• Walukiewicz, W.
• Kurtz, Sarah R.
• Geisz, J. F.
• Xin, H. P.
• Tu, C. W.
• Friedman, D. J.
• Olson, J. M.
• Shan, W.
• Iii, J. W. Ager
• Haller, E. E.

Abstract

Incorporation of a few percent of nitrogen into conventional III-V compounds to form III-N-V alloys such as GaNAs and GaNP leads to a large reduction of the fundamental band gap. We show experimentally and theoretically that the effect originates from an anti-crossing interaction between the extended conduction-band states and a narrow resonant band formed by localized N states. The interaction significantly alters the electronic band structure by splitting the conduction band into two nonparabolic subbands. The downward shift of the lower conduction subband edge is responsible for the N-induced reduction of the fundamental band-gap energy.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• compound
• Nitrogen
• band structure