Tri-carbon defects in carbon doped GaN

Abstract

Carbon doped GaN crystals grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy have been investigated using mid-infrared and near-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy. Two local vibrational modes (LVMs) at 1679 cm−1 and 1718 cm−1 as well as an absorption shoulder in front of the band edge absorption of GaN are discovered, all of which increase in intensity with the carbon concentration. The LVMs are similar in wavenumber position to an LVM formerly observed in carbon-rich AlN crystals and unambiguously assigned to a tri-carbon defect. Together with the polarization dependence of the LVMs, we conclude that in GaN the underlying defects are two crystallographically inequivalent configurations of each three nearest neighbor carbon atoms. The strength of both the infrared and ultraviolet absorption features implies concentrations of the underlying defects of the same order as the total carbon concentration. Hence, the tri-carbon defects contribute to the UV absorption and possess deep energy levels in GaN.