Intrasubband and intersubband transitions in lightly and heavily doped GaAs/AlGa1-xAs multiple quantum wells

We use a polarizer to investigate quantum-well infrared absorption, and report experimental results as follows. The intrasubband transition was observed in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs multiple quantum wells (MQWs) when the incident infrared radiation (IR) is polarized parallel to the MQW plane. According to the selection rule, an intrasubband transition is forbidden. Up to now, most studies have only observed the intersubband transition between two states with opposite parity. However, our experiment shows not only the intersubband transitions, but also the intrasubband transitions. In our study, we also found that for light doping in the well (4x10(18) cm(-3)), the intrasubband transition occurs only in the lowest subband, while for the heavy doping (8x10(18) cm(-3)), such a transition occurs not only in the lowest subband, but also in the first excited one, because of the electron subband filling. Further experimental results show a linear dependence of the intrasubband transition frequency on the root of the well doping density. These data are in good agreement with our numerical results. Thus we strongly suggest that such a transition can be attributed to plasma oscillation. Conversely, when the incident IR is polarized perpendicular to the MQW plane, intersubband-transition-induced signals appear, while the intrasubband-transition-induced spectra disappear for both light and heavy well dopings. A depolarization blueshift was also taken into account to evaluate the intersubband transition spectra at different well dopings. Furthermore, we performed a deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurement to determine the subband energies at different well dopings. A good agreement between DLTS, infrared absorption, and numerical calculation was obtained. In our experiment, two important phenomena are noteworthy: (1) The polarized absorbance is one order of magnitude higher than the unpolarized spectra. This puzzling result is well explained in detail. (2) When the IR, polarized perpendicular to the well plane, normally irradiates the 45 degrees-beveled edge of the samples, we only observed intersubband transition spectra. However, the intrasubband transition signals caused by the in-plane electric-field component are significantly absent. The reason is that such in-plane electric-field components can cancel each other out everywhere during the light propagating in the samples. The spectral widths of bound-to-bound and bound-to-continuum transitions were also discussed, and quantitatively compared to the relaxation time tau, which is deduced from the electron mobility. The relaxation times deduced from spectral widths of bound-to-bound and bound-to-continuum transitions are also discussed, and quantitatively compared to the relaxation time deduced from electron mobility. [S0163-1829(98)01912-2].

Numerical evaluation of energy loss rate for hot carriers in quantum wells

Using the Frohlich potential associated with realistic optical phonon modes in quantum well systems, the energy loss rates of hot electrons, holes, and electron-hole pairs are calculated, with special emphasis on the effects of carrier density, hot phonon population, quantum well width, and phonon dispersion on the hot-carrier relaxation process in quasi-two-dimensional systems. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.

Optical anisotropy of InAs submonolayer quantum wells in a (311) GaAs matrix

The steplike density of states obtained from reflectance-difference spectroscopy demonstrates that ultrathin InAs layers should be regarded as two-dimensional quantum wells rather than isolated clusters, even for the sample with only 1/3 monolayer InAs in (311)-oriented GaAs. The degree of anisotropy is within the intrinsic anisotropy of (311)-oriented ultrathin quantum wells, indicating that there is little structural or strain anisotropy in the InAs islands. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

1.3 mu m high indium content (42.5%) GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

High structural and optical quality 1.3 mu m GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well (QW) samples with 42.5% indium content were successfully grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The growth of well layers was monitored by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED). Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) peak intensity of the GaIn0.425NAs/GaAs (6 nm / 20 nm) 3QW is higher than, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is comparable to, that of In0.425GaAs/GaAs 3QW, indicating improved optical quality due to strain compensation effects by introducing N to the high indium content InGaAs epilayer. The measured (004) X-ray rocking curve shows clear satellite peaks and Pendellosung fringes, suggesting high film uniformity and smooth interfaces. The cross sectional TEM measurements further reveal that there are no structural defects in such high indium content QWs. (c) 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Nonradiative recombination effect on photoluminescence decay dynamics in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells - art. no. 61180Z

The nonradiative recombination effect on the photoluminescence (PL) decay dynamics in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells is studied by photoluminescence and time-resolved photoluminescence under various excitation intensities and temperatures. It is found that the PL decay dynamics strongly depends on the excitation intensity. In particular, under the moderate excitation levels the PL decay curves exhibit unusual non-exponential behavior and show a convex shape. By introducing a new concept of the effective concentration of nonradiative recombination centers into a rate equation, the observed results are well simulated. In the cw PL measurement, a rapid PL quenching is observed even at very low temperature and is of the excitation power dependence. These results further demonstrate that the non-radiative recombination process plays a very important role on the optical properties of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells.

Optical properties of inGaAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by Sb-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

It is found that both methods using either continuous Sb supply or pre-deposition of a very thin Sb layer are efficient for the Sb-assisted molecular beam epitaxy growth of highly strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs). The emission of QWs is extended to long wavelength close to 1.25 mu m with high luminescence efficiency at room temperature. The influence of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the photoluminescence intensity critically depends on the annealing temperature and duration for highly strained QWs. A relatively low RTA temperature of 700 degrees C with a short duration of 10 s is suggested for optimizing the annealing effect. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Theoretical analysis of the bandgap for the intermixed GaInP/AlGaInP quantum wells

Compositional distribution of the quantum well and barrier after quantum well intermixing for GaInP/AlGaInP system was theoretically analyzed on the basis of atom diffusion law. With the compositional distribution result, the valence subband structure of the intermixed quantum well was calculated on the basis of 6x6 Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian, including spin-orbit splitting effects. TO get more accurate results in the calculation, a full 6-band problem was solved without axial approximation, which had been widely used in the Luttinger-Kohn model to simplify the computational efforts, since there was a strong warping in the GaInP valence band. At last, the bandgap energy of the intermixed quantum well was obtained and the calculation result is of much importance in the analysis of quantum well intermixing experiments.

Calculation of valence subband structures for strained GaInP/AlGaInP quantum wells without axial approximation

Usually in the calculation of valence subband structure for III-V direct bandgap material, axial approximation had been used in the Luttinger-Kohn model to simplify the computational efforts. In this letter, the valence subband structure for the GaInP/AlGaInP strained and lattice-matched quantum wells was calculated without axial approximation, on the basis of 6x6 Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian including strain and spin-orbit splitting effects. The numerical simulation results were presented with help of the finite-difference methods. The calculation results with/without axial approximation were compared and the effect of axial approximation on the valence subband structure was discussed in detail. The results indicated that there was a strong warping in the GaInP valence band, and axial approximation can lead to an error when k was not equal to zero, especially for compressively strained and lattice-matched GaInP/AlGaInP quantum wells.

Nonlinear optical properties of semiconductor quantum wells under intense terahertz radiation

The nonlinear optical properties of semiconductor quantum wells driven by intense in-plane terahertz electric fields are investigated theoretically by employing the extended semiconductor Bloch equations. The dynamical Franz-Keldysh effect of the optical absorption near the band edge is analyzed with Coulomb correlation among the carriers included. The in-plane terahertz field induces a variety of behavior in the absorption spectra, including terahertz replicas of the (dark) 2p exciton and terahertz sidebands of the 1s exciton. The dependence of these interesting features on the intensity, frequency, and phase of the terahertz field is explored in detail.

The exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells with various cap layer thicknesses

This paper studies the exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells with various cap layer thicknesses by low temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements With increasing cap layer thickness, the PL peak energy shifts to lower energy and the coupling strength between the exciton and longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon, described by Huang-Rhys factor, increases remarkably due to an enhancement of the internal electric field With increasing excitation intensity, the zero-phonon peak shows a blueshift and the Huang-Rhys factor decreases These results reveal that there is a large built-in electric field in the well layer and the exciton-LO phonon coupling is strongly affected by the thickness of the cap layer