Brandon Mitchell

Excitation of Eu3+ in gallium nitride epitaxial layers: Majority versus trap defect center

We report studies of the excitation mechanism of Eu ions in situ doped during organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy (OMVPE) of GaN. We find that the bright red emission under above-band gap excitation originates primarily from an incorporation site that exhibits high excitation efficiency but occurs in low relative abundance ( 97%).

The role of donor-acceptor pairs in the excitation of Eu-ions in GaN:Eu epitaxial layers

The nature of Eu incorporation and resulting luminescence efficiency in GaN has been extensively investigated. By performing a comparative study on GaN:Eu samples grown under a variety of controlled conditions, and using a variety of experimental techniques, the configuration of the majority site has been concluded to contain a nitrogen vacancy (VN). The nitrogen vacancy can appear in two symmetries, which has a profound impact on the luminescence and magnetic properties of the sample. The structure of the minority site has also been identified. We propose that, for both sites, the excitation efficiency of the red Eu emission is improved by the presence of donor-acceptor pairs in the close vicinity of the Eu.

Utilization of native oxygen in Eu(RE)-doped GaN for enabling device compatibility in optoelectronic applications.

The detrimental influence of oxygen on the performance and reliability of V/III nitride based devices is well known. However, the influence of oxygen on the nature of the incorporation of other co-dopants, such as rare earth ions, has been largely overlooked in GaN. Here, we report the first comprehensive study of the critical role that oxygen has on Eu in GaN, as well as atomic scale observation of diffusion and local concentration of both atoms in the crystal lattice. We find that oxygen plays an integral role in the location, stability, and local defect structure around the Eu ions that were doped into the GaN host. Although the availability of oxygen is essential for these properties, it renders the material incompatible with GaN-based devices. However, the utilization of the normally occurring oxygen in GaN is promoted through structural manipulation, reducing its concentration by 2 orders of magnitude, while maintaining both the material quality and the favorable optical properties of the Eu ions. These findings open the way for full integration of RE dopants for optoelectronic functionalities in the existing GaN platform.

Electron-beam-induced migration of hydrogen in Mg-doped GaN using Eu as a probe

We demonstrate the use of hydrogen-induced changes in the emission of isoelectric Eu ions, in Mg-doped

Vibrationally induced center reconfiguration in co-doped GaN:Eu, Mg epitaxial layers: Local hydrogen migration vs. activation of non-radiative channels

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Substantial enhancement of red emission intensity by embedding Eu-doped GaN into a microcavity

-type GaN, as a powerful probe to study the dynamics of hydrogen movement under electron-beam irradiation. We identify, experimentally, a two-step process in the dissociation of Mg-H complexes and propose, based on density functional theory, that the presence of minority carriers and the resulting charge states of hydrogen drive this process.

Enhanced photo/electroluminescence properties of Eu-doped GaN through optimization of the growth temperature and Eu related defect environment

Europium doped gallium nitride (GaN:Eu) is a promising candidate as a material for red light emitting diodes. When Mg was co-doped into GaN:Eu, additional incorporation environments were discovered that show high excitation efficiency at room temperature and have been attributed to the coupling of Mg-H complexes to the majority Eu site. Electron beam irradiation, indirect and resonant (direct) laser excitation were found to modify these complexes, indicating that vibrational energy alone can trigger the migration of the H while the presence of additional charges and excess energy controls the type of reconfiguration and the activation of non-radiative decay channels.

Crystal field and Zeeman splittings for energy levels of Nd3+ in hexagonal AlN

We investigate resonantly excited photoluminescence from a Eu,O-codoped GaN layer embedded into a microcavity, consisting of an AlGaN/GaN distributed Bragg reflector and a Ag reflecting mirror. The microcavity is responsible for a 18.6-fold increase of the Eu emission intensity at ∼10K, and a 21-fold increase at room temperature. We systematically investigate the origin of this enhancement, and we conclude that it is due to the combination of several effects including, the lifetime shortening of the Eu emission, the strain-induced piezoelectric effect, and the increased extraction and excitation field efficiencies. This study paves the way for an alternative method to enhance the photoluminescence intensity in rare-earth doped semiconductor structures.

Perspective: Toward efficient GaN-based red light emitting diodes using europium doping

The influence of growth temperature on the surface morphology and luminescence properties of Eu-doped GaN layers grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy was investigated. By using a Eu source that does not contain oxygen in its molecular structure, and varying the growth temperature, the local defect environment around the Eu3+ ions was manipulated, yielding a higher emission intensity from the Eu3+ ions and a smoother sample surface. The optimal growth temperature was determined to be 960 °C and was used to fabricate a GaN-based red light-emitting diode with a significantly higher output power.

Emission enhancement and its mechanism of Eu-doped GaN by strain engineering

The crystal-field and Zeeman splittings of the energy levels of Nd3+(4f3) 2S+1LJ in hexagonal phase AlN have been investigated. The multiplet manifolds of Nd3+(4f3) analyzed include the ground state, 4I9/2, and excited states 4I11/2, 4I13/2, 4F3/2, 4F5/2, 2H(2)9/2, 4F7/2, 4S3/2, 4G5/2, and 2G7/2. Experimental energy levels were obtained from analyses of the 12 K cathodoluminescence spectra from Nd3+-implanted films of AlN, and from the 15 K photoluminescence excitation spectra and the site-selective combined excitation-emission spectra (CEES) recently reported for in situ Nd-doped hexagonal AlN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). CEES results identify a main site and two minority sites for Nd3+ in both samples. Transition line strengths attributed to the ion in minority sites are relatively stronger in Nd:AlN than in Nd:GaN. The 15 K experimental Zeeman splitting of Nd3+ are analyzed in the PA-MBE grown AlN samples and compared with the Zeeman splitting observed in Nd:GaN. The crystal-field and Zeeman splittings were modeled using a parametrized Hamiltonian consisting of atomic and crystal-field terms. We considered possible site distortion due to the size of the implanted Nd ion that would reduce the site symmetry from C3v to C3 or C1h. However, no significant improvement was obtained using these lower symmetry models, leading us to conclude that C3v symmetry is a reasonable approximation for the main site Nd3+ ions in AlN.