POLARIZATION OF HOT PHOTOLUMINESCENCE IN QUANTUM-WELLS AND HEAVY-LIGHT HOLE MIXING

Hot electrons excited from the valence band by linearly polarized laser light are characterized by certain angular distributions in momenta. Owing to such angular distributions in momenta, the photoluminescence from the hot electrons shows a certain degree of polarization. A theoretical treatment of this effect observed in the photoluminescence in quantum wells is given, showing that the effect depends strongly on heavy and light hole mixing. The very large disparity between the experimentally observed and theoretically expected values of the degree of polarization in the hot-electron photoluminescence suggests the presence of random quasielastic scattering. The effects of such additional scattering and the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field are incorporated into the theory. it is shown that the measurements of the degree of polarization observed in the hot electron photoluminescence, with and without an applied perpendicular magnetic field can serve to determine the time constants for both LO-phonon inelastic and random quasielastic scattering. As an example, these time constants are determined for the experiments reported in the literature.

Valence hole subbands and optical gain spectra of GaN/Ga1-xAlxN strained quantum wells

The valence hole subbands, TE and TM mode optical gains, transparency carrier density, and radiative current density of the zinc-blende GaN/Ga0.85Al0.15N strained quantum well (100 Angstrom well width) have been investigated using a 6 X 6 Hamiltonian model including the heavy hole, Light hole, and spin-orbit split-off bands. At the k = 0 point, it is found that the light hole strongly couples with the spin-orbit split-off hole, resulting in the so+lh hybrid states. The heavy hole does not couple with the light hole and the spin-orbit split-off hole. Optical transitions between the valence subbands and the conduction subbands obey the Delta n=0 selection rule. At the k not equal 0 points, there is strong band mixing among the heavy hole, light hole, and spin-orbit split-off hole. The optical transitions do not obey the Delta n=0 selection rule. The compressive strain in the GaN well region increases the energy separation between the so1+lh1 energy level and the hh1 energy level. Consequently, the compressive strain enhances the TE mode optical gain, and strongly depresses the TM mode optical gain. Even when the carrier density is as large as 10(19) cm(-3), there is no positive TM mode optical gain. The TE mode optical gain spectrum has a peak at around 3.26 eV. The transparency carrier density is 6.5 X 10(18) cm(-3), which is larger than that of GaAs quantum well. The compressive strain overall reduces the transparency carrier density. The J(rad) is 0.53 kA/cm(2) for the zero optical gain. The results obtained in this work will be useful in designing quantum well GaN laser diodes and detectors. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.

Temperature dependence of the low-field mobility of a very narrow miniband in the degenerate case

Perpendicular transport in a specially designed, doped and weakly coupled GaAs/AlAs superlattice is investigated. A linear current-voltage at a bias within +/-10 mV and a negative differential velocity effect at a bias of about +/-40 mV are observed at low temperatures. The miniband conductance near zero electric field is studied as a function of temperature. It is found that the measured conductance increases slightly as the temperature increases to about 30 K, decreases as the temperature rises from 30 K to 70 K, and then increases strongly above 70 K, indicating the existence of a mobility gap.

THERMAL POPULATION IN ASYMMETRIC DOUBLE WELLS COUPLED BY HOLE MIXING TUNNELING

The thermal population in photocarrier systems coupled by hole mixing tunneling is studied by an analysis of the high energy tails in cw photoluminescence spectra of asymmetric coupled double wells. Photocarriers in wide well are heated due to hole transfer from the narrow well through resonant tunneling as well as by photon heating. The influences of the excitation intensity and lattice temperature on the tunneling transfer and thermal population are discussed.

Influence of annealed ohmic contact metals on electron mobility of strained AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

The influence of annealed ohmic contact metals on the electron mobility of a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is investigated on ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors (AlGaN/GaN HFETs). Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics for ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics for AlGaN/GaN HFETs are obtained, and the electron mobility for the ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is calculated. It is found that the electron mobility of the 2DEG for the ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is decreased by more than 50% compared with the electron mobility of Hall measurements. We propose that defects are introduced into the AlGaN barrier layer and the strain of the AlGaN barrier layer is changed during the annealing process of the source and drain, causing the decrease in the electron mobility.

MOCVD-Grown AlGaN/AlN/GaN HEMT Structure with High Mobility GaN Thin Layer as Channel on SiC

AlGaN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures with a high-mobility GaN thin layer as a channel are grown on high resistive 6H-SiC substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The HEMT structure exhibits a typical two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) mobility of 1944cm2/(V · s) at room temperature and 11588cm2/(V· s) at 80K with almost equal 2DEG concentrations of about 1.03 × 1013 cm-2 High crystal quality of the HEMT structures is confirmed by triple-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Atomic force microscopy measurements reveal a smooth AlGaN surface with a root-mean-square roughness of 0. 27nm for a scan area of 10μm × 10μm. HEMT devices with 0.8μm gate length and 1.2mm gate width are fabricated using the structures. A maximum drain current density of 957mA/mm and an extrinsic transconductance of 267mS/mm are obtained.

MBE Growth of High Electron Mobility InP Epilayers

The molecular beam epitaxial growth of high quality epilayers on （100） InP substrate using a valve phosphorous cracker cell over a wide range of P/In BEP ratio （2.0-7.0） and growth rate （0.437 and 0. 791μm/h）. Experimental results show that electrical properties exhibit a pronounced dependence on growth parameters,which are growth rate, P/In BEP ratio, cracker zone temperature, and growth temperature. The parameters have been optimized carefully via the results of Hall measurements. For a typical sample, 77K electron mobility of 4.57 × 10^4 cm^2/（V · s） and electron concentration of 1.55×10^15 cm^-3 have been achieved with an epilayer thickness of 2.35μm at a growth temperature of 370℃ by using a cracking zone temperature of 850℃.

High-mobility Ga-polarity GaN achieved by NH3-MBE

GaN epilayers were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by NH3-MBE and RF-MBE (radio frequency plasma). The polarities of the epilayers were investigated by in-situ RHEED, chemical solution etching and AFM surface examination. By using a RF-MBE grown GaN layer as template to deposit GaN epilayer by NH3-MBE method, we found that not only Ga-polarity GaN films were repeatedly obtained, but also the electron mobility of these Ga-polarity films was significantly improved with a best value of 290 cm(2)/V.s at room temperature. Experimental results show it is an easy and stable way for growth of high quality Ga-polarity GaN films.