Optical and structural studies of homoepitaxially grown m-plane GaN

Cathodoluminescence (CL) and transmission electron microscopy studies of homoepitaxially grown m-plane Mg-doped GaN layers are reported. Layers contain basal plane and prismatic stacking faults (SFs) with ∼106 cm−1 density. Broad emission peaks commonly ascribed to SFs were found to be insignificant in these samples. A set of quite strong, sharp lines were detected in the same spectral region of 3.36–3.42 eV. The observed peaks are tentatively explained as excitons bound to some impurity defects, which can also be related to SFs. Donor-acceptor pair (DAP) recombination involving Si or O and Mg was ruled out by fitting DAP energies and CL mapping.