We present a comprehensive, up-to-date compilation of band parameters for the technologically important III–V zinc blende and wurtzite compound semiconductors: GaAs, GaSb, GaP, GaN, AlAs, AlSb, AlP, AlN, InAs, InSb, InP, and InN, along with their ternary and quaternary alloys. Based on a review of the existing literature, complete and consistent parameter sets are given for all materials. Emphasizing the quantities required for band structure calculations, we tabulate the direct and indirect energy gaps, spin-orbit, and crystal-field splittings, alloy bowing parameters, effective masses for electrons, heavy, light, and split-off holes, Luttinger parameters, interband momentum matrix elements, and deformation potentials, including temperature and alloy-composition dependences where available. Heterostructure band offsets are also given, on an absolute scale that allows any material to be aligned relative to any other.

Band parameters for III–V compound semiconductors and their alloys

In this chapter, we will restrict our attention to the ferrites and a few other closely related materials. The great interest in ferrites stems from their unique combination of a spontaneous magnetization and a high electrical resistivity. The observed magnetization results from the difference in the magnetizations of two non-equivalent sub-lattices of the magnetic ions in the crystal structure. Materials of this type should strictly be designated as “ferrimagnetic” and in some respects are more closely related to anti-ferromagnetic substances than they are to ferromagnetics in which the magnetization results from the parallel alignment of all the magnetic moments present. We shall not adhere to this special nomenclature except to emphasize effects, which are due to the existence of the sub-lattices.

Ferromagnetic materials

We present a comprehensive and up-to-date compilation of band parameters for all of the nitrogen-containing III–V semiconductors that have been investigated to date. The two main classes are: (1) “conventional” nitrides (wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN, InN, and AlN, along with their alloys) and (2) “dilute” nitrides (zinc-blende ternaries and quaternaries in which a relatively small fraction of N is added to a host III–V material, e.g., GaAsN and GaInAsN). As in our more general review of III–V semiconductor band parameters [I. Vurgaftman et al., J. Appl. Phys. 89, 5815 (2001)], complete and consistent parameter sets are recommended on the basis of a thorough and critical review of the existing literature. We tabulate the direct and indirect energy gaps, spin-orbit and crystal-field splittings, alloy bowing parameters, electron and hole effective masses, deformation potentials, elastic constants, piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization coefficients, as well as heterostructure band offsets. Temperature an...

Band parameters for nitrogen-containing semiconductors

A large amount of work world-wide has been directed towards obtaining an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of porous Si. Much progress has been made following the demonstration in 1990 that highly porous material could emit very efficient visible photoluminescence at room temperature. Since that time, all features of the structural, optical and electronic properties of the material have been subjected to in-depth scrutiny. It is the purpose of the present review to survey the work which has been carried out and to detail the level of understanding which has been attained. The key importance of crystalline Si nanostructures in determining the behaviour of porous Si is highlighted. The fabrication of solid-state electroluminescent devices is a prominent goal of many studies and the impressive progress in this area is described.

The structural and luminescence properties of porous silicon

We report the observation of optically pumped lasing in ZnO at room temperature. Thin films of ZnO were grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy on (0001) sapphire substrates. Laser cavities formed by cleaving were found to lase at a threshold excitation intensity of 240 kW cm−2. We believe these results demonstrate the high quality of ZnO epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy while clearly demonstrating the viability of ZnO based light emitting devices.

Optically pumped lasing of ZnO at room temperature

We report the first direct observation of phase decomposition in a luminescent alloy and show that this decomposition, allied to quantum confinement enhancements, accounts for the surprisingly high efficiency of InGaN-based diodes manufactured by Nichia Chemical Industries. Hence nanostructure, rather than composition, is responsible for the success of these devices. A common nanostructure, in the form of nearly pure InN quantum dots, occurs across a large range of average indium content in InGaN and leads to a universal scalability of the optical spectra.

Origin of Luminescence from InGaN Diodes

We report a comparative study of the emission and absorption spectra of a range of commercial InGaN light-emitting diodes and high-quality epilayers A working definition of the form of the absorption edge for alloys is proposed, which allows a unique definition of the Stokes’ shift A linear dependence of the Stokes’ shift on the emission peak energy is then demonstrated for InGaN using experimental spectra of both diode and epilayer samples, supplemented by data from the literature In addition, the broadening of the absorption edge is shown to increase as the emission peak energy decreases These results are discussed in terms of the localization of excitons at highly indium-rich quantum dots within a phase-segregated alloy

Exciton localization and the Stokes’ shift in InGaN epilayers

Strain and composition distributions within wurtzite InGaN/GaN layers are investigated by high-resolution reciprocal space mapping (RSM). We illustrate the potential of RSM to detect composition and strain gradients independently. This information is extracted from the elongation of broadened reciprocal lattice points (RLP) in asymmetric x-ray reflections. Three InxGa1−xN/GaN (nominal x=0.25) samples with layer thickness of 60, 120, and 240 nm, were grown in a commercial metal-organic chemical vapor deposition reactor. The RSMs around the (105) reflection show that the strain profile is nonuniform over depth in InGaN. The directions of “pure” strain relaxation in the reciprocal space, for a given In content (isocomposition lines), are calculated based on elastic theory. Comparison between these directions and measured distributions of the RLP shows that the relaxation process does not follow a specific isocomposition line. The In mole fraction (x) increases as the films relax. At the start of growth all t...

Strain and composition distributions in wurtzite InGaN/GaN layers extracted from x-ray reciprocal space mapping

A depth-resolved study of the optical and structural properties of wurtzite InGaN/GaN bilayers grown by metallorganic chemical vapor deposition on sapphire substrates is reported. Depth-resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) were used to gain an insight into the compositional profile of a 75-nm thick InGaN epilayer in the direction of growth. CL acquired at increasing electron energies reveals a peak shift of about 25 meV to the blue when the electron beam energy is increased from 0.5 to \ensuremath{\sim}7 keV, and shows a small shift to lower energies between \ensuremath{\sim}7 and 9 keV. For higher accelerating voltages the emission energy peak remains constant. This behavior can be well accounted for by a linear variation of In content over depth. Such an interpretation conforms to the In/Ga profile derived from RBS, where a linear decrease of the In mole fraction from the near surface (\ensuremath{\sim}0.20) down to the near GaN/InGaN interface (\ensuremath{\sim}0.14) region fits the random spectra very well. Furthermore, by measuring the tetragonal distortion at different depths, using RBS/channeling, it is shown that regions of higher In content also appear to be more relaxed. This result suggests that strain hinders the incorporation of In atoms in the InGaN lattice, and is the driving force for the compositional pulling effect in InGaN films.

Compositional pulling effects in InxGa1-x N/GaN layers: A combined depth-resolved cathodoluminescence and Rutherford backscattering/channeling study

We consider the optical absorption and emission spectra of excitons in two-dimensional semiconductors disordered through interface fluctuations. These spectra show a universal behavior exemplified by the fact that the offset of the spectral peaks (the Stokes shift) is proportinal to their linewidths over a range of at least 2 orders of magnitude. We introduce a topographical theory of the exciton spectra which models such behavior in terms of statistical properties of a Gaussian random function. The coefficient of proportionality between the Stokes shift and the exciton absorption linewidth is found to be \ensuremath{\gamma}=2/ \ensuremath{\surd}6\ensuremath{\pi} ln2 =0.553 by analysis and 0.6 by experiment.

K.P. O'Donnell

Papers

Origin of Luminescence from InGaN Diodes

Exciton localization and the Stokes’ shift in InGaN epilayers

Strain and composition distributions in wurtzite InGaN/GaN layers extracted from x-ray reciprocal space mapping

Compositional pulling effects in InxGa1-x N/GaN layers: A combined depth-resolved cathodoluminescence and Rutherford backscattering/channeling study

Origin of the Stokes shift : a geometrical model of exciton spectra in 2D semiconductors