we explore the influence of PSS structural parameters (e.g. pattern size, pattern shape and aspect ratio) on LED performances, spanning from visible to deep ultraviolet UV emission region. Finally, challenges and potential prospects in PSS for future LED development are proposed and forecasted as well.

Graphical abstract: Application of patterned sapphire substrate for III-nitride light-emitting diodes

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
14 dek 2021
Accepted
09 fev 2022
First published
17 mar 2022

Nanoscale, 2022,14, 4887-4907

Application of patterned sapphire substrate for III-nitride light-emitting diodes

S. Zhou, X. Zhao, P. Du, Z. Zhang, X. Liu, S. Liu and L. J. Guo, Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 4887 DOI: 10.1039/D1NR08221C

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