Temperature dependence of aluminum nitride reflectance spectra in vacuum ultraviolet region

Temperature dependence of optical reflectance spectra in vacuum ultraviolet region for aluminum nitride has been measured on high-quality single crystal with synchrotron radiation. The dominant structure due to the interband transition is observed at photon energy around 7.7 eV. With decreasing temperature, the energy position of the dominant structure in the reflectance spectra shifts towards higher energy. The experimental data has been fitted to the Bose–Einstein expression and the obtained parameter related to the strength of the electron–phonon interactions is much smaller than that for the peak at 6.2 eV, suggesting that the higher-lying interband transition energy decreases more slowly with increasing temperature in aluminum nitride (AlN).