Effect of Strain Relaxation and the Burstein-Moss Energy Shift on the Optical Properties of InN Films Grown in the Self-Seeded Catalytic Process

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the growth of high-quality InN films on sapphire using atmospheric CVD, analyzing how strain relaxation and Burstein-Moss shift influence their optical properties through Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a self-catalytic atmospheric CVD method for InN film growth and investigates the combined effects of strain and Burstein-Moss shift on optical properties.

Findings

Compressive strain exists in all films and relaxes with higher growth temperature.

A large blue shift of the band gap (1.2 eV) is observed due to strain and Burstein-Moss effects.

Carrier density is estimated from the Burstein-Moss shift in photoluminescence spectra.

Abstract

For the first time, high optical quality InN films were grown on sapphire substrate using atmospheric chemical vapour deposition technique in the temperature range of 560-650 oC. Self-catalytic approach was adopted to overcome the nucleation barrier for depositing InN films. In this process, seeding of the nucleation sites and subsequent growth was performed in the presence of reactive NH3. We investigated the simultaneous effect of strain and Burstein-Moss (BM) energy shift on optical properties of InN films using Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Existence of compressive strain in all films is revealed by Raman spectroscopic analysis and is found to relax with increasing growth temperature. The asymmetric broadening of the A1(LO) phonon mode is observed with the onset of plasmon-phonon interaction for films grown at 620 oC. Large blue shift of the band gap of InN (1.2 eV) is observed as a collective result of compressive strain in films as well as BM shift. Carrier density is calculated using the BM shift in the photoluminescence spectra. Finally, blue shift in band edge emission is observed further because of the presence of compressive strain in the films along with the BM effect.