Piezoelectric field and confinement effects on the dielectric function spectrum of InGaN/GaN quantum wells

In0.13Ga0.87N/GaN double heterostructures and quantum wells (QWs) have been studied by room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). PL revealed the presence of strong piezoelectric fields, which strongly influence the luminescence properties for InGaN QW widths in the 3-12 nm range. The pseudodielectric function spectrum derived from the SE measurements were analyzed using a multilayer approach, describing the dielectric function of the individual layers by a parametric oscillator model. The fundamental band-gap resonance in the InGaN dielectric-function spectrum was found to broaden for an InGaN layer width of 12 nm, as compared to bulk-like InGaN layers, due to piezoelectric field effects. For a much narrower QW width of 1.7 nm, however, quantum confinement was found to dominate over piezoelectric-field effects, resulting in a much sharper band-gap resonance shifted to higher energies and an increased oscillator strength. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)01001-9].