Growth-temperature-dependent (self-)annealing-induced blueshift of photoluminescence from 1.3 μm GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells

Abstract

Growing the capping layer of a GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well at typical substrate temperature for GaAs growth by molecular-beam epitaxy, like 580 °C, was found to induce a blueshift of the quantum-well emission whose magnitude significantly increased as the quantum-well growth temperature was decreased. The growth-temperature-dependent (self-)annealing-induced blueshift is correlated with the presence of indium and occurs without observable changes in alloy macroscopic composition or quantum-well structure. The underlying cause for the increase in blue shift with decreasing quantum-well growth temperature appears to be an enhancement in the amount of In–N bonds formed by (self-)annealing, likely through a defect-assisted mechanism.