Band-filling effect on the light emission spectra of InGaN/GaN quantum wells with highly doped barriers

We investigate spectra of InGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) light-emitting diode (LED) structures with heavily doped barriers at different excitation levels. We model the spectral shape and energy position in frames of dominating mechanism of free electron recombination accounting for the influence on the potential width of the QW of the random impurity potential penetrating from the doped barriers. The blue shift at high excitation is supposed to be due to the filling of the conduction band with degenerate 2D non-equilibrium electrons. A structure in the emission bands is observed and it is assumed to be a result from step-like 2D density of states in the QW. A good accordance is obtained between the calculated and experimental spectra assuming that the barriers are graded.