The role of the carbon-silicon complex in eliminating deep ultraviolet absorption in AlN

Co-doping AlN crystals with Si is found to suppress the unwanted 4.7 eV (265 nm) deep ultraviolet absorption associated with isolated carbon acceptors common in materials grown by physical vapor transport. Density functional theory calculations with hybrid functionals demonstrate that silicon forms a stable nearest-neighbor defect complex with carbon. This complex is predicted to absorb at 5.5 eV and emit at or above 4.3 eV. Absorption and photoluminescence measurements of co-doped samples confirm the presence of the predicted C-N-Si-Al complex absorption and emission peaks and significant reduction of the 4.7 eV absorption. Other sources of deep ultraviolet absorption in AlN are also discussed. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.