This study investigates the optical characteristics of InGaN multiple quantum wells(MQWs) light emitting diodes(LEDs) on planar sapphire substrates(PSSs), nano-sized PSS(NPSS) and micro-sized PSS(MPSS). We obtain the results as the patterning size of the sapphire substrates approach the nanometer scale: The light from the back side of the device increases and the total light extraction becomes larger than the MPSS- and planar-LEDs. The experiment is conducted by Monte Carlo ray-tracing, which is regarded as one of the most suitable ways to simulate light propagation in LEDs. The results show fine consistency between simulation and measurement of the samples with different sized patterned substrates. Notably, light from the back side becomes larger in the NPSS LEDs. We strongly propose that the increase in the light intensity of NPSS LEDs is due to an abnormal optical distribution, which indicates an increase of extraction probability through NPSS.

Ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown on a patterned n-type GaN substrate (PNS) with 200 nm silicon-di-oxide (SiO2) nano pattern diameter to improve the light output efficiency of the diodes. Wet etched self assembled indium tin oxide (ITO) nano clusters serve as a dry etching mask for converting the SiO2 layer grown on the n-GaN template into SiO2 nano patterns by inductively coupled plasma etching. PNS is obtained by n-GaN regrowth on the SiO2 nano patterns and UV-LEDs were fabricated using PNS as a template. Two UV-LEDs, a reference LED without PNS and a 200 nm PNS UV-LEDs were fabricated. Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL) and Light output intensity- Input current- Voltage (L-I-V) characteristics were used to evaluate the ITO-SiO2 nanopattern surface morphology, threading dislocation propagation, PNS crystalline property, PNS optical property and UVLED device performance respectively. The light out put intensity was enhanced by 1.6times@100mA for the LED grown on PNS compared to the reference LED with out PNS.