1  Gbps free-space deep-ultraviolet communications based on III-nitride micro-LEDs emitting at 262  nm

The low modulation bandwidth of deep-ultraviolet (UV) light sources is considered as the main reason limiting the data transmission rate of deep-UV communications. Here, we present high-bandwidth III-nitride micro-light-emitting diodes (μLEDs) emitting in the UV-C region and their applications in deep-UV communication systems. The fabricated UV-C μLEDs with 566  μm2 emission area produce an optical power of 196 μW at the 3400  A/cm2 current density. The measured 3 dB modulation bandwidth of these μLEDs initially increases linearly with the driving current density and then saturates as 438 MHz at a current density of 71  A/cm2, which is limited by the cutoff frequency of the commercial avalanche photodiode used for the measurement. A deep-UV communication system is further demonstrated. By using the UV-C μLED, up to 800 Mbps and 1.1 Gbps data transmission rates at bit error ratio of 3.8×10−3 are achieved assuming on-off keying and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing modulation schemes, respectively.