Temperature dependence of interband transitions in GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

The interband transitions in single-crystal GaN films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) have been studied as a function of temperature (15≤T≤300 K) by reflectance and photoluminescence measurements. At low temperatures, well-resolved spectral features corresponding to the GaN band structure were observed. The energies of the excitonic interband ΓV9−ΓC7,ΓV7 (upper band)−ΓC7 and ΓV7(lower band)−ΓC7 transitions are found to be 3.485, 3.493, and 3.518 eV at 15 K, respectively, for the MOCVD GaN. The spectral features are broadened and shift to lower energy as temperature increases. At room temperature (300 K), the ΓV9−ΓC7and ΓV7 (upper band) −ΓC7 transition energies of this wide band-gap material are determined to be 3.420 and 3.428 eV, respectively. The temperature dependence of these two transitions have been determined using the Varshni empirical relation. Our results yield E0(T)=3.486–8.32×10−4 T2/(835.6+T) eV for the ΓV9−ΓC7 transition and E0(T)=3.494–10.9×10−4 T2/(1194.6+T) eV for the ΓV7 (upper band) −ΓC7 transition.