Interband optical transitions in quantum wells with nonideal interfaces

An analytical approach based on the methods of disordered-systems theory and taking into account the strong difference between light-hole and heavy-hole effective masses is developed and applied to the problem of optical transitions in semiconductor quantum wells with nonideal interfaces. Two kinds of interface disorder are considered: inhomogeneity of the right- and left-interface positions and inhomogeneity of alloy composition in the potential barriers (wide-gap materials of the quantum-well structure are assumed to be alloys). Calculation of the photoluminescence and photoluminescence-excitation spectra are carried out for the cases of long-scale and short-scale correlated disorder. Both nondoped and heavily n- and p-doped heterostructures are considered. Theoretical results are compared with the experimental data for the n-doped heterostrucures ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.47}$${\mathrm{In}}_{0.53}$As/${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.48}$${\mathrm{In}}_{0.52}$As.