Optical constants

Refractive index of GaN (Gallium nitride)

Lin et al. 1993: n(o) 0.37–0.99 µm

Data: tabulated n
Range: 0.3681–0.9917 µm
Points: 53
Optical axis: o
Licence: CC0-1.0

Uniaxial crystal, axes: o

Axis Log x Log y

Click the plot to set the calculator wavelength.

At one wavelength

Refractive index n: 2.38953
Extinction coefficient k: 0

Permittivity ε₁: 5.70987
Permittivity ε₂: 0

Absorption coefficient α: 0 cm⁻¹
Penetration depth δ = λ/(2πk): — nm

Abbe number V_d: —
Chromatic dispersion dn/dλ: 0.195271 µm⁻¹

Group index n_g: 2.27479
Group velocity dispersion: — fs²/mm

Dispersion parameter D: — ps/(nm·km)
Photon energy: 2.11001 eV

ε = (n + ik)², α = 4πk/λ, n_g = n − λ dn/dλ, GVD = λ³/(2πc²) d²n/dλ², D = −(λ/c) d²n/dλ². Group-velocity dispersion is given for formula data only.

Use it in Lightsmith

Load this data in Python, simulate in one more line

pip install lightsmith

import lightsmith as ls

# GaN (Gallium nitride): Lin et al. 1993: n(o) 0.37–0.99 µm
gan = ls.fetch_refractiveindex("main", "GaN", "Lin-wurtzite", ref="c5c2f188e848453def5970e347399d653df2ffc2")
print(gan.range_nm)  # (368.124, 991.745) nm
eps = gan.eps([633])  # complex permittivity

Downloads the original record once (pinned to the imported snapshot) and caches it.

import json, urllib.request
import lightsmith as ls

url = "https://materials.lightsmith.dev/v1/datasets/ds_17315e10681f/lightsmith"
gan = ls.Tabulated.model_validate(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(url)))
print(gan.source)  # citation and provenance travel with the data

Any dataset here, as the library's Tabulated material (gan/lin-1993-wurtzite).

# ... load gan as above, then:
sim = ls.Simulation(
    particles=[ls.Particle(shape=ls.Sphere(radius_nm=50), material=gan)],
    medium_index=1.0,
    wavelengths=ls.WavelengthRange(start_nm=400, stop_nm=991, num=81),
)
res = ls.solve(sim)  # exact Mie for a sphere
print(res.q_ext)     # extinction efficiency at each wavelength

Same spec runs with DDA, FDTD, BEM or T-matrix: ls.compare(sim, ["mie", "dda"]).

Materials guide Open a sphere of it in Studio Quick start Ask the community

Lightsmith is open source (MIT): Mie, T-matrix, BEM, DDA, FDTD, RCWA, TMM, mode solvers and inverse design behind one spec, on CPU or GPU. GitHub.

Comments and conditions

Wurtzite GaN (α-GaN) film grown on (0001) sapphire substrate by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy. Ordinary ray (o).

Conditions

direction: o

References

M. E. Lin, B. N. Sverdlov, S. Strite, H. Morkoç, A. E. Drakin. Refractive indices of wurtzite and zincblende GaN. Electron. Lett. 29, 1759-1760 (1993) (Data points extracted from a figure)

doi:10.1049/el:19931172 Refractive indices of wurtzite and zincblende GaN, Electronics Letters (1993)

Cite

M.E. Lin, B.N. Sverdlov, S. Strite, H. Morkoç and A.E. Drakin. Refractive indices of wurtzite and zincblende GaN. Electronics Letters, 29, 1759-1760 (1993), doi:10.1049/el:19931172; Data from the refractiveindex.info database (M. N. Polyanskiy, Sci. Data 11, 94 (2024), doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02898-2)

Data

53 rows as published

CSV comma separated TXT tab separated YAML n, k Full database record original YAML All quantities CSV JSON metadata

GaN (Gallium nitride), Lin et al. 1993: n(o) 0.37–0.99 µm: n and k versus wavelength
λ (µm)	n
0.368124	2.801763
0.370093	2.772989
0.371067	2.747159
0.372642	2.721327
0.372812	2.694772
0.375992	2.678549
0.376775	2.663054
0.381554	2.646838
0.381933	2.626176
0.388314	2.615133
0.389497	2.598901
0.395878	2.58712
0.396659	2.569411
0.402239	2.555413
0.40662	2.542147
0.413001	2.530366
0.416984	2.517837
0.424175	2.517129
0.427357	2.502382
0.434945	2.499462
0.443325	2.489165
0.452505	2.478872
0.463672	2.458993
0.471657	2.453122
0.481639	2.446522
0.489622	2.438438
0.497604	2.429616
0.507191	2.427442
0.51557	2.416407
0.525556	2.413497
0.534736	2.40468
0.546721	2.402516
0.560697	2.395195
0.571084	2.393763
0.583065	2.388648
0.594654	2.390911
0.607031	2.382107
0.624207	2.377751
0.638591	2.377812
0.657766	2.374941
0.674935	2.363205
0.691312	2.358846
0.709691	2.358923
0.728467	2.356788
0.750438	2.352453
0.772805	2.345167
0.796778	2.346006
0.822739	2.336522
0.852705	2.336648
0.883475	2.341944
0.916625	2.329538
0.948988	2.329674
0.991745	2.335759

Optical transmission calculator

Free-standing sample in vacuum, normal incidence

Transmittance T: —
Reflectance R: —

Fresnel reflection calculator

R_p: —
R_s: —
R = (R_p+R_s)/2: —
Phase φ_p: —
Phase φ_s: —
Brewster angle θ_B: —
Critical angle θ_C: —

GaN (Gallium nitride): all datasets

Experimental data

Models and simulations

Kawashima et al. 1997: thin film; n,k 0.124–0.992 µm n,k 0.124–0.9919 µm

About GaN (Gallium nitride)

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a binary III/V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for both general lighting and displays. With a wide bandgap of about 3.4 eV, GaN is also highly valued for its thermal stability, which makes it particularly useful in high-power and high-frequency applications. It is an essential material in the fabrication of high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) and is increasingly used in high-frequency and high-power radar and communication systems. GaN has gained prominence in optoelectronics, specifically in the development of blue LEDs, which led to energy-efficient white LEDs and was recognized with the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. It is often grown on substrates like sapphire or silicon carbide, although the industry is moving towards native GaN substrates for higher performance.

More about GaN (Gallium nitride) →

Provenance

Version: 1 (snapshot c5c2f18)
Source page: refractiveindex.info
Original file: database/data/main/GaN/nk/Lin-wurtzite.yml
ID: ds_17315e10681f
API: /v1/datasets/ds_17315e10681f

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