Luminescence and ultrafast phenomena in InGaN multiple quantum wells

High quality In_0.13Ga_0.87N/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on (0001) sapphire substrate were fabricated by MOCVD method. The quantum well thickness is as thin as 10 Å, and the barrier thickness is 50 Å. We have investigated these ultrathin MQWs by continuous wave (cw) and time-resolved spectroscopy in the picosecond time scales in a wide temperature range from 10 to 290 K. In the luminescence spectrum at 10 K, we observed a broad peak at 3.134 eV which was attributed to the quantum wells emission of InGaN. The full width at half maximum of this peak was 129 meV at 10 K and the broadening at low temperatures which was mostly inhomogeneous was thought to be due to compositional fluctuations and interfacial disorder in the alloy. We also observed an intense and narrow peak at 3.471 eV due to the GaN barrier. The temperature dependence of the luminescence was studied and the peak positions and the intensities of the different peaks were obtained. The activation energy of the InGaN quantum well emission peak was estimated as 69 meV. From the measurements of luminescence intensities and lifetimes at various temperatures, radiative and non-radiative recombination lifetimes were deduced. The results were explained by considering only the localization of the excitons due to potential fluctuations.