Study of optical anisotropy in nonpolar and semipolar AlGaN quantum well deep ultraviolet light emission diode

This paper analyzes the optical polarization characteristics and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of an AlGaN based polar, nonpolar, and semipolar deep ultra-violet (UV) light emitting diode (LED). A one dimensional model is used to solve drift-diffusion, Poisson equations, and 6 × 6 k·p Schrodinger equations to investigate band structure and emission characteristics. The light emission polarization ratios of c-plane, nonpolar, and semipolar AlGaN based deep UV LEDs with different Al compositions and injection current were studied. The study shows that the optical polarization of the c-plane AlGaN based deep UV LED is dominated by the out-plane polarization as the Al composition increases. For nonpolar and semipolar structures, the light polarization direction is mainly dominated by the in-plane polarized light which is good for the surface emitting. Finally, influences of the IQE by changing the p-type activation energy, growth orientation, and nonradiatve lifetime are studied in this paper.