Low-Temperature Cathodoluminescence Mapping of Green, Blue, and UV GaInN/GaN LED Dies

GaInN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) play an important role as energy efficient light sources in solid state lighting. A controversial discussion addresses the origin of lateral light emission variations and their correlation with either of the identified defects, e.g., threading dislocations and V-defects. In order to establish any possible correlation of defects and luminescence centers, we analyze three UV, blue and green LED dies by microscopic mapping of spectroscopic cathodoluminescence and secondary electrons at variable low temperature from 7 K to room temperature. Particular effort is being placed on a quantitative analysis of the luminescence signal. Image intensities are not being scaled and offset for highest contrast as otherwise typical for imaging mode. In standard configuration, we analyze image areas of (0.037 mm) with pixel resolution of 72 nm. Following regions of strong and weak emission we find that remain bright and dark respectively even at low temperature. Those variations increase with the mean emission wavelength of the LEDs and with temperature. The largest peak wavelength variation associated with the intensity contrast was observed in the green LEDs and amounts to 5 nm. Here the peak wavelength is higher in the dark spots than in the bright ones. This finding corresponds to the general trend when comparing the lower efficiency in longer wavelength green emitters to the blue ones.