Photoluminescence of Single Quantum Well Structures in Gallium Arsenide

The continued development of state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies and devices by the United States Air Force and the Department of Defense requires accurate and efficient techniques to evaluate and model these new materials. Of particular interest to the Air Force are quantum well structures which can be used for small-scale laser sources in fly-by-light applications, as efficient infrared countermeasures to heat-seeking missiles, or as advanced seekers in optically guided missiles. This thesis provides the initial experimental procedures and data necessary to begin producing accurate yet robust models. Although carrier effective masses could not be evaluated using hot-electron photoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation and temperature studies were conducted to determine the effects of strain and impurities on band structure in quantum structures. Beryllium-doped indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs: Be) quantum wells, compressively strained to lattice-match gallium arsenide, were studied, and parameters for strained energy gap, heavy hole-light hole split, and acceptor binding energy were evaluated. With the carrier effective masses fixed at accepted values, strain produced a 1.2715 eV energy gap within the well and a heavy hole-light hole split of 23.2 meV. Finally, the beryllium binding energy was found to be 22.1 meV measured above the highest valence band (first quantized heavy hole band) at 300 K.

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