By using n-doped multi quantum-well samples, measurements of ion beam-induced quantum-well broadening, made using cross-sectional scanning tunnelling microscopy and cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy were compared with the broadening that was deduced from blue-shifts of the low-temperature photoluminescence peak. The results were consistent with a simple square-well model which was used to interpret photoluminescence shifts, but disagreed with a model that involved separate Fick's-law diffusion on group-III and group-V sub-lattices. The critical assumptions which were made when comparing the photoluminescence results were that the observed photoluminescence shift in heavily-doped samples was an accurate measure of the intermixing, and that the doping did not substantially modify the intermixing process.

P.G.Piva, R.D.Goldberg, I.V.Mitchell, H.Chen, R.M.Feenstra, G.C.Weatherly, D.W.McComb, G.C.Aers, P.J.Poole, S.Charbonneau: Applied Physics Letters, 1998, 72[13], 1599-601