Electroluminescence of InAs/InAs(Sb)/InAsSbP LED heterostructures in the temperature range 4.2–300 K

The electroluminescence of InAs/InAsSbP and InAsSb/InAsSbP LED heterostructures grown on InAs substrates is studied in the temperature range $T$ = 4.2–300 K. At low temperatures ($T$ = 4.2–100 K), stimulated emission is observed for the InAs/InAsSbP and InAsSb/InAsSbP heterostructures with an optical cavity formed normal to the growth plane at wavelengths of, respectively, 3.03 and 3.55 $\mu$m. The emission becomes spontaneous at $T>$ 70 K due to the resonant “switch-on” of the CHHS Auger recombination process in which the energy of a recombining electron–hole pair is transferred to a hole, with hole transition to the spin–orbit-split band. It remains spontaneous up to room temperature because of the influence exerted by other Auger processes. The results obtained show that InAs/InAs(Sb)/InAsSbP structures are promising for the fabrication of vertically emitting mid-IR lasers.