Quantification of trap state densities in GaAs heterostructures grown at varying rates using intensity-dependent time resolved photoluminescence

Time-resolved photoluminescence is an established technique for characterizing carrier lifetimes in semiconductors, but the dependence of lifetime on excitation fluence has been only qualitatively investigated. We develop a quantitative approach for fitting fluence-dependent PL decay data to a Shockely-Read-Hall model of carrier recombination in order to extract the trap state density. We demonstrate this approach by investigating growth rate-dependent trap densities in gallium arsenide-indium gallium phosphide double heterostructures. The techniques developed here can be applied for rapid, non-destructive quantification of trap state densities in a variety of materials. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC