Photoluminescence and electroreflectance studies of modulation-doped pseudomorphic AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells

Abstract

In this study, we describe the correlations between the photoluminescence (PL) spectra and electrical properties of pseudomorphic modulation-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (MDQWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. In MDQWs, the presence of a large sheet carrier density contributes significantly to the PL linewidth. At low temperatures (4.2 K), free carrier induced broadening of the PL linewidth is influenced by the material quality of the structure. At higher temperatures (77 K), differences in the material quality do not affect the linewidth significantly, and under these conditions the PL linewidth is a good measure of the sheet carrier density. The ratio of the 77 K to 4.2 K PL linewidths provides useful information about the crystalline quality of the MDQW structures as illustrated by the correlation with 77 K Hall mobility data and a simple model. We present results of Electron Beam Electroreflectance (EBER) to characterize MDQWs and undoped quantum wells in the AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs material system. Several transitions have been observed and fitted to excitonic Lorentzian lineshapes, providing accurate estimates of transition energy and broadening parameter at temperatures of 96 K and 300 K.