Electron beam and optical depth profiling of quasibulk GaN

Electron beam and optical depth profiling of thick (5.5-64 mu m) quasibulk n-type GaN samples, grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy, were carried out using electron beam induced current (EBIC), microphotoluminescence (PL), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The minority carrier diffusion length, L, was found to increase linearly from 0.25 mu m, at a distance of about 5 mu m from the GaN/sapphire interface, to 0.63 mu m at the GaN surface, for a 36-mu m-thick sample. The increase in L was accompanied by a corresponding increase in PL band-to-band radiative transition intensity as a function of distance from the GaN/sapphire interface. We attribute the latter changes in PL intensity and minority carrier diffusion length to a reduced carrier mobility and lifetime at the interface, due to scattering at threading dislocations. The results of EBIC and PL measurements are in good agreement with the values for dislocation density obtained using TEM. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00643-4].