Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T14:38:31.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Room-Temperature Time–Resolved Photoluminescence Studies of UV Emission from GaN/AlN Quantum Wells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Madalina Furis ,
Fei Chen ,
Alexander N. Cartwright ,
Hong Wu  and
William J. Schaff
Madalina Furis
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo NY, 14260
Fei Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo NY, 14260
Alexander N. Cartwright
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo NY, 14260
Hong Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 14853
William J. Schaff
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 14853
Get access

Abstract

Room temperature time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) studies of multiple quantum well (MQW) structures of the binaries GaN and AlN grown by molecular beam epitaxy are reported. The eventual application of these structures is for GaN intersubband IR light emitters. However, as an initial study, the structures are evaluated at UV to investigate materials parameters relevant to IR light emission. The nominally 0.9, 1.3 and 1.5 nm GaN quantum wells are clad by 6nm of AlN on top of a thick AlN buffer grown on sapphire. All samples consisted of 20 quantum wells. The observed peak energy of the emission spectrum is in excellent agreement with a model that includes the strong confinement present in these structures and the existence of the large built-in piezoelectric field and spontaneous polarization present inside the wells. Furthermore, consistent with screening of the in-well field as carriers are injected in the well, a clear blue shift of the emission is observed at short times after carrier injection. Subsequently, as the carriers recombine, the peak emission red-shifts and the screening of the field is reduced. Moreover, the observed lifetimes were energy dependent as should be expected from field dependent elongation of lifetimes due to spatial separation of the injected carriers. Specifically, the decay time at high energies can be fitted by a stretched exponential with a beta value of 0.8 which is consistent with carrier spatial separation. The lifetimes obtained from the fitting are of the order of 1ns, longer than the reported recombination lifetimes in similar GaN/AlGaN MQW's. On the low energy side of the PL feature the intensity time decay becomes exponential with lifetimes ranging from 3 to 10ns. The strong UV emission at room temperature makes these structures promising for UV emitters.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 743: Symposium L – GaN and Related Alloys , 2002 , L11.14
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Harris, J. C., Someya, T., Hoshino, K., Kako, S., and Arakawa, Y., phys. stat. sol. (a) 180, 339 (2000).Google Scholar
2. Chitnis, A., Pachipulusu, R., Mandavilli, V., Shatalov, M., Kuokstis, E., Zhang, J. P., Adivarahan, V., Wu, S., Simin, G., and Khan, M. Asif, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 2938 (2002).Google Scholar
3. Ryu, Mee-Yi, Chen, C. Q., Kuokstis, E., Yang, J. W., Simin, G., and Khan, M. Asif, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 3943 (2002).Google Scholar
4. Wu, H., Schaff, W. J., Furis, M., Cartwright, A. N., Mkhoyan, K. A., Silcox, J., Henderson, W., Doolittle, W. A., and Osinsky, A. V. (submitted to MRS Conference Proceedings)Google Scholar
5. Blatt, J. M., J. Comp. Phys. 1, 382 (1967).Google Scholar
6. Johnson, B. R., J. Chem. Phys. 67, 4086 (1977).Google Scholar
7. Ambacher, O., Majewski, J., Miskys, C., Link, A., Hermann, M., Eickhoff, M., Stutzmann, M., Bernardini, F., Fiorentini, V., Tilak, V., Schaff, B., and Eastman, L. F., J. Phys.: Condens Matter 14, 3399 (2002).Google Scholar
8. Bastard, G., “Effect of Static External Electric and Magnetic Fields on the Energy Levels of Quasi Bi-dimensional Electron Gases”, Wave Mechanics Applied to Semiconductor Heterostructures, Halsted Press (John Wiley & Sons, 1988) pp. 303–308.Google Scholar
9. Lefebvre, P., Gil, B., Mathieu, H., Grandjean, N., Leroux, M., Massies, J., and Bigenwald, P., MRS Internet J. Nitride Semicond. Res. 4S1, G3.69 (1999).Google Scholar
10. Grandjean, N., Damilano, B., Massies, J., Neu, G., Teissere, M., Grzegory, I., Porowski, S., Gallart, M., Lefebvre, P., Gil, B., and Albrecht, M., J. Appl. Phys. 88, 183 (2000).Google Scholar
11. Kuroda, T., Tackeuchi, A., and Sota, T., Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 3753 (2000).Google Scholar
12. Kuroda, T. and Tackeuchi, A., J. Appl. Phys. 92, 3071 (2002).Google Scholar
13. Cartwright, A. N., Sweeney, P. M., Prunty, T., Bour, D. P., and Kneissl, M., MRS Internet J. Nitride Semicond. Res. 4, 12 (1999).Google Scholar
14. Alderighi, D., Vinattieri, A., Kudrna, J., Colocci, M., Reale, A., Kokolakis, G., Di Carlo, A., Lugli, P., Semond, F., Grandjean, N., and Massies, J., phys. stat. sol. (a) 188, 851 (2001).Google Scholar
15. Pophristic, M., Long, F. H., Tran, C., Ferguson, I. T., and Karlicek, R. F. Jr., J. Appl. Phys. 86, 1114 (1999).Google Scholar
16. Pavesi, L., J. Appl. Phys. 80, 216 (1996).Google Scholar