Fabrication of conducting-filament-embedded indium tin oxide electrodes: Application to lateral-type gallium nitride light-emitting diodes

A novel conducting filament (CF)-embedded indium tin oxide (ITO) film is fabricated using an electrical breakdown method. To assess the performance of this layer as an ohmic contact, it is applied to GaN (gallium nitride) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a p-type electrode for comparison with typical GaN LEDs using metallic ITO. The operating voltage and output power of the LED with the CF embedded ITO are 3.93 V and 8.49 mW, respectively, at an injection current of 100 mA. This is comparable to the operating voltage and output power of the conventionally fabricated LEDs using metallic ITO (3.93 V and 8.43 mW). Moreover, the CF-ITO LED displays uniform and bright light emission indicating excellent current injection and spreading. These results suggest that the proposed method of forming ohmic contacts is at least as effective as the conventional method.