Physics Commons^™

Boron Alloying In Gan, Gus L. W. Hart, Laurian Escalanti

Faculty Publications

Using first-principles calculations in the local density approximation, we studied effects of adding up to 6% boron to zinc-blende GaN. We found that the band gap increases monotonically with boron incorporation, in agreement with experiment. A composition-independent band-gap bowing parameter of 4.30 eV was determined, and proved to be large compared to bowing for other mixed cation systems. The formation enthalpy of mixing, ΔH, was determined for BxGa1-xN, BxGa1-xAs, and GaAs1-xNx. A comparison of enthalpies indicates that the production of BxGa1-xN films with boron concentrations of at least 5% may be possible.