Combined effects of carrier scattering and Coulomb screening on photoluminescence in InGaN/GaN quantum well structure with high In content*

Abstract

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of two different green InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) samples S1 and S2, respectively with a higher growth temperature and a lower growth temperature of InGaN well layers are analyzed over a wide temperature range of 6 K–330 K and an excitation power range of 0.001 mW–75 mW. The excitation power-dependent PL peak energy and linewidth at 6 K show that in an initial excitation power range, the emission process of the MQW is dominated simultaneously by the combined effects of the carrier scattering and Coulomb screening for both the samples, and both the carrier scattering effect and the Coulomb screening effect are stronger for S2 than those for S1; in the highest excitation power range, the emission process of the MQWs is dominated by the filling effect of the high-energy localized states for S1, and by the Coulomb screening effect for S2. The behaviors can be attributed to the fact that sample S2 should have a higher amount of In content in the InGaN well layers than S1 because of the lower growth temperature, and this results in a stronger component fluctuation-induced potential fluctuation and a stronger well/barrier lattice mismatch-induced quantum-confined Stark effect. This explanation is also supported by other relevant measurements of the samples, such as temperature-dependent peak energy and excitation-power-dependent internal quantum efficiency.