AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition
    Atom Probe Tomography Focus Topic Tuesday Sessions
       Session AP+AS+SS-TuA

Paper AP+AS+SS-TuA12
A Correlated Micro-Photoluminescence, Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy and Atom Probe Tomography Experiment on the Same Nano-Object Containing a Set of InGaN/GaN Multi-Quantum Wells

Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 5:40 pm, Room 203 A

Session: Microstructural and Interface Analysis of Metals Subjected to Various Conditions
Presenter: L. Rigutti, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
Authors: L. Rigutti, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
I. Blum, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
D. Shinde, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
D. Hernandez Maldonado, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
W. Lefebvre, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
J. Houard, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
A. Vella, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
F. Vurpillot, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
M. Tchernycheva, Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, France
C. Durand, CEA/CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier, France
J. Eymery, CEA/CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier, France
B. Deconihout, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, France
Correspondent: Click to Email
In this contribution, we present a correlated experiment on a single nanoscale object containing a set of InGaN/GaN non-polar multiple-quantum wells. The nano-object has been analyzed by micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy (µPL), high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-STEM) and atom probe tomography (APT). The observed µPL narrow emission lines, polarized perpendicularly to the crystal c-axis and with energy in the interval 2.9 eV – 3.3 eV. The STEM data allow concluding that the optical polarization is related to the crystallography through the selection rules for the lowest-energy excitonic transition in the wurtzite structure. STEM also constitutes an important reference for the 3D atom probe reconstruction of this large (16 QWs) multi-quantum well system. Atom probe data evidence that the In distribution inthe wells is not regular, and that In-rich regions, with InN fraction up to 20%, form patterns propagating from one well to the other. All these observations coherently support the interpretation that the optical emission lines observed in µPL are related to exciton states localized in potential minima induced by the irregular 3D In distribution within the QW planes. This novel correlative technique can be in principle applied to a wide class of quantum confining emitters and nano-objects, and is susceptible to be implemented as a coupled in situ technique within the atom probe itself.