Optical Properties of Carbon Doped Cubic GaN Epilayers Grown on GaAs (001) Substrate by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

The optical properties of Carbon doped cubic GaN epilayers have been investigated by temperature and intensity dependent photoluminescence measurements. RF-plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy equipped with an e-beam-evaporation source for carbon doping is used to grow the cubic GaN layers on GaAs (001) substrates. With increasing Carbon flux a new photoluminescence line at 3.08 eV appeared at 2K. This line is attributed to a donor acceptor transistion, which involves the shallow CN acceptor. From the spectral position the binding energy of the C acceptor is estimated to be about EC = 0.215 eV. Our experiments demonstrate that C indeed introduces a shallow acceptor in cubic GaN with an acceptor binding energy, which is about 15 meV lower than that observed for the Mg acceptor in cubic GaN. However, at high C fluxes a deep red luminescence band appeared at 2.1 eV, indicating compensation effects.