Nitrogen-doped $\beta -{\mathrm{Ga}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ nanowires (GaO NWs) were prepared by annealing the as-grown nanowires in an ammonia atmosphere. The optical properties of the nitrogen-doped GaO NWs were studied by measurements of the photoluminescence and phosphorescence decay at the temperature range between 10 and 300 K. The experimental results revealed that nitrogen doping in GaO NWs induced a novel intensive red-light emission around 1.67 eV, with a characteristic decay time around 136 μs at 77 K, much shorter than that of the blue emission (a decay time of 457 μs). The time decay and temperature-dependent luminescence spectra were calculated theoretically based on a donor-acceptor pair model, which is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. This result suggests that the observed novel red-light emission originates from the recombination of an electron trapped on a donor due to oxygen vacancies and a hole trapped on an acceptor due to nitrogen doping.

• Received 9 September 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.69.075304