Temperature and excitation-density-dependent photoluminescence in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of a GaAs/Al0,3Ga0,7As quantum well (QW) under continuous-wave excitation have been recorded over wide temperature and excitation-density ranges. Thus, a two-dimensional set of data points has been obtained. The temperature dependence as well as the excitation-density dependence of the PL intensity IPL are described by a simple model of free-carrier recombination with bimolecular radiative and monomolecular nonradiative recombination. The model explains the existence of a temperature interval at intermediate temperatures where IPL decreases only with a small activation energy and the shrinkage of this interval with increasing excitation density. It also accounts for different activation energies occurring in Arrhenius plots of IPL and of the radiative decay time TPL, as reported in the literature.