Yellow luminescence imaging of epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN using ionoluminescence

Abstract

Luminescence imaging techniques such as Photoluminescence (PL) and Cathodoluminescence (CL) have been extensively used to characterize the optical properties of GaN. However, analysis using these techniques is limited to near surface regions and may not represent bulk material properties. This restricts the understanding of the defect-related yellow luminescence in GaN, which tends to originate at the interface region. In this work, we propose the use of MeV protons to probe several microns into a Epitaxial Lateral Overgrown GaN layer. Monte Carlo simulations of the ionization profile show that MeV ions have a much higher penetration depth than the keV electrons used in CL. The well-defined electronic energy loss peak or 'Bragg peak' at the end of range for MeV ions enables us to perform depth resolved imaging of the yellow luminescence distribution. Another advantage of using a MeV ion beam over keV electrons is the relatively small lateral spreading of ions in a material, making it a more suitable technique for providing high-resolution images of any buried defects in GaN.