Gallium vacancies and the yellow luminescence in GaN

We have investigated native defects and native defect-impurity complexes as candidate sources for the yellow luminescence in GaN. Using state-of-the-art first-principles calculations, we find strong evidence that the Ga vacancy (VGa) is responsible. The dependence of the VGa formation energy on Fermi level explains why the yellow luminescence is observed only in n-type GaN. The VGa defect level is a deep acceptor state, consistent with recent pressure experiments. Finally we show that the formation of VGa is enhanced by the creation of complexes between VGa and donor impurities.