Thesis presented March 29, 2006

Abstract:
This work reports on structural and optical properties of plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy grown rare earth doped III – nitride quantum dots structures.
During growth the rare earths have drastic influences on the quantum dot formation, assigned to surfactant properties of the rare earth atoms.
Optical and structural characterizations have shown that GaN QDs are effectively doped with the rare earth atoms in the cases of Eu, Tm and Tb. Other rare earth locations have been also established, for example for Tm where a high amount has been found at the GaN QDs interface.
The excitation dynamics of rare earth doped GaN QDs which show stable photoluminescence for the colors of interest between liquid helium and room temperature has been addressed.
More complicate rare earth doped quantum dot structures are also discussed, like InGaN:Eu QDs and co-doped GaN QDs important for devices.
Attention is put also onto rare earth doped GaN layers, where different Eu sites have been established, near the sample surface and inside bulk material.

Keywords:
rare earths, QD, quantum dot, GaN, InGaN

On-line thesis.