Optical properties of InGaAsN: a new 1-eV bandgap material system

InGaAsN is a new semiconductor alloy system with the remarkable property that the inclusion of only 2% nitrogen reduces the bandgap by more than 30%. In order to help understand the physical origin of this extreme deviation from the typically observed nearly linear dependence of alloy properties on concentration, we have investigated the pressure dependence of the excited state energies using both experimental and theoretical methods. We report measurements of the low temperature photoluminescence energy of the material for pressures between ambient and 110 kbar. We describe a simple, density-functional-theory-based approach to calculating the pressure dependence of low lying excitation energies for low concentration alloys. The theoretically predicted pressure dependence of the bandgap is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. Based on the results of our calculations, we suggest an explanation for the strongly non-linear pressure dependence of the bandgap that, surprisingly, does not involve a nitrogen impurity band. Additionally, conduction-band mass measurements, measured by three different techniques, will be described and finally, the magnetoluminescence determined pressure coefficient for the conduction-band mass is measured.