A novel technique for the direct determination of carrier diffusion lengths in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures using cathodoluminescence

A novel technique for determining carrier diffusion lengths in direct gap semiconductors by cathodoluminescence measurement is presented. Ambipolar diffusion lengths are determined for GaAs quantum-well material, bulk GaAs, and Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As with x up to 0.38. A large increase in the diffusion length is found as x approaches 0.38 and is attributed to an order-of-magnitude increase in lifetime.<
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