NUMERICAL STUDY OF TEMPERATURE EFFECT ON CARRIER DYNAMICS IN MULTIPLE-QUANTUM-WELL NARROW WIRES

To clarify the effect of temperature on the wire width dependence of t he photoluminescence (PL) decay time in multiple quantum well narrow w ires, we performed numerical calculations of carrier dynamics using a simple damage model in which nonradiative recombination centers caused by fabrication damage near the wire sidewalls are considered. The dra stic reduction of PL decay time around a 100-nm-wide wire at low tempe rature is explained by our damage model by the presence of an opticall y inactive layer, i.e., a so-called ''dead layer'' in which carriers v anish almost immediately due to heavy damage before reaching the sidew all. Our calculations show that the length of the ''dead layer'' chang es with temperature even though the length of the damaged layer, in wh ich defects are formed during fabrication process, is independent of t emperature.