Negative differential resistance and electroluminescence from InAs light-emitting diodes grown by liquid-phase epitaxy

Negative differential resistance has been observed from InAs homojunction light-emitting diodes grown using liquid-phase epitaxy at 455 °C. The devices were characterized using current–voltage sI–Vd and electroluminescence spectroscopy measurements to obtain information about structure defects in InAs. Two distinct negative differential resistance regions were observed in the forward bias I–V characteristic, consistent with carriers tunnelling into defect levels within the InAs band gap. At large forward bias, carrier injection into the defect levels resulted in electroluminescence peaking at 372 meV and then at 392 meV with increasing current. Analysis based on a native lattice complex defect indicates that carriers recombine via the defect levels at temperatures up to 175 K. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. fDOI: 10.1063/1.1863446g