Reversed polarized emission in highly strained a-plane GaN/AlN multiple quantum wells

The polarization of the emission from a set of highly strained a-plane GaN/AlN multiple quantum wells of varying well widths has been studied. A single photoluminescence peak is observed that shifts to higher energies as the quantum well thickness decreases due to quantum confinement. The emitted light is linearly polarized. For the thinnest samples the preferential polarization direction is perpendicular to the wurtzite c axis with a degree of polarization that decreases with increasing well width. However, for the thickest well the preferred polarization direction is parallel to the c axis. Raman scattering, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy studies have been performed to determine the three components of the strain tensor in the active region. Moreover, the experimental results have been compared with the strain values computed by means of a model based on the elastic continuum theory. A high anisotropic compressive in-plane strain has been found, namely, -0.6% and -2.8% along the in-plane directions [11 (1) over bar 00] and [0001], respectively, for the thickest quantum well. The oscillator strength of the lowest optical transition has been calculated within the framework of a multiband envelope function model for various quantum well widths and strain values. The influence of confinement and strain on the degree of polarization is discussed and compared with experiment considering various sets of material parameters.