Leakage current and reverse-bias luminescence in InGaN-based light-emitting diodes

This paper reports an electro-optical analysis of the correlation between reverse-bias leakage current and luminescence in light-emitting diodes based on InGaN. The results of the analysis suggest that (i) the main mechanism responsible for leakage current conduction is tunneling, (ii) leakage current is correlated with the presence of reverse-bias luminescence, (iii) leakage current flows through preferential paths, that can be identified by means of emission microscopy, and (iv) reverse-bias luminescence could be ascribed to the recombination of electron-hole pairs in the quantum well region.