Effect of annealing on photoluminescence and microstructures of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well with Mg-doped p-type GaN

InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well structure with Mg-doped p-type GaN was grown by low-pressure metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy. After rapid-thermal-annealing at 700 and 900 degrees C, both the red-shift and the blue-shift of the photoluminescence (PL) peak, the decreased and the enhancement of the PL intensity were observed. The transmission electron microscopic images showed that InGaN multi-quantum-dots-like (MQD-like) structures with dimensions less than 5×10nm were formed in InGaN wells. The changes of PL spectra could be tentatively attributed to the competition between the red-shift mechanism of the quantum-confined Stark effect and the blue-shift mechanism of the quantum size effect due to MQD-like structures.