Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy has been widely used in the ultraviolet-near-infrared spectral range for over seventy years since the very early report in 1950’s, because it not only reveals the electronic structure information of, e.g., band gap and impurity energy levels of semiconductor materials, but also serves as an efficient tool for analyzing interfacial structures, carrier lifetime, and quantum efficiency. In the infrared band beyond about 4 μm, however, the study of PL spectroscopy had been limited for decades long due to strong thermal background interference, weak PL signal and low detection ability. In this review, a conventional PL method is introduced based on a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, and a continuous-scan FTIR spectrometer-based double-modulation PL (csFTIR-DMPL) method is briefly described that was proposed in 1989 for breaking through the dilemma of the infrared band, and developed continuously in the later more than 20 years, with its limitations emphasized. Then, a step-scan FTIR spectrometer-based infrared modulated PL (ssFTIR-MPL) method reported in 2006 is analyzed with highlights on its advantages of anti-interference, sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio, followed by enumerating its effectiveness demonstration and application progress in many research groups worldwide. Further developments in recent years are then summarized of wide-band, high-throughput scanning imaging and spatial micro-resolution infrared modulated PL spectroscopic experimental systems, and the technological progresses are demonstrated of infrared-modulated PL spectroscopy from 0.56-20 μm visible-far-infrared broadband coverage to > 1k high-throughput spectra imaging and ≤2-3 μm spatial micro-resolution. Typical achievements of collaborative research are enumerated in the visible-far-infrared semiconductor materials of dilute nitrogen/dilute bismuth quantum wells, HgCdTe epitaxial films, and InAs/GaSb superlattices. The results presented demonstrate the advancement of infrared modulated PL spectroscopy and the effectiveness of the experimental systems, and foresee further application and development in the future.
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