Study on the relationships between Raman shifts and temperature range for a-plane GaN using temperature-dependent Raman scattering

Abstract

In this paper, Raman shifts of a-plane GaN layers grown on r-plane sapphire substrates by low-pressure metal—organic chemical vapor deposition (LPMOCVD) are investigated. We compare the crystal qualities and study the relationships between Raman shift and temperature for conventional a-plane GaN epilayer and insertion AlN/AlGaN superlattice layers for a-plane GaN epilayer using temperature-dependent Raman scattering in a temperature range from 83 K to 503 K. The temperature-dependences of GaN phonon modes (A1 (TO), E2 (high), and E1 (TO)) and the linewidths of E2 (high) phonon peak are studied. The results indicate that there exist two mechanisms between phonon peaks in the whole temperature range, and the relationship can be fitted to the pseudo-Voigt function. From analytic results we find a critical temperature existing in the relationship, which can characterize the anharmonic effects of a-plane GaN in different temperature ranges. In the range of higher temperature, the relationship exhibits an approximately linear behavior, which is consistent with the analyzed results theoretically.