Widening of optical bandgap of polycrystalline InN with a few percent incorporation of oxygen

The absolute concentration of oxygen in polycrystalline InN was measured using a combination of Rutherford backscattering and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Polycrystalline InN was grown on quartz and glassy carbon at 500 °C by molecular-beam epitaxy using In metal and activated nitrogen species generated in rf plasma. The optical bandgap of polycrystalline InN increased from 1.55 to 2.27 eV with increasing oxygen concentration from 1% to 6%. Polycrystalline InN with an optical bandgap of 1.9 eV, which has often been reported, contains oxygen of a molar fraction of 3%.