Temperature dependence of the minority carrier lifetime in GaAs/AlGaAs double heterostructures

We have studied the photoluminescence decay time in a series of high quality GaAs/AlGaAs double heterostructure samples, grown by liquid phase epitaxy, with different p-type doping. We have compared the experimentally observed decay time as a function of temperature from 100 to 700 K, with a complete calculation of the radiative recombination rate, including the temperature dependence of the reabsorption factor. We conclude that the observed decay time is well explained by a dominating radiative recombination up to temperatures of about 500 K. The internal quantum efficiency is hence close to unity. At higher temperatures we observe a deviation from the expected values for the radiative recombination, attributed to a nonradiative recombination channel.