Lorenzo Rigutti¹,Abraham Diaz Damian¹,Jonathan Houard¹,Georges Beainy¹,Pradip Dalapati^1,2,Angela Vella¹,François Vurpillot¹,Jean-Michel Chauveau³,Maxime Hugues⁴,Denis Lefebvre⁴,Grzegorz Muziol⁵,Henryk Turski⁵

University of Rouen Normandie¹,Technological University²,Université Paris Saclay, Université Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CNRS³,Université Cote d’Azur, CNRS⁴,Polish Academy of Sciences⁵

Abstract

The Photonic Atom Probe (PAP) allows for the measurement of Photoluminescence (PL) of a sample tip while it is being analyzed by Laser-Assisted Atom Probe. The femtosecond Laser pulse required for the La-APT measurement also serves to excite the free charge carriers, whose recombination provide the PL signal. As a consequence, it becomes possible to correlate the optical signature of the different parts of a complex structure with the 3D distribution of the contained chemical species [1]. We present an application of the PAP on III-nitride p-i-n junctions, namely a thick (> 1µm thickness) multi-layer structure containing InGaN quantum wells and a buried tunnel junction [2]. Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy-grown structures, which were used in the study, are characterized by diverse doping concentrations in both p- and n-type regions. The PL spectra can be correlated with the 3D chemical information from APT [3]. The PL signals exhibit indeed a donor-acceptor pair (DAP) emission, whose spectral features can be related to the 3D distribution of the Mg dopants and of the InGaN heterostructures. These results open interesting perspectives for studies of light-emitting defects at the nanoscale. Besides the interest of this instrument as a microscope [3], the particular conditions in which the optical signatures of localized light emitters are collected open intriguing possibilities for the study of field ion emission under high field and under laser illumination [4]. As an example, the PL spectral shift allows measuring the stress induced by the application of a strong electric field at the tip apex and its propagation through the tip. This has been evidenced both through the study of the stress-induced splitting of the zero-phonon line of the NV0 center in diamond [5] and of the quantum well (QW) emission in a ZnO/(Mg,Zn)O system [6], allowing measuring stresss levels ranging from 9 GPa to ~1 GPa. [1] J. Houard et al., “A photonic atom probe coupling 3D atomic scale analysis with in situ photoluminescence spectroscopy,” Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 91, no. 8, p. 083704, Aug. 2020, doi: 10.1063/5.0012359. [2] H. Turski et al., “Nitride LEDs and Lasers with Buried Tunnel Junctions,” ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol., vol. 9, no. 1, p. 015018, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1149/2.0412001JSS. [3] E. Di Russo et al., “Super-resolution Optical Spectroscopy of Nanoscale Emitters within a Photonic Atom Probe,” Nano Lett., vol. 20, no. 12, pp. 8733–8738, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03584. [4] E. Di Russo and L. Rigutti, “Correlative atom probe tomography and optical spectroscopy: An original gateway to materials science and nanoscale physics,” MRS Bulletin, vol. 47, no. 7, pp. 727–735, Jul. 2022, doi: 10.1557/s43577-022-00367-6. [5] L. Rigutti et al., “Optical Contactless Measurement of Electric Field-Induced Tensile Stress in Diamond Nanoscale Needles,” Nano Lett., vol. 17, no. 12, pp. 7401–7409, Dec. 2017, doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03222. [6] P. Dalapati et al., “In Situ Spectroscopic Study of the Optomechanical Properties of Evaporating Field Ion Emitters,” Phys. Rev. Applied, vol. 15, no. 2, p. 024014, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.15.024014.