Photoluminescence of HgCdTe nanostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs

Photoluminescence (PL) of HgCdTe-based hetero-epitaxial nanostructures with 50 to 1100 nm-wide potential wells was studied. The nanostructures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates. A strong degree of alloy disorder was found in the material, which led to the broadening of the PL spectra and a considerable Stokes shift that could be traced up to temperature T∼230 K. Annealing of the structures improved the ordering and led to the increase in the PL intensity. A remarkable feature of the PL was an unexpectedly small decrease of its intensity with temperature increasing from 84 to 300 K. This effect can be related to localization of carriers at potential fluctuations and to the specific character of Auger-type processes in HgCdTe-based nanostructures.