Optical properties of molecular beam epitaxy‐grown HgCdTe structures with potential wells

Photoconductivity and photoluminescence of HgCdTe-based nanostructures with 50 to 200 nm-wide potential wells were studied. The structures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates, and emitted light with wavelengths 2.8–3.8 μm at 300 K. The luminescence properties of the nanostructures at low temperatures were found to be strongly affected by the effect of alloy disorder, which led to a substantial red-shift of the emission spectrum in relation to energy gap of the wells. This effect could be reduced by post-growth annealing of the structures, which also increased the luminescence intensity. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)