Reduction of internal polarization fields in InGaN quantum wells by InGaN/AlGaN ultra-thin superlattice barriers with different indium composition

The internal well polarization field in InGaN quantum wells (QWs), surrounded by strain-compensated (InxGa1-xN)/(Al0.065Ga0.935N) ultra-thin superlattice (SC-SL) barriers with different indium composition, is investigated. The indium composition of InGaN constituent of superlattice barriers has been varied in the range from 0.04 to 0.18. It is observed that the increase of indium composition of InGaN into the barrier results in a strong blue-shift of the peak wavelength of the room-temperature photoluminescence (RT-PL) and the significant increase in the intensity of the luminescence emission until too much indium is added into InGaN layers of superlattice barriers. From the bias-dependent photoluminescence measurements, it is determined that the blue-shift and intensity increase of the emission are caused by the decrease of well polarization field as the indium composition in InGaN of SC-SL barrier increases. In case of In0.16Ga0.84N containing SC-SL barriers, the well internal polarization field is greatly reduced to -0.33 MV/cm from -1.5 MV/cm with respect to typical GaN barriers, indicating that the internal field reduction similar to that obtained in semi-polar InGaN/GaN quantum wells can be obtained by applying the strain-compensating barrier to polar substrates. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3666060]