Lr. Wilson et al., ELECTRICAL AND OPTICAL BISTABILITY IN INXGA1-XAS-GAAS PIEZOELECTRIC QUANTUM-WELLS, Physical review. B, Condensed matter, 55(24), 1997, pp. 16045-16048
Optically induced bistability in the electrical and optical characteri
stics of a (111)B piezoelectric, strained In0.15Ga0.85As-GaAs single-q
uantum-well p-i-n structure is reported. We demonstrate that the bista
bility results from photoinduced electron charge buildup in the quantu
m well. Charge buildup is enhanced relative to a (100) structure as a
consequence of the modified band profile due to the large internal pie
zoelectric field. A region of hysteresis is observed in the current-vo
ltage characteristics under illumination, with the device being stable
in either low- or high-current states. Photoluminescence line-shape a
nalysis and magnetophotoluminescence studies demonstrate that the low-
and high-current states correspond to either high or near-zero electr
on charge (n(s)) in the well, respectively. Simulations of the band pr
ofiles using the deduced values of n(s) are consistent with the existe
nce of the two different current and charge accumulation states.