Comment on 'Direct Measurement of Auger Electrons Emitted from a Semiconductor Light-Emitting Diode under Electrical Injection: Identification of the Dominant Mechanism for Efficiency Droop' [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 177406 (2013)]

摘要

In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 177406 (2013)], presenting aspectroscopic study of the electrons emitted from the GaN p-cap of aforward-biased InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode (LED), the authors observed atleast two distinct peaks in the electron energy distribution curves (EDCs),separated by about 1.5 eV, and concluded that the only viable explanation forthe higher-energy peak was Auger recombination in the LED active region. Wepresent full-band Monte Carlo simulations suggesting that the higher-energypeaks in the measured EDCs are probably uncorrelated with the carrierdistribution in the active region. This would not imply that Augerrecombination, and possibily Auger-induced leakage, play a negligible role inLED droop, but that an Auger signature cannot be recovered from the experimentperformed on the LED structure under study. We discuss, as an alternativeexplanation for the observed EDCs, carrier heating by the electric field in theband-bending region.