Carrier dynamics in GaAs–Al0.46Ga0.54As superlattice structure grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown GaAs–Al0.46Ga0.54As superlattice (SL) structures containing one thicker single quantum well (SQW) are investigated with use of time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence in the temperature range 10–300 K. Analysing the temperature dependence of the integrated PL intensity, we observe thermally activated carrier transfer from the SL to the SQW, for temperature higher than 70 K. Both radiative and nonradiative recombination times have been extracted from the combined measurements of the PL decay time and the PL-integrated intensity. The nonradiative processes in the SL have been found to play an important role and become dominant for T⩾70 K. Due to the carrier transfer from the SL to the SQW, the radiative time in the SQW dominates the recombination up to 220 K. We believe this heterostructure for the development of quantum-well lasers operating at room temperature to be applicable.