Temperature dependent time-resolved exciton luminescence in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires and dots

Transient photoluminescence of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires and quantum dots formed by strain confinement is studied as a function of temperature. At low temperature, luminescent decay times of the wires and dots correspond to the radiative decay times of localized excitons. The radiative decay time can be either longer or shorter than that of the host quantum well, depending on the size of the wires and dots. For small wires and dots (∼ 100 nm stressor), the exciton radiative recombination rate increases due to lateral confinement. Exciton localization due to the fluctuation of quantum well thickness plays an important role in the temperature dependence of luminescent decay time and exciton transfer in quantum wire and dot structures up to at least ∼ 80 K. Lateral exciton transfer in quantum wire and dot structures formed by laterally patterning quantum wells strongly affects the dynamics of wire and dot luminescence. The relaxation time of hot excitons increases with the depth of strain confinement, but we find no convincing evidence that it is significantly slower in quasi 1-D or 0-D systems than in quantum wells.     

Temperature dependence of luminescence intensity under Bose condensation of interwell excitons

Photoluminescence of interwell excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells (n-i-n heterostructure) containing large-scale random potential fluctuations in the planes of heteroboundaries is studied. The properties of excitons, in which a photoexcited electron and a hole are spatially separated in neighboring quantum wells, were investigated upon variation of the power density of off-resonance laser excitation and temperature (1.5–4.2 K), both under lateral (in the heteroboundary plane) confinement of the excitation region to a few micrometers and without such a limitation (directly from the region of laser-induced photoexcitation focused to a spot not exceeding 30 μ. Under low pumping (with a power smaller than a microwatt), interwell excitons are strongly localized due to small-scale random potential fluctuations and the corresponding photoluminescence line is nonhomogeneously broadened to 2.5–3.0 meV. With increasing pumping power, the narrow line of delocalized excitons with a width of approximately 1 meV emerges in a threshold manner (the intensity of this line increases superlinearly near the threshold with increasing pumping). For a fixed pumping, the intensity of this line decreases linearly upon heating until it completely vanishes from the spectrum. The observed effect is attributed to Bose condensation in a quasi-two-dimensional system of interwell excitons. Within the proposed model, we show that the linear mode in the behavior of the luminescence intensity until its disappearance in the continuum of the photoluminescence spectrum upon a change in temperature is observed only for the condensed part of interwell excitons. At the same time, the luminescence of the above-the-condensate part of excitons is almost insensitive to temperature variations in the temperature range studied.     

Luminescence processes in CsI doped with Na+ and K+ ions

The luminescence bands around 420 nm and 370 nm in CsI:Na and CsI:K have been studied by measuring the temperature dependence of decay times and luminescence and its excitation spectra. The bands are due to singlet+triplet localized excitons and to triplet localized excitons, respectively, at low temperature. Zero field splitting and life time amount to 0.2 meV and 3.3 μs for the 420 nm band, and to 2.1 meV and 1.7 μs for the 370 nm band. Creation processes of 420 nm excitons may not be the same below 40 K and near room temperature.     

Barrier-disorder induced exciton relaxation via LO-phonons in GaAs/Al x Ga1−x As multiple quantum wells

Hot exciton relaxation is observed in GaAs/Al _x Ga_1–x As multiple quantum wells. The photolumnescence excitation spectra of the localized exciton emission at low temperatures and excitation densities are composed of narrow equidistant peaks exactly separated by the GaAs LO-phonon energy (36 meV). The relaxation mechanism via LO-phonons is found to be important for localized excitons in multiple quantum wells with GaAs layer thicknesses of about 50 Å, where pronounced alloy fluctuations in the barriers provide a strong additional lateral potential which suppresses the dissociation of hot excitons.     

Bose condensation of interwell excitons in double quantum wells

The luminescence of interwell excitons in double quantum wells GaAs/AlGaAs (n-i-n heterostructures) with large-scale fluctuations of random potential in the heteroboundary planes was studied. The properties of excitons whose photoexcited electron and hole are spatially separated in the neighboring quantum wells were studied as functions of density and temperature within the domains on the scale less than one micron. For this purpose, the surfaces of the samples were coated with a metallic mask containing specially prepared holes (windows) of a micron size an less for the photoexcitation and observation of luminescence. For weak pumping (less than 50 μW), the interwell excitons are strongly localized because of small-scale fluctuations of a random potential, and the corresponding photoluminescence line is inhomogeneously broadened (up to 2.5 meV). As the resonant excitation power increases, the line due to the delocalized excitons arises in a thresholdlike manner, after which its intensity linearly increases with increasing pump power, narrows (the smallest width is 350 μeV), and undergoes a shift (of about 0.5 μeV) to lower energies, in accordance with the filling of the lowest state in the domain. With a rise in temperature, this line disappears from the spectrum (T _c ≤ 3.4 K). The observed phenomenon is attributed to Bose-Einstein condensation in a quasi-two-dimensional system of interwell excitons. In the temperature range studied (1.5–3.4 K), the critical exciton density and temperature increase almost linearly with temperature.     

Phase diagram of the Bose condensation of interwell excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells

The luminescence of interwell excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells (n-i-n heterostructures) with large-scale fluctuations of random potential in the heteroboundary planes was studied at low temperatures down to 0.5 K. The properties of excitons whose photoexcited electron and hole are spatially separated in the neighboring quantum wells by a tunneling barrier were studied as functions of density and temperature. The studies were performed within domains about one micron in size, which played the role of macroscopic traps for interwell excitons. For this purpose, the sample surface was coated with a metal mask containing special openings (windows) of a micron size or smaller. Both photoexcitation and observation of luminescence were performed through these windows by the fiber optic technique. At low pumping powers, the interwell excitons were strongly localized because of the residual charged impurities, and the corresponding photoluminescence line was nonuniformly broadened. As the laser excitation power increased, a narrow line due to delocalized excitons arose in a threshold-like manner, after which its intensity rapidly increased with growing pumping and the line itself narrowed (to a linewidth less than 1 meV) and shifted toward lower energies (by about 0.5 meV) in accordance with the filling of the lowest exciton state in the domain. An increase in temperature was accompanied by the disappearance of the line from the spectrum in a nonactivation manner. The phenomenon observed in the experiment was attributed to Bose-Einstein condensation in a quasi-two-dimensional system of interwell excitons. In the temperature interval studied (0.5–3.6) K, the critical exciton density and temperature were determined and a phase diagram outlining the exciton condensate region was constructed.     

The temperature dependence of the photoluminescence from overgrown GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As quantum dots and wires

Photoluminescence measurements on GaAs/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As quantum dots and wires fabricated using electron bears lithography and reactive ion etching are reported both before and after regrowth with a layer of Al_0.4Ga_0.6As. Dots exhibit little change in luminescence efficiency from the bulk with a reduction in diameter either before or after regrowth. Surface recombination therefore appears to be suppressed. In wires, however, luminescence intensity is very sensitive to wire width, decreasing rapidly with this parameter, but recovers and becomes independent of size after overgrowth. The temperature dependence of the photoluminescence from the dots and wires showed that dots and wires less than 150nm in width luminesced to higher temperatures than the larger diameter structures and dots liminesced to higher temperatures than wires of comparable width. This suggests that there is a finite coherence area effect which increases the radiative lifetimes of excitons in the quantum structures due to the geometric constraint, in the lateral direction in the wires and in all three directions in the dots. Below 20K bound exciton luminescence dominates in the dots but not in the wires. In wires it is still possible for the excitons to diffuse to nonradiative sites within the exciton lifetime. Regrowth at 750°C causes migration of aluminium into the quantum well and causes the shape of the well to become parabolic resulting shifts in the exciton emission to shorter wavelengths, making it difficult to separate the effect of processing from those due to quantum confinement.     

Dependence of photoluminescence of ZnO/Zn0.85Mg0.15O multi-quantum wells on barrier width

Temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) from two multi-quantum well (MQW) structures with different barrier widths has been systematically investigated. The PL band in the well layers is dominated by localized excitons (LE), D⁰X, and D⁰X-1LO. As the temperature increases, luminescence from the excitons localized in the well layers shows an ‘S’-shaped shift in the thin barrier MQW whereas a monotonic redshift is observed from the thick barrier MQW. Quenching of well-related emission is associated with delocalization of the excitons in the potential minima induced by interface fluctuations or alloy disorder. The activation energies correlated with depths of the local potential are deduced to be 7 and 17 meV for the thick and thin barrier MQWs, respectively.     

Interwell excitons in a lateral potential well in an inhomogeneous electric field

The luminescence of interwell excitons in double quantum wells based on GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor heterostructures (n-i-n structures) in a lateral trap prepared with the use of an inhomogeneous electric field was studied at helium temperatures. A rather strong and inhomogeneous electric field occurred in the depth of the heterostructure when a current passed through the contact between the conducting tip of a tunneling microscope and the heterostructure surface to the bulk region containing a built-in gate. Because of the Stark shift of energy bands in the electric field, the photoexcited electrons and holes are spatially separated in neighboring quantum wells by a tunnel-transparent barrier and are bound into interwell quasi-two-dimensional excitons. These excitons have a dipole moment even in the ground state. Therefore, electrostatic forces in the inhomogeneous electric field cause the excitons to move in the plane of quantum wells toward the maximum field region and eventually accumulate in the lateral trap artificially prepared in such a way. The maximum trap depth achieved through the inhomogeneous electric field was 13.5 meV, and its lateral size was about 10 μm. It is shown that, in the traps prepared in this way, photoexcited interwell excitons behave with increasing concentration at sufficiently low temperatures (T=2K) in the same fashion as in the lateral traps caused by large-scale fluctuations of the random potential. At concentrations exceeding the percolation threshold, the interwell excitons condense into the lowest energy state in the trap.     

Blue luminescence from the InGaN multiple quantum wells

We have fabricated very high-quality In_0.13Ga_0.87N/GaN multiple quantum wells with thickness as small as on (0 0 0 1) sapphire substrate using metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). We have investigated these ultra-thin multiple quantum wells by continuous wave (cw) and time resolved spectroscopy in the picosecond time scales in a wide range of temperatures from 10 K to 290 K. In the luminescence spectrum at 10 K we observed a broad peak at 3.134 eV which was attributed to the quantum wells emission of InGaN. The full-width at half-maximum of this peak was 129 meV at 10 K and the broadening at low temperatures which was mostly inhomogeneous was thought to be due to compositional fluctuations and interfacial disorder in the alloy. The ultra narrow width of the quantum well was found to have a very profound effect in increasing the emission linewidth. We also observed an intense and narrow peak at 3.471 eV due to the GaN barrier. The temperature dependence of the luminescence was studied. The peak positions and intensities of the different peaks were obtained after a careful Lorentzian analysis. The activation energy of the InGaN quantum well emission peak was estimated as 69 meV. The lifetime of the quantum well emission was found to be 720 ps at 10 K. The results were explained by considering the localization of the excitons due to potential fluctuations. At higher temperatures the non-radiative recombination was found to be very dominant.     

Strong coupling between localized plasmons and organic excitons in metal nanovoids

Hybrid emitting exciton-plasmonic composites are constructed by coating arrays of spherical nanovoids embedded in a gold film with organic semiconducting molecular J-aggregate films. In such plasmonic crystals, localized plasmons confined inside the voids can be excited. We report the first observation of polaritonic spectral narrowing and strong coupling between localized plasmons and J-aggregate excitons with Rabi splittings of 230 meV at room temperature.     

Collective state of interwell excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells under pulse resonance excitation

The time evolution and kinetics of photoluminescence (PL) spectra of interwell excitons in double GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (n-i-n structures) have been investigated under the pulse resonance excitation of intrawell 1sHH excitons using a pulsed tunable laser. It is found that the collective exciton phase arises with a time delay relative to the exciting pulse (several nanoseconds), which is due to density and temperature relaxation to the equilibrium values. The origination of the collective phase of interwell excitons is accompanied by a strong narrowing of the corresponding photoluminescence line (the line width is about 1.1 meV), a superlinear rise in its intensity, a long time in the change of the degree of circular polarization, a displacement of the PL spectrum toward lower energies (about 1.5 meV) in accordance with the filling of the lowest state with the exciton Bose condensate, and a significant increase in the radiative decay rate of the condensed phase. The collective exciton phase arises at temperatures T<6 K and interwell exciton densities n=3×10¹⁰ cm^?2. Coherent properties of the collective phase of interwell excitons and experimental manifestations of this coherence are discussed.     

不同In含量InGaN/GaN量子阱材料的变温PL谱

通过对不同In含量的InGaN/GaN量子阱材料的变温光致发光(PL)谱进行实验分析,得出样品激活能和PL谱峰值能量随温度变化的S形曲线中拐点温度与In含量的关系。说明对于我们的样品,这种S形曲线并不是来源于量子限制Stark效应(QCSE),而是与量子阱中In团簇有关。对比结果表明,含In量越多的材料其局域的能量越大,由热扰动脱离局域所需要的温度越高。     

GaN激子跃迁的时间分辨光谱学研究

用时间分辨光谱学方法研究低压有机金属化学汽相沉积生长的ＧａＮ中自由，束缚激子（ＢＸ）的跃迁，讨论了这些跃迁的光致发光谱，复合寿命及其与温度的关系，给出了中性施主束缚激子和自由激子（ＦＸ）的辐射复合寿命分别为０．１２ｎｓ和０．４ｎｓ。     

Recombination dynamics of free and bound excitons in bulk GaN

We report new data on the transient photoluminescence behaviour of free and donor bound excitons in high quality bulk GaN material grown by HVPE. With 266 nm photoexcitation the no-phonon free exciton has a short decay time, about 100 ps at 2 K, assigned to nonradiative surface recombination. The LO replicas of the free exciton have a much longer decay at 2 K, about 1.4 ns, believed to be a lower bound for the bulk radiative lifetimes of the free excitons at 2 K. The donor bound exciton no-phonon lines exhibit a rather short (about 300 ps) nonexponential decay at 2 K, which appears to be dominated by a scattering process. The corresponding LO replicas and the two-electron transitions have a much longer decay. From the latter, the lower bound of the radiative lifetime of the O- and Si-bound excitons are 1800 ps and 1100 ps, respectively.     

Highly extended image states around nanotubes

We predict that freely suspended, linear molecular conductors or dielectrics, such as carbon nanotubes, can support electronic states that are localized far from the surface. These "tubular image states" are formed in extended potential wells resulting from the tug of war between the external electron's attraction to its image charge in the nanotube, and its repulsion from the tube due to its transverse angular momentum. The displacement of these states (>10 nm) away from the surface prevents their wave functions from collapsing, resulting in long lifetimes at low temperatures. We predict that tubular image states with binding energies of 1-10 meV can be formed via radiative recombination.     

Exchange-induced splitting of radiative exciton levels in a single quantum wire

We report on polarization-resolved micro-photoluminescence experiments performed on a single GaAs/GaAlAs V-shaped quantum wire. At low temperature the micro-photoluminescence spectra are composed of sharp peaks corresponding to excitons localized in naturally formed quantum boxes. We observed splittings of the radiative doublet of these exciton levels into two linearly polarized states due to the exchange interaction. The exchange splittings are of the order of 100 μeV. A theoretical model of the exchange interaction on localized states in quantum wires is developed. It shows that the exchange splitting is characteristic of the uniaxial anisotropy of the localized states and thus related to their extension along the wire axis. The experimental results are discussed within the frame of this model.     

Numerical simulation of exciton dynamics in Cu(2)O at ultra-low temperatures within a potential trap

We have studied theoretically the relaxation behaviour of excitons in cuprous oxide (Cu(2)O) at ultra-low temperatures when excitons are confined within a potential trap by solving numerically the Boltzmann equation. As relaxation processes, we have included in this paper deformation potential phonon scattering, radiative and non-radiative decay and Auger decay. The relaxation kinetics has been analysed for temperatures in the range between 0.3 and 5?K. Under the action of deformation potential phonon scattering only, we find for temperatures above 0.5?K that the excitons reach local equilibrium with the lattice, i.e.?that the effective local temperature is coming down to the bath temperature, while below 0.5?K a non-thermal energy distribution remains. Interestingly, for all temperatures the global spatial distribution of excitons does not reach the equilibrium distribution, but stays at a much higher effective temperature. If we include further a finite lifetime of the excitons and the two-particle Auger decay, we find that both the local and the global effective temperature do not come down to the bath temperature. In the first case we find that a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) occurs for all temperatures in the investigated range. Comparing our results with the thermal equilibrium case, we find that BEC occurs for a significantly higher number of excitons in the trap. This effect could be related to the higher global temperature, which requires an increased number of excitons within the trap to observe the BEC. In the case of Auger decay, we do not find a BEC at any temperature due to the local heating of the exciton gas.     

无序GaInP光致发光谱的温度依赖关系

研究了无序ＧａＩｎＰ样品的温度依赖关系，大低温ＰＬ谱中，谱线呈单峰结构。随着温度从１５Ｋ升高到２５０Ｋ，说地宽从１６ｍｅＶ增大到３１ｍｅＶ，并且发生红移，同时强度减小两个数数量级。     

硅衬底生长的InGaN/GaN多层量子阱中δ型硅掺杂n-GaN层对载流子复合过程的调节作用

为了解决在单晶硅衬底上生长的InGaN/GaN多层量子阱发光二极管器件发光效率显著降低的问题,使用周期性δ型Si掺杂的GaN取代Si均匀掺杂的GaN作为n型层释放多层界面间的张应力。采用稳态荧光谱及时间分辨荧光谱测量,提取并分析了使用该方案前后的多层量子阱中辐射/非辐射复合速率随温度（10~300 K）的变化规律。实验结果表明引入δ-Si掺杂的n-GaN层后,非辐射复合平均激活能由（18±3）meV升高到（38±10）meV,对应非辐射复合速率随温度升高而上升的趋势变缓,室温下非辐射复合速率下降,体系中与阱宽涨落有关的浅能级复合中心浓度减小,PL峰位由531 nm左右红移至579 nm左右,样品PL效率随温度的衰减受到抑制。使用周期性δ型Si掺杂的GaN取代Si均匀掺杂的GaN作为生长在Si衬底上的InGaN/GaN多层量子阱LED器件n型层,由于应力释放,降低了多层量子阱与n-GaN界面、InGaN/GaN界面的缺陷密度,使得器件性能得到了改善。