Selective area growth has been applied to fabricate a homogeneous array of GaN nanocolumns (NC) with high crystal quality. The structural and optical properties of single NCs have been investigated at the nanometer-scale by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and highly spatially resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy performed in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) at liquid helium temperatures. TEM cross-section analysis reveals excellent structural properties of the GaN NCs. Sporadically, isolated basal plane stacking faults (BSF) can be found resulting in a remarkably low BSF density in the almost entire NC ensemble. Both, defect-free NCs and NCs with few BSFs have been investigated. The low defect density within the NCs allows the characterization of individual BSFs, which is of high interest for studying their optical properties. Direct nanometer-scale correlation of the CL and STEM data clearly exhibits a spatial correlation of the emission at 360.6 nm (3.438 eV) with the location of basal plane stacking faults of type I1.
67 11130Semipolar InGaN/GaN single quantum wells (SQWs) grown on {1122} planes of an inverted pyramid surface and {1011} facets of single self assembled pyramids have been studied by spatially, spectrally, and time-resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy. Mappings of local spectra and local transients provide the distribution of spectral and time-resolved luminescence properties by peak wavelength images, time delayed CL images (TDCLIs), and initial lifetime maps. The SQW on inverse pyramids exhibit strong local differences in recombination kinetics -two orders of magnitude change in initial lifetime -correlated with a giant shift in emission energy of $1 eV along a facet. For single pyramids a migration process of indium adatoms from the upper facet to the edges leads to an emission of longer wavelengths at the edges and shorter wavelengths at the upper facet with respect to the base.
International audienceDiffusion lengths of photo-excited carriers along the c-direction were determined from photoluminescence (PL) measurements in p- and n-type GaN epitaxial layers grown on c-plane sapphire by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The investigated samples incorporate a 6 nm thick In0.15Ga0.85N active layer capped with either 500 nm p-GaN or 1300 nm n-GaN. The top GaN layers were etched in steps and PL from the InGaN active region and the underlying layers was monitored as a function of the top GaN thickness upon photogeneration near the surface region by above bandgap excitation. Taking into consideration the absorption in the active and underlying layers, the diffusion lengths at 295 K and at 15 K were measured to be about 92 +/- 7 nm and 68 +/- 7 nm for Mg-doped p-type GaN and 432 +/- 30 nm and 316 +/- 30 nm for unintentionally doped n-type GaN, respectively. Cross-sectional cathodoluminescence line-scan measurement was performed on a separate sample and the diffusion length in n-type GaN was measured to be 280 nm
Spatial distribution of extended defects in semipolar (11¯01)-oriented GaN layers grown on patterned (001) Si substrates with striped grooves of varying width was investigated by optical means only using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and cathodoluminescence (CL). A high density of basal and prismatic stacking faults was observed in the c− wings, and the threading dislocations in c+ wings, which appear as dark patterns in the NSOM and CL images, were found to bend toward the surface during the initial stages of growth. In the case when growing c+ front of GaN made contact with the SiO2 masking layer during growth, stacking faults were found to form also in the c+ wings. These additional stacking faults effectively blocked propagation of dislocations along the c+ direction, resulting in high quality stripes virtually free of defects. As revealed by optical means only without the need for any structural investigation, such control over the threading dislocation density using select growth geometries is potentially advantageous for improving semipolar (11¯01)GaN.
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