Polarized photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy of a-plane InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells grown on r-plane sapphire

Journal Article · Fri Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868692· OSTI ID:22271183

Sutherland, D.; Badcock, T. J.; Dawson, P. ^[1]; Schulz, S. ^[2]; Oehler, F.; Kappers, M. J.; Oliver, R. A.; Humphreys, C. J. ^[3]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, Photon Science Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom)
2. Photonics Theory group, Tyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings, Cork (Ireland)
3. Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0FS (United Kingdom)

We have performed a detailed study of the impact of basal plane stacking faults (BSFs) on the optical properties of both a-plane InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) and GaN template samples grown on r-sapphire. In particular, we have used polarised photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy (P-PLE) to investigate the nature of the low temperature recombination as well as extracting information on the valence band (VB) polarisation anisotropy. Our low temperature P-PLE results revealed not only excitons associated with intersubband quantum well transitions and the GaN barrier material but also a transition associated with creation of excitons in BSFs. The strength of this BSF transition varied with detection energy across the quantum well emission suggesting that there is a significant contribution to the emission line width from changes in the local electronic environment of the QWs due to interactions with BSFs. Furthermore, we observed a corresponding progressive increase in the VB splitting of the QWs as the detection energy was varied across the quantum well emission spectrum.

• OSTI ID: 22271183
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 11; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
EMISSION SPECTRA
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
EXCITATION
EXCITONS
GALLIUM NITRIDES
LINE WIDTHS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
POLARIZATION
QUANTUM WELLS
RECOMBINATION
SAPPHIRE
STACKING FAULTS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
VALENCE