Study of light emission from GaN/AlGaN quantum wells under power-dependent excitation

We have performed a study of excitation power-dependent spectra of GaN/AlGaN single quantum wells (QWs). First, the experimental "blueshift" of the emission energy, due to screening of internal piezoelectric fields, was compared with the model calculations based on self-consistent solution of Schroedinger and Poisson equations. We found that, even for the highest applied levels of excitation power (2.5 MW/cm(2)), only 0.5x10(12) cm(-2) carriers were present in the QW layers. Second, we analyzed the evolution of power-dependent spectra of two single QW having different widths. For the thinner QW (2.1 nm), the peak corresponding to a QW photoluminescence (PL) emission dominates the entire spectrum in the whole range of the used excitation power. In the case of the wider QW (4.4 nm), for sufficiently high excitation power, we observe the effect of PL quenching. Using the rate equation model we show that the observed effect of the PL quenching can be associated with the reduction of exciton binding energy due to the many body interactions in the QW. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.