Relationship between Microscopic Structure and Optical Property of Polycrystalline GaN on Silica Glass

Abstract

We have investigated relationships between the microscopic structure and optical property of polycrystalline GaN grown by (electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma-excited molecular beam epitaxy) ECR-MBE on silica glass substrates, using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and cathodoluminescence (CL). It was found that CL intensity was stronger for the samples with a large columnar domain size. These individual columnar domains showed clear luminescence. It was found that the origin of strong luminescence from polycrystalline GaN is due to such a columnar domain. That luminescence was closely related to the morphology of the columnar domains. It was revealed that the columnar domain with a homogeneous and hexagonal shape showed clear luminescence.