Room temperature study of low temperature grown Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs multiple quantum wells by modulation reflectance

Abstract
We studied the subband energy levels in AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells grown at different temperatures (200–600 °C) by using the piezoreflectance and photoreflectance in room temperature. Under subsequent 30 s rapid-thermal annealing at different temperatures (600–1000 °C), we observed a large energy blueshift in samples with growth temperature below 400 °C. This blueshift energy may be attributed to the modification of quantum wells caused by gallium vacancy enhanced Al–Ga interdiffusion. The energy blueshifts were analyzed by solving Fick’s second law for Al diffusion in quantum wells, obtaining an effective activation energy of 0.75 eV. We discuss our results using the nonequilibrium diffusion equation and comparing them with other experiments.