Comparative Optical Studies of InGaAs/GaAs Quantum Wells Grown by MBE on (100) and (311)A GaAs Planes
Journal article, 2012

The temperature dependence of the optical properties of InGaAs/GaAs double quantum wells (QWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on (100) and (311)A GaAs substrates has been studied by photoluminescence (PL). It is found that for an excitation of 50 mW, the PL quenching for (100) and (311)A QWs occurs at 220 K and 300 K, respectively. This suggests that the high index plane (311)A has superior structural properties and less non-radiative defect centers than the conventional (100) plane. The better optical quality of the QWs grown on (311)A is also confirmed by the narrowing of the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the PL emission: 10 nm for (311)A and 20 nm for (100). From these findings it is expected that optical devices grown on (311)A GaAs planes should have better performances than those grown on conventional (100) orientation. We have also carried out a systematic study to investigate the effect of post-growth thermal annealing on the optical quality of the QWs. We observed a substantial improvement of the PL efficiency with annealing temperatures in the range 500-700 C for all samples. However, this PL enhancement is accompanied by a blueshift. These energy shifts can be explained by interdiffusion or intermixing of In and Ga atoms at the interfaces between the QWs and the barriers. A noticeable narrowing of the PL linewidth with higher annealing temperatures could be explained by a homogenisation of the quantum well interfaces.

transmission electron microscopy

molecular beam epitaxy

quantum well

high index plane

photoluminescence

Author

A. Khatab

Cairo University

University of Nottingham

M. Shafi

University of Nottingham

R.H. Mari

University of Nottingham

University of Sindh

M. Aziz

University of Nottingham

M. Henini

University of Nottingham

G. Patriarche

Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures

D. Troadec

IEMN Institut d'Electronique de Microelectronique et de Nanotechnologie

Mahdad Sadeghi

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Nanofabrication Laboratory

Shu Min Wang

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Physica Status Solidi (C) Current Topics in Solid State Physics

1862-6351 (ISSN) 1610-1642 (eISSN)

Vol. 9 7 1621-1623

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Subject Categories

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Nano Technology

DOI

10.1002/pssc.201100581

More information

Latest update

9/6/2018 1