Bandgap bowing in BGaN thin films

Abstract

We report on the bandgap variation in thin films of BxGa1−xN grown on AlN/sapphire substrates using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. Optical transmission, photoluminescence, and x-ray diffraction were utilized to characterize the materials’ properties of the BxGa1−xN films. In contrast to the common expectation for the bandgap variation, which is based on the linear interpolation between the corresponding GaN and BN values, a significant bowing (C=9.2±0.5 eV) of the bandgap was observed. A decrease in the optical bandgap by 150 meV with respect to that of GaN was measured for the increase in the boron composition from 0% to 1.8%.