Microdisc LEDs Boast Higher Efficiencies

Physicists at Kansas State University in Manhattan have developed LEDs with a novel architecture that display emission efficiencies greater than conventional devices. The interconnected microdisc LEDs, which the team describes in the Nov. 13 issue of Applied Physics Letters, are fields of InGaN/GaN single quantum wells grown by metallorganic chemical vapor deposition.

They display a higher forward bias voltage than their broad-area counterparts, but their emission efficiencies are up to 60 percent greater, which the researchers suggest could boost the external quantum efficiencies of LEDs. The architecture may be suitable for use with LEDs constructed of other semiconductor, polymer or organic materials.