Light-emitting diodes for solid-state lighting: searching room for improvements

摘要

State-of-the art light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for solid-state lighting (SSL) are reviewed with the focus on their efficiency and ways for its improvement. Mechanisms of the LED efficiency losses are considered on the heterostructure, chip, and device levels, including high-current efficiency droop, recombination losses, "green gap", current crowding, Stokes losses, etc. Materials factors capable of lowering the LED efficiency, like composition fluctuations in InGaN alloys and plastic stress relaxation in device heterostructures, are also considered. Possible room for the efficiency improvement is discussed along with advanced schemes of color mixing and LED parameters optimal for generation of high-quality white light.