Photoluminescence of compressively strained AlGaInP/GaInP quantum well structures grown by MOCVD

Abstract

Ga x In 1− x P/(Al 0.4Ga 0.6) 0.52In 0.48P multiple quantum well structures (MQW) have been grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and characterized by photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL. It is found that the low-temperature PL intensities are almost the same for GaInP/AlGaInP MQW structures with different strains. However, the room temperature (RT) PL intensity of the 0.5% compressively strained QW structure is about three times stronger than that of the unstrained one. The mechanism of RT PL intensity enhancement in the strained sample is discussed, and it is believed that the deeper potential well in the strained QW structure is the main reason for the higher PL intensity at RT. The time-resolved PL measurements indicate that the 0.5% strained sample shows the shortest PL decay time, indicating the strongest carrier confinement in the well. It is also concluded that RT PL is more suitable for evaluating the optical quality of the GaInP/AlGaInP MQW structures.