Room-temperature exciton transitions in partially intermixed GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices

Abstract

Substantial increases are observed in the energies of room-temperature exciton transitions in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices which have been partially intermixed via the impurity-free vacancy diffusion process. Localized intermixing of the layered structure was accomplished by selective deposition of a SiO2 capping layer followed by rapid thermal annealing at temperatures between 850 and 950 °C for 15 s. In the samples studied, the above process allows continuously variable energy shifts of at least 61 meV while still maintaining clearly resolved excitonic behavior. Shifting and broadening of the exciton transitions are studied using room-temperature photoluminescence and photocurrent spectroscopies. A transmission resonance calculation is used to determine the interdiffusion coefficient as a function of temperature from the measured energy shifts.