Exciton Localization Energy Research Articles

Photoluminescence study of exciton localization in InGaAs bulk and InGaAs/InAlAs wide quantum well on InP (001) substrate

Exciton localization has been investigated via photoluminescence (PL) measurements for a 50 nm InGaAs/InAlAs wide quantum well (QW) lattice-matched to an InP substrate. Discrete QW emission bands from both localized exciton (LE) recombination and free exciton (FE) recombination were observed, demonstrating modified state filling with increasing pump power. An “S” shaped dependence of the FE peak energy on the temperature represents a signature of exciton activation and transition from LEs into FEs. The exciton localization energy was measured to be 8.87 meV in the QW, which is much larger than the values of ∼3.39 meV found in the reference InGaAs bulk. In addition, a slightly longer lifetime was measured for LE emission than that of FEs. These results provide an in-depth assessment of carrier localization in the InGaAs/InAlAs/InP heterostructures and provide useful information for the design of optical devices.

Photoluminescence efficiency of Al-rich AlGaN heterostructures in a wide range of photoexcitation densities over temperatures up to 550 K

Time-resolved photoluminescence and light-induced transient grating techniques were applied for temperature and excitation dependent internal quantum efficiency and carrier diffusion investigation in silicon-doped epilayer and AlxGa1-xN MQWs (x > 0.6). Decrease of photoluminescence efficiency at high excitations correlated with increase of diffusion coefficient as well as nonradiative recombination rate, indicating excitation and temperature dependent localized exciton density reduction. Excitation-dependent lifetime decrease was less pronounced than the corresponding drop of the time-integrated photoluminescence efficiency dominated by thermal dissociation of excitons. At lowest excitations excitons were found captured to vacancy complexes. With increase of excitation exciton ionization appeared, leading to enhanced nonradiative recombination of holes on aluminum vacancies and simultaneous droop of PL efficiency due to saturated bimolecular free carrier plasma recombination. At initial recombination stages and high excitations diffusive recombination on dislocations was also revealed. Modelling provided free exciton binding energies of 104, 140 meV in the MQWs and in the layer; exciton localization energies in 12-35 meV range; localized exciton lifetimes in 2-4 ns range; free exciton and carrier radiative recombination rate coefficients of rex = (0.6 0.2)109(T/300)-1 1/s and Brad = (7 1)10-10(T/300)-3/2 cm3/s, respectively. Vacancy complex capture cross section for excitons was determined to be = (2 1)10-16(300/T)2 cm2. Electron and hole capture cross sections to aluminum vacancy were modeled (1.5 1)10-13 cm2 and (7 1)10-13 cm2, respectively. Dislocation Coulomb radius for free carrier recombination was found to be 12-15 nm.

Shallow donor complexes formed by pairing of double-donor magnesium with group-III acceptors in silicon

Magnesium in silicon primarily occupies an interstitial site, where it acts as a moderately deep double donor. It has recently been shown that interstitial magnesium can pair with the substitutional acceptor boron to form a shallow single-donor center. In this work, we demonstrate analogous complexing with the other group-III acceptors Ga, In, and Al. We observe the odd-parity excited states of each shallow donor complex in absorption spectra, from which the ionization energies are obtained. These complexes can localize excitons, and we observe the donor bound exciton transitions of all four centers in photoluminescence spectra. The Mg-acceptor complexes are found to obey Haynes rule, which predicts a linear relationship between donor ionization energy and donor bound exciton localization energy.

Radiative lifetime of boron-bound excitons in diamond

We report the ultraviolet absorption of boron-bound excitons at low temperature in a single crystal of diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition. The no-phonon (NP) and phonon-assisted lines are identified by comparison with cathodoluminescence. The oscillator strength of the NP lines was found to be 3.0 × 10−5 based on the measured absorption cross-section. This value is discussed in terms of the scaling law known for doped silicon, where the oscillator strength varies proportionally to Eloc2.5, with Eloc being the localization energy of excitons on acceptors. More importantly, we also could assess the oscillator strength of the dominant transverse optical phonon-assisted transition, which is found to be equal to 1.2×10−3. The associated radiative lifetime for the boron-bound exciton is 1.8 μs, which is much longer than the non-radiative Auger lifetime that governs its decay.

Comparison of 10 MeV electron beam radiation effect on InGaN/GaN and GaN/AlGaN multiple quantum wells

Abstract Radiation effects of 10 MeV electrons on blue-lighting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) and ultraviolet-lighting GaN/AlGaN MQWs were investigated and compared by means of temperature-dependent and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) methods. It was found that GaN/AlGaN MQWs showed better radiation tolerance than InGaN/GaN MQWs. In detail, the internal quantum efficiency of InGaN/GaN MQWs decreased sharply with increasing electron irradiation fluence whereas that of GaN/AlGaN MQWs remained nearly constant. The degradation of the emission properties of InGaN/GaN MQWs after irradiation was attributed to the generation of non-radiation recombination centers (NRCs) in MQWs. On the other hand, the radiation hardness of GaN/AlGaN MQWs was proved to be related to two factors: the irradiation-induced reduction of both exciton localization energy and NRC density. The results reported here are significant for the evaluation and design of GaN-based optoelectronic and electronic devices used in radiation environments.

Spectroscopy of resonant excitation of exciton luminescence of GaSe–GaTe solid solutions

The luminescence excitation spectra of localized excitons in GaSe0.85Te0.15 solid solutions have been investigated at the temperature T = 2 K. It has been shown that the excitation spectra of excitons with the localization energy e > 10 mV exhibit an additional maximum M E located on the low-energy side of the maximum corresponding to the free exciton absorption band with n = 1. It has been found that the shift in the position of the maximum M E in the excitation spectrum with respect to the energy of detected photons increases as the energy of detected photons decreases, i.e., with an increase in the localization energy of excitons. Under the resonant excitation of localized excitons by a monochromatic light from the region of the exciton emission band, in the exciton luminescence spectrum on the low-energy side from the excitation line, there is also a maximum of the luminescence (M L ). The energy distance between the position of the excitation line and the position of the maximum in the luminescence spectrum increases with a decrease in the frequency of the excitation light. The possible mechanisms of the formation of the described structure of the luminescence excitation and exciton luminescence spectra of GaSe0.85Te0.15 have been considered. It has been concluded that the maximum M E in the excitation spectrum and the maximum M L in the luminescence spectrum are attributed to electronic–vibrational transitions with the creation and annihilation of localized excitons, respectively.

Carrier localization in In0.21Ga0.79As/GaAs multiple quantum wells: A modified Pässler model for the S-shaped temperature dependence of photoluminescence energy

The optical properties of In0.21Ga0.79As/GaAs MQWs, with triple unequal layer thickness NW (3 nm), MW (6 nm) and WW (9 nm) grown on (001) and (113) GaAs substrates, is studied by using continuous wave photoluminescence (cw-PL) spectroscopy. A comparative study has been performed to demonstrate the influence of electric field and QW thickness on the exciton localization. An S-shaped form in temperature-dependent PL peak energy has been observed in polar middle QW (MW (113)) but not seen in non-polar ones (MW (001)). This behavior is linked to carrier localization in triangular potential and polarity. We have observed also this atypical evolution in non-polar wide QW (WW (001)) but not in non-polar middle QW (MW (001)), which is attributed to potential fluctuation in larger ones. With the aid of modified Pässler model for including the effect of localized states, we can persuasively reproduce the S-shaped temperature dependence of PL band gap energy and contribute to the estimated value of exciton localization energy. The values of σ are obtained from adjustment of experimental points, which indicate the degree of localization in QW layer.

Systematic study on dynamic atomic layer epitaxy of InN on/in +c-GaN matrix and fabrication of fine-structure InN/GaN quantum wells: Role of high growth temperature

The growth kinetics and properties of nominally 1-ML (monolayer)-thick InN wells on/in +c-GaN matrix fabricated using dynamic atomic layer epitaxy (D-ALEp) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy were systematically studied, with particular attention given to the effects of growth temperature. Attention was also given to how and where the ∼1-ML-thick InN layers were frozen or embedded on/in the +c-GaN matrix. The D-ALEp of InN on GaN was a two-stage process; in the 1st stage, an “In+N” bilayer/monolayer was formed on the GaN surface, while in the 2nd, this was capped by a GaN barrier layer. Each process was monitored in-situ using spectroscopic ellipsometry. The target growth temperature was above 620 °C and much higher than the upper critical epitaxy temperature of InN (∼500 °C). The “In+N” bilayer/monolayer tended to be an incommensurate phase, and the growth of InN layers was possible only when they were capped with a GaN layer. The InN layers could be coherently inserted into the GaN matrix under self-organizing and self-limiting epitaxy modes. The growth temperature was the most dominant growth parameter on both the growth process and the structure of the InN layers. Reflecting the inherent growth behavior of D-ALEp grown InN on/in +c-GaN at high growth temperature, the embedded InN layers in the GaN matrix were basically not full-ML in coverage, and the thickness of sheet-island-like InN layers was essentially either 1-ML or 2-ML. It was found that these InN layers tended to be frozen at the step edges on the GaN and around screw-type threading dislocations. The InN wells formed type-I band line-up heterostructures with GaN barriers, with exciton localization energies of about 300 and 500 meV at 15 K for the 1-ML and 2-ML InN wells, respectively.

Complementary study of the photoluminescence and electrical properties of ZnO films grown on 4H-SiC substrates

We have studied the photoluminescence and electrical properties of ZnO films grown epitaxially by atmospheric pressure MOCVD on 4H-SiC substrates. The dominating D°X line on the low temperature PL spectrum is attributed to the emission of an exciton bound to the neutral donor. The intensity of this line correlates with the electrical properties of the films: the decrease of D°X intensity occurs simultaneously with the increase of the carrier׳s mobility. This we explain as donor activation providing free electrons to the conduction band. Based on the comparison of the calculated value of donor binding energy, the literature data and complementary SIMS analysis a suggested donor impurity is aluminum (Al). The exciton localization energy is 16.3meV, and agrees well with localization energy of 15.3meV for Al impurity reported by other authors (e.g. Ref. [33]). The thermal activation energy ED=22meV, determined from the Hall data and is in agreement with the optical activation energy ~20 meV, which is derived from the temperature-dependent PL study. The calculated value of the donor binding energy of 54.3eV is in agreement with the ionization energy of 53meV mentioned in earlier reports for Al in ZnO films. Our results prove that the commonly observed line at ~3.3599eV on low temperature PL spectra of ZnO is a neutral donor bound exciton emission due to the Al impurity.

Effect of doping on the far-infrared intersubband transitions in nonpolar m-plane GaN/AlGaN heterostructures

This paper assesses the effects of Si doping on the properties of nonpolar m-plane GaN/AlGaN quantum wells (QWs) designed for intersubband (ISB) absorption in the far-infrared spectral range. For doping levels up to 3 × 1012 cm−2, structural analysis reveals uniform QWs with abrupt interfaces and no epitaxially induced defects. Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy confirms the homogeneity of the multiple QWs along the growth direction. Increasing the doping density in the QWs from 1 × 1011 cm−2 to 3 × 1012 cm−2 induces a broadening of the photoluminescence as well as a reduction of the exciton localization energy in the alloy. Also, enhancement of the ISB absorption is observed, along with a blue shift and widening of the absorption peak. The magnitude of the ISB absorption saturates for doping levels around 1 × 1012 cm−2, and the blue shift and broadening increase less than theoretically predicted for the samples with higher doping levels. This is explained by the presence of free carriers in the excited electron level due to the increase of the Fermi level energy.

Quantum confinement dependence of exciton localization in a-plane GaN/AlGaN multiquantum wells investigated by temperature dependent photoluminescence

The exciton localization effect in nonpolar a-plane GaN/AlGaN multiquantum wells (MQWs) structures with different quantum confinements (different well thicknesses or Al molar fractions of barrier) has been investigated by temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL). An “S-shaped” PL peak energy variation is observed in the spectra, indicating the existence of localized states. The exciton localization energy is larger in the MQWs with stronger quantum confinement. A good agreement of the localization energy is obtained by theoretical calculation assuming ± 5% fluctuation of well thickness, which demonstrates that potential minima caused by well thickness fluctuation are the major origin of exciton localization. In addition, the internal quantum efficiency shows more than 3 times enhancement with decreasing the well width from 8.1 to 2.7 nm due to the strong exciton localization which can prevent the carriers from trapping into the nonradiative recombination centers.

Improved thermal stability and narrowed line width of photoluminescence from InGaN nanorod by ytterbium doping

AbstractNanorod of in situ Yb‐doped InGaN and undoped InGaN have been grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Selected regions on Yb‐doped InGaN sample show single dominant near band edge emission (NBE) in green, yellow or orange color due to the variation of In content. Temperature dependent PL peak energy of InGaN nanorod shows the characteristic S ‐shaped behavior indicating the presents of strong exciton localization energy in undoped InGaN nanorod. The exciton localization energy reduced significantly after incorporating Yb into InGaN, giving rise to damping of the S‐shape profile amplitude and narrowing of the PL line width from ∼20 meV to ∼12 meV at 11 K. It is proposed that the improved PL thermal stability and the PL line width in Yb‐doped InGaN nanorod is affected by the Yb gettering effect. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Carbon related donor bound exciton transitions in ZnO nanowires

Several shallow donor bound exciton photoluminescence (PL) transitions are reported in ZnO nanowires doped with carbon. The emission energies are in the range of 3360.8–3361.9 meV, close to previously reported emission lines due to excitons bound to donor point defects, such as Ga, Al, In, and H. The addition of small amounts of hydrogen during growth results in a strong enhancement of the PL of these carbon related emission lines, yet PL and annealing measurements indicate no appreciable bulk hydrogen. The observation of two electron satellites for these emission lines enables the determination of the donor binding energies. The dependence of exciton localization energy on donor binding energy departs somewhat from the usual linear relationship observed for group III donors, indicating a qualitatively different central cell potential, as one would expect for a complex. Emission lines due to excitons bound to ionized donors associated with these defects are also observed. The dependence of the PL emission intensities on temperature and growth conditions demonstrates that the lines are due to distinct complexes and not merely excited states of each other.

A versatile phenomenological model for the S-shaped temperature dependence of photoluminescence energy for an accurate determination of the exciton localization energy in bulk and quantum well structures

Temperature dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) peak energy of bulk and quantum well (QW) structures is studied by using a new phenomenological model for including the effect of localized states. In general an anomalous S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy is observed for many materials which is usually associated with the localization of excitons in band-tail states that are formed due to potential fluctuations. Under such conditions, the conventional models of Varshni, Viña and Passler fail to replicate the S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy and provide inconsistent and unrealistic values of the fitting parameters. The proposed formalism persuasively reproduces the S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy and provides an accurate determination of the exciton localization energy in bulk and QW structures along with the appropriate values of material parameters. An example of a strained InAs0.38P0.62/InP QW is presented by performing detailed temperature and excitation intensity dependent PL measurements and subsequent in-depth analysis using the proposed model. Versatility of the new formalism is tested on a few other semiconductor materials, e.g. GaN, nanotextured GaN, AlGaN and InGaN, which are known to have a significant contribution from the localized states. A quantitative evaluation of the fractional contribution of the localized states is essential for understanding the temperature dependence of the PL peak energy of bulk and QW well structures having a large contribution of the band-tail states.

Excitonic recombination in epitaxial lateral overgrown AlN on sapphire

Excitonic emission in heteroepitaxially grown aluminum nitride (AlN) with reduced defect density due to the epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) of patterned AlN/sapphire templates has been investigated by photoluminescence spectroscopy and compared to AlN/sapphire and homoepitaxially grown AlN. The ELO sample exhibits small linewidths of the free exciton and two different bound exciton emission bands. The free exciton emission energy is shifted by 58.5 meV with respect to unstrained homoepitaxially grown AlN attributed to compressive strain. A donor bound exciton D0X with an exciton localization energy of 13.0–13.5 meV is dominating in the photoluminescence spectra of ELO AlN/sapphire. This D0X does not show strong phonon replica and is dominant at elevated temperatures in ELO AlN/sapphire. The optical quality of heteroepitaxial AlN is significantly improved using the ELO technique and therefore suitable for high efficiency ultraviolet light emitters.

Characterization of temperature-dependent photoluminescence properties of InAlGaN quaternary alloys

Abstract Samples containing thin InAlGaN layers grown on c -Al 2 O 3 substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition have been studied experimentally and theoretically with the help of photoluminescence measurements between 10 and 300 K. From the analysis of the temperature dependence photoluminescence spectra with the modified Bose–Einstein equation, the localization energy of excitons was estimated successfully and the value is found out to be well correlated to the strength of the electron/exciton-phonon interaction as well as the stress observed in the X-ray diffraction spectra. These results are also confirmed that the c -axis length decreases as the increasing Al/In ratio corresponding to the decreased compressive stress which would be attributed to the increased tensile stress formed by Al atoms incorporated.

Effects of exciton localization on internal quantum efficiency of InGaN nanowires

The optical properties of InGaN nanowires with different emission wavelengths of 485, 515, 555, and 580 nm have been studied by means of photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL (TRPL) spectroscopy. The PL peak energy of the nanowires exhibited an anomalous shift to higher energy and then to lower energy with increasing temperature. Analysis of the temperature-dependent variations in the PL peak energy let us evaluate the localization energies of excitons, which increased with increasing indium composition. TRPL measurements also revealed that the PL decay time of the nanowires increased and then became constant with decreasing emission energy, which was typical of localized excitons and enabled us to evaluate the characteristic energies of localized states. The characteristic energy increased with increasing indium composition, indicating that the density of localized states broadened with increasing indium composition. In addition, a correlation was clearly observed between the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and localization energy of the nanowire: the IQE increased with increasing localization energy. The increase in the IQE was attributed to the increase in the degree of exciton localization as the indium composition of the nanowire increased. Moreover, it was found that with increasing excitation power density, a reduction in the IQE occurred simultaneously with a PL blue shift. This indicated that the reduction in the IQE was associated with saturation of localized states.

Optical investigation of strong exciton localization in high Al composition AlxGa1-xN alloys

The exciton localization in wurtzite AlxGa₁-xN alloys with x varying from 0.41 to 0.63 has been studied by deep-ultraviolet photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and picosecond time-resolved PL spectroscopy. Obvious S-shape temperature dependence was observed indicating that the strong exciton localization can be formed in high Al composition AlxGa₁-xN alloys. It was also found that the Al composition dependence of exciton localization energy of AlGaN alloys is inconsistent with that of the excitonic linewidth. We contribute the inconsistency to the strong zero-dimensional exciton localization.

Germanium doping of self-assembled GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Germanium doping of GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111) substrates is studied. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements reveal a constant Ge-concentration along the growth axis. A linear relationship between the applied Ge-flux and the resulting ensemble Ge-concentration with a maximum content of 3.3×1020 cm−3 is extracted from energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements and confirmed by a systematic increase of the conductivity with Ge-concentration in single nanowire measurements. Photoluminescence analysis of nanowire ensembles and single nanowires reveals an exciton localization energy of 9.5 meV at the neutral Ge-donor. A Ge-related emission band at energies above 3.475 eV is found that is assigned to a Burstein-Moss shift of the excitonic emission.

Luminescence studies in InxGa1−xN epitaxial layers with different indium contents

The optical properties of InxGa1−xN epitaxial layers (x=0.02, 0.04, 0.11, 0.15, 0.30 and 0.33) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) have been investigated by temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurement. The surface morphologies of InGaN samples are studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The PL feature at 12K has shown an increase in full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) with increasing In content. An anomalous S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy exhibited by InGaN films with higher In content enabled the evaluation of the exciton localization energy. The broadened FWHM and S-shaped emission shift are attributed to larger compositional fluctuation due to compositional inhomogeneity of In. Additionally, the luminescence mechanism relating to the phase separation has to be considered for the much larger FWHM value and the pronounced S-shaped behavior for the InGaN samples with In content of 0.30 and 0.33.