Piezoelectric field and confinement effects on the dielectric function spectrum of InGaN/GaN quantum wells

In_0.13Ga_0.87N/GaN double heterostructures and quantum wells (QWs) have been studied by room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). PL revealed the presence of strong piezoelectric fields, which strongly influence the luminescence properties for InGaN QW widths in the 3–12 nm range. The pseudodielectric function spectrum derived from the SE measurements were analyzed using a multilayer approach, describing the dielectric function of the individual layers by a parametric oscillator model. The fundamental band-gap resonance in the InGaN dielectric-function spectrum was found to broaden for an InGaN layer width of 12 nm, as compared to bulk-like InGaN layers, due to piezoelectric field effects. For a much narrower QW width of 1.7 nm, however, quantum confinement was found to dominate over piezoelectric-field effects, resulting in a much sharper band-gap resonance shifted to higher energies and an increased oscillator strength. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.