US 12,707,762 B2 · Methods and devices for solid state nanowire devices

Abstract

Solid state sources offer potential advantages including high brightness, electricity savings, long lifetime, and higher color rendering capability, when compared to incandescent and fluorescent light sources. To date however, many of these advantages have not been borne out in providing white LED lamps for general lighting applications. The inventors have established that surface recombination through non-radiative processes results in highly inefficient electrical injection. Exploiting in-situ grown shells in combination with dot-in-a-wire LED structures to overcome this limitation through the effective lateral confinement offered by the shell, the inventors have demonstrated core-shell dot-in-a-wire LEDs with significantly improved electrical injection efficiency and output power, providing phosphor-free InGaN/GaN nanowire white LEDs operating with milliwatt output power and color rendering indices of 95-98. Additionally, the inventors demonstrate efficient UV nanowire LEDs for medical applications as well as the non-degraded growth of nanowire LEDs on amorphous substrates.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A device, comprising:

a substrate;
a plurality of nanowires coupled to the substrate, wherein each nanowire of the plurality of nanowires comprises:
a lower nanowire portion comprising a first n-type semiconductor including a group III element, wherein a face of a first surface of the lower nanowire portion is disposed on the substrate;
a central nanowire portion comprising a plurality of quantum structures, wherein the central nanowire portion is disposed on a face of a second surface of the lower nanowire portion opposite the face of the first surface of the lower nanowire portion;
and
an upper nanowire portion, disposed on the central nanowire portion opposite the lower nanowire portion, comprising a first p-type semiconductor including the group III element;
and
a respective outer nanowire shell coupled to a periphery of said each nanowire and encompassing respective peripheries of the lower nanowire portion, the central nanowire portion, and the upper nanowire portion, wherein each said respective outer nanowire shell has a thickness that increases with increasing distance from the substrate.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods and devices for solid state nanowire devices

Life of this patent

Methods and devices for solid state nanowire devices

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23