Improved electro-optical and photoelectric performance of GaN-based micro-LEDs with an atomic layer deposited AlN...

The quantum efficiency of GaN-based micro-light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) is of great significance for their luminescence and detection applications. Optimized passivation process can alleviate the trapping of carriers by sidewall defects, such as dangling bonds, and is regarded as an effective way to improve the quantum efficiency of micro-LEDs. In this work, an AlN passivation layer was prepared by atomic layer deposition to improve the electro-optical and photoelectric conversion efficiency in GaN-based micro-LEDs. Compared to conventional Al₂O₃ passivation, the AlN passivation process has a stronger ability to eliminate the sidewall defects of micro-LEDs due to the homogeneous passivation interface. Our experiments show that the AlN-passivated device exhibits two orders of magnitude lower forward leakage and a smaller ideality factor, which leads to significantly enhanced external quantum efficiency (EQE). For 25*25 μm² micro-LEDs, the EQE of the AlN-passivated device was 18.3% and 57.7% higher than that of the Al₂O₃-passivated device in luminescence application and detection application, respectively.