Correlation between electronic states and optical properties in indirect GaAsP/GaP quantum wells with insertion of an ultrathin AlP layer

The optical properties of indirect semiconductor quantum wells (QWs), were studied in relation to their electronic states controlled by an ultrathin AlP layer. The insertion of 1 ML of AlP at the center of a 60 Å GaAsP/GaP QW drastically increased the photoluminescence (PL) intensity and the efficiency of the no-phonon (NP) transition. The NP intensity relative to its TO phonon replica was found to greatly depend on the structural parameters and decreased by decreasing the width of the AlP layer or by increasing the arsenic composition of the GaAsP QW. The comparison with numerical calculation clarified that the efficiency of the NP transition is improved when the X_z electrons rather than X_xy electrons are involved in the radiative recombination. This can be qualitatively understood that the X_z electrons are more strongly localized to the AlP layer, leading to the efficient relaxation of the selection rule. The Arrhenius behavior of the PL intensity was also studied and the quenching of the PL intensity was interpreted as being due to the thermally activated escape of carriers from the well region into the GaP barrier.