Optical and microstructural studies of InGaN/GaN single-quantum-well structures

We have studied the low-temperature (T=6 K) optical properties of a series of InGaN/GaN single-quantum-well structures with varying indium fractions. With increasing indium fraction the peak emission moves to lower energy and the strength of the exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO)-phonon coupling increases. The Huang-Rhys factor extracted from the Fabry-Perot interference-free photoluminescence spectra has been compared with the results of a model calculation, yielding a value of approximately 2 nm for the in-plane localization length scale of carriers. We have found reasonable agreement between this length scale and the in-plane extent of well-width fluctuations observed in scanning transmission electron microscopy high-angle annular dark-field images. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images taken with a short exposure time and a low electron flux have not revealed any evidence of gross indium fluctuations within our InGaN quantum wells. These images could not, however, rule out the possible existence of small-scale indium fluctuations, of the order of a few at. %. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.