Interdiffusion and the strain effect in pseudomorphic quantum well heterostructures

The effect of strain on the interdiffusion in GaAsSb/GaAs and InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells has been studied. It is shown that photoluminescence peak shift due to interdiffusion between atoms in the wells and barriers versus anneal time can be modeled using Fickʹs second law with the interdiffusion coefficient being only temperature dependent. The interdiffusion coefficient is shown to be constant as a function of anneal time, therefore, it should be strain-independent. This simple Fickian model is shown to properly describe the interdiffusion process in strained quantum well heterostructures, contrary to what have been reported earlier.