Photoluminescence Studies of In-Doped GaN:Mg Films

Photoluminescence (PL) studies of In-doped GaN:Mg films revealed that the Mg-related emission at 3.1 eV is enhanced by more than one order of magnitude on the shoulder of the broad band centered at 2.8 eV for GaN:Mg after an optimal In concentration was added into the films. This enhancement of the 3.1 eV band is believed to be associated with the reduction in the number of self-compensation centers. A slow decay in PL intensity evolution was also observed, which may be ascribed to a local energy barrier that impedes carriers that relax into the valence band. The temperature dependences of the decay time constants were measured and a barrier energy as high as ~103±7 meV was obtained for In-doped GaN:Mg as compared with 69±8 meV for GaN:Mg.