Characterization of photon recycling in thin crystalline GaAs light emitting diodes

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Abstract
Gallium arsenide light emitting diodes (LEDs) were fabricated using molecular beam epitaxial films on GaAs substrates and removed by epitaxial lift-off (ELO). Lifted off devices were then mounted on a Si wafer using a Pd/Au/Cr contact layer, which also served as a back surface reflector. Devices were characterized by electrical and optical measurements, and the results for devices on the GaAs substrate were compared to those for ELO devices. ELO LEDs coated with a ZnS/MgF2 antireflection coating exhibited an optical output that was up to six times that of LEDs on GaAs substrates. At the same time, the measured current-voltage characteristics of the ELO devices displayed a lower n=1 current component. ELO LEDs with efficiencies up to 12.5% were realized. We attribute these results to photon recycling enhanced by the back-surface reflector in the ELO LEDs. The luminescence versus current and current versus voltage characteristics of the LEDs were analyzed to obtain the nonradiative minority carrier lifetimes and the photon recycling factors. The results demonstrate that the measured characteristics are well described by photon recycling theory. ELO LEDs may prove useful for characterizing recombination processes in LEDs, and thin-crystalline structures could provide substantial efficiency enhancements for LEDs and solar cells.