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Amphoteric Be in GaN: Experimental Evidence for Switching between Substitutional and Interstitial Lattice Sites
Filip Tuomisto1, Vera Prozheeva1, Ilja Makkonen1
1Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15100, FI-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
Abstract:
We show that Be exhibits amphoteric behavior in GaN, involving switching between substitutional and interstitial positions in the lattice. This behavior is observed through the dominance of Be_{Ga} in the positron annihilation signals in Be-doped GaN, while the emergence of V_{Ga} at high temperatures is a consequence of the Be impurities being driven to interstitial positions. The similarity of this behavior to that found for Na and Li in ZnO suggests that this could be a universal property of light dopants substituting for heavy cations in compound semiconductors.
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