Strong charge carrier localization interacting with extensive nonradiative recombination in heteroepitaxially grown m-plane GaInN quantum wells

The development of GaInN quantum well structures with nonpolar crystal orientation for light-emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers is currently one of the main foci of III-nitride-based optoelectronics research. One of the advantages of nonpolar orientations is the absence of polarization fields perpendicular to the quantum well plane. As a consequence, radiative recombination rates are higher compared to quantum wells on polar surfaces. However, due to high densities of threading dislocations and basal plane stacking faults in the case of heteroepitaxially grown nonpolar layers, and due to band gap inhomogeneities in the GaInN quantum wells, characterization of radiative and nonradiative recombination mechanisms is a complex challenge. So far, most published data about band gap fluctuations, charge carrier localization and internal quantum efficiency in nonpolar quantum wells are ambiguous. Here, we present temperature and excitation power density-dependent photoluminescence data featuring multiple characteristics related to strong charge carrier localization in m-plane (1–100) GaInN quantum wells. Thermally activated redistribution of charge carriers between localization sites in these quantum wells is weaker than in polar c-plane ones. The localization strength increases with higher indium concentration in the quantum wells. In the heteroepitaxially grown quantum well structures, the internal quantum efficiency is reduced even at low temperatures (T = 10 K) and especially for m-plane quantum wells with high indium mole fractions.