Thermal stability of the deep ultraviolet emission from AlGaN/AlN Stranski-Krastanov quantum dots

We report on the structural and optical properties of AlGaN/AlN quantum dot (QD) superlattices synthesized by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. Modifying the composition and geometry of the QDs, the peak emission wavelength can be shifted from 320 nm to 235 nm while keeping the internal quantum efficiency larger than 30%. The efficient carrier confinement is confirmed by the stability of the photoluminescence (PL) intensity and decay time, from low temperature up to 100 K. Above this threshold, the PL intensity decreases and the radiative lifetime increases due to carrier thermalization. We also identified the intraband electronic transition between the ground level of the conduction band and the first excited state confined along the growth axis (s-pz).