Fine Structure of Emission Spectra of the Red AIN:Mn Luminescence

Abstract

Abstract The luminescence of aluminium nitride, activated by manganese, is described. A structure with equidistant peaks, clearly resolved at low temperatures, is found in the emission band 580 to 620 nm. This structure is interpreted in terms of phonons using the Pekar theory. The energy of the phonon involved is 0.023 eV. The luminescence decay is exponential with a time constant τ = 1.0 × 10 −3 s over a wide temperature range. It is suggested that the luminescence is due to transitions between metastable and basic levels of the tetravalent manganese ion.