Time Resolved Optical Studies of InGaN Layers Grown on LGO

Radiative recombination processes in bulk InGaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on lithium gallate (LGO or LiGaO2) substrates were investigated using microscopic PL and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL). The improved structural quality resulting from a better lattice match of the LGO substrate to III-V nitride materials simplifies these investigations because well-defined composition phases can be analyzed for both homogeneous and phased separated InGaN samples. Epilayers of InGaN intentionally grown with and without indium segregation were studied. X-ray diffraction measurements showed that the homogeneous epilayer was high quality In0.208Ga0.702N and the segregated epilayer exhibited peaks corresponding to both In0.289Ga0.711N and In0.443Ga0.557N indicating the presence of higher In concentration regions in this sample. Spatially resolved photoluminescence spectra confirm the existence of these regions. The photoluminescence intensity decay is non-exponential for both samples and a stretched exponential fit to the decay data confirms the existence of local potential fluctuations in which carriers are localized before recombination