Comparative optical studies of InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by MBE on (100) and (311)A GaAs planes

The temperature dependence of the optical properties of InGaAs/GaAs double quantum wells (QWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on (100) and (311)A GaAs substrates has been studied by photoluminescence (PL). It is found that for an excitation of 50 mW, the PL quenching for (100) and (311)A QWs occurs at 220 K and 300 K, respectively. This suggests that the high index plane (311)A has superior structural properties and less non-radiative defect centers than the conventional (100) plane. The better optical quality of the QWs grown on (311)A is also confirmed by the narrowing of the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the PL emission: 10 nm for (311)A and 20 nm for (100). From these findings it is expected that optical devices grown on (311)A GaAs planes should have better performances than those grown on conventional (100) orientation. We have also carried out a systematic study to investigate the effect of post-growth thermal annealing on the optical quality of the QWs. We observed a substantial improvement of the PL efficiency with annealing temperatures in the range 500-700 C for all samples. However, this PL enhancement is accompanied by a blueshift. These energy shifts can be explained by interdiffusion or intermixing of In and Ga atoms at the interfaces between the QWs and the barriers. A noticeable narrowing of the PL linewidth with higher annealing temperatures could be explained by a homogenisation of the quantum well interfaces. (C) 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim