Reduced Surface Recombination in Extended-Perimeter LEDs toward Electroluminescent Cooling

III-V semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a promising candidate for demonstrating electroluminescent cooling. However, exceptionally high internal quantum efficiency designs are paramount to achieving this goal. A significant loss mechanism preventing unity internal quantum efficiency in GaAs-based devices is nonradiative surface recombination at the perimeter sidewall. To address this issue, an unconventional LED design is presented, in which the distance from the central current injection area to the device's perimeter is extended while maintaining a constant front contact grid size. This approach effectively moves the perimeter beyond the lateral spread of current at an operating current density of 10¹-10² A/cm². In p-i-n GaAs/InGaP double heterojunction LEDs fabricated with varying sizes and perimeter extensions, a 19% relative increase in external quantum efficiency is achieved by extending the perimeter-to-contact distance from 25 to 250 μm for a front contact grid size of 450 × 450 μm². Utilizing an in-house developed Photon Dynamics model, the corresponding relative increase in internal quantum efficiency is estimated to be 5%. These results are ascribed to a significant reduction in perimeter recombination due to a lower perimeter-to-surface area (P/A) ratio. However, in contrast to lowering the P/A ratio by increasing the front contact grid size of LEDs, the present method enables these improvements without affecting the required maximum current density in the microscopic active LED area under the front contact grid. These findings aid in the advancement of electroluminescent cooling in LEDs and could prove useful in other dedicated semiconductor devices where perimeter recombination is limiting.