Photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence investigations of piezoelectric in GaN/AlGaN quantum Wells

Abstract

We have examined multiple quantum well AIGaN/GaN structures with several quantum wells of varying widths. The structures had strain-free quantum wells and strained barriers. Strong piezoelectric fields in these structures led to a large red shift of the PL emission energies and long decay times were also observed. While the peak energies could be modelled using the effective mass approximation, the calculated free exciton radiative lifetimes were much shorter than those observed in experiments, indicating an alternative recombination mechanism, tentatively attributed to localised excitons. Cathodoluminescence depth profiling revealed an unusually small penetration range of electrons suggesting that electron-hole pairs preferentially remain within the multiple quantum well region due to the existing electric fields. Spatial fluctuations of the cathodoluminescence intensity were also observed.