Transient photoluminescence of defect transitions in freestanding GaN

Deep level defects responsible for the 2.4 eV photoluminescence (PL) band in a freestanding GaN template were studied by transient photoluminescence. A nonexponential decay of PL intensity observed at low temperature is attributed to a donor–acceptor pair recombination involving a shallow donor and a deep acceptor. At room temperature, a single-exponential PL decay with a lifetime of 30 μs was observed at the high-energy side of the band, whereas the second component with a lifetime of about 750 μs was detected at the low-energy side of the band. The PL decay and transformation of the PL spectrum at room temperature can be explained by transitions from the conduction band to two deep acceptors. Electron-capture cross section has been estimated as 4×10−21 and 10−19 cm2 for the yellow and green bands, respectively, contributing to the broad 2.4 eV band.