A versatile phenomenological model for the S-shaped temperature dependence of photoluminescence energy for an accurate determination of the exciton localization energy in bulk and quantum well structures

Temperature dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) peak energy of bulk and quantum well (QW) structures is studied by using a new phenomenological model for including the effect of localized states. In general an anomalous S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy is observed for many materials which is usually associated with the localization of excitons in band-tail states that are formed due to potential fluctuations. Under such conditions, the conventional models of Varshni, Vina and Passler fail to replicate the S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy and provide inconsistent and unrealistic values of the fitting parameters. The proposed formalism persuasively reproduces the S-shaped temperature dependence of the PL peak energy and provides an accurate determination of the exciton localization energy in bulk and QW structures along with the appropriate values of material parameters. An example of a strained InAs0.38P0.62/InP QW is presented by performing detailed temperature and excitation intensity dependent PL measurements and subsequent in-depth analysis using the proposed model. Versatility of the new formalism is tested on a few other semiconductor materials, e.g. GaN, nanotextured GaN, AlGaN and InGaN, which are known to have a significant contribution from the localized states. A quantitative evaluation of the fractional contribution of the localized states is essential for understanding the temperature dependence of the PL peak energy of bulk and QW well structures having a large contribution of the band-tail states.