Enhancement of photoexcited carrier lifetime in an InGaAs/GaAsP wire-on-well quantum structure investigated by excitation-power-dependent photoluminescence measurements

Abstract

A wire-on-well (WoW) structure was fabricated using InGaAs/GaAs/GaAsP superlattice device growth technology. This structure modifies the local concentration of carriers in the quantum well and lengthens the carrier lifetime to increase carrier transport efficiency. However, the reason for this remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the detailed carrier transition properties using photoluminescence (PL) and photoreflectance measurements. Regarding the PL spectra at 4 K, two characteristic peaks at 1.39 and 1.34 eV were observed. Both transitions are attributed to the recombination between the first quantum level of the electron (e1) and that of the heavy hole (hh1). We also discussed the carrier distribution in the WoW structure and found that the maximum carrier existing probabilities for e1 and hh1 are located at different positions. The less overlapping of the wavefunctions causes low transition probability and results in the observed long carrier lifetime. An additional prominent result in the WoW structure is the blue shift attributed to the 1.34 eV PL peak induced by increasing laser excitation power. We found that the blue shift occurred by the screening of the electric field caused by the compressive strain, as in the case of the quantum-confined Stark effect.