We discuss the ultimate limit of performance of semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and its dependence on temperature. It is known that in high quality semiconductor materials it is, in principle, possible to reach wall plug efficiencies exceeding unity, which allows electroluminescent cooling in addition of very high efficiency light emission. Our simulation results suggest a few fairly simple measures that may further improve the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of LEDs toward the electroluminescent cooling limit. These include reducing the current density, modifying the LED structure by making thicker active regions and barrier layers, and doping of the active material. Our calculations also indicate that, contrary to the present understanding, operating LEDs at relatively high temperatures of 400–600 K may, in fact, improve the performance.

We develop a self-consistent model to describe the internal heating of high power light emitting diodes (LEDs) and use this model to simulate the operation of GaAs–AlGaAs double heterostructure LEDs. We account for the heating by nonradiative recombination processes in the simulations and solve self-consistently the steady state junction temperature. Based on the simulation results, we discuss the plausibility of unity conversion efficiency in LEDs and also the mechanisms underlying the efficiency droop. We show that the rise in the junction temperature limits the light output available from LEDs and further degrades the efficiency of operation at high operating currents. In addition to high power applications we study the optimal operating point and discuss the methods to increase the efficiency of LEDs toward the thermodynamical limits.

We present a first-principle method for quantitative modeling of optical energy flow and dissipation in thin-film (TF) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on highly general Green's function method. Unlike conventional models, the presented model simultaneously accounts for interference, near-field effects, and internal absorption in determining the radiance generated by a LED. We show that these effects have a profound influence on the efficiency of LEDs and strongly affect the light extraction efficiency (LEE) and the internal quantum efficiency. According to our results, the LEE of an InGaN-GaN TF-LED with untextured surfaces and typical active region (AR) thickness on the order of 10 nm is 67% while a LED with a thin AR exhibits only a LEE of 29%. Based on the numerical results, we discuss the factors that affect the overall efficiency and design considerations to optimize the structure of thin-film LEDs.

We present a study on the light extraction properties of thin film light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on the radiative transfer theory. We show that the well known ergodic limit for absorptivity in textured solar cells also applies to emissivity in LEDs accordance with the Kirchhoff’s radiation law. This limit for the emission enhancement by surface texturing in LEDs is fundamental and cannot be exceeded even with index-matched optics. We further carry out numerical calculations accounting for realistic absorption in typical GaN-InGaN LEDs to compare their performance with the ergodic limit for non-absorbing structures. The results show that the optical power of InGaN-GaN LED designs can be improved by a substantial factor of 2–4 with textured surfaces and engineering of the emission pattern and provide a guideline for more efficient LED designs.

The rapid development of thin film light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has enabled the enhancement of the light extraction beyond geometrical limits but more quantitative understanding of the underlying optical processes is required to fully optimize the extraction. We present first-principle calculations of the light extraction efficiency and optical energy flow in thin-film LEDs. The presented model generalizes the methods of fluctuational electrodynamics to excited semiconductors and simultaneously accounts for wave optical effects, e.g., interference and near-field coupling as well as the internal absorption of the light-emitting material in determining the rate of light emission and internal dissipation in the optical cavity formed by a planar LED. The calculations show that in structures with a metallic mirror, the emissivity of the active region can approach unity at selected wavelengths, even when the nominal emissivity of the active region is only moderate. However, the results also show that near-field coupling of emission from the active region to the mirror can provide a substantial non-radiative loss channel reducing the maximum light extraction efficiency to 0.67 in our example setup. These losses can be partly compensated by the efficient photon recycling enabled by thick active regions that quench emission to confined modes and thereby reduce parasitic absorption.