Publication Details
Overview
 
 
Reiner Windisch, Reiner Windisch, Maarten Kuijk, Maarten Kuijk, Barun Dutta, Barun Dutta, A. Knobloch, A. Knobloch, P. Kiesel, P. Kiesel, Godfried Dohler, Godfried Dohler, Gustaaf Borghs, Gustaaf Borghs, P. Heremans, P. Heremans
 

Contribution to journal

Abstract 

The external efficiency of conventional light-emitting diodes (LED's) is limited by total internal reflection at the semiconductor-air interface. For conventional GaAs-based LED's, this results in an extraction efficiency of 2\%. In non-resonant cavity (NRC) LED's, this problem is overcome by a combination of internal scattering at a textured top surface and reflection on a back mirror, which increases the probability of escape. Using this approach, we demonstrate external quantum efficiencies of up to 40\% without encapsulation of the LED. To gain a more detailed understanding of the out-coupling mechanisms in NRC-LED's, the scattering properties of the textured surface are investigated experimentally. The optimum surface texture is found to randomize the direction of the internally reflected light almost perfectly. In addition, NRC-LED's also enables the enhancement of the external quantum efficiency for small and fast LED's. With efficiencies of about 15\%, we demonstrate bitrates of more than 1.3 GBit/s. In order to modify the lambertian output characteristics, we have successfully applied microlenses, allowing 50\% coupling efficiency into optical fibers with NA=0.5

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