Large blue shift of electroluminescence spectrum in nanoheterostructures with a deep AlSb/InAsSb/AlSb quantum well

We report on the unusually large blue shift of the electroluminescence spectrum with an increase of the drive current at 77 K in a double-barrier nanoheterostructure with a deep AlSb/InAs0.83Sb0.17/AlSb quantum well grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy on the n-GaSb:Te substrate. The rise of the drive current from 20 mA to 220 mA led to a shift of the electroluminescence spectrum maximum toward higher photon energies by 100 meV. It was shown that this effect is due to indirect (tunneling) radiative transitions between electrons in InAsSb quantum well and heavy holes localized near the AlSb/p-GaSb heterointerface. The energy of radiative transition was linearly dependent on the applied voltage. In the drive current range of 50–220 mA, an electroluminescence blue shift was accompanied by spectrum narrowing by 40 meV and a noticeable change of the spectrum shape. With a rise in the drive current, a superlinear increase of the electroluminescence intensity caused by the nonlinear dependence of tunneling radiative recombination rate on transition energy was observed at 300 K and 77 K.