Limiting factors of room-temperature nonradiative photoluminescence lifetime in polar and nonpolar GaN studied by time-resolved photoluminescence and slow positron annihilation techniques

Room-temperature nonradiative lifetime (τnr) of the near-band-edge excitonic photoluminescence (PL) peak in {0001} polar, (112¯0), (11¯00), and (001) nonpolar GaN was shown to increase with the decrease in density or size of Ga vacancies (VGa) and with the decrease in gross density of point defects including complexes, leading to the increase in the PL intensity. As the edge threading dislocation density decreased, density or size of VGa tended to decrease and τnr tended to increase. However, there existed remarkable exceptions. The results indicate that nonradiative recombination process is governed not by single point defects, but by certain defects introduced with the incorporation of VGa, such as VGa-defect complexes.