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    Growth and Properties of Intentionally Carbon-Doped GaN Layers
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2019) Richter, Eberhard; Beyer, Franziska C.; Zimmermann, Friederike; Gärtner, Günter; Irmscher, Klaus; Gamov, Ivan; Heitmann, Johannes; Weyers, Markus; Tränkle, Günther
    Carbon-doping of GaN layers with thickness in the mm-range is performed by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. Characterization by optical and electrical measurements reveals semi-insulating behavior with a maximum of specific resistivity of 2 × 1010 Ω cm at room temperature found for a carbon concentration of 8.8 × 1018 cm−3. For higher carbon levels up to 3.5 × 1019 cm−3, a slight increase of the conductivity is observed and related to self-compensation and passivation of the acceptor. The acceptor can be identified as CN with an electrical activation energy of 0.94 eV and partial passivation by interstitial hydrogen. In addition, two differently oriented tri-carbon defects, CN-a-CGa-a-CN and CN-a-CGa-c-CN, are identified which probably compensate about two-thirds of the carbon which is incorporated in excess of 2 × 1018 cm−3. © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    Current Status of Carbon‐Related Defect Luminescence in GaN
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Zimmermann, Friederike; Beyer, Jan; Röder, Christian; Beyer, Franziska C.; Richter, Eberhard; Irmscher, Klaus; Heitmann, Johannes
    Highly insulating layers are a prerequisite for gallium nitride (GaN)-based power electronic devices. For this purpose, carbon doping is one of the currently pursued approaches. However, its impact on the optical and electrical properties of GaN has been widely debated in the scientific community. For further improvement of device performance, a better understanding of the role of related defects is essential. To study optically active point defects, photoluminescence is one of the most frequently used experimental characterization techniques. Herein, the main recent advances in the attribution of carbon-related photoluminescence bands are reviewed, which were enabled by the interplay of a refinement of growth and characterization techniques and state-of-the-art first-principles calculations developed during the last decade. The predicted electronic structures of isolated carbon defects and selected carbon-impurity complexes are compared to experimental results. Taking into account both of these, a comprehensive overview on the present state of interpretation of carbon-related broad luminescence bands in bulk GaN is presented.
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    Protection Mechanism against Photocorrosion of GaN Photoanodes Provided by NiO Thin Layers
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Kamimura, Jumpei; Budde, Melanie; Bogdanoff, Peter; Tschammer, Carsten; Abdi, Fatwa F.; van de Krol, Roel; Bierwagen, Oliver; Riechert, Henning; Geelhaar, Lutz
    The photoelectrochemical properties of n-type Ga-polar GaN photoelectrodes covered with NiO layers of different thicknesses in the range 0–20 nm are investigated for aqueous solution. To obtain layers of well-defined thickness and high crystal quality, NiO is grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. Stability tests reveal that the NiO layers suppress photocorrosion. With increasing NiO thickness, the onset of the photocurrent is shifted to more positive voltages and the photocurrent is reduced, especially for low bias potentials, indicating that hole transfer to the electrolyte interface is hindered by thicker NiO layers. Furthermore, cathodic transient spikes are observed under intermittent illumination, which hints at surface recombination processes. These results are inconsistent with the common explanation of the protection mechanism that the band alignment of GaN/NiO enables efficient hole-injection, thus preventing hole accumulation at the GaN surface that would lead to anodic photocorrosion. Interestingly, the morphology of the etch pits as well as further experiments involving the photodeposition of Ag indicate that photocorrosion of GaN photoanodes is related to reductive processes at threading dislocations. Therefore, it is concluded that the NiO layers block the transfer of photogenerated electrons from GaN to the electrolyte interface, which prevents the cathodic photocorrosion. © 2020 The Authors. Solar RRL published by Wiley-VCH GmbH