Composition and luminescence studies of InGaN epilayers grown at different hydrogen flow rates

Indium gallium nitride (In(x)Ga(1-x)N) is a technologically important material for many optoelectronic devices, including LEDs and solar cells, but it remains a challenge to incorporate high levels of InN into the alloy while maintaining sample quality. A series of InGaN epilayers was grown with different hydrogen flow rates (0-200 sccm) and growth temperatures (680-750 °C) to obtain various InN fractions and bright emission in the range 390-480 nm. These 160-nm thick epilayers were characterized through several compositional techniques (wavelength dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry) and cathodoluminescence hyperspectral imaging. The compositional analysis with the different techniques shows good agreement when taking into account compositional gradients evidenced in these layers. The addition of small amounts of hydrogen to the gas flow at lower growth temperatures is shown to maintain a high surface quality and luminescence homogeneity. This allowed InN fractions of up to ~16% to be incorporated with minimal peak energy variations over a mapped area while keeping a high material quality

Microstructural dependency of optical properties of m -plane InGaN multiple quantum wells grown on 2° misoriented bulk GaN substrates

A non-polar m-plane structure consisting of five InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) was grown on ammonothermal bulk GaN by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. Surface step bunches propagating through the QW stack were found to accommodate the 2° substrate miscut towards the -c direction. Both large steps with heights of a few tens of nanometres and small steps between one and a few atomic layers in height are observed, the former of which exhibit cathodoluminescence at longer wavelengths than the adjacent m-plane terraces. This is attributed to the formation of semi-polar facets at the steps on which the QWs are shown to be thicker and have higher Indium contents than those in the adjacent m-plane regions. Discrete basal-plane stacking faults (BSFs) were occasionally initiated from the QWs on the main m-plane terraces, but groups of BSFs were frequently observed to initiate from those on the large steps, probably related to the increased strain associated with the locally higher indium content and thickness.This project is funded by the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no 279361 (MACONS) and in part by the EPSRC (Grant Nos. EP/H047816/1 and EP/J001627/1).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP via http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.492872

'Nano' Morphology and Element Signatures of Early Life on Earth: A New Tool for Assessing Biogenicity

The relatively young technology of NanoSIMS is unlocking an exciting new level of information from organic matter in ancient sediments. We are using this technique to characterize Proterozoic organic material that is clearly biogenic as a guide for interpreting controversial organic structures in either terrestrial or extraterrestrial samples. NanoSIMS is secondary ion mass spectrometry for trace element and isotope analysis at sub-micron resolution. In 2005, Robert et al. [1] combined NanoSIMS element maps with optical microscopic imagery in an effort to develop a new method for assessing biogenicity of Precambrian structures. The ability of NanoSIMS to map simultaneously the distribution of organic elements with a 50 nm spatial resolution provides new biologic markers that could help define the timing of life s development on Earth. The current study corroborates the work of Robert et al. and builds on their study by using NanoSIMS to map C, N (as CN), S, Si and O of both excellently preserved microfossils and less well preserved, non-descript organics in Proterozoic chert from the ca. 0.8 Ga Bitter Springs Formation of Australia

Non-polar InGaN quantum dot emission with crystal-axis oriented linear polarization

Polarization sensitive photoluminescence is performed on single non-polar InGaN quantum dots. The studied InGaN quantum dots are found to have linearly polarized emission with a common polarization direction defined by the [0001] crystal axis. Around half of ∼40 studied dots have a polarization degree of 1. For those lines with a polarization degree less than 1, we can resolve fine structure splittings between −800 μeV and +800 μeV, with no clear correlation between fine structure splitting and emission energy.This research was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) UK (Grant No. EP/H047816/1).This is the accepted manuscript of a paper published in Applied Physics Letters (Reid BPL, Kocher C, Zhu T, Oehler F, Chan CCS, Oliver RA, Taylor RA, Applied Physics Letters, 2015, 106, 171108, doi:10.1063/1.4919656). The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.491965

Observations of Rabi oscillations in a non-polar InGaN quantum dot

Experimental observation of Rabi rotations between an exciton excited state and the crystal ground state in a single non-polar InGaN quantum dot is presented. The exciton excited state energy is determined by photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy using two-photon excitation from a pulsed laser. The population of the exciton excited state is seen to undergo power dependent damped Rabi oscillations.This research was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) U.K. (Grant No. EP/H047816/1).This version is the author accepted manuscript. The published version can also be found on the publisher's website at: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/104/26/10.1063/1.4886961 © 2014 AIP Publishing LL

Diversification in the Archean Biosphere: Insight from NanoSIMS of Microstructures in the Farrel Quartzite of Australia

The nature of early life on Earth is difficult to assess because potential Early Archean biosignatures are commonly poorly preserved. Interpretations of such materials have been contested, and abiotic or epigenetic derivations have been proposed (summarized in [1]). Yet, an understanding of Archean life is of astrobiological importance, as knowledge of early evolutionary processes on Earth could provide insight to development of life on other planets. A recently-discovered assemblage of organic microstructures in approx.3 Ga charts of the Farrel Quartzite (FQ) of Australia [2-4] includes unusual spindle-like forms and a variety of spheroids. If biogenicity and syngeneity of these forms could be substantiated, the FQ assemblage would provide a new view of Archean life. Our work uses NanoSIMS to further assess the biogenicity and syngeneity of FQ microstructures. In prior NanoSIMS studies [5-6], we gained an understanding of nano-scale elemental distributions in undisputed microfossils from the Neoproterozoic Bitter Springs Formation of Australia. Those results provide a new tool with which to evaluate poorly preserved materials that we might find in Archean sediments and possibly in extraterrestrial materials. We have applied this tool to the FQ forms

Indium clustering in a -plane InGaN quantum wells as evidenced by atom probe tomography

Atom probe tomography (APT) has been used to characterize the distribution of In atoms within non-polar a-plane InGaN quantum wells (QWs) grown on a GaN pseudo-substrate produced using epitaxial lateral overgrowth. Application of the focused ion beam microscope enabled APT needles to be prepared from the low defect density regions of the grown sample. A complementary analysis was also undertaken on QWs having comparable In contents grown on polar c-plane sample pseudo-substrates. Both frequency distribution and modified nearest neighbor analyses indicate a statistically non-randomized In distribution in the a-plane QWs, but a random distribution in the c-plane QWs. This work not only provides insights into the structure of non-polar a-plane QWs but also shows that APT is capable of detecting as-grown nanoscale clustering in InGaN and thus validates the reliability of earlier APT analyses of the In distribution in c-plane InGaN QWs which show no such clustering.The European Research Council has provided financial support under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 279361 (MACONS). This work was also funded in part by the EPSRC (Grant Nos. EP/H047816/1, EP/H0495331 and EP/J003603/1).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available via AIP at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/7/10.1063/1.4909514