Temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra of GaN epitaxial layer grown on Si (111) substrate

In this paper, the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) properties of GaN grown on Si (111) substrate are studied. The main emission peaks of GaN films grown on Si (111) are investigated and compared with those grown on sapphire substrates. The positions of free and bound exciton luminescence peaks, i.e., FX_A and D⁰X peaks, of GaN films grown on Si (111) substrates undergo red shifts compared with those grown on sapphire. This is attributed to the fact that the GaN films grown on sapphire are under the action of compressive stress, while those grown on Si (111) substrate are subjected to tensile stress. Furthermore, the positions of these peaks may be additionally shifted due to different stress conditions in the real sample growth. The emission peaks due to stacking faults are found in GaN films grown on Si (111) and an S-shaped temperature dependence of PL spectra can be observed, owing to the influence of the quantum well (QW) emission by the localized states near the conduction band gap edge and the temperature-dependent distribution of the photo-generated carriers.