Processing of rare earth doped GaN with ion beams

GaN epilayers grown by MOCVD were implanted with different fluences of thulium at room temperature and at 500°C in order to find the optimum implantation conditions. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in the channeling mode was used to monitor the damage evolution in the Ga-sublattice and to establish the lattice site location of the thulium ions. The nature of structural defects was studied with transmission electron microscopy and the optical properties of the samples with room temperature cathodoluminescence. The introduced damage could be significantly reduced by implantation at high temperature for fluences up to 5×10¹⁵ Tm/cm². Annealing was necessary for optical activation of the implanted samples, in all cases. After annealing, sharp rare earth related emissions were observed in the blue and in the near infra-red spectral region.