Investigation of blue luminescence in Mg-doped nonpolar a-plane GaN

The temperature-dependent optical characteristics of blue luminescence (BL) band in Mg-doped nonpolar a-plane GaN films were investigated using photoluminescence (PL) measurements. For the sample with the highest Cp2Mg/TMGa ([Mg]/[Ga]) molar ratio, the BL band was shown to have two distinct peaks, one at about 2.95 eV and the other at about 2.75 eV, which were associated with the donor–acceptor pair (DAP) transitions between the one shallow Mg acceptor level and the two different deep donor levels. In contrast, a single broad BL band was observed for all other samples. Strong potential fluctuations caused by high compensation level in the sample with the highest [Mg]/[Ga] molar ratio might localize the carriers related to the 2.75 eV band, leading to the different emission characteristics in BL band as compared to other samples.