Evidence for Shallow Acceptor Levels in MBE Grown GaN

Abstract

We report the results of photoluminescence measurements on a number of GaN thin films grown by MBE on GaAs (111)B substrates. In particular, we draw attention to a new observation of a line at approximately 3.40eV which is accompanied by complex fine structure and interpret it as due to a donor-acceptor (DA) transition. Assuming a donor energy of 30meV, we derive an acceptor binding energy of approximately 80meV which is very much smaller than the accepted value of 250meV for the well established Mg acceptor. However, our result is in agreement with a recent estimate of the hydrogenic acceptor energy as being 85meV.