334

Optoelectronics
produce relatively stable excitons; and as their constituents move in the strong

In the book cdited b-v B. Gil listed further readtng r\ppendix \'.

in

has been estimated that the diffirsion is 50-60 nm. Thus radiative recombination would occur before a non radiative encounter at a threading dislocation. even with dislocation densities of 1010 cm 2. As u,e have said several times, the variable quality, internal strains and piezo electric fields mask the correlation belween bandgap and emitted light. An interesting summary based on experimentai results of numerous InGaN LEDs has been made by P. K. O'Donnell* who giies the following equation in ten.ns of r, the molecular fraction of In in InGaN (i.e. In..Ga1-..N) lbr the peak of the emitted light Ep (in eV).
length of

fields the recombination is rapid.

It

rlinorily carriers (before recombination)

Ep:3'41 -4'3x
There is a spread of about 10% in these coefficients, and it applies only forr benveen 0-0.5. In summary. we can say that considerable progress continues in many leaturesi of LEDs. including substrates of slightly larger GaN "mirror finish" slices (still sro\r,n on sapphire). Skilled provision of buffer layers reduces spreading dislocations. Selection of inclined planes fbr growth has improved perfbrmance and yield in some devices. But the main goal of room liehting is still some rvay oft-. Blue LEDs coated rvith composite phosphors have produced white lighr. fairly *,ell matched to sunlight, at 15 lumens W-1. giving about f0 lurnens per diode. The snag is that they are still expensive and around 100 are needed to match a 100 W tungsten fllament bulb. Howeler- \\re routinelv u.-se LED torches and lantems. batterv pou'ercd. So if u'e \\'ere prepared to bulk br-rr,uhitc diodes and rer.vire our lighting svstem to 5 \r d.c.. u'e could have cnergy-eflicient room lights nou'. But if this rvere seriousl,v proposed rve think the voters rvould rebel at the capital cost, even although they can no longer get their 100 W bulbs from Woohvorths. So room lighting is still a challenge. Maybe InGaN LEDs will have to compete with OLEDs (Organic LEDs) for eff-rcient replacement of our old fashioned lighting. see Appendix I. Finally, a r.vord about the environment. Electricity is mainly produced by fossil fuel rvhich causes the undesirable CO2 emission. (Jver one fifth of the electricity consumption in developed countries is due to lighting and the proportion is even higher in developing countries. If the use of LED lamps will l"ralr,e that consumption that, would save, it has been calculated. 300 Megatons of CO2 emission in the US alone. Will that happen? As I said I t-eel quite certain that rvhite light LEDs will come in due course but I do not quite believe in the saving. If ',ve have to pay less for our lighting, we mav use lnore of it. but
hopefull-v'' not trvice as much.

er ul., Appl. Phys. Erpress l. 05 ll0l (2008)l with tleep ultraviolet diodes has sho\\'n that if threading dislocations in the bulfer laver are reduced. etTiciencl is irnproved. The deep UY region around l-r0 i80 nnr (over 5 e\r) is potentiall) irlportant as a stcrilizrng antibiotic agent
fbr surgtcal instruments. tood-processing lrrachinen. iind sater srrpplies. rvhich usuailv cannot be tlooded u ith stenhzing

For e xample. recent \\'ork IL{. Hirayama

liquids. It is gettinu clos!' to soft X-ral

and could be useful tor rmaging the large

molecules that are important lor lile. The diodes used nere made of an Al*Gar -.ralloy- as the energy gap is beyond GaN

(see Table

8.3). rvith an ,t value of

about 0.87. They rvere grown on sapphire

substrates by low-pressure MOCVD, with a buffer la1'er. This is a very difficult device region: initially. Hiravama ct ai. obtained a diode output of 5 trrW with a quantum ethciency of 0.0019i,, but by reducing the quantum well thickness to only 1.3 nm and introducing an A1N buffer layer to reduce dislocations from aboutJ.2 x l0e cm-: to 1.8 x 109 cm-2. they obtained an output of 150 pW rvith a quanfum effrciency ol 0.2910. So the device is still of lo*'efficiency but better, a stnking advance.

13.4 Electro-optic, photorefractive, and nonlinear materials

Before talking more about applications, I shall first revieri' sonre properties of materials which make them suitable components for devices. In electro-optic materials, the application of an electric treld u'ill affect the index of refraction that an optical wave'sees'. Note that waves with different