Investigation of localized state emissions in quaternary InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb multiple quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

As an essential structure of infrared semiconductor lasers, the optical properties of InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb multiple quantum wells need to be fully investigated. In this paper, the temperature and excitation power-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb MQWs are measured. A strong free exciton emission with a photon energy of 0.631 eV was observed at room temperature. Besides the main peak, an obvious shoulder peak, located at the low photon energy position under low temperature range (T <= 90 K), was confirmed to be an emission of defect related localized carriers by power-dependent PL spectra. The power-dependent PL spectra were dominated by the localized carriers emission under low excitation power (I-ex <= 20 mW), while the free-exciton emission dominated the PL spectra gradually when excitation power higher than 40 mW. This phenomenon is ascribed to the dissociation of localized states. Our work is of great significance for the device applications of InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb multiple quantum wells. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement