Exciton and carrier motion in quaternary AlInGaN

Temperature and excitation power dependences of the photoluminescence Stokes shift and bandwidth were studied in quaternary AlInGaN epilayers as a function of indium content. At low excitation power, gradual incorporation of indium into AlGaN is shown to result in S- and W-shaped temperature dependences of the band peak position and bandwidth, respectively. At high excitation power, the S- and W-behavior disappears; however, increased indium molar fraction boosts the redshift of the luminescence band at high temperatures. Our results indicate that the incorporation of indium into AlGaN has a noticeable impact on the alloy transport properties. At low temperatures and low excitation power, the indium incorporation facilitates hopping of localized excitons, whereas at high temperatures and high excitation power, it sustains free motion of delocalized carriers that results in the band-gap renormalization via screening. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.