Time-Resolved Photoluminescence Studies of InxGa1−xAs1−yNy

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy has been used to investigate carrier decay dynamics in InxGa1−xAs1−yNy (x ∼ 0.03, y ∼ 0.01) epilayers grown on GaAs by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Time-resolved PL measurements, performed for various excitation intensities and sample temperatures, indicate that the broad PL emission at low temperature is dominated by localized exciton recombination. Lifetimes in the range of 0.07–0.34 ns are measured; these photoluminescence lifetimes are significantly shorter than corresponding values obtained for GaAs. In particular, we observe an emission energy dependence of the decay lifetime at 10 K, whereby the lifetime decreases with increasing emission energy across the PL spectrum. This behavior is characteristic of a distribution of localized states, which arises from alloy fluctuations. We have also studied the effects of post-growth rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the integrated photoluminescence emission intensity, which indicate that the optimal annealing conditions is 690 °C when annealed for 120 seconds in a nitrogen ambient.