Effect of thermal annealing on the emission properties of heterostructures containing a quantum-confined GaAsSb layer

Heterostructures containing single GaAsSb/GaAs quantum wells and bilayer GaAsSb/InGaAs quantum wells are produced by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy at atmospheric pressure. The growth temperature of the quantum-confined layers is 500–570°C. The structural quality of the samples and the quality of heterointerfaces of the quantum wells are studied by the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy of cross sections. The emission properties of the heterostructures are studied by photoluminescence measurements. The structures are subjected to thermal annealing under conditions chosen in accordance with the temperature and time of growth of the upper cladding p-InGaP layer during the formation of GaAs/InGaP laser structures with an active region containing quantum-confined GaAsSb layers. It is found that such heat treatment can have a profound effect on the emission properties of the active region, only if a bilayer GaAsSb/InGaAs quantum well is formed.