Hybrid Functional ITO/Silver Nanowire Transparent Conductive Electrodes for Enhanced Output Efficiency of Ultraviolet GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes

Munsik Oh; Mun Seok Jeong; Jaehee Cho; Hyunsoo Kim

doi:10.3390/ma17215385

Hybrid Functional ITO/Silver Nanowire Transparent Conductive Electrodes for Enhanced Output Efficiency of Ultraviolet GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes

Materials (Basel). 2024 Nov 4;17(21):5385. doi: 10.3390/ma17215385.

Authors

Munsik Oh^{1

2}, Mun Seok Jeong³, Jaehee Cho^{1

2}, Hyunsoo Kim²

Affiliations

¹ School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Semiconductor Science and Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Physics, Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

We investigated hybrid functional transparent conductive electrodes (HFTCEs) composed of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and silver nanowires (AgNWs) for the enhancement of output efficiency in GaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UVLEDs). The HFTCEs demonstrated an optical transmittance of 69.5% at a wavelength of 380 nm and a sheet resistance of 16.4 Ω/sq, while the reference ITO TCE exhibited a transmittance of 76.4% and a sheet resistance of 18.7 Ω/sq. Despite the 8.9% lower optical transmittance, the UVLEDs fabricated with HFTCEs achieved a 25% increase in output efficiency compared to reference UVLEDs. This improvement is attributed to the HFTCE's twofold longer current spreading length under operating forward voltages, and more significantly, the enhanced out-coupling of localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance with the trapped wave-guided light modes.

Keywords: localized surface plasmon; silver nanowire; ultraviolet light-emitting diodes.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Education (2017R1A2B4007182).