Positive and negative persistent photoconductivities in semimetallic AlxGa1−xSb/InAs quantum wells

Abstract

We report a detailed investigation of the “positive” persistent photoconductivity (PPC) and “negative” persistent photoconductivity (NPPC) in semimetallic AlxGa1−xSb/InAs quantum wells. The studies of the NPPC and PPC effects have been performed under various conditions, such as different photon energy of excitation, different temperature, different Al composition x, and different well width. It is found that all the previously proposed mechanisms fail to explain several of our observations. We suggest that the NPPC and PPC effects are produced principally by two competing processes. At a high temperature, the photoconduction is dominated by the photogenerated electrons in the InAs well, in which the relaxation of the excess electrons is prohibited by an energy barrier due to the trapping of photoexcited holes by deep defects in the InAs well. As a result, the PPC is observed. At low temperature, electrons in the InAs layer are photoexcited into the local potential minima induced by compositional fluctuations at the AlGaSb and InAs interface, the number of electrons in the InAs well decreases, thus the NPPC occurs.