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Optical Properties of Germanium Doped Cubic GaN

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Abstract

We report on recent doping experiments of cubic GaN epilayers by Ge and investigate in detail the optical properties by photoluminescence spectroscopy. Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy was used to deposit Ge-doped cubic GaN layers with nominal thicknesses of 600 nm on 3C-SiC(001)/Si(001) substrates. The Ge doping level could be varied by around six orders of magnitude by changing the Ge effusion cell temperature. A maximum free carrier concentration of 3.7×1020 cm-3 was measured in the GaN layers via Hall-effect at room temperature. Low temperature photoluminescence (PL) showed a clear shift of the donor-acceptor emission to higher energies with increasing Ge-doping. Above a Ge concentration of ∼ 2x1018cm-3 the near band edge lines merge to one broad band. From temperature dependent measurements of the observed excitonic and donor-acceptor transitions a donor-energy of ∼ 36 meV could be estimated for Ge.

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As, D.J., Deppe, M., Gerlach, J. et al. Optical Properties of Germanium Doped Cubic GaN. MRS Advances 2, 283–288 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2016.637

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