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The optical signatures of Mg-related acceptors in GaN have been revisited in samples specifically grown on bulk GaN templates, to avoid strain broadening of the optical spectra. Bound-exciton spectra can be studied in these samples for Mg concentrations up to [Mg]approximate to 2x10(19) cm(-3). Contrary to previous work it is found that instabilities in the photoluminescence spectra are not due to unstable shallow donors, but to unstable Mg-related acceptors. Our data show that there are two Mg-related acceptors simultaneously present: the regular (stable) substitutional Mg acceptor, and a complex acceptor which is unstable in p-GaN.

Phonons in strained AlGaN/GaN superlattices (SLs) with constant periods but different Al composition have been studied using a combination of infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman scattering spectroscopy. The following SL modes were identified: i) AlGaN localized E1(TO) modes identified for the first time and AlGaN localized A1 (LO) phonons; ii) GaN localized E2, E1(TO) and A1(LO) phonons; iii) delocalized E1(LO) phonons; iv) A1(TO) phonon; v) two modes around 660 cm-1 and 594-625 cm-1, respectively, not predicted by theory. The effects of strain and composition on the phonon frequencies were established and discussed., QC 20141124

The effect of sapphire-substrate thickness on the curvature and stress in thick hydride vapor phase epitaxial GaN films was studied by high-resolution x-ray diffraction at variable temperatures. The curvature was found to have the maximum value for comparable thicknesses of the film and the substrate, while the stress at the film surface decreases with increasing film thickness and increases with increasing substrate thickness, which is in very good agreement with the simulation results. The curvature at the growth temperature was found to be strongly influenced by the value of the intrinsic tensile strain, which is determined by the film/substrate thickness ratio. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

We report optical phonon frequency studies in anisotropically strained c -plane- and a -plane-oriented GaN films by generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman scattering spectroscopy. The anisotropic strain in the films is obtained from high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements. Experimental evidence for splitting of the GaN E1 (TO), E1 (LO), and E2 phonons under anisotropic strain in the basal plane is presented, and their phonon deformation potentials c E1 (TO), c E1 (LO), and c E2 are determined. A distinct correlation between anisotropic strain and the A1 (TO) and E1 (LO) frequencies of a -plane GaN films reveals the a A1 (TO), b A1 (TO), a E1 (LO), and b E1 (LO) phonon deformation potentials. The a A1 (TO) and b A1 (TO) are found to be in very good agreement with previous results from Raman experiments. Our a A1 (TO) and a E1 (LO) phonon deformation potentials agree well with recently reported theoretical estimations, while b A1 (TO) and b E1 (LO) are found to be significantly larger than the theoretical values. A discussion of the observed differences is presented. © 2007 The American Physical Society.

We have used positron annihilation spectroscopy to study the native vacancy distribution in a-plane heteroepitaxial GaN. We show that the Ga vacancy concentration is independent of the layer thickness in the range from 5 to 25 µ m. This is strikingly different from the behavior in c-plane GaN, where the Ga vacancy concentration decreases dramatically with the distance from the GaN/sapphire interface. This difference in the native vacancy profiles is tentatively correlated with the differences in the O impurity and dislocation density profiles in the polar and non-polar materials. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The interface between a -plane GaN, grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy and hydride vapor phase epitaxy, and r -plane sapphire was investigated by transmission electron microscopy in [1-100] and [0001] zone axis orientations. The interfacial structure was well defined allowing a direct observation of the misfit dislocations in both orientations. An analysis of these dislocations revealed for the respective Burgers vectors a 13 <2-1-10> component in the {0002} planes and a 12 <0001> component in the {1-100} planes. In addition, the relative atomic column configurations in the GaN and sapphire were determined based on Bloch-wave simulations in comparison with the experimental images. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

We have studied phonons in two types of anisotropically strained GaN films: c-plane GaN films grown on a-plane sapphire and a-plane GaN films grown on r-plane sapphire. The anisotropic strain in the films is determined by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) in different measuring geometries and the phonon parameters have been assessed by generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry (GIRSE). The effect of strain anisotropy on GaN phonon frequencies is presented and the phonon deformation potentials aA1 (TO), bA1 (TO), cE1 (TO) and cE1 (LO) are determined. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors,2007

The authors studied the structural and point defect distributions of hydride vapor phase epitaxial GaN film grown in the [11-20] a direction on (1-102) r -plane sapphire with metal-organic vapor phase deposited a-GaN template using transmission electron microscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and positron annihilation spectroscopy. Grown-in extended and point defects show constant behavior as a function of thickness, contrary to the strong nonuniform defect distribution observed in GaN grown along the [0001] direction. The observed differences are explained by orientation-dependent and kinetics related defect incorporation. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

We report optical phonon frequency studies in anisotropically strained c-plane- and a-plane-oriented GaN films by generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman scattering spectroscopy. The anisotropic strain in the films is obtained from high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements. Experimental evidence for splitting of the GaN E1(TO), E1(LO), and E2 phonons under anisotropic strain in the basal plane is presented, and their phonon deformation potentials cE1(TO) , cE1(LO) , and cE2 are determined. A distinct correlation between anisotropic strain and the A1(TO) and E1(LO) frequencies of a-plane GaN films reveals theaA1TO, bA1TO, aE1LO, andbE1LO phonon deformation potentials. The aA1TO and bA1TOaA1TO and aE1LO phonon deformation potentials agree well with recently reported theoretical estimations [J.-M. Wagner and F. Bechstedt, Phys. Rev. B 66, 115202 (2002)], while bA1TO and bE1LO are found to be significantly larger than the theoretical values. A discussion of the observed differences is presented.

Bulk GaN sliced in bars along (11-20) and (1-100) planes from a boule grown in the [0001] direction by HVPE was confirmed as strain free material with a low dislocation density by using several characterization techniques. The high-structural quality of the material allows photoluminescence studies of free excitons, principal donor bound excitons and their twoelectron satellites with regard to the optical selection rules. Raman scattering study of the bulk GaN with nonpolar orientations allows a direct access to the active phonon modes and a direct determination of their strain-free positions., QC 20141119

Thick GaN bars with [1120] orientation have been sliced from GaN boules grown on freestanding films by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) in the [0001] direction. High-resolution x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy have been used to study the structural quality and defect distribution in the material in comparison to heteroepitaxially grown thick HVPE-GaN films grown in the [1120] direction on (1102)-plane sapphire. It is demonstrated that while the heteroepitaxial material possesses a high density of stacking faults and partial dislocations, leading to anisotropic structural characteristics, the (1120)-plane bulk GaN, sliced from boules, exhibits low dislocation density and narrow rocking curves with isotropic in-plane character. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

The effect of high-temperature high-pressure annealing on the residual strain, bending, and point defect redistribution of freestanding hydride vapor phase epitaxial GaN films was studied. The bending was found to be determined by the difference in the in-plane lattice parameters in the two faces of the films. The results showed a tendency of equalizing the lattice parameters in the two faces with increasing annealing temperature, leading to uniform strain distribution across the film thickness. A nonmonotonic behavior of structural parameters with increasing annealing temperature was revealed and related to the change in the point defect content under the high-temperature treatment. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

The characteristic optical spectra for shallow donors and acceptors in GaN are discussed. The most accurate photoluminescence (PL) data are obtained from samples grown on freestanding GaN substrates, where strain shifts are absent and a low spectroscopic line width is obtained. Recent PL data for excitons bound to the O and Si donors are discussed in some detail, giving accurate values for the binding energies and excited bound donor states. The Mg-acceptor is the most important one for p-doping, but the related optical spectra are controversial. We show that there are two acceptors present in Mg-doped GaN, with two different acceptor bound exciton peaks, and also two corresponding lower energy donor-acceptor pair spectra. We give tentative evidence for their interpretation. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We have studied optical properties of nonpolar a-plane GaN layers grown on r-plane sapphire by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and hydride vapor phase epitaxy using different nucleation schemes. Several emission bands, which are not typical for c-plane GaN, are observed in the photoluminescence spectra and their excitation-intensity, temperature, and polarization dependencies are examined. In addition, the spatial distribution of the emissions was examined by cathodoluminescence imaging and relations of the different emissions with particular structural features in the layers are revealed. The results are discussed with emphasis on the origin of the emission line and particular recombination mechanisms. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We have studied the optical signatures of the Mg acceptor in GaN, using samples that are doped with Mg during MOCVD growth. In order to reduce the defect density in the material and thus achieve narrow linewidths in optical spectra we have used thick HVPE grown GaN layers as templates in the MOCVD growth. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra show two acceptor-related bound exciton peaks at 3.466 eV and 3.455 eV respectively. In the lower photon energy range the 3.27 eV emission with its LO-phonon replicas is dominant, riding on a broad background emission peaking at about 3.1 eV. These results, together with previous data in the literature, indicate that there are two acceptors in Mg-doped GaN, one dominating the optical spectra (the 3.466 eV and the 3.27 eV emissions) and another related to the 3.455 eV and the 3.1 eV emissions. We suggest that the latter is related to the Mg acceptor, while the former is a H-related complex, not necessarily involving Mg.

Generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry was applied to study the vibrational properties of anisotropically strained a-plane GaN films with different thicknesses. We have established a correlation between the phonon mode parameters and the strain, which allows the determination of the deformation potentials and strain-free frequency of the GaN A,(TO) mode. These results are compared with previous theoretical and experimental findings and discussed.

We have studied the optical emission properties of a-plane GaN layers grown on r-plane sapphire by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Together with the typical band edge exciton emission, the photoluminescence (PL) spectra reveal three low-energy emissions peaked at 3.42, 3.34 and 3.29eV. which are related to structural defects. Temperature and excitation dependent stationary PL and the time-resolved PL have been employed in order to understand the exact origin of these emissions. The 3.42 and 3.34eV emissions are found to be of an intrinsic origin and are associated with carriers localized at stacking faults. The emission at 3.29eV shows a donor-acceptor pair behavior suggesting that impurities attached to structural defects most likely partial dislocations terminating stacking faults are involved. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Invited talk

The strain in a-plane GaN layers of different thickness grown on r-plane sapphire substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy was studied by X-ray diffraction. The layers are found to be under compression in the growth plane and under tension in the growth direction. Therefore, the symmetry of the GaN unit cell is no longer hexagonal but orthorhombic. With increasing layer thickness the strain relaxes and the curvature of the wafer increases. Wafer bending is proposed to be the major strain relaxation mechanism. The anisotropic in-plane strain relaxation is attributed to the elastic and thermal anisotropy of GaN and sapphire. © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Cathodoluminescence is applied for evaluation of in-plane variations of light emission from GaN-based laser diode structures. We demonstrate that potential fluctuations affect significantly emission of laser diodes for e-beam currents above thresholds for a stimulated emission. © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

The homoeptaxial fabrication of GaN-based devices has advantages against heteroepitaxial realization on substrates such as sapphire or SiC, since heteroepitaxy implies a lot of problems like lattice mismatch, different thermal expansion coefficients, and needs an extensive optimization of the growth at the heterointerface. In this paper we will discuss GaN-based light-emitting devices grown by homoepitaxy in comparison to devices grown on sapphire. A special emphasis is laid on the pretreatment of the GaN substrate and the device characteristics on different substrates. In detail will be discussed the advantages of the higher thermal conductivity of GaN and how this effects the device performance. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We report on the emission properties of nonpolar a -plane GaN layers grown on r -plane sapphire. Temperature-, excitation-density-, and polarization-dependent photoluminescences and spatially resolved microphotoluminescence and cathodoluminescence are employed in order to clarify the nature of the different emission bands in the 3.0-3.5 eV spectral range. In the near band-edge region the emission lines of the donor-bound excitons (3.472 eV) and free excitons (3.478 eV) are resolved in the polarized low-temperature spectra, indicating a good quality of the layers. At low energies two other emissions bands with intensity and shape varying with the excited area are observed. The 3.42 eV emission commonly attributed to the excitons bound to basal plane stacking faults shows thermal quenching with two activation energies (7 and 30 meV) and an S-shaped temperature dependence of the peak position. This behavior is analyzed in terms of hole localization in the vicinity of the stacking faults. The emission band that peaked at 3.29 eV is found to blueshift and saturate with increasing excitation intensity. The spatially resolved cathodoluminesence measurements show that the emission is asymmetrically distributed around the triangular-shaped pits occurring at the surface. The 3.29 eV emission is suggested to involve impurities, which decorate the partial dislocation terminating the basal stacking faults. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.

We employ cathodoluminescence (CL) technique for evaluation of in-depth and in-plane instabilities of light emission in laser diode structure. We study light emission properties from laser structure and their relation to microstructure details. Large in-plane instabilities of light emission are also present for excitation densities, larger than the threshold densities for the stimulated emission, i.e., potential fluctuations are not fully screened in the active region of the laser even at large excitation densities. © 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The strain distribution in thick hydride vapor-phase epitaxial (HVPE)-GaN layers grown on metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxial GaN templates was studied by means of photoluminescence, x-ray mapping, and lattice parameter analysis. A variable temperature x-ray study of the film curvature was used for verification of the strain type. The relation between the strain inhomogeneity and the wafer bending in films residing on sapphire and freestanding on the thickness of the layer and the substrate is analyzed. Possibilities to improve the uniformity of the film characteristics and to reduce the bending of the HVPE-GaN films are discussed.

We evaluate influence of n-type doping and of the doping level on structural and optical quality of GaN epilayers. We confirm reported previously strong enhancement of light emission from Si doped samples and discuss possible mechanisms of this enhancement. Kelvin probe measurements indicate smoothing of potential fluctuations in the doped layers. © 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.