Similarities in the optical properties of hexagonal and cubic InGaN quantum wells

Optical properties of fully-strained wurtzite and zincblende In_xGa_1-xN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures were compared to discuss the origin of exciton localization. In contrast to the hexagonal InGaN MQWs, the photoluminescence (PL) peak energy of cubic InGaN MQWs showed a moderate blueshift with decreasing well thickness, L, and low-temperature PL decay time of the cubic MQWs did not depend strongly on L. The results imply that the wavefunction overlap in cubic InGaN MQWs was not reduced compared to the hexagonal ones, since they do not suffer from the electric field normal to the QW plane due either to spontaneous or piezoelectric polarization. Both MQWs exhibited a large and composition-dependent bandgap bowing, and time-resolved PL (TR-PL) signals showed a stretched-exponential decay even at room temperature. The exciton localization is considered to be an intrinsic property of InGaN.