Photoconductance decay and spectral photoconductance measurements were made on a set of ten undoped layers of GaN grown by rf-plasma MBE. The layers, also characterized by Hall, photoluminescence and reflectance measurements, represented a wide variety in electrical and optical properties, and several were grown under atomic hydrogen. Spectral photoconductance indicated transitions at 1.0-1.1, 1.92, 2.15, 3.08 and 3.2-3.4 eV. All layers exhibited persistent photoconductivity to some degree. In contrast with previous reports, a clear correlation was not observed between persistent photoconductivity and yellow luminescence or, indeed, with any measurement made. Analysis of photoconductance decay indicates that more than one type of persistent photoconductivity may be present.

We have investigated the high-pressure high-temperature annealing of Mg/P-implanted GaN films using visible and ultraviolet (UV) micro-Raman spectroscopy. The results illustrate the use of Raman spectroscopy to monitor processing of GaN where fast feedback is required. The structural quality and the stress in ion-implanted GaN films was monitored in a 40nm-thin surface layer of the sample as well as averaged over the sample layer thickness. We find the nearly full recovery of the crystalline quality of ion-implanted GaN films after annealing at 1400-1500°C under nitrogen overpressures of 1.5GPa. No significant degradation effects occurred in the GaN surface layer during the annealing. The high nitrogen overpressures proved very effective in preventing the nitrogen out-diffusion from the GaN surface. Stress introduced during the annealing was monitored. Raman spectra of ion-implanted GaN films were investigated at different temperatures and excitation wavelengths to study the GaN phonon density of states.

An optical characterization technique is proposed for GaN based compounds deposited on sapphire. In AlGaN films grown by MOCVD, the film optical behavior and the substrate to layer interface are qualified from the measured optical data. The experimental and theoretical approach used for this purpose is described in detail. The results clearly show bending effects at the interface which may be related to structural defects; a good agreement with transmission electronic microscopy analysis is obtained.

Yellow luminescence (YL) has been studied in GaN:Mg doped with Mg concentrations ranging from 1019 to 1021 cm-3 by spectral CL (T=K) and TEM and explained by suggesting that a different mechanism could be responsible for the YL in p-type GaN with respect to that acting in n-type GaN.

Transitions at 2.2, 2.8, 3.27, 3.21, and 3.44 eV were found. In addition to the wurtzite phase, TEM showed a different amount of the cubic phase in the samples. Nano tubes with a density of 3×109 cm−2 were also observed by approaching the layer/substrate interface. Besides this, coherent inclusions were found with a diameter in the nm range and a volume fraction of about 1%.

The 2.8 eV transition was correlated to a deep level at 600 meV below the conduction band (CB) due to MgGa-VN complexes. The 3.27 eV emission was ascribed to a shallow acceptor at about 170-190 meV above the valence band (VB) due to MgGa.

The 2.2 eV yellow band, not present in low doped samples, increased by increasing the Mg concentration. It was ascribed to a transition between a deep donor level at 0.8-1.1 eV below the CB edge due to NGa and the shallow acceptor due to MgGa. This assumption was checked by studying the role of C in Mg compensation. CL spectra from a sample with high C content showed transitions between a C-related 200 meV shallow donor and a deep donor level at about 0.9-1.1 eV below the CB due to a NGa-VN complex. In our hypothesis this should induce a decrease of the integrated intensity in both the 2.2 and 2.8 eV bands, as actually shown by CL investigations.

Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy has been used to investigate the effect annealing has on molecular beam epitaxially grown GaN in different ambients. By observing the changes in the PL spectra as a function of ambient temperature and atmosphere used, important information concerning the origin of defects within GaN has been found. Samples were annealed in different atmospheres, (including oxygen, oxygen and water vapour, nitrogen and argon), different temperatures. In the 2.0eV-2.8eV region of the PL spectra, two peaks appeared at approximately 2.3eV and 2.6eV, somewhat higher than the usual yellow luminescence peak. We find that the 2.6eV peak is dominant for high annealing temperatures and the 2.3eV peak dominates at low annealing temperatures for the samples annealed in oxygen. When annealed in argon and nitrogen the 2.6eV peak dominates at all annealing temperatures. Changes in the PL spectra between anneals were also seen in the 3.42eV region. The 3.42eV peak is often assigned to excitons bound to stacking faults. Power resolved measurements indicate that in our sample the cause is a donor acceptor pair transition.

Optical second and third harmonic generation measurements were carried out on GaN layers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire substrates. The measured d33 is 33 times the d11 of quartz. The angular dependence of second-harmonic intensity as well as the measured ratios d33/d15 = −2.02 and d33/d31 =−2.03 confirm the wurzite structure of the studied GaN layers with the optical c-axis oriented perpendicular to the sample surface. Fine oscillations were observed in the measured second and third harmonic angular dependencies. A simple model based on the interference of the fundamental beam in the sample was used to explain these oscillations.

Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) has been used for the characterization of AlGaN/GaN and InGaN/GaN heterostructures. The resulting pseudodielectric function spectra were analyzed using a multilayer approach, describing the dielectric functions of the individual layers by a parametric oscillator model. From this analysis, the dielectric function spectra of GaN, AlxGa1−xN (x≤0.16), and In0.13Ga0.87N were deduced. Further, the dependence of the AlxGa1−xN band gap energy on the Al mole fraction was derived and compared with photoluminescence data recorded on the same material. The SE band gap data are compatible with a bowing parameter close to 1 eV for the composition dependence of the AlxGa1−xN gap energy. Finally, the parametric dielectric functions have been used to model the pseudodielectric function spectrum of a complete GaN/AlGaN/InGaN LED structure.

The pump-probe technique has been used to perform room temperature studies of the photoinduced changes in the reflectivity ΔR associated with exciton and carrier dynamics in GaN prepared by lateral epitaxial overgrowth. For resonant excitation of cold excitons, the ΔR decay possesses a 720 ps component attributed to the free exciton lifetime in this high quality material. For electrons with small excess energy (< 50 meV), the strong increase in the ΔR decay rate with decreasing excitation density suggests that screening of the Coulomb interaction may play an important role in the processes of carrier relaxation and exciton formation. The faster decay times at a given carrier density observed for hot (> 100 meV) electron relaxation are attributed to electron-hole scattering in conjunction with the screened electron-LO phonon interaction.

We have established a correlation between localized states responsible for mid-gap optical emission and film mobility of GaN grown under different nitrogen conditions. By imposing a deflector voltage at the tip of the plasma source, we varied the ion/neutral flux ratio to determine how N ions affect mid-gap luminescence and electrical mobility. Low energy electron-excited nanometer scale luminescence (LEEN) spectroscopy in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) showed mid-gap emission intensities in the bulk that decreased in the ratio, 50 : 1.3 : 1 with increasing deflector voltage. Hall measurements indicated over a factor of two increase in mobility, and a factor of 8 decrease in residual charge density with increasing deflector voltage. The correlation of optical and electrical properties with a reduction in N ion flux suggests the primary role of native defects, such as N or Ga vacancies, in the mid-gap emissions.

We present a comprehensive study of the optical characteristics of (Al, In)GaN epilayers measured by photoluminescence (PL), integrated PL intensity, and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. For not only InGaN, but also AlGaN epilayers with large Al content, we observed an anomalous PL temperature dependence: (i) an “S-shaped” PL peak energy shift (decrease-increase-decrease) and (ii) an “inverted S-shaped” full width at half maximum (FWHM) change (increase-decrease-increase) with increasing temperature. Based on time-resolved PL, the S shape (inverted S shape) of the PL peak position (FWHM) as a function of temperature, and the much smaller PL intensity decrease in the temperature range showing the anomalous emission behavior, we conclude that strong localization of carriers occurs in InGaN and even in AlGaN with rather high Al content. We observed that the following increase with increasing Al content in AlGaN epilayers: (i) a Stokes shift between the PL peak energy and the absorption edge, (ii) a redshift of the emission with decay time, (iii) the deviations of the PL peak energy, FWHM, and PL intensity from their typical temperature dependence, and (iv) the corresponding temperature range of the anomalous emission behavior. This indicates that the band-gap fluctuation responsible for these characteristics is due to energy tail states caused by non-random inhomogeneous alloy potential variations enhanced with increasing Al content.

We have used time-resolved photoluminescence (PL), with 400 nm (3.1 eV) excitation, to examine InxGa1−xN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) before the final stages of processing at room temperature. We have found dramatic differences in the time-resolved kinetics between dim, bright and super bright LED devices. The lifetime of the emission for dim LEDs is quite short, 110 ± 20 ps at photoluminescence (PL) maximum, and the kinetics are not dependent upon wavelength. This lifetime is short compared to bright and super bright LEDs, which we have examined under similar conditions. The kinetics of bright and super bright LEDs are clearly wavelength dependent, highly non-exponential, and are on the nanosecond time scale (lifetimes are in order of 1 ns for bright and 10 ns for super bright LED at the PL max). The non-exponential PL kinetics can be described by a stretched exponential function, indicating significant disorder in the material. Typical values for β, the stretching coefficient, are 0.45 − 0.6 for bright LEDs, at the PL maxima at room temperature. We attribute this disorder to indium alloy fluctuations.

From analysis of the stretched exponential kinetics we estimate the potential fluctuations to be approximately 75 meV in the super bright LED. Assuming a hopping mechanism, the average distance between indium quantum dots in the super bright LED is estimated to be 20 Å.

The surface morphology and the room temperature 1.54 µm photoluminescence (PL) intensity from GaN:Er grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy have been investigated as a function of C concentration as introduced by CBr4. Similar to previous results with increasing Er level, increasing the C concentration initially improved the surface smoothness as measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), with RMS roughness improving by a factor of seven over undoped GaN. The PL also improved dramatically. However, the highest amounts of C investigated produced a decrease in the PL as well as a roughening of the film surface. These effects indicate that the GaN:Er had reached its C solubility limit, producing an increased amount of defect induced nonradiative recombination.

In this paper we have reported the observation of visible photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) of Pr implanted in GaN. The implanted samples were given isochronal thermal annealing treatments at a temperature of 11000 C in NH3, N2, Ar2, and in forming gas N2 +H2, at atmospheric pressure to recover implantation damages and activate the rare earth ions. The sharp characteristic emission lines corresponding to Pr3+ intra-4fn-shell transitions are resolved in the spectral range from 350 nm to 1150 nm, and observed over the temperature range of 12 K-335 K. The PL and CL decay kinetics measurement was performed for 3P1, 3P0 and 1D2 levels.

We report on the luminescence properties of Er doped GaN grown prepared by metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE) and solid-source molecular beam epitaxy (SSMBE) on Si substrates. Both types of samples emitted characteristic 1.54 µm PL resulting from the intra-4f Er3+ transition 4I13/2→4I15/2. Under below-gap excitation the samples exhibited very similar 1.54 µm PL intensities. On the contrary, under above-gap excitation GaN: Er (SSMBE) showed ∼80 times more intense 1.54 µm PL than GaN: Er (MOMBE). In addition, GaN: Er (SSMBE) also emitted intense green luminescence at 537 nm and 558 nm, which was not observed from GaN: Er (MOMBE). The average lifetime of the green PL was determined to be 10.8 µs at 15 K and 5.5 µs at room temperature. A preliminary lifetime analysis suggests that the decrease in lifetime is mainly due to the strong thermalization between the 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 excited states. Nonradiative decay processes are expected to only weakly affect the green luminescence.

The effects of dc chuck self-bias and high density source power (which predominantly control ion energy and ion flux, respectively) on the electrical properties of n-GaN Schottky diodes exposed to Inductively Coupled Plasma of Cl2/Ar were examined. Both parameters were found to influence the diode performance, by reducing the reverse breakdown voltage and Schottky barrier height. All plasma conditions were found to produce a nitrogen-deficient surface, with a typical depth of the non-stoichiometry being ∼ 500 Å. Post-etch annealing was found to partially restore the diode characteristics.

Mesa and planar geometry GaN Schottky rectifiers were fabricated on 3-12µm thick epitaxial layers. In planar diodes utilizing resistive GaN, a reverse breakdown voltage of 3.1 kV was achieved in structures containing p-guard rings and employing extension of the Schottky contact edge over an oxide layer. In devices without edge termination, the reverse breakdown voltage was 2.3 kV. Mesa diodes fabricated on conducting GaN had breakdown voltages in the range 200-400 V, with on-state resistances as low as 6m Ω·cm−2.

Different ions (Ti+, O+, Fe+, Cr+) were implanted at multiple energies into GaN field effect transistor structures (n and p-type). The implantation was found to create deep states with energy levels in the range EC −0.20 to 0.49 eV in n-GaN and at EV +0.44 eV in p-GaN after annealing at 450-650 °C. The sheet resistance of the GaN was at a maximum after annealing at these temperatures, reaching values of ∼4×1012 Ω/□ in n-GaN and ∼1010 Ω/□ in p-GaN. The mechanism for the implant isolation was damage-related trap formation for all of the ions investigated, and there was no evidence of chemically induced isolation.

Excimer laser ablation rates of Si (111) and AlN films grown on Si (111) and r-plane sapphire substrates were determined. Linear dependence of ablation rate of Si (111) substrate, sapphire and AlN thin films were observed. Excimer laser micromachining of the AlN thin films on silicon (111) and SiC substrates were micromachined to fabricate a waveguide structure and a pixilated structure. This technique resulted in clean precise machining of AlN with high aspect ratios and straight walls.

The photoresist developer AZ-400K, commonly used to remove AlN encapsulant layers on GaN crystalline films, is found to also etch certain as-grown GaN films. Even as-grown GaN films, which can not be etched in AZ-400K, however can be etched if amorphized by ion implantation. Etch rates of as high as 450 Å/min. were observed. The etching proceeds linearly in GaN in the first few minutes to a depth corresponding to the depth of the amorphous region. Subsequently, the etching rate saturates. Annealing of the highly amorphized samples up to 1000°C for one minute in a N2/H2 gas mixture does not reduce the etch rate, but for lower doses we observed a reduction of the etch rate. Observations of etching depth under various ion-implanted conditions could be correlated with the number of displacements per atoms (dpa) required for amorphization.

The oxidation of GaN epilayers in dry oxygen has been studied. The 1-µm-thick GaN epilayers grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by Rapid-Thermal-Processing/Low Pressure Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition were used in this work. The oxidation of GaN in dry oxygen was performed at various temperatures for different time. The oxide was identified as the monoclinic β-Ga2O3 by a θ−2θ scan X-ray diffraction (XRD). The scanning electron microscope observation shows a rough oxide surface and an expansion of the volume. XRD data also showed that the oxidation of GaN began to occur at 800°C. The GaN diffraction peaks disappeared at 1050°C for 4 h or at 1100°C for 1 h, which indicates that the GaN epilayers has been completely oxidized. From these results, it was found that the oxidation of GaN in dry oxygen was not layer-by-layer and limited by the interfacial reaction and diffusion mechanism at different temperatures.