Cathodoluminescence of rare earth implanted AlInN

AlInN layers implanted with europium and erbium ions are systematically studied and compared with similarly implanted GaN. Cathodoluminescence from four series of annealed samples shows that the Eu∕Er emissions from AlInN are considerably broader than those from GaN, while the peak positions only change slightly. The rate of increase of cathodoluminescence intensity with annealing temperature, up to 1300°C, is analyzed for all four series. For Eu the increase exceeds 10× in both hosts. Although some decomposition is observed for annealing at 1200°C, well above the growth temperature, AlInN is shown to be a surprisingly robust host for rare earth ions.