Optical properties of Mn-doped GaN

Molecular beam epitaxy-grown GaN with different Mn concentrations (5-23×10¹⁹ cm^-3) and codoped with Si were investigated by cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy and optical transmission measurements. In the GaN:Mn, an intense absorption peak at 1.414 +/- 0.002 eV was observed. This peak was attributed to an internal ⁵T ₂→ ⁵E transition of the deep neutral Mn³⁺ state since its intensity scaled with the Mn³⁺ concentration. The CL measurements showed that Mn-doping concentrations around 10²⁰ cm ^-3 had three effects on the emission spectrum: (i) the donor bound exciton at 3.460 eV was reduced by more than one order of magnitude, (ii) the donor-acceptor-pair band at 3.27 eV was completely quenched and (iii) the yellow luminescence centered at 2.2 eV was the strongly decreased. The latter two effects were attributed to a reduced concentration of V_Ga. In the infrared spectral range, three broad, Mn-doping related CL emission bands centered at 1.01 ± 0.02 eV, 1.09 ± 0.02 eV and 1.25 ± 0.03 eV were observed. These bands might be related to deep donor complexes, which are generated as a result of the heavy Mn-doping, rather than internal transitions at the Mn atom.