Effect of Sapphire Substrate Thickness on the Characteristics of 450 nm InGaN/GaN Multi-Quantum Well Light-Emitting Diodes.

450 nm InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well (MQW) ligth-emitting diodes (LEDs) prepared on sapphire substrate with different thicknesses were fabricated and characterized. By thinning the sapphire substrate to 50 µm, it was found that the LED exhibited the highest light output power of ~48 mW under high injection current of 50 mA, improved by about 35% compared to that with 200 µm-thick sapphire without increasing the operating voltage. The electroluminescence intensity was increased and the spectral peak wavelength was blue-shifted, because the wafer bowing-induced mechanical stress alters the piezoelectric field in the InGaN/GaN MQW active region of the LED. The internal quantum efficiency was also improved by about 10% at an injection current of 50 mA. Moreover, the external quantum efficiency and light extraction efficiency were optimized because of enhanced light output intensity. The results confirmed that sapphire substrate thinning effectively alters the piezoelectric field in the InGaN/GaN active region, and hence increases both of the effective band gap and the probability of radiative recombination.