Optical properties of ZnO/MgZnO quantum wells with graded thickness

The optical properties of ZnO/Mg0.1Zn0.9O single quantum wells with graded well width were studied using temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The ratio of emission intensity between the well and barrier layers was found to increase monotonically when the sample temperature was increased from 78 to 210 K, indicating an efficient carrier transfer from the barrier to the well. The emission peak of the Mg0.1Zn0.9O barrier exhibited a blueshift first and then a redshift with increasing temperature, which was attributed to the repopulation of localized carriers in energy-tail states induced by alloy composition fluctuations. Such an anomalous temperature dependence of PL energy contributed to the carrier transfer. On the other hand, the emission from the well layer exhibited a transition behaviour from localized to free excitons with increasing temperature. A further analysis of the temperature-dependent emission peaks of different well widths revealed that the localization energy of excitons was related to the potential variation induced mainly by well width fluctuations. Moreover, by comparing experimental results with calculation, the separation between the quantum confinement regime and quantum-confined Stark regime was found to occur at a well width of about 3 nm.