Rare Earth GaN Visible and Infrared Light Emitters

摘要

The goal of this project is to investigate rare-earth-doped GaN for visible and infrared light emission applications. Our approach is to grow GaN by solid source MBE and plasma-activated nitrogen. The rare earths (such as Er. Eu, Tm, etc.) are introduced in-situ during MBE growth using Knudsen cells. We have investigated the basic materials properties of GaN:RE thin films grown on Si and sapphire substrates. Among the salient findings are the following: (1) RE incorporation is an exponential function of RE cell temperature; (2) the RE incorporation into the GaN lattice is by substitution on the Ga sites; (3) photo- and electro-luminescence reach a maximum for slightly N-rich III-V flux ratio during growth; (4) photo- and electro-luminescence reach a maximum for (caret)1% RE incorporation.