The optical properties were studied of non-polar GaN/(Al,Ga)N single quantum wells grown on either a- or m-plane GaN templates for Al contents of below 15%. In order to reduce the density of extended defects, the templates were processed using the epitaxial lateral overgrowth technique. As expected for polarization-free heterostructures, the larger the quantum-well width for a given Al content, the narrower the quantum-well emission line. In structures with an Al content set to 5 or 10%, emission from excitons bound to the intersection of I1-type basal-plane stacking faults with the quantum-well were also observed. Similarly to what was seen in bulk material, the temperature dependence of basal-plane stacking fault bound quantum-well exciton luminescence revealed intra-basal-plane stacking fault localization. A qualitative model revealed the large spatial extension of the wave function of these basal-plane stacking fault-bound quantum-well excitons, making them extremely sensitive to potential fluctuations located in and away from basal-plane stacking faults. Finally, polarization-dependent measurements showed a strong emission anisotropy for basal-plane stacking fault-bound quantum-well excitons, which was related to their one-dimensional character and that confirmed that the intersection between a basal-plane stacking faults and a GaN/(Al,Ga)N quantum-well could be described as a quantum wire.

One-Dimensional Exciton Luminescence Induced by Extended Defects in Nonpolar GaN/(Al,Ga)N Quantum Wells. A.Dussaigne, P.Corfdir, J.Levrat, T.Zhu, D.Martin, P.Lefebvre, J.D.Ganière, R.Butté, B.Deveaud-Plédran, N.Grandjean, Y.Arroyo, P.Stadelmann: Semiconductor Science and Technology, 2011, 26[2], 025012