Polarization anisotropy and valence band ordering in semipolar (112¯2) AlInN/GaN heterostructures

verfasst von
Shawutijiang Sidikejiang, Philipp Henning, Uwe Rossow, Heiko Bremers, Ferdinand Scholz, Andreas Hangleiter
Abstract

Semipolar (112¯2) AlInN/GaN heterostructures on GaN templates were studied using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy both at 15 K and at room temperature. The polarization-resolved PL measurements revealed a dominant polarization along the [112¯3¯] c′ and a weaker signal along the [11¯00] m-direction, i.e., the two in-plane directions of the semipolar (112¯2) growth plane. We observed slightly different polarization degrees of 0.34±0.01, 0.25±0.02, and 0.20±0.01 at room temperature, respectively, depending on the degree of strain relaxation in the [11¯00] direction. From a theoretical model based on a k·p calculation, we find that the transition from the conduction band (CB) to the uppermost valence band (VB) is C for AlInN similar to AlN, followed by the transition A from the CB to the second VB, for a wide range of compositions. Thus, the in-plane transition matrix elements from the CB to the two topmost VBs near the Γ point of the Brillouin zone are dominated by M[112¯3¯] for the C transition and by M[11¯00] for the A transition. For the samples under consideration with an energy splitting of about 18±1meV, there is sizable thermal occupation of the second VB at room temperature, reasonably explaining the experimental results. The results show that AlInN possesses a band structure similar to AlN, which might explain the strong Stokes shift and the large variation in the band-gap values reported previously.

Typ
Artikel
Journal
Physical Review B
Band
107
ISSN
2469-9950
Publikationsdatum
05.01.2023
Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Elektronische, optische und magnetische Materialien, Physik der kondensierten Materie
Elektronische Version(en)
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.107.045202 (Zugang: Geschlossen)
https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.045202 (Zugang: Unbekannt)