STM light emission spectroscopy of individual quantum wells: Measurement of transport parameters in real space

Abstract

By spectroscopically analyzing the light emitted from the tip-sample gap of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), we have investigated the carrier transport as well as the luminescence properties of AlGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (QW's). The emission intensity form a target well was measured as a function of the tip position on a cleaved (110) surface of the QW structures. The thermalization length and the diffusion length of the injected electrons were determined in real space.