Dependence of the interband transitions on the in mole fraction and the applied electric field in In xGa 1− xAs/In 0.52Al 0.48As multiple quantum wells

Abstract

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photocurrent (PC) measurements were carried out to investigate the microstructural properties and excitonic transitions in In x Ga 1− x As/In 0.52Al 0.48As multiple quantum wells (MQWs) for x = 0.54, 0.57 and 0.60. TEM images showed that high-quality 11-period In x Ga 1− x As/In 0.52Al 0.48As MQWs had high-quality heterointerfaces. The results for the PC spectra at 300 K showed that the peaks corresponding to the excitonic transitions from the ground state electronic sub-band to the ground state heavy-hole band (E 1-HH 1) and the ground state electronic sub-band to the ground state light-hole band (E 1-LH 1) became closer to each other with decreasing In mole fraction and that E 1-HH 1 and E 1-LH 1 excitonic peaks shifted to longer wavelength with increasing applied electric field. The calculated values of the E 1-HH 1 interband transition energies were in qualitative agreement with those obtained form the PC measurements with and without applied electric field. These results can be helpful in understanding potential applications of In x Ga 1− x As/In y Al 1− y As MQWs dependent on In mole fraction and applied electric field in long-wavelength optoelectronic devices.