Strong photoluminescence emission from GaN grown on amorphous silica substrates by gas source MBE

GaN layers are grown on amorphous fused silica glass substrates by gas source MBE using an ion removed electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) radical cell. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that they are polycrystalline. However, they show a strong photoluminescence emission peak without deep level emission. The emission peak is red-shifted by about 150 meV from that of the excitonic emission peak of GaN grown on a sapphire substrate and has wide spectral half-width (similar to 250 meV at 77 K). The peak is not corresponding to the donor-acceptor pair (DAP) emission but is excitonic from the excitation power and temperature dependence of PL spectrum. These optical properties indicate that GaN layers grown on a glass substrate are promising for fabrication of large area and low cost light emitting devices and solar cells. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.