Photoluminescence of CdTe quantum wells doped with cobalt and iron

Cobalt and iron dopants in semiconductors are killers of excitonic photoluminescence. In particular, photoluminescence of quantum wells doped with Co and Fe poses a challenge and has not been reported so far. Here, we show molecular beam epitaxy growth and photoluminescence studies of (Cd,Co)Te and (Cd,Fe)Te quantum wells in (Cd,Mg)Te. We compare the results to well-known structures: CdTe and (Cd,Mn)Te quantum wells, and we conclude that 0.2% of Fe reduces photoluminescence intensity by 3 orders of magnitude, and similar concentration of Co reduces PL intensity by about 5 orders of magnitude. We also present the influence of the dopant’s concentration on emission efficiency in external magnetic field. Structures with low doping levels require weaker fields to reduce the quenching effect.