Spectral features of LO phonon sidebands in luminescence of free excitons in GaN

Abstract

In the paper a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the longitudinal optical phonon sidebands (PSBs) in the luminescence of free excitons in GaN at moderately high temperatures was reported. The spectral features, including line broadening, shift, and asymmetry of the one- and two-phonon PSBs, were revealed both experimentally and theoretically. It is found that the linewidth of the one-phonon PSB is surprisingly always larger than that of the two-phonon PSB in the interested temperature range. Moreover, the thermal broadening rates of the one- and two-phonon PSBs are considerably different. We adopted the Segall-Mahan theory [B. Segall and G. D. Mahan, Phys. Rev. 171, 935 (1968)] to compute the PSB spectra of the free excitons in GaN. Only one adjustable parameter, the effective mass of the holes, was used in the calculations. For the one-phonon PSB, an excellent agreement between theory and experiment is achieved when an adequate effective mass of the holes was used. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.