Temperature dependence of the photoluminescence intensity of ordered and disordered In0.48Ga0.52P

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Abstract
The integrated photoluminescence (PL) intensities of both ordered and disordered epilayers of InGaP grown on GaAs have been measured as a function of temperature. The highest PL efficiency occurs in the most disordered sample. We find that the PL intensities can drop from 2 to almost 4 orders of magnitude between 12 and 280 K. The samples show an Arrhenius behavior characterized by two activation energies. Below 100 K the activation energies lie in the region of 10–20 meV. Above 100 K the activation energy is approximately 50 meV except in the most disordered sample where it increases to 260 meV. We conclude that the low-temperature PL efficiency is most likely controlled by carrier thermalization from spatial fluctuations of the band edges followed by nonradiative recombination. At higher temperatures the PL efficiency is dominated by a nonradiative path whose characteristic activation energy and transition probability depend upon the degree of sublattice ordering.