Thermal annealing of GaN implanted with Be

Abstract

GaN samples were implanted with Be and annealed in different conditions in order to activate the shallow BeGa acceptor. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra were studied to find BeGa-related defects in the implanted samples. A yellow band with a maximum at about 2.2 eV (the YLBe band) was observed in nearly all samples protected with an AlN cap during the annealing and in samples annealed under ultrahigh N2 pressure. A green band with a maximum at 2.35 eV (the GL2 band), attributed to the nitrogen vacancy, was the dominant defect-related luminescence band in GaN samples annealed without a protective AlN layer. The ultraviolet luminescence (UVLBe) band with a maximum at 3.38 eV attributed to the shallow BeGa acceptor with the ionization energy of 0.113 eV appeared in implanted samples only after annealing at high temperatures and ultrahigh N2 pressure. This is the first observation of the UVLBe band in Be-implanted GaN, indicating successful activation of the BeGa acceptor.