Photoluminescence study of the 1.047 eV emission in GaN

Abstract

We use photoluminescence to study residual transition metal contaminants in GaN layers, which are grown by the sandwich technique either on 6H-SiC substrate or on sapphire substrate. We observe three no-phonon lines in the near infrared optical region at 1.3 eV, 1.19 eV, and 1.047 eV caused by 3d transition metals. The appearance of GaN related host modes in the phonon sideband of these emissions proves that the luminescence centers are incorporated in the hexagonal GaN layers. In this paper we especially focus on the luminescence band with the no-phonon line at 1.047 eV. Temperature dependent photoluminescence measurements reveal an excited state splitting of 8 meV. In photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy we observe a further excited state at 1.6 eV with a fine structure splitting. The appearance of this excited state in the n-type samples gives evidence that the defect must already exist in its luminescent charge state without illumination. The experimental results on the 1.047 eV emission fit to a 4T2(F)→4A2(F) internal electronic transition of a transition metal with a 3d7 electronic configuration.