A carbon-doping related luminescence band in GaN revealed by below bandgap excitation
F. Zimmermann1, J. Beyer1, F.C. Beyer2, G. Gärtner3, I. Gamov4, K. Irmscher4, E. Richter5, M. Weyers5 and J. Heitmann1
Published in:
J. Appl. Phys., vol. 130, no. 5, pp. 055703, doi:10.1063/5.0053940 (2021).
Abstract:
Carbon doped GaN grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy was investigated by photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy covering a broad range of carbon concentrations. Above bandgap excitation reveals typical transitions related to CN and CN – Hi that decrease with increasing carbon concentration. Besides the formation of nonradiative defects, the formation of complexes containing more than one carbon atom is proposed to be responsible for this reduction. Below bandgap excitation reveals an intense emission band around 1.62 eV for [C]>1018 cm-3 that is shown by photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy to be most efficiently excited at 2.7 eV. The 1.62 eV transition thermally quenches above 80 K. A configuration-coordinate diagram model is proposed to explain the observed emission, excitation, and thermal quenching behavior. Based on the simultaneous increase in the concentration of tri-carbon complexes, this band is tentatively attributed to a transition involving a deep tri-carbon-related charge state transition level in the GaN bandgap.
1 Institute of Applied Physics, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, 09596 Freiberg, Germany
2 Fraunhofer Technology Center for High-Performance Materials THM, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
3 Institute of Experimental Physics, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, 09596 Freiberg, Germany
4 Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung, 12489 Berlin, Germany
5 Ferdinand-Braun-Institut gGmbH, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Topics
Photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy, Carbon, Epitaxy, Photoluminescence spectroscopy, Nitrides, Doping, Arrhenius plot, Energy levels
Copyright Publisher version:
© 2021 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Copyright Accepted Manuscript:
© 2021 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.
Accepted Manuscript can be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. For more information see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Link to Publisher version.
Link to Accepted Manuscript.