Arsenic doped GaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy has been studied by room
temperature photoluminescence. In addition to the wurzite band edge transit
ion, luminescence from the cubic phase and very strong blue emission at sim
ilar to 2.6 eV are observed. The intensities of the blue and the cubic band
edge emissions have a power law dependence on the As-2 flux. The formation
of the cubic phase has been explained by the initial formation of GaAs bef
ore substitution of the As by the more reactive N. The intensity of the blu
e emission at room temperature of the As doped samples is more than an orde
r of magnitude stronger than the band edge emission in undoped samples. (C)
2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)01742-3].