Properties of GaAsSb QW Heterostructures Having Various Barrier Materials Grown by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition

ABSTRACTPseudomorphic GaAs1-xSbx quantum-well (QW) structures grown on GaAs substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) have been studied with various barrier materials to investigate the energy band lineup. To determine the band lineup of these structures, we have performed low-temperature current-dependent cathodoluminescence (LT-CL) measurements at 10K. For the structure with GaAs barriers, the data show strong evidence of Type-II staggered band lineup, which means that holes are confined in the valence band heavy-hole level of the GaAs1-xSbx quantum well and electrons are confined in the conduction band of the GaAs barrier.For the InGaP barriers, however, we observed only one peak that is related to transitions of a Type-I band lineup. From the LT-CL results, we find that the valence-band discontinuity ratio (Qv) between the GaAs0.73Sb0.27 double quantum wells (DQWs) and the GaAs barriers is ∼1.20. Furthermore, to improve the carrier confinement, we propose that InGaP barriers provide a Type-I band lineup with the GaAsSb QW.