Comparative numerical analysis of intrinsic recombination mechanisms in polar and nonpolar nitride quantum wells

Abstract

We calculate the radiative and Auger recombination rates in polar c-plane and nonpolar m-plane InxGa1−xN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) with different alloy compositions x ranging from 0.1 to 0.5. The calculation is based on a full-zone electronic structure description obtained with the linear combination of first-principles (density functional theory with GW corrections) bulk bands approach. The results show that both the radiative and Auger recombination coefficients are higher in nonpolar QWs for all alloy compositions studied. We find that the competition between radiative and Auger recombination cannot explain the experimental findings on the improved performance of m-plane quantum well light emitters, suggesting a significant contribution from another efficiency reduction mechanism, likely not purely intrinsic but related to carrier transport and confinement.