Diffusion-limited nonradiative recombination at extended defects in hydride vapor phase epitaxy GaN layers

Abstract

Time-resolved free-carrier absorption and transient grating techniques were applied to determine carrier lifetimes and diffusion coefficients in a set of hydride vapor phase epitaxy GaN layers of various thickness (from 10 to 145 μm). A linear increase in nonradiative carrier lifetime in 80–800 K range found to be in a correlation with decrease of the bipolar carrier diffusion coefficient. This correlation confirmed that recombination rate is governed by carrier diffusive flow to the grain boundaries of columnar defects. A model of diffusion-governed nonradiative lifetime was proposed for fitting the measured lifetime values in the layers of different thickness as well as lifetime dependence on temperature or threading dislocation density.