Cathodoluminescence of Yellow and Blue Luminescence in Undoped Semi-insulating GaN and n-GaN

Yellow and blue luminescence in undoped GaN layers with different resistivities are studied by cathodoluminescence. Intense yellow and blue luminescence bands are observed in semi-insulating GaN, while in n-GaN the yellow luminescence and blue luminescence bands are very weak. The stronger yellow and blue luminescences in semi-insulating GaN are correlated to the higher edge-type dislocation density. The scanning cathodoluminescence image reveals strong defect-related luminescence at the grain boundaries where the dislocations accumulate. It is found that the relative intensity of the blue luminescence band to the yellow luminescence band increases with the cathodoluminescence beam energies and is larger in n-GaN with a lower density of edge-type dislocations. An approximately 3.35 eV shoulder next to the near-band-edge peak is observed in n-GaN but not in semi-insulating GaN. A redshift of the near-band-edge peak with cathodoluminescence beam energy is observed in both samples and is explained by internal absorption.