Band structure engineering in strain-free GaAs mesoscopic systems

Abstract

We investigate the optical properties of strain-free mesoscopic GaAs/AlxGa1 − xAs structures (MGS) coupled to thin GaAs/AlxGa1 − xAs quantum wells (QWs) with varying Al content (x). We demonstrate that quenching the QW emission by controlling the band crossover between AlGaAs (X-point) and GaAs (Γ-point) gives rise to long carrier lifetimes and enhanced optical emission from the MGS. For x = 0.33, QW and MGS show typical type-I band alignment with strong QW photoluminescence emission and much weaker sharp recombination lines from the MGS localized exciton states. For x ≥ 0.50, the QW emission is considerably quenched due to the change from type-I to type-II structure while the MGS emission is enhanced due to carrier injection from the QW. For x ≥ 0.70, we observe PL quenching from the MGS higher energy states also due to the crossover of X and Γ bands, demonstrating spectral filtering of the MGS emission. Time-resolved measurements reveal two recombination processes in the MGS emission dynamics. The fast component depends mainly on the X − Γ mixing of the MGS states and can be increased from 0.3 to 2.5 ns by changing the Al content. The slower component, however, depends on the X − Γ mixing of the QW states and is associated to the carrier injection rate from the QW reservoir into the MGS structure. In this way, the independent tuning of X − Γ mixing in QW and MGS states allows us to manipulate recombination rates in the MGS as well as to make carrier injection and light extraction more efficient.