Peculiar enhancement of the excitonic emission of CdSe/ZnSe quantum wells at ∼ 90 K when excited with a HeCd laser

The close coincidence at low temperatures of the HeCd blue laser line (442 nm, Elaser = 2.808 eV) with the ZnSe bandgap, Eg = 2.821 eV, and with the excitonic emission at ∼2.80 eV, allows the observation of peculiar effects during photoluminescence studies of CdSe/ZnSe quantum wells with a typical experimental setup. One effect is the enhancement of the excitonic emission at ∼ 90 – 100 K; the second effect is the presence of strong longitudinal optical (LO) phonon lines (in a broad temperature range) due to resonant Raman scattering. Here, we will show that the enhancement of the excitonic emission, that can be misinterpreted as caused by an intrinsic temperature dependent behavior of the quantum wells, is due to the high absorption of the blue laser light by the barriers when the ZnSe bandgap coincides with Elaser at ∼ 90 K, electron and holes produced in the barriers diffuse to the quantum wells enhancing their excitonic emission.