Effect of temperature on the optical properties of GaAsSbN/GaAs single quantum wells grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

GaAsSbN/GaAs strained-layer single quantum wells grown on a GaAs substrate by molecular-beam epitaxy with different N concentrations were studied using the photoluminescence (PL) technique in the temperature range from 9 to 296 K. A strong redshift in optical transition energies induced by a small increase in N concentration has been observed in the PL spectra. This effect can be explained by the interaction between a narrow resonant band formed by the N-localized states and the conduction band of the host semiconductor. Excitonic transitions in the quantum wells show a successive red/blue/redshift with increasing temperature in the 2-100 K range. The activation energies of nonradiative channels responsible for a strong thermal quenching are deduced from an Arrhenius plot of the integrated PL intensity. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics