Improvement of Light Extraction Efficiency in Flip-Chip Light Emitting Diodes on SiC Substrate via Transparent Haze Films with Morphology-Controlled Collapsed Alumina Nanorods

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2016-01, Vol.8 (1), p.135-141
• Main Authors: Baek, Seunghwa, Kang, Gumin, Shin, Dongheok, Bae, Kyuyoung, Kim, Yong Hyun, Kim, Kyoungsik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b07783

We demonstrate GaN-based flip-chip light emitting diodes (FC-LEDs) on SiC substrate achieving high extraction efficiency by simply attaching the optically transparent haze films consisting of collapsed alumina nanorods. Through controlled etching time of alumina nanorods, we obtain four types of films that have different morphologies with different optical transmittance and haze properties. We show that the light output power of the FC-LEDs with film, which has 95.6% transmittance and 62.7% haze, increases by 20.4% in comparison to the bare LEDs. The angular radiation pattern of the LEDs also follows the Lambertian emission pattern without deteriorating the electrical properties of the device. The improvement of light extraction is mainly attributed to the reduced total internal reflection (TIR) via efficient out-coupling of guided light from SiC substrate to air by collapsed alumina nanorod structures in the film. The high transparency of film and reduced Fresnel reflection via graded refractive index transition between the film and SiC substrate also contribute to the extraction enhancement of the device. We systematically investigate the influence of haze film’s geometrical or optical properties on the extraction efficiency of FC-LEDs, and this study will provide a novel approach to enhance the performance of various optoelectronic devices.