Heat Dissipation in Flexible Nitride Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes

• Main Authors: Nan Guan, Nuño Amador-Mendez, Arup Kunti, Andrey Babichev, Subrata Das, Akanksha Kapoor, Noëlle Gogneau, Joël Eymery, François Henri Julien, Christophe Durand, Maria Tchernycheva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Nanomaterials
• Subjects: nanowire; LED; InGaN; mechanical flexibility; self-heating
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/11/2271
• ISSN: 2079-4991

We analyze the thermal behavior of a flexible nanowire (NW) light-emitting diode (LED) operated under different injection conditions. The LED is based on metal–organic vapor-phase deposition (MOCVD)-grown self-assembled InGaN/GaN NWs in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. Despite the poor thermal conductivity of the polymer, active nitride NWs effectively dissipate heat to the substrate. Therefore, the flexible LED mounted on a copper heat sink can operate under high injection without significant overheating, while the device mounted on a plastic holder showed a 25% higher temperature for the same injected current. The efficiency of the heat dissipation by nitride NWs was further confirmed with finite-element modeling of the temperature distribution in a NW/polymer composite membrane.