Photocurrent and Photoluminescence Investigations of GaInNAs and GaInNAs(Sb) Quantum Wells Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

R Chtourou,A Hamdouni,F Bousbih,S Ben Bouzid,J.C Harmand,P Voisin

doi:10.3844/ajassp.2005.1370.1374

Abstract

We have investigated photocurrent (PC) and photoluminescence (PL) in sequentially grown GaInNAs/GaAs and GaInNAs(Sb)/GaAsSbN quantum wells. Photocurrent transitions are analyzed by theoretical calculations using envelope function formalism taking into account the strain effect and the strong coupling between nitrogen localized state and the GaInAs band gap. The results are consistent with a type I band alignment and a conduction band offset ratio of about 80 %. Additionally, our results suggest an increase of the electron effective mass by as much as 0.035 m0 resulting from the flattening of the conduction band under nitrogen effect. The temperature evolution of the PL peak energy and the integrated PL intensity of GaInNAsSb QW show evidence of strong localization of carriers. Both, the high delocalization temperature, in the 230 K range and the strong shift between the PC and PL spectra of GaInNAsSb QW, indicate the presence of deeper localized states as compared to that in the GaInNAs QW.

Highlights

Proposed by Kodow et al.[1], InGaAsN opens up new opportunities to realize low-cost, high performance 1.3 m emitting semiconductor diode lasers grown on GaAs substrates
The GaInNAsSb single quantum well (QW) is surrounded by GaN0.01AsSb0.015 barriers
The unstrained band gap energy ust g of III(Ga,In)-V(As,Sb)-N layer is determined using the Band Anticrossing Model (BAC)[11] and the strained band gap energy Eset−hh(lh) (III − V − N) between the electron and the heavy hole bands is determined taking into account the hydrostatic and shear components of the strain, given by: Eset−hh (III − V − N)= Egust(III− V − N)+ Ehyd + Esh (1)

Summary

Introduction

Proposed by Kodow et al.[1], InGaAsN opens up new opportunities to realize low-cost, high performance 1.3 m emitting semiconductor diode lasers grown on GaAs substrates. One challenging goal remaining is to extend the emission wavelength beyond 1.3 m, while maintaining optical material quality for the realization of longer wavelength, high-performance, GaAs based devices. P methods, it was theoretically predicted that nitride-antimonide alloys should posses similar bowing to the nitride-arsenide[7]. This was experimentally validated when it was found that cracked antimony incorporates into the crystal[8,9], further redshifting emission and allowing the demonstration of lasers operating in pulsed mode out to 1.49 μm[10]. We used an experimental technique, the photocurrent (PC) together with photoluminescence (PL) techniques to investigate the electronic and optical properties of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well and compared the results with those obtained from a sequentially grown GaInNAsSb/GaAsSbN quantum well

Methods

Results

Conclusion