Polarized Raman and photoluminescence studies of a sub-micron sized hexagonal AlGaN crystallite for structural and optical properties

TL;DR

This study uses polarized Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy to analyze the structural and optical properties of sub-micron hexagonal AlGaN crystallites, revealing their single crystalline nature and orientation-dependent optical behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of polarized Raman spectroscopy for determining crystalline phase and orientation in sub-micron AlGaN crystallites, including spectral imaging and optical property analysis.

Findings

Crystallites are confirmed to be single crystalline via Raman spectroscopy.

Optical properties vary with crystalline orientation, showing emission splitting.

First observation of emission splitting in c-plane oriented AlGaN crystallites.

Abstract

The polarized Raman spectroscopy is capable of giving confirmation regarding the crystalline phase as well as the crystallographic orientation of the sample. In this context, apart from crystallographic x-ray and electron diffraction tools, polarized Raman spectroscopy and corresponding spectral imaging can be a promising crystallographic tool for determining both crystalline phase and orientation. Sub-micron sized hexagonal AlGaN crystallites are grown by a simple atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition technique using the self catalytic vapor-solid process under N-rich condition. The crystallites are used for the polarized Raman spectra in different crystalline orientations along with spectral imaging studies. The results obtained from the polarized Raman spectral studies shows single crystalline nature of sub-micron sized hexagonal AlGaN crystallites. Optical properties of the crystallites for different crystalline orientations are also studied using polarized photoluminescence measurements. The influence of internal crystal field to the photoluminescence spectra is proposed to explain the distinctive observation of splitting of emission intensity reported, for the first time, in case of c-plane oriented single crystalline AlGaN crystallite as compared to that of m-plane oriented crystallite.