Effect of doping on the mid-infrared intersubband absorption in GaN/AlGaN superlattices grown on Si(111) templates

We report on the effect of Si doping on the mid-infrared intersubband absorption in GaN/AlGaN superlattices. For increasing doping levels, interband luminescence displays a blueshift and a broadening of the band edge caused by the screening of the internal electric field and band-filling effects. The intersubband absorption energy is mainly governed by many-body effects like exchange interaction and depolarization shift, which increase the e1–e2 subband separation. The ISB blueshift induced by many-body effects can be more than 50% of the e1–e2 transition energy.