Determination of the first satellite valley energy in the conduction band of wurtzite GaN by near-band-gap photoemission spectroscopy

The position of the first satellite valley in wurtzite GaN is directly determined by near-band-gap photoemission spectroscopy of p-doped GaN activated to negative electron affinity. The photoemission spectra exhibit two structures, with fixed energy position, which originate from electrons accumulated in the conduction band valleys of the bulk material. We assigned the two observed features respectively to Γ and L valleys and obtain an intervalley energy separation of 0.90±0.08 eV, well below the theoretical values of the lowest subsidiary valley energy provided by ab initio calculations.