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Publication # 160 |
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| J. A. Cavailles, D. A. B. Miller, J. E.
Cunningham, P. Li Kam Wa, A. Miller "Simultaneous measurements of electron and hole
sweep-out from quantum wells and modeling of photoinduced field screening dynamics"
IEEE J. of Quantum Electronics, 28, 2486-2497 (1992). Electron and hole escape times from a GaAs-AlGaAs quantum well in an electric field at room temperature are measured by picosecond optical pump-probe techniques on samples containing a single quantum well in a waveguide. The use of a single well avoids multiple well transport and resonant tunneling effects. Carriers excited in the quantum well by the pump beam result in a transient bleaching signal from excitonic saturation, and, as they leave the well, a transient electroabsorption signal because the movement of charge partially screens the electric field. Both processes are modeled, including important electrical equilibration processes of the sample as a whole. This modeling and the use of two samples with asymmetric barrier heights allows the measurement of the electron and hole emission as a function of applied electric field. Preliminary analysis suggests that the emission mechanism is thermionic rather than by tunneling, but the results are not well explained by conventional thermionic emission models |
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