Cathodoluminescence of praseodymium doped AlN, GaN and turbo static BN.

Praseodymium (Pr) doped aluminum nitride (AlN), gallium nitride (GaN) and boron nitride (BN) thin films deposited on Si (111) substrate are studied with cathodoluminescence. AlN:Pr and GaN:Pr films are deposited at 77 K and room temperature respectively while BN:Pr films at 750 K by reactive sputtering, using 100200 Watts RF power, 5-10 mTorr nitrogen. Metal targets of Al and B with Pr and a liquid target of Ga with solid Pr are used. The dominant peaks observed in the visible range result from Po-3 -> H-3(4), P-3(1) -> H-3(5), and P-3(0) -> F-3(2) transitions in AlN:Pr, P-3(0) -> H-3(4), P-3(0) -> H-3(6), and P-3(0) -> F-3(2) transitions in GaN:Pr and from P-3(0) -> H-3(4), P-3(1) -> H-3(5), P-3(0) -> H-3(6), and P-3(0) -> F-3(2) transitions in BN:Pr. Additional peaks are observed from AlN:Pr at 335 nm and 385 nm from S-1(0) -> D-1(2) and S-1(0) -> I-1(6) which are not observed in GaN:Pr and BN:Pr films.