Physical nature of the degradation of light emitting diodes and semiconductors lasers

A survey of published experimental data on the bulk degradation of light emitting diodes and semiconductor injection lasers is presented. It is shown that the bulk degradation process can be divided into three stages. The first stage involves the diffusional withdrawal of interstitial atoms from sinks into the bulk of the active region after the capture of injected minority carriers and the disappearance of the forces of Coulomb or molecular interaction. The second stage involves the appearance of intense nonradiative recombination which, through centers of nonradiative recombination, stimulates the growth of dislocation dipoles of interstitial type. In the third stage, vacancies either themselves become part of certain centers of nonradiative recombination or facilitate diffusion.