Progress toward high-performance UV LEDs

Doping the materials that make up the barrier around a UV LED’s active region is challenging, which makes it difficult to improve the yields and lifespans of UV LEDs at the 265 nm wavelength. Researchers from INAC and Institut Néel are tackling the subject, and their work under a French National Research Agency-funded project recently resulted in a significant advance. The team added a small fraction of indium to the doping material, magnesium. At the same time, they used aluminum nitride nanowires (rather than thin layers) for better relaxation of the strain generated by the dopant. The technique increased the maximum solubility of the magnesium tenfold.

The researchers would like to move on to a prototype. As mercury is gradually phased out, 265 nm LEDs will be used increasingly in applications like air and water disinfection and counterfeit bill detection.

Contact: bruno.daudin@cea.fr

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