Room-Temperature Absorption Edge of InGaN/GaN Quantum Wells Characterized by Photoacoustic Measurement

The absorption edges of five periods of InxGa1-xN (3 nm)/GaN (15 nm) (x=0.07–0.23) quantum wells (QWs) are characterized by photoacoustic (PA) measurement at room temperature. The absorption edge is determined by differentiating the PA signal curve to obtain the inflection point on the assumption that the signal curve consists of Urbach tail in the low-energy region and Elliott's equation in the high-energy region. The constant absorption edge of GaN is observed at 3.4 eV and an absorption edge redshift with increasing In composition is observed for InGaN QWs. As a result, the Stokes shift increases with In composition and the highest shift of 435 meV is observed at x=0.23. From the energy calculation of optical transition in the InGaN/GaN QWs under an internal polarization field, the transition between the ground states confined in the well with a triangular potential causes a low-energy shift in the photoluminescence peak from the bulk band-gap energy, and the excited bound states whose wave functions are confined by the step-linear potential extending over the GaN barrier lead to the high-energy shift in the absorption edge.