Impurity states are the origin of yellow-band emission in GaN structures produced by epitaxial lateral overgrowth

GaN grown by selective area epitaxy and subsequent lateral overgrowth exhibits sharply peaked anisotropic structures in the form of hexagonal pyramids and ridges. Spatially resolved optical emission from these structures, using both cathodoluminescence and collection-mode near-field scanning optical microscopy, of radiation centered near 550 nm, the so-called yellow band, indicates that the emission arises predominantly from the apex regions of the pyramids and ridges. In contrast, transmission electron microscopy shows that the apex region is nearly dislocation free and that dislocations cluster at the vertical growth core region. The spatial separation of the dislocations and optical emission indicates that the yellow-band emission has no direct relationship to dislocations. The observation of yellow-band emission strongly localized in the apical regions of both types of structures and the tendency of impurity species to concentrate in these areas argues that it arises instead from impurity states, the most likely candidate of which is a complex formed between a gallium vacancy, VGa, and Si or O.