Injection, intersubband relaxation and recombination in GaAs multiple quantum wells

Results of continuous excitation, time-delayed and time-resolved cathodoluminescence experiments on undoped and Be-doped GaAs multiple quantum wells of thickness 5–11 nm are reported for temperatures 5–300 K and excitation intensities 1–10³ W/cm². Comparison is made with similar investigations of bulk epitaxial GaAs layers. Increasing structural localisation of the carriers is identified to lead to a qualitative change of the type of recombination. Increasingly faster radiative excitonic recombination leads to a bypass of impurity and trap capture processes in undoped as well as in doped material, at low temperatures as well as at room temperature. Despite the exponential character of excitonic decay, the luminescence transients are found to be very complex due to an interplay of intersubband scattering and recombination processes and time-dependent carrier temperature. Transients are analysed in detail, excitonic lifetimes and intersubband scattering times are derived. It is argued that both the lifetime reduction in quantum wells and the novel process of recombination heating lead to a strongly increased quasiequilibrium temperature of excited carriers in the wells as compared to bulk material. Injection of carriers from 18 nm GaAlAs barriers to GaAs wells is found to occur in less than 10^-12 s without loss.