High-efficiency staggered 530 nm InGaN/InGaN/GaN quantum-well light-emitting diodes

Optical properties of staggered 530 nm InGaN/InGaN/GaN quantum-well (QW) light-emitting-diodes are investigated using the multiband effective mass theory. These results are compared with those of conventional 530 nm InGaN/GaN QW structures. A staggered InGaN/InGaN/GaN QW structure is shown to have much larger spontaneous emission than a conventional InGaN/GaN QW structure. This can be explained by the fact that a staggered QW structure has much larger matrix element than a conventional QW structure because a spatial separation between electron and hole wave functions is substantially reduced with the inclusion of a staggered InGaN layer. A staggered QW structure shows that the peak position at a high carrier density (530 nm) is similar to that at a noninjection level.