Carbon-Related Defects as a Source for the Enhancement of Yellow Luminescence of Unintentionally Doped GaN

Yellow luminescence (YL) of unintentionally doped GaN (u-GaN) peaking at about 2.2 eV has been investigated for decades, but its origin still remains controversial. In this study, ten u-GaN samples grown via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are investigated. It is observed from the room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) measurements that the YL band is enhanced in the PL spectra of those samples if their MOCVD growth is carried out with a decrease of pressure, temperature, or flow rate of NH(3). Furthermore, a strong dependence of YL band intensity on the carbon concentration is found by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements, demonstrating that the increased carbon-related defects in these samples are responsible for the enhancement of the YL band.