Minority-carrier lifetimes in undoped AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells

The lifetime of minority carriers in AlGaAs-GaAs quantum well structures grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition has been studied at room temperature and carrier densities up to 3×1016 cm−3 using time-resolved photoluminescence. Decay times are observed to be strongly dependent upon the quality of the AlGaAs barrier regions, excitation, and well width. Strong saturation of the decay times is observed with excitation indicating the presence of nonradiative traps. Saturated lifetimes as long as 650 ns have been measured in quantum wells with 200 Å well widths.