Light emitting diode

• US 5,226,053 A
• Filed: 12/27/1991
• Issued: 07/06/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Agere Systems Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T, Inc.
• Inventors: Zydzik, George J., Tu, Li-Wei, Cho, Alfred Y., Schubert, Erdmann F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Epps, Georgia Y.
• Application Number:
  US07/815,307
• Time in Patent Office: 557 Days
• Field of Search: 372/43, 372/45, 372/96, 372/99, 372/49, 357/17, 357/16, 357/4, 257/13, 257/14, 257/15
• US Class Current: 372/45.01
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/105 with a resonant cavity structure
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/40 Materials therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/42 Transparent materials
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/465 with a resonant cavity structure

Abstract

This invention embodies a LED in which an optical cavity of the LED, which includes an active layer (or region) and confining layers, is within a resonant Fabry-Perot cavity. The LED with the resonant cavity, hereinafter called Resonant Cavity LED or RCLED, has a higher spectral purity and higher light emission intensity relative to conventional LEDs. The Fabry-Perot cavity is formed by a highly reflective multilayer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror (R_B ≧0.99) and a mirror with a low to moderate reflectivity (R_T ≃0.25-0.99). The DBR mirror, placed in the RCLED structure between the substrate and the confining bottom layer, is used as a bottom mirror. Presence of the less reflective top mirror above the active region leads to an unexpected improvement in directional light emission characteristics. The use of a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity formed by these two mirrors results in optical spontaneous light emission from the active region, which is restricted to the modes of the cavity. While the bottom DBR mirror reduces absorption by the substrate of that light portion which is emitted toward the substrate, the two mirrors of the resonant cavity reduce the isotropic emission and improve the light emission characteristics in terms of a more directed (anisotropic) emission.

Claims

1. A light emitting diode (LED) with a resonant Fabry-Perot cavity comprising:

a semiconductor structure comprising a plurality of layers of semiconductor material and a bottom and a top electrode on opposite surfaces of said structure, wherein said semiconductor material is selected from Group III-V and Group II-VI compound semiconductor materials, said structure comprises in an ascending order;

a substrate of a first conductivity type,

a bottom confining layer of the first conductivity type,

an active layer capable of emitting light spontaneously under forward bias conditions, the thickness of the active layer being within a range of from 1 to 30 nanometers,

a top confining layer of a second conductivity type, said top and bottom confining layers and the active layer forming an optical cavity of the LED, and

a semiconductor contact layer of the second conductivity type,

said top electrode is in contact with an upper surface of said contact layer forming an ohmic contact with the contact layer,

wherein said LED further comprises;

a bottom mirror and a top mirror placed on opposite sides of said optical cavity and forming a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, said bottom mirror is located between the bottom confining layer and the substrate and is a high reflectivity mirror (R_B ≧

99%), and said top electrode is a thin metal layer deposited in a thickness permitting passage of light emission through the metal and acting as the top mirror of the resonant cavity, the reflectivity, R_T, of said top mirror being 25% ≦

R_T <

99%, preferably 40% ≦

R_T ≦

97%.

2. The LED of claim 1, in which said bottom mirror is a multilayer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror comprising a plurality of pairs of semiconductor layers, one layer in each pair having an index of refraction which is higher than the index of refraction of the other layer in the pair, each layer being λ

/4 n thick, wherein λ

is a spontaneous emission wavelength of the active layer and n is the refractive index of the material of the respective layers.

3. The LED of claim 1, in which said structure is an Al_x Ga_1-x As/GaAs system with x ranging from 0 to 1.

4. The LED of claim 2, in which said active layer is GaAs, said low refractive index material comprises AlAs and said high refractive material is selected from GaAs,Al₀.05 Ga₀.95 As and Al₀.14 Ga₀.86 As.

5. The LED of claim 1, in which said metal layer consists essentially of a metal selected from the group consisting of silver, aluminum and gold.

6. The LED of claim 5, in which said metal layer is silver from 15 nm to 50 nm thick.

7. A light emitting diode (LED) with a resonant Fabry-Perot cavity comprising:

a semiconductor structure comprising a plurality of layers of semiconductor material and a bottom and a top electrode on opposite surfaces of said structure, wherein said semiconductor material is selected from Group III-V and Group II-VI compound semiconductor materials, said structure comprises in an ascending order;

a substrate of a first conductivity type,

a bottom confining layer of a first conductivity type,

an active layer capable of emitting light spontaneously under forward bias conditions,

a top confining layer of a second conductivity type, said top and bottom confining layers and the active layer forming an optical cavity of the LED, and

a semiconductor contact layer of the second conductivity type,

said top electrode is in contact with an upper surface of said contact layer forming an ohmic contact with the contact layer, wherein said LED further comprises a bottom mirror and a top mirror placed on opposite sides of said optical cavity and forming a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, said bottom layer is located between the bottom confining layer and the substrate and is a high reflectivity mirror (R_B ≧

99%), and

said top electrode is provided with a centrally located aperture in which is exposed an upper surface of the contact layer, the interface between said upper surface and air overlaying said upper surface forming said top mirror having reflectivity 25% ≦

R_T ≦

99%, preferably 25% ≦

R_T ≦

35%.

8. The LED of claim 7, in which said top electrode is a metal alloy selected from Au-Zn and Au-Be and deposited on the contact layer in a thickness ranging from 50 nm to 300 nm.

9. The LED of claim 7, in which said bottom mirror is a multilayer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror comprising a plurality of pairs of simiconductor layers, one layer in each pair having an index of refraction which is higher than the index of refraction of the other layer in the pair, each layer being λ

/4 n thick, wherein λ

is a spontaneous emission wavelength of the active layer and n is the refractive index of the material of the respective layers.

10. the LED of claim 7, in which said structure is an Al_x Ga_1-x As/GaAs system with x ranging from 0 to 1.

11. The LED of claim 9, in which said active layer is GaAs, said low refractive index material comprises AlAs and said high refractive material is selected from GaAs, Al₀.05 Ga₀.95 As and Al₀.14 Ga₀.86 As.

12. A light emitting diode (LED) with a resonant Fabry-Perot cavity comprising:

a semiconductor structure comprising a plurality of layers of semiconductor material and a bottom and a top electrode on opposite surfaces of said structure, wherein said semiconductor material is selected from Group III-V and Group II-VI compound semiconductor materials, said structure comprises in an ascending order;

a substrate of a first conductivity type,

a bottom confining layer of a first conductivity type,

an active layer capable of emitting light spontaneously under forward bias conditions,

a top confining layer of a second conductivity type, said top and bottom confining layers and the active layer forming an optical cavity of the LED, and

a semiconductor contact layer of the second conductivity type,

said top electrode is in contact with an upper surface of said contact layer forming an ohmic contact with the contact layer, wherein said LED further comprises a bottom mirror and a top mirror placed on opposite sides of said optical cavity and forming a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, said bottom layer is located between the bottom confining layer and the substrate and is a high reflectivity mirror (R_B ≧

99%), and

said top electrode comprises a thin metal layer overlying the contact layer and an optically transparent conductive semiconductor material overlying said metal layer, the conductive semiconductor material is selected from the group consisting of cadmium tin oxide and indium tin oxide, and said metal layer and said conductive semiconductor layer acting simultaneously as the top electrode and the top mirror of said LED, the reflectivity, R_T, of the top mirror being 25%≦

R_T ≦

99%.

13. The LED of claim 12, in which said metal layer is of silver deposited in a thickness of from 15 nm to 50 nm, and said transparent conductive semiconductor material is deposited in a thickness of from 50 to 500 nm.

14. The LED of claim 12, in which said bottom mirror is a multilayer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror comprising a plurality of pairs of semiconductor layers, one layer in each pair having an index of refraction which is higher than the index of refraction of the other layer in the pair, each layer being λ

/4n thick, wherein λ

is a spontaneous emission wavelength of the active layer and n is the refractive index of the material of the respective layers.

15. The LED of claim 12, in which said structure is an Al_x Ga_1-x As/GaAs system with x ranging from 0 to 1.

16. The LED of claim 14, in which said active layer is GaAs, said low refractive index material comprises AlAs and said high refractive material is selected from GaAs,Al₀.05 Ga₀.95 As and Al₀.14 Ga₀.86 As.

17. A light emitting diode (LED) comprising:

a semiconductor structure comprising a plurality of layers of semiconductor material and a bottom and a top electrode on opposite surfaces of said structure, wherein said semiconductor material is selected from Group III-V and Group II-VI compound semiconductor materials, said structure comprises in an ascending order;

a substrate of a first conductivity type,

a bottom confining layer of the first conductivity type,

an active layer capable of emitting light spontaneously under forward bias conditions,

a top confining layer of a second conductivity type, said top and bottom confining layers and the active layer forming an optical cavity of the LED, and

a semiconductor contact layer of the second conductivity type,

said top electrode is in contact with an upper surface of said contact layer forming an ohmic contact with the contact layer,

wherein said LED further comprises;

a bottom mirror and a top mirror on opposite sides of said optical cavity and forming a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, said bottom mirror is located between the bottom confining layer and the substrate and is a high reflectivity mirror (R_B ≧

99%), and

said top electrode comprises an annular thin metal layer overlying the contact layer, and said top mirror comprises a stack of a plurality of pairs of high index of refraction and low index of refraction layers, said stack overlying that surface of the contact layer which is exposed in the central aperture of the annular metal layer and partially overlapping an edge of the annular metal layer adjacent said aperture, the reflectivity, R_T, of the top mirror being 25%≦

R_T ≦

99%, preferably 80%≦

R_T ≦

99%.

18. The LED of claim 17, in which said annular metal layer is Ag ranging from 50 to 300 nm in thickness, with an outer diameter ranging from 10 μ

m. to 100 μ

m and an inner diameter ranging from 5 μ

m to 50 μ

m.

19. The LED of claim 18, in which said stack included from 2 to 20 pairs of high/low index material selected from GaP/borosilicate and ZnS/CaF₂, each layer in the stack being λ

/4n thick, said stack overlapping a 5 to 50 μ

m wide strip of said top electrode.

20. The LED of claim 17, in which said bottom mirror is a multilayer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror comprising a plurality of pairs of semiconductor layers, one layer in each pair having an index of refraction which is higher than the index of refraction of the other layer in the pair, each layer being λ

/4n thick, wherein λ

is a spontaneous emission wavelength of the active layer and n is the refractive index of the material of the respective layers.

21. The LED of claim 17, in which said structure is an Al_x Ga_1-x As/GaAs system with x ranging from 0 to 1.

22. The LED of claim 20, in which said active layer is GaAs, said low refractive index material comprises AlAs and said high refractive material is selected from GaAs,Al₀.05 Ga₀.95 As and Al₀.14 Ga₀.86 As.