So-called split Ga vacancies, where a next-nearest-neighbor Ga atom relaxes strongly creating a structure with two "half-Ga vacancies" are the main defect observed with positron annihilation in almost all as-grown β-Ga2O3, irrespective of doping or conduction type. Unrelaxed Ga vacancies are observed in some samples subjected to high-energy particle irradiation. It also appears to n-type doping with Si promotes the formation of unrelaxed Ga vacancies. In spite of the high concentrations of the Ga vacancy related defects in the as-grown materials, the electrical compensation appears not to be directly affected by the vacancies.
We present a method of in-plane modification of the refractive index using ion implantation and electrochemical etching of GaN layers. Proposed method allows for the fabrication of embedded air-GaN channels that can be periodically arranged inside III-nitride heterostructures. Importantly, a flat top surface is preserved for further regrowth. High refractive index contrast between air and GaN makes the proposed technology attractive for the fabrication of embedded photonic structures such as diffraction gratings for distributed feedback laser diodes (DFB LDs). We discuss the impact of the different design of air-GaN channels on the properties of DFB LDs.
Positron annihilation spectroscopy is a powerful set of methods for the detection, identification and quantification of vacancy-type defects in semiconductors. In the past decades, it has been used to reveal the relationship between the (opto-)electronic properties and specific defects in a wide variety of elemental and compound semiconductors, including nitrides. In binary compounds, the selective sensitivity of the technique is rather strongly limited to cation vacancies that possess significant open volume and suitable charge: negative of neutral. The focus of this paper is in the recent advances in combining state-of-the-art positron annihilation experiments and ab initio computational approaches in identifying and quantifying defects in AlGaN alloys and GaN/AlGaN device structures.
Positron annihilation spectroscopy has been applied to study the vacancy-type defects in a wide range of β-Ga2O3 bulk crystals and thin films. The experimental data show that all studied samples contain high concentrations of Ga vacancies in a split vacancy configuration. These split Ga vacancies are observed also with other experimental techniques, and theoretical calculations predict that their formation energies are lower than those of other vacancy configurations. The exact structure of the split Ga vacancies appears to vary across samples.
We have applied positron annihilation spectroscopy to study a wide range of β-Ga2O3 bulk crystals and thin films with various doping levels. The Doppler broadening of the 511 keV positron-electron annihilation line exhibits colossal anisotropy compared to other three-dimensional crystalline semiconductors. State-of-the-art theoretical calculations of the positron characteristics in the β-Ga2O3 lattice reveal that the positron state is effectively 1-dimensional, giving rise to strong anisotropy. Strongly relaxed split Ga vacancies are found to exhibit even stronger anisotropy and to dominate the positron annihilation signals in almost all experiments. The evidence leads to the conclusion that split Ga vacancies are abundant, with concentration of 1018 cm-3 or more, in β-Ga2O3 samples irrespective of conductivity.
We have applied positron annihilation spectroscopy to study vacancy-type defects in unintentionally doped and Si and Sn doped β-Ga2O3 homoepitaxial thin films grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). We detect Ga vacancy related defects at high concentrations in semi-insulating and highly resistive material, while conductive (ntype) material exhibits very low Ga vacancy concentrations. These findings show that Ga vacancies can act as efficient electrical compensators for n-type conductivity, but their concentrations can be suppressed by controlling the growth environment, leading to efficient n-type doping. We also note the strong anisotropy of the positron annihilation signals and give recommendation for presenting positron data obtained in β-Ga2O3.
In-grown group III (cation) vacancies (VGa, VAl, VIn) in GaN, AlN and InN tend to be complexed with donor-type defects These donor defects may in principle be residual impurities such as O or H, n-type dopants such as Si, or intrinsic defects such as the N vacancy (VN). The cation vacancies and their complexes are generally deep acceptors, and hence they compensate for the n-type conductivity and add to the scattering centers limiting the carrier mobility in these materials. Mg doping reduces the group III vacancy concentrations, but other kinds of vacancy defects emerge. This work presents results obtained with positron annihilation spectroscopy in GaN, AlN, and InN. The vacancy-donor complexes are different in these three materials, and their importance in determining the opto-electronic properties of the material varies as well. The formation of these defects is discussed in the light of the differences in the growth methods.
We have investigated bulk GaN material grown by HVPE either in the conventional polar [0001] direction and
subsequently sliced with nonpolar surfaces or grown in the nonpolar [11-20] direction. Spatially resolved techniques
such as cathodoluminescence imaging and transmission electron microscopy, as well as profile measuring techniques
such as positron annihilation spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy were employed to directly visualize the
extended structural defects, and point defect (impurity and vacancy) distributions along the growth axes. A comparative
analysis of the results shows a distinctive difference in the distribution of all kind of defects along the growth axes. A
significant decrease in the defect density in material grown along the polar direction, in contrast to the constant behavior
of the high defect density in material grown along the nonpolar direction points out the low-defect superior quality of the
former material and indicates the preferable way of producing high-quality GaN substrates with nonpolar surfaces.
We have used positron annihilation spectroscopy to study vacancy defects in ZnO single crystals grown by various
methods from both commercial and academic sources. The combination of positron lifetime and Doppler broadening
techniques with theoretical calculations provides the means to deduce both the identities and the concentrations of the
vacancies. The annihilation characteristics of the Zn and O vacancies have been determined by studying electronirradiated
ZnO grown by the seeded vapor phase technique. The different ZnO samples were grown with the following
techniques: the hydrothermal growth method, the seeded vapor phase technique, growth from melt (skull melting
technique), and both conventional and contactless chemical vapor transport. We present a comparison of the vacancy
defects and their concentrations in these materials.
We have applied positron annihilation spectroscopy to study the role of gallium vacancies in the yellow luminescence of
gallium nitride. We measured the Ga vacancy concentrations of a set of wurtzite GaN layers grown by metal-organic
chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire and containing different amounts of C and exhibiting different
intensities in the yellow range of the photoluminescence spectrum. Interestingly, the relationship between the Ga
vacancies, C impurities and yellow luminescence depends on the electrical conductivity of the material. In semi-insulating
samples, we observe a correlation between the yellow luminescence and the carbon concentration, while there
is anti-correlation between these two and the gallium vacancy concentration. In contrast, in the n-type samples both the
yellow luminescence and the Ga vacancy concentration are independent of the carbon content. These results support the
view that the gallium vacancy is not the only defect related to yellow luminescence observed in GaN, but that another,
carbon-related mechanism is involved as well.
We have used positron annihilation spectroscopy to study GaN grown by hydride vapor epitaxy. Our results imply that
Ga vacancies in GaN are the dominant intrinsic acceptor defects in n-type nominally undoped pure material. Our
experiments also show the universal role of the Ga vacancy as the most important compensating acceptor over four
orders of magnitude of intentional oxygen doping. We have been able to identify the in-grown Ga vacancy-related
defects as VGa-ON pairs and to determine both the binding energy of the pair as well as the formation energy of the
isolated Ga vacancy. The experiments performed in polar homo-epitaxial GaN and non-polar hetero-epitaxial GaN give
support for a growth-surface-dependent defect incorporation model. On the other hand, the incorporation of impurities in
hetero-epitaxial Ga-polar GaN seems to be dominated by effects related to extended defects such as dislocations. The
preliminary results obtained in electron irradiated GaN show that negatively charged isolated Ga vacancies are produced
together with non-open volume negative ion-type defects when 2-MeV electrons are used, while neutral N vacancy
related defects seem to trap positrons in the material irradiated with 0.45 MeV electrons.
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