Anomalous features in the optical properties of Al1-xInxN on GaN grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy

We have studied the optical properties of Al1-xInxN thin films grown on GaN by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. X-ray diffraction analysis of omega and omega-2 theta scans showed that both the compositional fluctuation and the degree of crystalline mosaicity increase with increasing x. While the energy positions of both the absorption edge and photoluminescence peak shift to a lower-energy region with increasing x, the linewidth of the photoluminescence spectra and the value of the absorption edge tail decrease. The Stokes shift also decreases with increasing x, following which both energy positions become 1.66 eV, which is smaller than the band gap of InN (1.9 eV). These anomalous features of the optical properties of Al1-xInxN might be affected by the absorption in the infrared region caused by the high electron concentration. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)02507-9].