Photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation studies of as-grown and P-implanted GaN: On the nature of yellow luminescence

We have studied optical and electronic properties of isoelectronic P-implanted GaN films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor phase epitaxy. After rapid thermal annealing, a strong emission band around 430 nm was observed, which is attributed to the recombination of exciton bound to isoelectronic P-hole traps. From the Arrhenius plot, the hole binding energy of ∼180 meV and the exciton localization energy of 28 meV were obtained. According to first-principle total-energy calculations, the implantation process likely introduced NI and P-related defects. By using photoluminescence excitation technique, we found that the P-implantation-induced localized states not only increase the yellow luminescence but also suppress the transitions from the free carriers to deep levels.