The photoluminescence technique applied to the investigation of structural imperfections in quantum wells of semiconducting material

Photoluminescence is one of the most used spectroscopy techniques for the study of the optical properties of semiconducting materials and heterostructures. In this work the potentiality of this technique is explored through the investigation and characterization of structural imperfections originated from fluctuations in the chemical composition of ternary and quaternary alloys, from interface roughnesses, and from unintentional compounds formed by the chemical elements intermixing at the interfaces. Samples of GaAs/AlGaAs, GaAsSb/GaAs, GaAsSbN/GaAs and GaAs/GaInP quantum well structures are analyzed to verify the influence of the structural imperfections on the PL spectra