Tw. Kang et al., Effect of the band-tail states on the exciton peaks in GaN epilayers grownon sapphire substrates, J APPL PHYS, 88(2), 2000, pp. 790-793
Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been carried out to investigate th
e effects of the band-tail states on the exciton lines in unintentionally d
oped and Mg-doped GaN epilayers grown on sapphire substrates by using plasm
a-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The results of the PL spectra for the Mg
-doped epilayers show that the peak positions of the bound exciton lines sh
ift to higher energy with increasing temperature within the low-temperature
region. The radiative recombinations of the carriers are related to the ba
nd-tail states, and the temperature-dependent blueshifts are analyzed by us
ing a Gaussian distribution of charged impurities. The calculated thermal a
ctivation energies of the band-edge emission lines show that those lines in
Mg-doped GaN epilayers are related to ionized donor bound exciton recombin
ations. These results indicate that the positions and the intensities of th
e exciton peaks observed in Mg-doped GaN films are significantly affected b
y the concentration of the magnesium dopant. (C) 2000 American Institute of
Physics. [S0021-8979(00)00114-6].