PRESSURE-DEPENDENCE OF PHOTOLUMINESCENCE IN IN(X)GA(1-X)AS/AL(Y)GA(1-Y)AS STRAINED QUANTUM-WELLS WITH DIFFERENT WIDTH

A systematic investigation on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of InxGa1-xAs/AlyGa1-xAs (x = 0.15, y = 0, 0.33) strained quantum wells (SQWs) with well widths from 1.7 to 11.0 nm has been performed at 77 K under high pressure up to 40 kbar. The experimental results show that the pressure coefficients of the exciton peaks corresponding to transitions from the first conduction subband to the heavy-hole subband increase from 10.05 meV/kbar of 11.0 nm well to 10.62 meV/kbar of 1.8 nm well for In0.15Ga0.85As/GaAs SQWs. However, the corresponding pressure coefficients slightly decrease from 9.93 meV/kbar of 9.0 nm well to 9.73 meV/kbar of 1.7 nm well for In0.15Ga0.85As/Al0.33Ga0.67As SQWs. Calculations based on the Kronig-Penney model reveal that the increased or decreased barrier heights and the increased effective masses with pressure are the main reasons of the change in the pressure coefficients.

SHIFTING PHOTOLUMINESCENCE BANDS IN HIGH-RESISTIVITY LI-COMPENSATED GAAS

It is shown that Li diffusion of GaAs can give rise to semi-insulating samples with electrical resistivity as high as 10(7) OMEGAcm in undoped, n-type, and p-type starting materials. The optical properties of the compensated samples are correlated with the depletion of free carriers caused by the Li diffusion. The radiative recombination of the Li-compensated samples is dominated by emissions with excitation-dependent peak positions that shift to lower energies with increasing compensation. The photoluminescence properties are characteristic of fluctuations of the electrostatic potential in strongly doped, compensated crystals.

PHOTOLUMINESCENCE INVESTIGATIONS OF CD1-XMNXTE UNDER HYDROSTATIC-PRESSURE

The photoluminescence of Cd1-xMnxTe with x=0.25, 0.40, and 0.60 is investigated at 77 K and different pressures. The pressure coefficients of the photoluminescence bands Cd0.75Mn0.25Te and Cd0.6Mn0.4Te are found to be positive and the magnitudes are about 8 X 10(-3) eV/kbar, which is in good agreement with the pressure coefficients of the interband transition. The pressure coefficient of the photoluminescence bands for Cd0.4Mn0.6Te is found to be -6 X 10(-3) eV/kbar, which is quite different from the pressure coefficient of the interband transition. The possible transition mechanism is discussed in terms of group theory and crystal field theory.

PHOTOLUMINESCENCE STUDIES OF INXGA1-XAS/GAAS STRAINED QUANTUM-WELLS UNDER HYDROSTATIC-PRESSURE

The photoluminescence from InxG1-xAs/GaAs strained quantum wells with thickness from 30 to 160 angstrom have been studied at 77 K under hydrostatic pressure up to 60 kbar. It was found that the pressure coefficients of the exciton peaks corresponding to transitions from the first conduction subband to the heavy-hole subband increased with reduced well width, in contrast to the case of GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells. Calculations revealed that the increased barrier height with pressure was the major cause of the change in the pressure coefficients. Two peaks related to indirect transitions were observed at pressures higher than 50 kbar. They are attributed to type-I transitions from the lowest conduction-band edge, which are the strain splitted X(xy) valleys, to the heavy-hole subband in the InxGa1-xAs well.

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.

PHOTOLUMINESCENCE AND SURFACE PHOTOVOLTAIC SPECTRA OF STRAINED INP ON GAAS

A high energy shift of the band-band recombination has been observed in the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the strained InP epilayer on GaAs by metalorganic chemical vapor deposit. The strain determined by PL peak is in good agreement with calculated thermal strain. The surface photovoltalic spectra gives the information about energy gap, lattice mismatching, and composition of heteroepilayers, diffusion length, surface, and interface recombination velocity of minority carriers of heteroepitaxy layers.

INFLUENCES OF ALLOY DISORDER AND INTERFACE ROUGHNESS ON OPTICAL-SPECTRA OF INGAAS/GAAS STRAINED-LAYER QUANTUM-WELLS

We present studies of alloy composition and layer thickness dependences of excitonic linewidths in InGaAs/GaAs strained-layer quantum wells grown by MBE, using both photoluminescence and optical absorption. It is observed that linewidths of exciton spectra increase with indium content and well size. Using the virtual crystal approximation, the experimental data are analyzed. The results obtained show that the alloy disorder is the dominant mechanism for line broadening at low temperature. In addition, it is found that the absorption spectra related to light hole transitions have varied from a peak to a step-like structure as temperature increases. This behavior can be understood by the indirect space transitions of light holes.

PHOTOLUMINESCENCE SPECTRA OF STRAINED HETEROSTRUCTURE OF INP ON GAAS SUBSTRATE GROWN BY METAL-ORGANIC CHEMICAL VAPOR-DEPOSITION

A high-energy shift of the band-band recombination has been observed in photoluminescence spectra of the strained InP layer grown on GaAs substrate. The InP layer is under biaxial compressive strain at temperatures below the growth temperature, because the thermal expansion coefficient of InP is smaller than that of GaAs. The strain value determined by the energy shift of the band-edge peak is in good agreement with the calculated thermal strain. A band to carbon acceptor recombination is also identified.