Power-Dependent Optical Characterization of the InGaN/GaN-Based Micro-Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) in High Spatial Resolution

Spatially resolved photoluminescence at the sub-micro scale was used to study the optical non-uniformity of the micro-LED under varied power density excitation levels. The trend of the efficiency along injection levels were found to be highly dependent on the location of the chip mesa. The sidewall was 80% lower than the center under low-power density excitation, but was 50% higher under high-power density excitation. The external quantum efficiency droop at the center and the sidewall was 86% and 52%, respectively. A 2 µm band area near the sidewall was characterized where the efficiency and its trends changed rapidly. Beyond such band, the full width at half maximum and peak wavelength variation across the chip varied less than 1 nm, indicating high uniformity of the material composition. The sudden change = in the band, especially under high level excitation indicates the indium composition change formed by ion residues on the sidewall affect the distribution of charge carriers. These findings contribute to the understanding of cause of efficiency disadvantage and non-uniformity problems in small-size micro-LEDs.