Photoluminescence and bowing parameters of InAsSb∕InAs multiple quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

Detailed studies are reported on the photoluminescence of InAsSb/ InAs multiple quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InAs substrates with the Sb mole fraction ranging from 0.06 to 0.13. From 4 K photoluminescence the band alignment was determined to be staggered type II. By comparing the emission peak energies with a transition energy calculation it was found that both the conduction and valence bands of InAsSb alloy exhibit some bowing. The bowing parameters were determined to be in the ratio of 4:6. For a sample with Sb composition ϳ0.12 in the quantum well the photoluminescence emission band covers the CO 2 absorption peak making it suitable for use in sources for CO 2 detection. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.2388879͔Among the family of bulk III-V compound semiconductors the InAsSb alloy system has the lowest band gap energy ͑E g = 0.145 eV at x = 0.634͒ and is thus an important material for mid-IR devices. 1,2 Heterostructures based on InAsSb alloys, such as InAs/ InAsSb, InAsSb/ InAsPSb, InAsSb/ InGaSb, and so on, have been widely applied as the active medium for mid-IR optoelectronic devices. [3][4][5][6] The InAsSb/ InAs multiple quantum well ͑MQW͒ system is appropriate for use in the active region of 3 -5 m lightemitting diodes that could be deployed in portable gas analyzers and which are important for environmental protection. 6 In this letter we report on a series of InAsSb/ InAs multiple quantum well samples grown by molecular beam epitaxy ͑MBE͒ on InAs substrates. Photoluminescence ͑PL͒ spectroscopy measurements were undertaken to investigate the dependence of emission wavelength on composition and also to gain information about the conduction band and valence band bowing parameters. The transition energies of the above-mentioned samples lie within the range of 0.2-0.4 eV ͑3-5 m͒.The InAsSb/ InAs MQW samples were grown on ͑100͒ n + -InAs substrates using a VG-V80H MBE system. Two cracker cells were used to provide the Sb and As 2 beams. A thermal effusion K cell was used to provide the In flux. An InAs buffer layer with a thickness of 100 nm was grown at 480°C. Then a seven-period InAsSb/ InAs MQW with various Sb compositions was grown at 450°C. The thickness of the InAsSb well and InAs barrier were 7 and 50 nm, respectively. In situ reflection high energy electron diffraction ͑RHEED͒ was used to monitor surface reconstruction. After growth the samples were characterized using double crystal x-ray diffraction ͑DXRD͒ and PL to study their structural and optical properties. Figure 1 shows the DXRD spectra of the InAsSb/ InAs MQW samples. During the growth of the MQWs, the in situ RHEED pattern showed a clear 4 ϫ 2 reconstruction when InAs was deposited and became slightly blurry when InAsSb was deposited. This implies a rougher growing surface when the Sb beam was incident. For samples with a higher Sb composition, only bulk lines were observed and we believe that this may result from the stress caused by lattice mismatch. However, the satellite peaks in the DXRD sp...

Growth of InAsSb/InAs MQWs on GaSb for mid-IR photodetector applications

“…This is too large to be due solely to shallow impurity effects, such as donor-acceptor-pair or free-bound transitions. The finding of the lowered energy has also been recently reported in the literature by Liu et al [11], who studied InAsSb/InAs MQWs on InAs substrates for various Sb compositions with a quantum well thickness of 7 nm. These data are also included in Fig.…”

Band alignment of InAs1−xSbx (0.05<x<0.13)/InAs0.67P0.23Sb0.10 heterostructures

“…It is clear that InAsSb/InAs shows type-IIb band alignment, as opposed to the type-IIa alignment reported for the MOVPEgrown samples. 6 This alignment is consistent with our previous results obtained from the low-temperature PL of InAs/ InAsSb MQWs, 12 which are also depicted in the same figure.…”

InAs/InAsSb strain balanced superlattices for optical detectors: Material properties and energy band simulations

“…3. Here the transition energy depends linearly on the Sb content in the InAsSb layers, as was found by Liu et al 24 for MBE grown InAsSb (7 nm)/InAs (50 nm) MQWs on InAs substrates. The measured transitions are compared to the calculated bandgap of strained (unstrained) InAsSb, which is plotted as the dashed-dotted (solid) line.…”

“…The discrepancy between the calculated bandgap and the measured PL transition energy is due to the type II band alignment, as predicted by theory 17 and experimentally confirmed. 16,20,24 For the simulations, the software nextnano 3 (Ref. 25) was used, and rectangular quantum wells with periodic boundary conditions were assumed for the MQW samples.…”