The stimulated emission and photoluminescence of ultrathin GaN quantum wells with a nominal thickness of 1.5 – 2 monolayers (MLs) and AlN barrier layers 4 – 6.66 ML thick, obtained by plasma-activated molecular beam epitaxy on c-sapphire substrates, are studied. The stimulated emission of TE polarisation in ultrathin GaN/AlN quantum wells is obtained under pumping directly into quantum wells. The wavelength of stimulated emission varied from 262 to 290 nm, depending on the thickness of the wells and barriers. It is shown that stimulated emission is achieved on localised GaN states with a thickness of 2 and 3 ML in ultrathin quantum wells with a nominal thickness of 1.5 and 2 ML, respectively. The minimum excitation threshold of stimulated emission was 700 kW cm−2 at λ = 270 nm.
By optimising the growth temperature of the AlGaN layers and using high-temperature AlN buffer layers, high-quality Al
x
Ga1 – x
N layers (x = 0.15, 0.21, 0.26, and 0.3) were obtained, in which stimulated emission in the UV spectral range 330 – 297 nm was implemented with the threshold intensity of excitation I
th ≈ 0.7 – 1.4 MW cm−2, respectively. It is found that the threshold value of the stimulated emission of AlGaN layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy is largely determined by the intensity of the process of thermal decomposition of GaN, which affects the surface morphology and, consequently, the amount of optical scattering loss. It is shown that no pronounced localisation of nonequilibrium charge carriers occurs in the AlGaN layers, which is manifested in the absence of a large Stokes shift and in the realisation of optical amplification at transitions in an electron-hole plasma, and also indicates a relatively homogeneous material composition.
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