Photoreflectance studies of the band gap alignments in boron diluted BGaInAs/GaAs quantum wells

Abstract

Band gap alignments of BGaInAs/GaAs quantum wells with mole fractions of indium around 40% and mole fractions of boron ranging from 0% up to 4.75% are studied experimentally by photoreflectance (PR) and photoluminescence (PL). Obtained results are explained within a k  ·  p model within an envelope function approximation. The study shows an increase of the valence band offset with an addition of boron into the thin film at a rate of around 4.2% per 1% of boron incorporated. Non-zero bowing parameters of valence band offsets for ternary alloys with boron (BGaAs and BInAs) are estimated. Moreover, it was observed that unlike in other highly mismatched alloy systems the incorporation of boron does not significantly deteriorate the optical quality of the studied samples, i.e., the broadening of optical transitions observed in PR and PL is very comparable to that observed for the reference QW, and the PL properties of boron containing QWs are similar to the reference boron free QW. Some deterioration of optical quality due to the increased alloy inhomogeneity is observed only for the sample with the highest concentration of B (4.2%).