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Electronic Structure and Temperature Dependence of Excitons in GaN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Abstract
We present an optical study of the excitonic properties of epitaxial GaN using reflectivity and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The values for the intrinsic exciton energies are found to be dependent on the built in strain developed due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the GaN epilayer and the foreign substrate. For GaN on sapphire thecompressive biaxial strain causes an upshift of A and B excitons by typically 15 meV relative to the strain free sample, in accordance with previous data. For GaN on SiC, on the other hand, a downshift ˜ 8 meV in the free exciton energies is observed at 2K. Only two excitonic peaks about 18 meV apart, are resolved in reflectivity spectra for GaN on SiC, probably due to the overlapping of A and B excitons. The suggested explanation implies the reduction of the bandgap energy and of the valence band splitting under the action of a biaxial tensional strain in the GaN layer. For all structures the strain-induced shifts of the bandgap energy are much smaller at elevated temperatures, presumably reflecting the temperature dependence of the accumulated strain energy. The exciton-polariton structure of the GaN is also discussed. The enhanced intensity of the no-phonon (NP) A line compared to its longitudinal (LO) phonon replica is suggested to be partially attributed to strong defect scattering.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996
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