Impact of mechanically applied strain on Auger recombination in InGaAs multiple quantum wells Journal Article

Overview

We present the results of direct measurements of the effect of mechanically applied biaxial strain on Auger recombination rates in InGaAs quantum wells grown on InP. By mounting these structures on a flexible membrane, we applied strain mechanically rather than by changing the quantum well alloy fraction. Specifically, we employed time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy to probe the recombination dynamics in the degenerate carrier regime. From these measurements, we extract the non-degenerate cubic Auger coefficient C30. We found that applying 1.59% tensile biaxial strain increased the Auger C30 coefficient by 325% in one of our samples. These results support the hypothesis that the mechanical strain induced by heteroepitaxy plays a direct role in mitigating Auger recombination in InP-based telecommunication-range lasers.

Dickson KN; Simmons YL; Ricks AF; Skipper AM; Briggs AF; Muhowski AJ; Bank SR; Gopinath JT