Influence of growth conditions on the thermal quenching of photoluminescence from SiGe/Si quantum structures

摘要

In this work we study effects of growth temperature and use of surfactant during growth on thermal quenching of photoluminescence (PL) from SiGe/Si quantum wells (QWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We show that although all investigated structures demonstrate intense and sharp excitonic emissions from the SiGe QWs at liquid helium temperature, thermal quenching of this PL critically depends on the growth conditions. In particular, the use of low (<=550 deg C) growth temperatures or employing Sb as a surfactant during high temperature (620 deg C) growth considerably degrades the PL thermal quenching behaviour by introducing some competing quenching processes with low activation energies of about 5 meV. The optimum growth conditions judging from the PL thermal behaviour are realised during high temperature growth without surfactnat (620 deg C). Even higher growth temperature is shown to be required during surfactant mediated growth to improve the thermal quenching behaviour. From optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) studies, the competing quenching processes are attributed to a thermal activation of non-radiative defects introduced during either low=temperature MBE growth or during surfactant-mediated growth.