Quantitative determination of In clustering in In-rich In x Ga 1−x N thin films

We investigated atomic ordering in In-rich In x Ga 1− x N epilayers in order to obtain an understanding of whether a deviation from a random distribution of In atoms in the group-III sublattice could be the origin of the strong carrier localization and defect-insensitive emission of these semiconductor alloys. This phenomenon can be exploited for application in optoelectronics. By coupling In K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy and high resolution x-ray diffraction, we were able to discard the hypothesis of significant phase separation into InN + GaN, in agreement with previous N K-edge absorption spectroscopy. However, we found an enrichment of In neighbours in the second atomic shell of In as compared to random statistics (clustering) for x = 0.82, while this is not the case for x = 0.46. This result, which is also supported by optical spectroscopy, is likely to stimulate new theoretical studies on In x Ga 1− x N alloys with a very high In concentration.