A detailed understanding of the nitride refractive indices is essential for the modeling and design of III–N laser structures. In this article, we report on the assessment of the refractive index data available for the nitride alloys and present formulas for evaluating the refractive indices for variations in both composition and photon energy. For AlxGa1−xN, an expression is given which fits well to experimental data below x<0.38, sufficient for the molefractions found in the cladding layers of III–N lasers. Due to the almost complete lack of experimental refractive index data for InyGa1−yN, we propose an expression to give a first-order approximation for the refractive index.

Optical and transport properties of wurtzite GaN layers, grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on Si͑111͒ substrates, have been investigated. An emission at 3.455 eV, analyzed by continuous-wave and time-resolved luminescence in undoped and Si-doped GaN layers, is assigned to excitons bound to Si donors with an optical binding energy of 50 meV. A common origin of this peak, for undoped and Si-doped GaN, is backed by secondary-ion-mass spectroscopy that evidences a Si diffusion from the substrate into the GaN layer for growth temperatures above 660°C. Simultaneously, Ga diffusion into the Si substrate generates a highly p-type conductive layer at the GaN/Si interface, leading to unreliable Hall data in undoped and lightly doped layers. Positron annihilation reveals a concomitant vacancy cluster generation at the GaN/Si interface in samples grown above 660°C. No traces of the ''yellow band'' are detected either in undoped or in Si-doped samples. ͓S0163-1829͑98͒00827-3͔

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Be-doped GaN layers have been grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy. The relative Be concentration was measured by secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis. Photoluminescence spectra have been taken under continuous wave and time-resolved conditions. A new emission at 3.384 eV, which is probably related to substitutional Be, is reported, together with its first and second order phonon replica. Clear blue-shifts are observed when increasing temperature and excitation power, suggesting that this emission is associated with a transition from a residual donor to the Be acceptor. From time-resolved spectra, a very slow and strongly non-exponential decay, as well as a red-shift of the peak energy position with time, confirm the donor-acceptor character of the Be-related emission. The estimated ionization energy of the acceptor is around 90 meV, so Be is the shallowest p-dopant ever reported in GaN.

Certain problems in optical scattering are best understood when the more complicated exact scattering theory is replaced by an approximation. The Fraunhofer approximation is a well-known example. In the past ten years a considerable amount of work has been done in various disciplines towards assessing the usefulness of a new approximation referred to in the literature either as the eikonal approximation or as the high-energy approximation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a much needed review of this work and in addition to examine the historical evolution of this approximation which essentially started in optics when Bruns introduced the term eikonal in 1895.PACS 42.10.Dy -Wave, fronts and ray tracing. PACS 42.10.Hc -Diffraction and scattering from extended bodies.