Temperature dependence of excitonic absorption spectra in ZnO/Zn0.88Mg0.12O multiquantum wells grown on lattice-matched substrates

The excitonic properties of high-quality ZnO/Zn0.88Mg0.12O multiquantum wells grown by laser-molecular-beam epitaxy were investigated using temperature-dependent optical absorption spectra from 5 K to room temperature. The strength of exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) -phonon coupling was deduced from the temperature dependence of the linewidth of the fundamental excitonic peak. Effective reduction of the exciton-LO-phonon coupling with decreasing the well width was observed, which is consistent with the confinement-induced enhancement of the exciton binding energy. The thermal shift of the lowest excitonic energy is independent of well width, indicating that the strain effect is negligible for this material. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.