Impact of interfaces on photoluminescence efficiency of high indium content InGaN quantum wells

InGaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) are known to suffer from low electron and hole wavefunction overlap due to high piezoelectric field. Staggered InGaN quantum wells (QWs) have been proposed to increase the wavefunction overlap and improve the efficiency of LEDs especially for long wavelength emitters. In this work we evidence that the growth of staggered QWs has also another beneficial effect as it allows to reduce the formation of defects, responsible for nonradiative Shockley-Read-Hall recombination, at the bottom interface of the QW. Staggered QWs comprised an InGaN layer of an intermediate In content between the barrier and the QW. We show that insertion of such a layer results in a significant increase of the luminescence intensity, even if the calculated wavefunction overlap drops. We study the dependence of the thickness of such an intermediate In content layer on photoluminescence (PL) intensity behavior. Staggered QWs exhibit increased cathodoluminescence (CL) homogeneity that is a fingerprint of lower density of defects, in contrast to standard QWs for which high density of dark spots are observed in QW emission mapping. Transmission electron microscopy of standard QWs revealed formation of basal-plane stacking faults (BSFs) and voids that could have resulted from vacancy aggregation. Stepwise increase of the In content in staggered QWs prevents formation of point defects and results in an increased luminescence efficiency. The In composition difference between the barrier and the well is therefore a key parameter to control the formation of point defects in the high-In content QWs, influencing the luminescence efficiency.