Abstract
Room temperature cathodoluminescence (RTCL) was obtained from Tm implanted Al
x
Ga
1−
x
N with different AlN contents (in the range
0
≤
x
≤
0.2
) and from implanted In
x
Al
1−
x
N with different InN contents (
x
=
0.13
and 0.19) close to the lattice match with GaN. The Tm
3+ emission spectrum depends critically on the host material. The blue emission from Al
x
Ga
1−
x
N:Tm peaks in intensity for an AlN content of
x
∼
0.11
. The emission is enhanced by up to a factor of 50 times with an increase of annealing temperature from 1000 to 1300
∘C. The blue emission from In
0.13Al
0.87N:Tm, annealed at 1200
∘C, is more than ten times stronger than that from Al
x
Ga
1−
x
N:Tm,
x
≤
0.2
. However, the intensity decreases significantly as the InN fraction increases from 0.13 to 0.19.