Auger recombination at low temperatures in InGaAs/InAlAs quantum well probed by photoluminescence

Abstract This paper reports abnormal effects of Auger recombination in InGaAs/InAlAs quantum well probed by steady state temperature and excitation-power dependent photoluminescence measurements. The transition from Auger recombination to Shockley–Read–Hall recombination is clearly manifested with rising temperature, and abnormal enhancement of Auger recombination at low temperatures is evidenced. Detailed analysis indicates that such enhancement is positively correlated with strong localization, and can be either relative and due to reduction of Shockley–Read–Hall recombination, or absolute and resulted from the confinement-induced uncertainty of momentum. It suggests that excitation-power dependent photoluminescence measurement is effective to assess the side-effect of the localization, and therefore a convenient evaluation routine of alloy quantum wells.