[en] In spite of a great number of publications concerned with studies of semiconductor heterostructures, the type-I semiconductor heterostructures, in which the ground electron state belongs to the indirect-gap (X and L) minimums of the conduction band, have remained poorly understood until recently. In this paper, the possibility is discussed of using III–V semiconductor compounds to create type-I semiconductor heterostructures with electron states belonging to the indirect-gap minimums of the conduction band.

[en] The behavior of excitons in heterostructures with indirect-gap GaAs/AlAs quantum wells and (In, Al)As/AlAs quantum dots is discussed. The possibilities of controlled change of the exciton radiative recombination time in the range from dozens of nanoseconds to dozens of microseconds, experimental study of the spin dynamics of long-lived localized excitons, and use of the optical resonant methods for exciting the indirect-band exciton states are demonstrated.

[en] Type-I indirect-gap heterostructures are convenient objects for studying the spin dynamics of localized excitons, which are difficult to investigate in heterostructures of other types. It is shown that structures with such an energy spectrum can be formed from III–V binary compounds on substrates with the (110) orientation. The effect of the strain distribution and conduction-band structure in quasimomentum space on the energy spectrum of electronic states in the heterostructures is discussed.

[en] It is necessary to protect the surface of AlAs-based heterostructures from oxidation using a GaAs cap layer because of the high reactivity of aluminum. Thus, the surface region of these heterostructures always contains a GaAs/AlAs heterojunction. Here, it is demonstrated that, under nonresonant photoexcitation, the photoluminescence spectrum of AlAs-based heterostructures features a band associated with this heterojunction. The intensity of this band is determined by the thickness and doping type of the GaAs cap layer.

[en] The spectrum of ultraviolet (UV) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes and its dependence on the current flowing through the structure are studied. The intensity of the UV contribution to the integrated diode luminescence increases steadily with increasing density of current flowing through the structure, despite a drop in the emission quantum efficiency. The electroluminescence excitation conditions that allow the fraction of UV emission to be increased to 97% are established. It is shown that the nonuniform generation of extended defects, which penetrate the active region of the light-emitting diodes as the structures degrade upon local current overheating, reduces the integrated emission intensity but does not affect the relative intensity of diode emission in the UV (370 nm) and visible (550 nm) spectral ranges.

[en] The atomic structure and energy spectrum of heterostructures formed in a system of InAs/AlAs binary compounds are studied. The In_xAl_1–xSb_yAs_1–y alloy, from which quantum wells are formed in InSb/AlAs structures, decomposes into two phases with different compositions. The characteristic dimensions of regions containing separate phases of the alloy in the structure plane are 5–7 nm. Spinodal decomposition of the alloy brings about the formation of coexisting indirect-gap regions with type-I and type-II energy spectra in quantum wells of the heterostructures.

[en] Heterostructures with InAs/AlAs quantum dots are grown on GaAs/Si hybrid substrates. The experimentally observed low-temperature (5–80 K) photoluminescence spectra of InAs/AlAs/GaAs/Si heterostructures exhibit bands defined by excitonic recombination in quantum dots and a wetting layer, i.e., a thin quantum well lying at the base of the array of quantum dots. Temperature quenching of the photoluminescence of quantum dots occurs due to the direct trapping of charge carriers at defects localized in the AlAs matrix, in the vicinity of the quantum dots.

[en] The problem of how the probability of trapping of charge carriers into quantum dots via the wetting layer influences the steady-state and time-dependent luminescence of the wetting layer and quantum dots excited via the matrix is analyzed in the context of some simple models. It is shown that the increase in the integrated steady-state luminescence intensity of quantum dots with increasing area fraction occupied by the quantum dots in the structure is indicative of the suppression of trapping of charge carriers from the wetting layer into the quantum dots. The same conclusion follows from the independent decays of the time-dependent luminescence signals from the wetting layer and quantum dots. The processes of trapping of charge carriers into the InAs quantum dots in the AlAs matrix at 5 K are studied experimentally by exploring the steady-state and time-dependent photoluminescence. A series of structures with different densities of quantum dots has been grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on a semi-insulating GaAs (001) substrate. It is found that the integrated photoluminescence intensity of quantum dots almost linearly increases with increasing area occupied with the quantum dots in the structure. It is also found that, after pulsed excitation, the photoluminescence intensity of the wetting layer decays more slowly than the photoluminescence intensity of the quantum dots. According to the analysis, these experimental observations suggest that trapping of excitons from the wetting layer into the InAs/AlAs quantum dots at 5 K is suppressed.

[en] A hardware-software complex based on a spectroscopic ellipsometer integrated into a molecular beam epitaxy installation and destined to monitor the composition of the Cd_1-zZn_zTe alloy at small values of z is described. Methodical features of determination of the composition of growing layers by the spectra of ellipsometric parameters are considered. The procedure of determination of the composition by the absorption edge that allows measuring this parameter accurate to 1.2% is developed. Problems are considered the solutions of which will allow one to increase the resolution by the composition. In particular, maintaining a stable temperature during growth is required for this purpose.

[en] The stationary and time-resolved polariton radiation in ultrahigh quality AIGaAs layers have been studied. It has been found that elastic exciton-exciton collisions lead to the appearance of a low-energy line of polariton radiation. We show that the rate of exciton-to-polariton transitions caused by elastic exciton-exciton collisions is determined not only by the density of the excitonic gas, but also by its temperature; this is in accordance with existing theoretical predictions