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Optical properties of GaN with Ga and N polarity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

M. A. Reshchikov ,
D. Huang ,
F. Yun ,
P. Visconti ,
T. King ,
H. Morkoç ,
J. Jasinski  and
Z. Liliental-Weber
M. A. Reshchikov
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, U.S.A.
D. Huang
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, U.S.A.
F. Yun
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, U.S.A.
P. Visconti
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, U.S.A. Also with Instituto per lo Studio di Nuovi Materiali per l'Elettronica, CNR, Via Arnesano, Lecce, Italy
T. King
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, U.S.A.
H. Morkoç
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, U.S.A.
J. Jasinski
Affiliation:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A. Also with the Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland
Z. Liliental-Weber
Affiliation:
Also with the Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland
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Abstract

We compared photoluminescence (PL) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characteristics of GaN samples with Ga and N polarities grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on sapphire substrates. Ga-polar films grown at low temperature typically have very smooth surfaces, which are extremely difficult to etch with acids or bases. In contrast, the N-polar films have rougher surfaces and can be easily etched in hot H3PO4 or KOH. The quality of the X-ray diffraction spectra is also much better in case of Ga-polar films. Surprisingly, PL efficiency is always much higher in the N-polar GaN, yet the features and shape of the PL spectra are comparable for both polarities. We concluded that, despite the excellent quality of the surface, MBE-grown Ga-polar GaN layers contain higher concentration of nonradiative defects. From the analyses of cross-sectional TEM investigations, we have found that Ga-polar films have high density of threading dislocations (5x109 cm-2) and low density of inversion domains (1x107 cm-2). For N-polar GaN the situation is the reverse: the density of dislocations and inversion domains are 5x108 and ~1x1011 cm-2, respectively. One of the important conclusions derived from the combined PL and TEM study is that inversion domains do not seem to affect the radiative efficiency very adversly, whereas dislocations reduce it significantly.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 693 , 2001 , I10.3.1
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

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