No abstract

The first- and second-order Raman scattering and IR reflection have been studied for hexagonal InN layers grown on (0001) and (11̄02) sapphire substrates. All six Raman-active optical phonons were observed and assigned: E2(low) at 87 cm−1, E2(high) at 488 cm−1, A1(TO) at 447 cm−1, E1(TO) at 476 cm−1, A1(LO) at 586 cm−1, and E1(LO) at 593 cm−1. The ratio between the InN static dielectric constants for the ordinary and extraordinary directions was found to be ε⊥0/ε∥0=0.91. The phonon dispersion curves, phonon density-of-state function, and lattice specific heat were calculated. The Debye temperature at 0 K for hexagonal InN was estimated to be 370 K.

A survey of most recent studies of optical absorption, photoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation, and photomodulated reflectance spectra of single-crystalline hexagonal InN layers is presented. The samples studied were undoped n-type InN with electron concentrations between 6 Â 10 18 and 4 Â 10 19 cm --3 . It has been found that hexagonal InN is a narrow-gap semiconductor with a band gap of about 0.7 eV, which is much lower than the band gap cited in the literature. We also describe optical investigations of In-rich In x Ga 1--x N alloy layers (0.36 < x < 1) which have shown that the bowing parameter of b $ 2.5 eV allows one to reconcile our results and the literature data for the band gap of In x Ga 1--x N alloys over the entire composition region. Special attention is paid to the effects of post-growth treatment of InN crystals. It is shown that annealing in vacuum leads to a decrease in electron concentration and considerable homogenization of the optical characteristics of InN samples. At the same time, annealing in an oxygen atmosphere leads to formation of optically transparent alloys of InN-In 2 O 3 type, the band gap of which reaches approximately 2 eV at an oxygen concentration of about 20%. It is evident from photoluminescence spectra that the samples saturated partially by oxygen still contain fragments of InN of mesoscopic size.

On the page 117407-3, left column, the text in the last paragraph should be written as follows. ''Such a small L m value means that the respective clusters are elongated along the electric field vector of the incident light, like the interface indium inclusions. In this case, the depolarization is small, and the resonance energy is the lowest among those possible [16]. This type of clusters determines the effective absorption edge in InN. The resonances of the clusters with L m 0:33 are higher in energy than the absorption edge in InN, so the prolate intercolumn inclusions do not affect the effective band edge.'' This correction affects the speculation concerning the type of the In clusters involved, but changes none of our main results.We thank T.

Mie resonances due to scattering or absorption of light in InN-containing clusters of metallic In may have been erroneously interpreted as the infrared band gap absorption in tens of papers. Here we show by direct thermally detected optical absorption measurements that the true band gap of InN is markedly wider than the currently accepted 0.7 eV. Microcathodoluminescence studies complemented by the imaging of metallic In have shown that bright infrared emission at 0.7-0.8 eV arises in a close vicinity of In inclusions and is likely associated with surface states at the metal/InN interfaces.