Dissertation in the field of Optoelectronics, Lauri Riuttanen

The title of thesis is Diffusion injected light emitting diode

This thesis presents the experimental studies on a novel current injection method for light emitting applications. The method is based on bipolar diffusion of charge carriers. Unlike in the conventional method, the active region does not have to placed between the p- and n-layers of the pn-junction. The diffusion injection method is experimentally demonstrated by two types of prototype structures. The first prototype was fabricated using a multi quantum well (MQW) stack buried under the pn-junction. The second prototype was fabricated using a near surface quantum well (QW) placed on top of the pn-junction. The first prototype showed that the diffusion current components can be used to excite an active region outside of the pn-junction. The second prototype showed a large improvement in injection efficiency as well as the suitability of the method for exciting surface structures. The applications of diffusion injection can be found in blue galliun nitride based LEDs studied in this thesis as well as in green solid-state light sources, light sources integrated into silicon technology and devices based on nanostructures and plasmonics.

Opponent: Professor Charles Thomas Foxon, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

Supervisor: Professor Markku Sopanen, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Micro- and Nanosciences