Nitrogen-related changes in exciton localization and dynamics in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

In this work, we show the results of low-temperature photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved photoluminescence, and photoreflectance (PR) investigations, performed on a series of three Ga0.64In0.34As1-x N (x) /GaAs single quantum wells (SQW) grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy with the nitrogen content of 0, 0.5, and 0.8 %. Comparing the PL and PR data, we show that at low excitation intensity and temperature, the radiative recombination occurs via localizing centers (LCs) in all samples. The excitation intensity-dependent PL measurements combined with theoretical modeling of hopping excitons in this system allow us to provide quantitative information on the disorder parameters describing population of LCs. It has been found that the average energy of LCs increases about two times and simultaneously the number of LCs increases about 10 and 20 times after the incorporation of 0.5 and 0.8 % of nitrogen, respectively. The value of average localization energy E > (0) determined for N-containing samples (similar to 6-7 meV) is in the range typical for dilute nitride QWs grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). On the other hand, the "effective" concentration of LCs seems to be higher than for GaInNAs/GaAs QW grown by MBE. The dramatic increase in localizing centers also affects the PL dynamics. Observed PL decay time dispersion is much stronger in GaInNAs SQW than in nitrogen-free SQW. The change in PL dynamic is very well reproduced by model of hopping excitons.