CATHODOLUMINESCENCE OF STRAINED QUANTUM-WELLS AND LAYERS

Cathodoluminescence is used to investigate the optical properties of strained heterostructures. Spatially, time- and spectrally resolved experiments provide an essential tool for determining the lateral distribution and the recombination dynamics of intrinsic and extrinsic emission of quantum wells and microstructures. The properties of pseudomorphic InxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum wells are found to be dominated by intrinsic effects. Partial strain relaxation causes optical degradation scaling with the product of ambipolar diffusion length and misfit dislocation density. The Si incorporation into GaAs layers masklessly grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on patterned Si (001) is imaged and discussed in terms of MOCVD specific surface chemistry. Antiphase domains in MOCVD grown InP layers on Si (001) are imaged for the first time. The domain boundaries exhibit reduced quantum efficiency. © 1991.