Investigation of unintentional indium incorporation into GaN barriers of InGaN/GaN quantum well structures

High resolution transmission electron microscopy has been employed to investigate the impact of the GaN barrier growth technique on the composition profile of InGaN quantum wells (QWs). We show that the profiles deviate from their nominal configuration due to the presence of an indium tail at the upper interface of the QW. This indium tail, thought to be associated with a segregation effect from the indium surfactant layer, has been shown to strongly depend on the growth method. The effect of this tail has been investigated using a self-consistent Schrödinger–Poisson simulation. For the simulated conditions, a graded upper interface has been found to result in a decreased electron-hole wavefunction overlap of up to 31% compared to a QW with a rectangular profile, possibly leading to a decrease in radiative-recombination rate. Therefore, in order to maximize the efficiency of a QW structure, it is important to grow the active region using a growth method which leads to QW interfaces which are as abrupt as possible. The results of this experiment find applications in every study where the emission properties of a device are correlated to a particular active region design.