Characterization of GaAs quantum wells by cathodoluminescence technique.

Monte Carlo model of AlAs/GaAs/AlAs nanostructure.

A. Nouiri¹ and R. Aouati²

¹ Department of physics, University Larbi Ben Mhidi, Oum-El-Bouaghi, Algeria

² Department of physics, University Mentouri, Constantine, Algeria

Email: nouiri_kader@yahoo.fr

Abstract

The cathodoluminescence technique (CL) performed in the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) offers opto-electronic characterization of some semiconductor nanostructures an dit is powrful tool for studying the compositional variation or band structure of three-dimensional micro scale or nano scale construction. The mojor problem of the CL is the high spatial resolution concerning the low-dimensional structure. In the present paper we propose a simple Monte Carlo calculation model to describe the interaction of electron beam with AlAS/GaAs/AlAs nanostructure. This model takes into account the confinement phenomenon in the quantum well by an easy method[1]. The influence of different parameters such as the thickness of the quantum well and the barrier as well as the diffusion length are studied. The carrier excess generated during the collision of the incident electron with the atoms of the material (random walk) is calculated as a function of depth taking into account the confinement phenomenon within the quantum well. The radiative recombination of electron-hole pairs is collected as a light (CL signal).

Keywords: Monte Carlo modeling, GaAs, quantum well, nanostructure, cathodoluminescence

[1] A. Nouiri and R. Aouati,  Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures,  Volume 40, Issue 5, March 2008, Pages 1751-1753