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 compreh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-01, Vol.6 (1), p.18808-18808, Article 18808
Main Authors: Mitchell, B., Timmerman, D., Poplawsky, J., Zhu, W., Lee, D., Wakamatsu, R., Takatsu, J., Matsuda, M., Guo, W., Lorenz, K., Alves, E., Koizumi, A., Dierolf, V., Fujiwara, Y.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
140/125
639/301/1005/1007
639/301/1019/1020/1089
639/624/1020
Efficiency
Humanities and Social Sciences
Influence
Integration
Ions
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Molecular structure
multidisciplinary
Optical properties
Oxygen
Science
Spectrum analysis
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Summary: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.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep18808