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For rooting the development of GaN-based optoelectronic devices, understanding the roles of midgap recombination centers (MGRCs), namely, nonradiative recombination centers and deep-state radiative recombination centers, on the carrier recombination dynamics is an essential task. By using the combination of time-resolved photoluminescence and positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) measurements, the origins of major MGRCs in the state-of-the-art GaN epilayers, bulk crystals, and Mg-implanted layers were identified, and their concentrations were quantified for deriving the capture coefficients of minority carriers. In this article, potential standardization of the room-temperature photoluminescence lifetime for the near-band-edge emission (τ PL RT ) as the concentration of major MGRCs well below the detection limit of PAS is proposed. For n-GaN substrates and epilayers grown from the vapor phase, τ PL RT was limited by the concentration of carbon on N sites or divacancies comprising a Ga vacancy (VGa) and a N vacancy (VN), [VGaVN], when carbon concentration was higher or lower, respectively, than approximately 1016 cm−3. Here, carbon and VGaVN act as major deep-state radiative and nonradiative recombination centers, respectively, while major MGRCs in bulk GaN crystals were identified as VGa(VN)3 vacancy clusters in Na-flux GaN and VGa or VGaVN buried by a hydrogen and/or VGa decorated with oxygen on N sites, VGa(ON)3–4, in ammonothermal GaN. The values of τ PL RT in n-GaN samples are compared with those of p-GaN, in which τ PL RT was limited by the concentration of VGa(VN)2 in Mg-doped epilayers and by the concentrations of VGaVN and (VGaVN)3 in Mg-implanted GaN right after the implantation and after appropriate activation annealing, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of GaN quantum barriers with changing growth temperatures on the interfacial characteristics of GaN/InGaN single quantum well (SQW) grown on GaN templates by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy were in situ investigated by X-ray crystal truncation rod (CTR) scattering and X-ray reflectivity measurements at growth temperature using a laboratory level X-ray diffractometer. Comparing the curve-fitting results of X-ray CTR scattering spectra obtained at growth temperature with that at room temperature, the InxGa1-xN with indium composition less than 0.11 was stabile of the indium distribution at the interface during the whole growth processes. By using several monolayers thickness GaN capping layer to protect the InGaN well layer within temperature-ramping process, the interfacial structure of the GaN/InGaN SQW was drastically improved on the basis of the curve-fitting results of X-ray CTR scattering spectra, and the narrow full width at half-maximum and strong luminous intensity were observed in room temperature photoluminescence spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, gallium nitride (GaN) samples implanted with magnesium (Mg) and fluorine (F) ions are investigated by photoluminescence (PL) measurements. In low‐temperature PL measurements, the characteristic green luminescence (GL) band attributable to nitrogen vacancies (VN) is observed in Mg‐ion‐implanted GaN. As VN are likely to act as donors, suppressing their formation is essential to realizing p‐type conductivity. The energy required for a F impurity to replace VN in GaN and eventually form F on a N site decreases when the Fermi level approaches the valence band maximum, and therefore F is employed as a subsequent implantation element to compensate for VN. The GL band peak disappears upon implanting Mg and F ions at a high temperature and adjusting the F concentration to an appropriate value. This result suggests that VN generated by Mg ion implantation can be suppressed using an element with a lower formation energy than that of VN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excitonic optical properties of a-plane AlN epitaxial layers have been studied by means of temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) and optical reflectance (OR) spectroscopy. An exciton resonance and free-exciton luminescence were clearly observed up to room temperature in the OR and PL measurements, respectively. Analysis of the low temperature OR spectrum enabled us to obtain a splitting energy of 7.3 meV between longitudinal and transverse-exciton resonances for AlN, which was approximately one order of magnitude larger than that for GaN. An emission from the upper branch of the excitonic polariton was also observed at temperatures above 100 K, reflecting thermal repopulation of excitonic polaritons from the lower to the upper branch. In addition, the temperature dependence of the transverse-exciton resonance could be well described using an empirical equation based on Bose–Einstein statistics, in which the Einstein characteristic temperature was estimated to be 455 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, GaN m-plane Schottky barrier diodes fabricated with a metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy on a GaN substrate were investigated using emission microscope, photoluminescence, and cathodoluminescence. In addition, facet dependence of leakage current under reverse-biased condition was observed. We showed that the leakage-current distribution was caused by the facet dependence of the carrier concentration and oxygen concentration. These results can provide important suggestions for the fabrication of m-plane devices. (a) four-faceted hillocks on m-plane GaN MOVPE sample, facet dependence of (b) leakage current and (c) PL peak intensity of the m-plane GaN Schottky barrier diode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recombination dynamics and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of green luminescent InGaN nanowires with different crystalline qualities have been studied by means photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. Temperature- and excitation-power-density-dependent PL spectroscopy enabled to evaluate the IQE as a function of excitation power density. The shape of the efficiency curves at low temperature strongly depended on the magnitude of nonradiative recombination processes. This leads to the misestimation of the IQE in the lower quality nanowire. In addition, the PL decay curves were well described by a double exponential function both at 6 and 300 K. The PL decay time of the faster component was affected by nonradiative recombination processes even at low temperature. This indicated that the radiative recombination lifetime cannot be estimated from the PL decay time in the lower quality nanowire. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the Si doping level on the recombination dynamics and carrier (exciton) localization in modulation-doped GaN/Al0.07Ga0.93N multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures were studied by means of photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL measurements. All samples with different doping levels show a QW emission which is blue shifted with respect to the 3.48 eV PL peak from the GaN buffer layer. The decay time at the peak position remains nearly constant in the range of 320–420 ps at 2 K for all doping levels. For the undoped and low doped samples (3 × 1018 cm−3), which have less free electrons in the QWs, a non-exponential PL decay behaviour at 2 K is attributed to localized exciton recombination. The more highly doped samples (5 × 1018 cm−3 to 1020 cm−3) show almost exponential decay curves at 2 K, suggesting the recombination of free electrons and localized holes. The internal polarization-induced fields of the medium and highly-doped samples are partly screened by the electrons originating from the doping in the barriers. The emission peaks in time delayed PL spectra of these samples exhibit almost no shift as time evolves. Only the PL peak of the undoped and low-doped samples shows a redshift with time delay, related to the photogenerated carriers []. The decay time for the undoped sample shows non-exponential behaviour typical for localized excitons in III-N QWs. The same behaviour of decay time as a function of emission energy has been reported for InGaN QWs []. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excitonic optical properties of AlN epitaxial layers have been studied by means of photoluminescence and optical reflectance spectroscopies. The binding energy of free excitons was estimated to be 57 meV on the basis of the energy separation between the n=1 ground and n=2 excited states. In addition, the luminescence line due to radiative recombination of biexcitons was observed under high density excitation. The energy separation between free-exciton luminescence and biexciton luminescence was 19 meV, which corresponded to the binding energy of biexcitons. Therefore, the ratio of the biexciton binding energy to the exciton binding energy was approximately 0.33. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth of AlxGa1−xN layers (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) simultaneously on polar (0001), semipolar (10 1 ¯ 3) and (11 2 ¯ 2 ), as well as nonpolar (10 1 ¯ 0 ) and (11 2 ¯ 0 ) AlN templates, which were grown on planar sapphire substrates, has been investigated by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy. By taking into account anisotropic in-plane strain of semi- and non-polar layers, their aluminium incorporation has been determined by x-ray diffraction analysis. Optical emission energy of the layers was obtained from room-temperature photoluminescence spectra, and their effective bandgap energy was estimated from room-temperature pseudo-dielectric functions. Both x-ray diffraction and optical data consistently show that aluminium incorporation is comparable on the polar, semi- and non-polar planes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid samples based on ZnO colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) deposited on AlGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) structures with different top barrier thickness d = 3, 6 and 9 nm are studied by time-resolved photoluminescence. Thermal behavior of the QW exciton lifetime in the hybrids and in the bare QW structures has been compared and it has been found that the QW exciton recombination rate increases in the hybrid having d = 3 nm and decreases in the hybrid with d = 6 nm, while no change has been observed for the structure with d = 9 nm. It is suggested that non-radiative resonance energy transfer from the QW excitons to the ZnO NCs and a variation of the surface potential can both influence the QW exciton lifetime in the hybrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have observed photoluminescence of Al[sub 1-x]In[sub x]N films. The films were grown on GaN by atmospheric pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. GaN was grown on a c-plane sapphire substrate with a low-temperature deposited AlN buffer layer. Photoluminescence, absorption, and x-ray diffraction measurements have shown that each spectral peak shifts with alloy composition x and that Al[sub 1-x]In[sub x]N heteroepitaxial films are not macroscopically in phase separation and are constituted in the wurzite structure. © 1998 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic properties are studied for the AlGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) structures with and without the coating of colloidal ZnO nanocrystals (NCs). The QW exciton recombination rate was reduced in such hybrids compared to the bare QW structure only in the sample with the thinnest cap layer of 3 nm. Assuming that one of the recombination mechanisms in this hybrid is non-radiative resonant energy transfer (NRET) between the QW and the energy acceptor material i.e. ZnO NCs, the maximum pumping efficiency was estimated to be ∼42% at 60 K. The NRET effect is, however, vanished after several months despite that the hybrid structures are composed of chemically stable components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Rare-Earth (RE) doped Gallium Nitride (GaN) is expected to be used as electrically driven single photon source at room temperature, low dose RE-ion implantation and their activation as luminescent centers are of interest. This paper reports photoluminescence (PL) properties of Praseodymium (Pr) implanted GaN at different temperatures ranging from room temperature to 1200 °C. All the Pr-implanted GaN samples are thermally annealed after implantation and show strong PL emissions at 650.2 nm and 652.0 nm, originated from 3 P 0 →3 F 2 transition in 4f-shell of Pr3+ ions. It is shown that the PL intensity originating from Pr3+ ions is reduced as the implantation temperature increases for the Pr-implanted samples annealed at 1200 °C. This result suggests that Pr3+ ions quench due to the formation of complex defects and defect clusters. The effect of high temperature implantation on the recovery of GaN crystallinity is discussed in terms of critical dose and displacement damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lanthanide (Ln)-implanted gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors have a variety of potential applications as light-emitting devices and quantum light sources, but their optical properties are not well understood. In this study, we investigate the room temperature optical properties of praseodymium (Pr) ion implanted single-crystal GaN and their changes upon ultrahigh pressure annealing (UHPA) up to 1480 °C. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra, luminescence transition lifetime, and excitation cross section of the implanted Pr ions are analyzed. In addition, the recovery of implantation-induced damage and the thermal diffusion of implanted Pr ions by UHPA are investigated by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The results show that the implantation damage is recovered by annealing at temperatures above 1200 °C, but Pr ions thermally diffuse to the surface as the annealing temperature increases. The annealing temperature at which a maximum PL intensity is obtained increases with increasing the implantation dose. However, the PL intensity decreases in all cases after annealing at 1480 °C, indicating that a quenching factor is dominant in this temperature range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We succeeded in growing high-crystalline-quality thick (101¯1¯) Ga0.92In0.08N films on a grooved (101¯1¯) GaN/(101¯2¯) 4H-SiC underlying layer. We also fabricated GaInN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with a peak wavelength of 580nm on a high-crystalline-quality thick GaInN film. The photoluminescence intensity of the MQWs is about six times higher than that of MQWs grown on planar GaN and twice as high as that of MQWs grown on a GaN underlying layer having the same grooved structure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]