Deep Ultraviolet Luminescence Due to Extreme Confinement in Monolayer GaN/Al(Ga)N Nanowire and Planar Heterostructures

We present experimental results confirming extreme quantum confinement in GaN/Al_xGa_1–xN (x = 0.65 and 1.0) nanowire and planar heterostructures, where the GaN layer thickness is of the order of a monolayer. The results were obtained from temperature- and excitation-dependent and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. In the GaN/AlN nanowire heterostructure array sample, the measured emission peak at 300 K is ∼5.18–5.28 eV. This is in excellent agreement with the calculated optical gap of 5.23 eV and 160–260 meV below the calculated electronic gap of 5.44 eV, suggesting that the observed emission is excitonic in nature with an exciton binding energy of ∼160–260 meV. Similarly, in the monolayer GaN/Al_0.65Ga_0.35N planar heterostructure, the measured emission peak at 300 K is 4.785 eV and in good agreement with the calculated optical gap of 4.68 eV and 95 meV below the calculated electronic gap of 4.88 eV. The estimated exciton binding energy is 95 meV and in close agreement with our theoretical calculations. Excitation-dependent and time-resolved photoluminescence data support the presence of excitonic transitions. Our results indicate that deep-ultraviolet excitonic light sources and microcavity devices can be realized with heterostructures incorporating monolayer-thick GaN.