Defects in dilute nitrides

An overview of our present knowledge and understanding of defects in dilute nitrides will be provided and their important roles in determining the success of dilute nitrides for optoelectronic device applications will be underlined. A brief summary of experimental results of defects by various techniques reported so far in the literature will be given. Our recent results from optically detected magnetic resonance studies of grown-in non-radiative defects in Ga(In)NAs and Ga(Al, In)NP will be discussed in some detail, in an effort to provide chemical identification and experimental signatures of defects. Among them, intrinsic defects such as antisites and self-interstitials have been positively identified, and the effects of growth conditions, chemical compositions and post-growth processing on the formation of the defects were studied. The information retrieved from the experimental findings is expected to provide useful guidance for designing strategies to eliminate defects that are harmful to device performance.