• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.211-216
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• 2010

The luminescence properties of $In_{0.5}Ga_{0.5}As/In_{0.5}Al_{0.5}As$ multiple quantum wells (MQWs) grown on $In_{0.5}Al_{0.5}As$ buffer layers have been studied by using photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL measurements. A$1-{\mu}m$ thick $In_{0.5}Al_{0.5}As$ buffer layers were deposited on a 500 nm thick GaAs layer, followed by the deposition of the InGaAs/InAlAs MQWs. In order to investigate the effects of InAlAs buffer layer on the optical properties of the MQWs, four different temperature sequences are used for the growth of InAlAs buffer layer. The growth temperature for InAlAs buffer layer was varied from 320^{\circ}C to $580^{\circ}C$. The MQWs consist of three $In_{0.5}Ga_{0.5}$As wells with different well thicknesses (2.5 nm, 4.0 nm, and 6.0 nm thick) and 10 nm thick $In_{0.5}Al_{0.5}$As barriers. The PL spectra from the MQWs with InAlAs layer grown at lower temperature range ($320-580^{\circ}C$) showed strong peaks from 4 nm QW and 6 nm QW. However, for the MQWs with InAlAs buffer grown at higher temperature range ($320-480^{\circ}C$), the PL spectra only showed a strong peak from 6 nm QW. The strongest PL intensity was obtained from the MQWs with InAlAs layer grown at the fixed temperature of $480^{\circ}C$, while the MQWs with buffer layer grown at higher temperature from $530^{\circ}C$ to $580^{\circ}C$ showed the weakest PL intensity. From the emission wavelength dependence of PL decay times, the fast and slow decay times may be related to the recombination of carriers in the 4 nm QW and 6 nm QW, respectively. These results indicated that the growth temperatures of InAlAs layer affect the structural and optical properties of the MQWs.