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Surface and bulk exciton recombination dynamics in GaN freestanding films via one- and two-photon excitations

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Abstract

We have measured the photoluminescence (PL) lifetime of a freestanding GaN film using one- and two-photon excitations to demonstrate the dramatic difference in exciton recombination dynamics at the surface and in the bulk. An ultra-long exciton PL lifetime of 17.2 ns at 295 K is observed from a GaN freestanding film using two-photon excitation, whereas less than 100 ps lifetime is observed for one-photon excitation, suggesting that nonradiative processes from surface defects account for the short PL lifetime measured. The room temperature exciton lifetime of 17.2 ns is the longest ever reported for GaN film. A monotonic increase in two-photon excited PL lifetime with increasing temperature and the linear dependence of the exciton lifetime with emission wavelength show good agreement with the theoretical predictions, indicating that radiative recombination dominates for bulk excited state relaxation processes.

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Acknowledgments

The experiments were performed in the Joyce M. Kuok Laser and Photonic Laboratory at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The authors would like to thank S. S. Park of Samsung for supply the GaN sample. DCL was supported by AFOSR Grant F49620-03-1-0197 and Air Force Contract F33615-00-C-5402. KSW acknowledges the support of this work by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. 604405).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, P.R. China

    Yongchun Zhong & Kam Sing Wong

  2. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma, OK, 74078, USA

    Weili Zhang

  3. Semiconductor Research Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, 45435, USA

    D. C. Look

  4. Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH, 45433, USA

    D. C. Look

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  1. Yongchun Zhong
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  2. Kam Sing Wong
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Correspondence to Yongchun Zhong.

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Zhong, Y., Wong, K.S., Zhang, W. et al. Surface and bulk exciton recombination dynamics in GaN freestanding films via one- and two-photon excitations. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 18 (Suppl 1), 453–457 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-007-9253-1

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