Manifestation of the equilibrium hole distribution in photoluminescence of n‐InN

Abstract

AbstractPhotoluminescence (PL) of n‐InN grown by molecular beam epitaxy with Hall concentrations from 3.6 to 7.3 × 1017 cm–3 demonstrates dependences on carrier concentration, temperature, and excitation density which give evidences of a fast energy relaxation rate of photoholes and their equilibrium distribution over localized states. The structure of the PL spectra observed at 4.2 and 77 K in the energy interval from 0.50 to 0.67 eV indicates that a considerable part of holes is trapped by deep and shallow acceptors before the interband recombi‐ nation with degenerate electrons occurs. At room temperature, the band‐to‐band recombination of free holes and electrons dominates in PL. Experimental results on PL and absorption are described by model calculations under the assumptions of a band gap equal to 0.665–0.670 eV at zero temperature and zero carrier concentration and a non‐parabolic conduction band with the effective mass at the G‐point equal to 0.07 of the free electron mass. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)