STEADY-STATE PHOTOCURRENT AND PHOTOLUMINESCENCE FROM SINGLE QUANTUM-WELLS AS A FUNCTION OF TEMPERATURE AND BIAS

We have studied the variation with applied bias and temperature of ste ady state photoluminescence (DCPL) and photoconductivity (DCPC) from a series of GaAs/AlGaAs single quantum well, p-i-n structures with diff erent well widths. We present the DCPC and DCPL results, which when co mbined, allow us to assess how significant nonradiative recombination is in the samples and hence the quality of the material. We discuss th e qualitative features in the light of a new theoretical approach pres ented here for the first time. This includes contributions from escape (of both electrons and holes) and makes it possible to extract from t he experimental data two parameters, each reflecting the competition b etween escape and one of the recombination processes (radiative or non radiative) in the absence of the other. We further comment qualitative ly on the bias and temperature dependence of these different processes . (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.