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Temperature dependence of the linewidths of free-exciton A and B transitions was investigated. Experimental linewidths were fitted to a theoretical model considering various interactions of excitons with phonons in addition to inhomogeneous broadening. It was shown that acoustic phonon scattering must also be considered to explain the emission linewidth broadening, in contrast to a recent report on luminescence linewidths in GaN. These exciton-acoustic-phonon interactions also explain the fast energy relaxation of free excitons to the bottom of the exciton band, which leads to generally observed short free-exciton lifetimes in GaN. The exciton-longitudinal-optical ͑LO͒ -phonon coupling constant was found to be extremely large. This was explained as being due to the Fröhlich interaction and the polar nature of GaN. The binding energy of both A and B excitons was found to be 26 meV. The relevance of exciton-phonon interactions and the binding energy of free excitons in achieving room-temperature exciton-based semiconductor lasers was discussed. Though exciton-LO-phonon interaction was very strong in GaN, it was still possible to observe room-temperature excitons since the exciton binding energy is very large.

GaN epitaxial layers on sapphire substrates were grown by the rotating disk metal organic chemical vapor deposition technique. Excitonic transitions from conduction band to spin-orbit split valence bands were observed. At 12 K we observed donor bound exciton and a very weak acceptor bound exciton. The temperature dependence of luminescence peak positions of free-excitons A and B were fitted to the Varshni’s equation to study the variation of the band gap with temperature. The linewidth of the free exciton (A) was studied as a function of temperature and was explained by theoretical model considering the scattering of excitons with acoustic phonons and longitudinal optical phonons. In the 12 K spectrum we also observed phonon-assisted excitonic transitions. The activation energy of the free exciton (A) was found to be 26 meV, while that of the donor bound exciton was 7 meV. The binding energy of the donor was estimated as 35 meV and that of the acceptor as 250 meV. The band gap of GaN was found to be 3.505 eV at 12 K and 3.437 at room temperature. All the parameters obtained in the present investigation are compared with those reported in the literature.

A conducting polymer, polyaniline, was synthesized by chemical polymerization using different inorganic acids, such as HCl, H2SO4, HClO4, HNO3, and H3PO4, as protonic acid media. The synthesized polymers were characterized using UV‐visible and FT‐IR spectroscopy. A granular type of morphology was observed under SEM for HCl, HNO3, and H3PO4 doped polyanilines. However, HClO4 doped polyaniline shows the folded lamellar structure derived from the fibers. The thermal stability of these polymers was investigated with the help of thermogravimetric (TG/SDTA) analysis. The formation of a greater fraction of the conducting emeraldine salt phase is observed in HClO4 as a protonic acid media. The thermal stability of H3PO4 doped material is found to be better as compared with other acids. An increase in conductivity with an increase in temperature was observed in all the samples except for HClO4 doped polyaniline. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:1676–1681, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.

Magnesium doped GaN epitaxial layers were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on sapphire substrate. Energy levels of these acceptors were investigated by systematic photoluminescence measurements in the temperature range of 12–300 K. Magnesium concentration was varied from <1×1019 to higher than 5×1019 cm−3. Photoluminescence measurements were made on the as-grown and annealed samples. We have observed various transitions related to donor to acceptor and their phonon replicas, conduction band to acceptors, and free excitons. Their dependence on temperature, concentration of the magnesium impurity and annealing conditions was discussed. In our study, two important observations were made. First, very deep level luminescence was not observed even in the highly magnesium doped as-grown samples. Second, free exciton transitions including valence band splittings were observed for the first time in the Mg-doped materials, demonstrating the high quality of the samples.