Quaternary Znx ' Cdy ' Mg1-x '-Se-y'/ZnxCdyMg1-x-ySe quantum wells grown on InP substrates for blue emission

Quaternary Zn-x,Cd-y,Mg1-x,-y,Se/ZnxCdyMg1-x-ySe quantum well (QW) structur es in which both the well and the barrier layers are composed of quaternary alloys lattice matched to InP and having various well thicknesses have bee n grown and investigated. A blue emission with narrow linewidth was achieve d by using a relatively thick well thickness (40-60 Angstrom). The quaterna ry QW emission exhibits excitonic recombination behavior and it has higher quantum efficiency than the ternary ZnxCd1-xSe/ZnxCdyMg1-x-ySe QW of compar able thickness. The temperature dependence of the photoluminescence measure ments shows a high activation energy of 68 meV, indicating a strong quantum confinement by introduction of Mg in the QW region. (C) 2001 American Inst itute of Physics.