CHIN.PHYS.LETT. Vol. 25, No.

12 (2008) 4378

Composition Dependence of Surface Phonon Polariton Mode in Wurtzite

In Ga1 N (0 1) Ternary Alloy *
S. S. Ng** , Z. Hassan, H. Abu Hassan
Nano-Optoelectronics Research and Technology Laboratory, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800
Minden, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

(Received 12 September 2008)

We present a theoretical study on the composition dependence of the surface phonon polariton (SPP) mode in
wurtzite structure -In Ga1 N ternary alloy over the whole composition range. The SPP modes are obtained
by the theoretical simulations by means of an anisotropy model. The results reveal that the SPP mode of -
In Ga1 N semiconductors exhibits one-mode behaviour. From these data, composition dependence of the SPP
mode with bowing parameter of 28.9 cm1 is theoretically obtained.

PACS: 71. 36. +c, 78. 20. Bh, 78. 66. Fd

Owing to the breakthrough in indium nitride (InN)
epitaxial technology and the discovery of its narrow
direct band gap of 0.71.0 eV,[1] InN and its related
alloys, have attracted much attention of both theoret-
ical and experimental scientists in recent years,[24]
because high quality InN-based photonic devices with
broader application wavelengths covering from in-
frared to ultraviolet spectral regions can be fabricated.
Among InN ternary alloys, the In Ga1 N ternary
system is especially interesting because it is the most
important and indispensable material used for the ac-
tive layer in blue and green light emitting diodes and
lasers.[57] Up to now, many researching works de-
voted to In Ga1 N has been directed towards the
understanding of its optical and electronic properties.
In spite of huge efforts, research on its fundamental
surface properties (surface phonon polariton (SPP)
mode) is still rare and has not received sufficient at-
tention.
Very recently, SPP properties in ternary mixed
crystals have been widely investigated.[810] For
In Ga1 N ternary alloys, Bao and Liang performed
theoretical studies on the SPP mode based on a cu-
bic lattice (NaCl structure) structure and their results
predicted that the SPP mode in these alloy systems
is found to exhibit one-mode behaviour. However, as
pointed out by the authors (in the conclusion part),
more accurate results can be obtained if an anisotropy
model is used because the In Ga1 N has wurtzite -
structure in nature. Therefore, behaviour of the SPP
mode for the -In Ga1 N alloy still remains unclear.
For its parent (InN and GaN), research on SPP is still
rare and all the studies are devoted to GaN.[1113]
Consequently, there is an absolute need for thorough
studies on these fundamental surface properties.
In this Letter, a theoretical study of the SPP mode
of -In Ga1 N (0 1) semiconductors based lifetime in Eq. (2) is assumed to be infinite (damping =
on an anisotropy model is reported. The influence
of the alloy composition on the SPP mode of the
-In Ga1 N (0 1) semiconductors is also in-
vestigated. This is crucial because knowledge of the
alloying effects on the SPP modes is essential for un-
derstanding the behaviour of the photonphonon cou-
pling. In addition, it will enable one to modify the
vibrational and optical properties as well as the po-
lariton characteristics of the systems in a controlled
manner. Consequently, it is important for the design-
ing of the photonic devices.
For optic axis of the crystal parallel to the surface
normal (axis ) and perpendicular to the propagation
direction, the anisotropy model of the surface polari-
ton (SP) dispersion curves at the interface between
the -In Ga1 N semi-infinite crystal and vacuum is
given by[14]
]1/2
() () ()
[
() = () = ,
1 () ()
(1)
where () is the wave vector of the SP along the
direction and () is the dimensionless quantity;
and are, respectively, the angular frequency of the
SP and the velocity of light in vacuum (3 108 ms1 ).
Here () () is the dielectric function parallel (per-
pendicular) to the -axis and is given by
2
LO() 2
[ ]
() () = ,() , (2)
2
TO() 2
where ,() is the high-frequency dielectric con-
stant parallel (perpendicular) to the -axis. LO()
and TO() are, respectively, the LO() and TO()
zone centre phonon frequencies. The subscript ()
refers to the parallel (perpendicular) vibration mode
with respect to the optical axis . Note that phonon
0).

* Supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS Grant

203/PFIZIK/671162) and Universiti Sains Malaysia.

** Email: shashiong@yahoo.com

c 2008 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd

No. 12 S. S. Ng et al. 4379
1000
kvac kjj kvac kjj kvac
Wavenumber (cm-1)

kjj
775cm-1
800
705cm-1
k@
k@
k@
600 655cm-1
702cm-1 677cm-1
x/0
(GaN) x/20% 500cm-1 x/40%
400
3 6 9 12 15 3 6 9 12 15 3 6 9 12 15
1000 kjj kvac
kvac kjj kvac kjj
Wavenumber (cm-1)

800

k@ 643 cm-1

k@ 605cm-1
k@
600
634 cm -1 610cm-1
572cm-1 x/100%
513 cm
-1 x/60 529cm-1 x/80% (InN)
400
3 6 9 12 15 3 6 9 12 15 3 6 9 12 15
k (103 cm-1) k (103 cm-1) k (103 cm-1)
Fig. 1. Surface polariton (SP) theoretical dispersion curves for -In Ga1 N (0 1) semiconductors. The
light wave in vacuum (vac ) and the light wave in attenuated total reflection crystal ( ) are indicated by the dashed
line and the dot-dot-dashed line, respectively. The intersections of the ATR crystal line and the branches of the SP
dispersion curve correspond to the surface phonon polariton mode.

It is well known that the behaviour of phonon = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1. Figure 1 also shows
modes of the ternary alloys is complicated and are the light wave in vacuum (vac () = /) and the
found to exhibit either one- or two-mode behaviour.[15] light wave in attenuated total reflection (ATR) prism
For the In Ga1 N ternary system, it is found ( () = vac () sin , where is the refractive
that the zone centre phonons exhibit one-mode index of the ATR prism, and is the internal angle of
behaviour.[16] Consequently, the modelling based on incidence in the prism). In principle, the SPP mode
Eq. (2) cannot be used for In Ga1 N (0 < < 1). corresponds to the intersection of () and the SP
Nevertheless, for a ternary alloy with the form of dispersion curve, i.e., where the wave vectors of the
A B1 C, the dielectric constants as a function of al- incident radiation and the SP are matched. Note that
loy composition can be expressed by[17] the () lines in Fig. 1 are calculated by using the
values of = 2.4 and = 45 , i.e., according to
(A B1 C), = (AC), + (1 )(BC), , (3) the common specifications for an ATR diamond (or
diamond/KRS-5) prism.[22] The choice of this ATR
where (AC)() and (BC)() are, respectively, the prism depends upon its transmission spectral range
dielectric constants parallel and perpendicular for AC where the SPP mode should occur.
and BC binary compounds. Subsequently, the SP dis- From Fig. 1, it can be seen that there are two in-
persion curves for In Ga1 N (0 < < 1) can be sim- tersecting points for the binary compounds of InN
ulated. The parameters used to model the SP disper- and GaN. For ternary alloy In Ga1 N (0 < <
sion curves are obtained from Refs. [1821] and listed 1) samples, the number of intersecting points varies
in Table 1. with the In composition. However, only the middle
crossing point of the dispersion curves of In Ga1 N
Table 1. Parameters used to calculate (A B1 C)() and to (0 < < 1) is of special interest, as it corre-
model the surface polariton dispersion curves for -In Ga1 N
(0 1) semiconductors. sponds to the SPP mode or the real surface mode.[23]
This is because its frequency located both in spec-
Binary TO LO TO LO
tral range between the SPP modes of InN and GaN
compound (cm1 ) (cm1 ) , (cm1 ) (cm1 ) ,
InN 447 586 8.10 476 593 8.34 (i.e., SPPInN < SPPInGaN < SPPGaN ), and in the dis-
GaN 532 734 5.31 559 741 5.14 persion curves where the SP branch persist as ()
Taken from Davydov et al.(Ref. [18]).
approaches infinity. Note that the other intersecting
Taken from Abbar et al. (Ref. [19]).
Taken from Davydov et al. (Ref. [20]).
points are known as virtual surface mode[23] or pseudo
Taken from Yu et al. (Ref. [21]). SPP mode.[24] From the experimental point of view,
these pseudo SPP modes are quite difficult to be ob-
Figure 1 shows the theoretical SP dispersion curves served because its spectral strength is weak as com-
for -In Ga1 N semiconductors with In composition pared to that of the real surface mode.
4380
The frequency of the SPP mode of the In Ga1 N
as a function of In composition is plotted over the
entire composition range (0 1) and is shown
in Fig. 2. As the In composition increases, it is
found that the frequency of the SPP mode gradu-
ally decreases from that of InN ( = 0) to GaN
( = 1). These results indicate that the SPP mode
of In Ga1 N is strongly dependent on the In compo-
sition , and the behaviour of the SPP mode can be
classified as one-mode behaviour.
750
700
SPP mode (cm-1)
SPP(x)=-28.9x2-92.2x+698.5
650
600
550
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
In composition x
Fig. 2. Surface phonon polariton (SPP) mode of the
In Ga1 N (0 1) semiconductors as a function
of In composition. The solid line represents the best fit
of the nonlinear interpolation of the data. Note that the
SPP theoretical data for = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 are also
included.
From the best fit of the nonlinear interpolation of
these data, the composition dependence of the SPP
mode (in cm1 ) of the -In Ga1 N semiconductors
over the entire composition range (0 1) can be
expressed as
SPPInx Ga1x N () = 28.92 92.2 + 698.5. (4)
From Eq. (4), it can be found that the SPP mode of
the -In Ga1 N exhibits an upward bowing parame-
ter of 28.9 cm1 . This means that the SPP mode of
the alloy is larger than the linear interpolation result.
In conclusion, the SPP mode of -In Ga1 N
(0 1) semiconductors has been investigated
theoretically be means of anisotropy model. The re-
sults show that the SPP mode of -In Ga1 N ex-
hibits one-mode behaviour. From the best fit of the
nonlinear interpolation, the composition dependence
of the SPP mode with an upward bowing parameter
S. S. Ng et al. Vol. 25
is theoretically obtained. These results will be further
investigated and verified in the near future.
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