Transparency of truly bulk GaN substrates obtained by ammonothermal method was measured in the mid infrared spectral range by Fourier spectroscopy. The same measurements were performed for GaN templates grown by meatlorganic vapour phase epitaxy on sapphire and SiC substrates. It has been clearly observed that truly bulk GaN substrates are transparent up to ∼7 µm whereas GaN templates grown on sapphire and SiC are transparent only up to ∼6.5 and ∼5.5 µm, respectively, due to non‐transparency of sapphire and SiC in this spectral range. It has been shown that the transparency “cut off” at ∼7 µm for GaN crystals results from the absorption of light by the second harmonic of optical phonons, which is very significant due to the strong electron‐phonon coupling in this material. Also it has been clearly presented that the absorption “cut‐off” in the infrared spectral region can be easily tuned by increasing of free carrier concentration in GaN. It was observed that the infrared transparency can be shifted from ∼7 to ∼2 µm or even shorter wavelengths when the electron concentration is increased up to ∼1019 cm‐3. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Alloys from ZnO and ZnS have been synthesized by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering over the entire alloying range. The ZnO 1Àx S x films are crystalline for all compositions. The optical absorption edge of these alloys decreases rapidly with small amount of added sulfur (x $ 0.02) and continues to red shift to a minimum of 2.6 eV at x ¼ 0.45. At higher sulfur concentrations (x > 0.45), the absorption edge shows a continuous blue shift. The strong reduction in the band gap for O-rich alloys is the result of the upward shift of the valence-band edge with x as observed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As a result, the room temperature bandgap of ZnO 1Àx S x alloys can be tuned from 3.7 eV to 2.6 eV. The observed large bowing in the composition dependence of the energy bandgap arises from the anticrossing interactions between (1) the valence-band of ZnO and the localized sulfur level at 0.30 eV above the ZnO valence-band maximum for O-rich alloys and (2) the conduction-band of ZnS and the localized oxygen level at 0.20 eV below the ZnS conduction band minimum for the S-rich alloys. The ability to tune the bandgap and knowledge of the location of the valence and conduction-band can be advantageous in applications, such as heterojunction solar cells, where band alignment is crucial. V