Electronic and optical properties of InSb quantum dots from pseudopotential calculation

The electronic and optical features of InSb spherical quantum dots have been investigated by a pseudopotential approach as a function of their radius taken in the range 1-10 nm. The direct- and indirect band gaps along with the electron and heavy hole effective masses are all found to be diminished as the quantum dot radius is increased. However, the refractive index, the static- and high frequency dielectric constant as well as the transverse effective charge are shown to be augmented by increasing the quantum dot radius. It is noted that the quantum confinement is of great impact on all the studied quantities for quantum dot radius below 6 nm. This could result in more opportunities to obtain desired optoelectronic properties that cannot be obtained in the bulk InSb materials.     

Electron and hole effective masses in self-assembled quantum dots

Electron and hole effective masses in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots are determined by fitting the energy levels calculated by a single-band model to those obtained by a more sophisticated tight-binding method. For the dots of various shapes and dimensions, the electron effective-mass is found to be much larger than that in the bulk and become anisotropic in the dots of large aspect ratio while the hole effective-mass becomes almost isotropic in the dots of small aspect ratio. For flat InAs/GaAs quantum dots, the most appropriate value for the electron and hole effective-mass is believed to be the electron effective-mass in bulk GaAs and the vertical heavy-hole effective-mass in bulk InAs, respectively.     

Electron–hole transition in a spherical quantum dot confined at the center of a cylindrical nano-wire: Comparison of isotropic and anisotropic effective mass

Electronic structure of an InAs spherical quantum dot placed at the center of a GaAs cylindrical nano-wire is investigated. The Schrodinger equation within the effective mass approximation is solved and the energy eigenvalues and transition energies are calculated as a function of quantum dot and nano-wire radii using the finite element method. The two types of heavy holes, hhI and hhII, with isotropic and anisotropic effective masses are considered, respectively. The effect of spherical and nano-wire confining potentials, the size of the dot and the nano-wire on ground and first excited state energies of the electron, heavy hole I and heavy hole II are investigated. The results show that the electron and heavy holes energies decrease as the dot and the nano-wire radii increase. The emitted wavelength of transitions between el-hhI and el-hhII are also calculated and compared. The results show that the anisotropy of the effective mass has great effect on the emitted wavelength.     

The nonlinear optical properties of a magneto-exciton in a strained Ga_(0.2)In_(0.8)As/GaAs quantum dot

The magnetic field-dependent heavy hole excitonic states in a strained Ga0.2In0.8As/GaAs quantum dot are investigated by taking into account the anisotropy,non-parabolicity of the conduction band,and the geometrical confinement.The strained quantum dot is considered as a parabolic dot of InAs embedded in a GaAs barrier material.The dependence of the effective excitonic g-factor as a function of dot radius and the magnetic field strength is numerically measured.The interband optical transition energy as a function of geometrical confinement is computed in the presence of a magnetic field.The magnetic field-dependent oscillator strength of interband transition under the geometrical confinement is studied.The exchange enhancements as a function of dot radius are observed for various magnetic field strengths in a strained Ga0.2In0.8As/GaAs quantum dot.Heavy hole excitonic absorption spectra,the changes in refractive index,and the third-order susceptibility of third-order harmonic generation are investigated in the Ga0.2In0.8As/GaAs quantum dot.The result shows that the effect of magnetic field strength is more strongly dependent on the nonlinear optical property in a low-dimensional semiconductor system.     

Lifetime of resonant state in a spherical quantum dot

This paper calculates the lifetime of resonant state and transmission probability of a single electron tunnelling in a spherical quantum dot (SQD) structure by using the transfer matrix technique. In the SQD, the electron is confined both transversally and longitudinally, the motion in the transverse and longitudinal directions is separated by using the adiabatic approximation theory. Meanwhile, the energy levels of the former are considered as the effective confining potential. The numerical calculations are carried out for the SQD consisting of GaAs/InAs material. The obtained results show that the bigger radius of the quantum dot not only leads significantly to the shifts of resonant peaks toward the low-energy region, but also causes the lengthening of the lifetime of resonant state. The lifetime of resonant state can be calculated from the uncertainty principle between the energy half width and lifetime.     

Electron–hole transition energy for a spherical quantum dot confined in a nano-cylindrical wire

A single-band constant confining potential is applied to InAs spherical quantum dot confined in a GaAs cylindrical nano-wire to determine the electronic structure. The energy eigenvalues and transition energies are numerically calculated as a function of the dot radius. The calculations were performed within the effective mass approximation, using the finite element method. The effect of both spherical and cylindrical confinement, the size dependence of the ground and first excited state energies for electron and heavy hole and transition energies are reported and compared with experimental and theoretical results in relevant conditions.     

Formation of InAs quantum dots in silicon by sequential ion implantation and flash lamp annealing

InAs quantum dots (QDs) were successfully formed in single-crystalline Si by sequential ion implantation and subsequent milliseconds range flash lamp annealing (FLA). Samples were characterized by μ-Raman spectroscopy, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and low temperature photoluminescence (PL). The Raman spectrum shows two peaks at 215 and 235 cm^?1 corresponding to the transverse optical (TO) and longitudinal optical (LO) InAs phonon modes, respectively. The PL band at around 1.3 μm originates from the InAs QDs with an average diameter 7.5±0.5 nm and corresponds to the increased band gap energy due to the strong quantum confinement size effect. The FLA of 20 ms is sufficient for InAs QDs formation. It also prevents the out-diffusion of implanted elements. Moreover, the silicon layer amorphized during ion implantation is recrystallized by solid-phase epitaxial regrowth during FLA.     

Wetting layers effect on InAs/GaAs quantum dots

FEM combining with the K·P theory is adopted to systematically investigate the effect of wetting layers on the strain-stress profiles and electronic structures of self-organized InAs quantum dot. Four different kinds of quantum dots are introduced at the same height and aspect ratio. We found that 0.5 nm wetting layer is an appropriate thickness for InAs/GaAs quantum dots. Strain shift down about 3%∼4.5% for the cases with WL (0.5 nm) and without WL in four shapes of quantum dots. For band edge energy, wetting layers expand the potential energy gap width. When WL thickness is more than 0.8 nm, the band edge energy profiles cannot vary regularly. The electron energy is affected while for heavy hole this impact on the energy is limited. Wetting layers for the influence of the electronic structure is obviously than the heavy hole. Consequently, the electron probability density function spread from buffer to wetting layer while the center of hole's function moves from QDs internal to wetting layer when introduce WLs. When WLs thickness is larger than 0.8 nm, the electronic structures of quantum dots have changed obviously. This will affect the instrument's performance which relies on the quantum dots' optical properties.     

Energy scaling for multi-exciton complexes in semiconductor quantum dots

The ground state properties of an multi-exciton (ME) complex localized in a nanoscale semiconductor quantum dot (QD) have been studied. The calculations have been performed using the envelope function approximation for electron and hole motion in the QD. The many-body quantum mechanical treatment of the electron-hole dynamics was done within the Density Functional Theory approach. The ground state energy dependencies upon QD radius, number of electron-hole pairs, QD dielectric function and effective masses of electron and holes have been analyzed. It is demonstrated that when multi-exciton complex is strongly localized within the QD, the physical properties of the system are determined by a single parameter, the ratio of QD and free exciton radii, and its binding energy is given by the function of this parameter multiplied by the binding energy of an isolated exciton in bulk semiconductor.     

Radiative life time of an exciton confined in a strained GaN/Ga1-xAlxN cylindrical dot: built-in electric field effects

The binding energy of an exciton in a wurtzite GaN/GaAlN strained cylindrical quantum dot is investigated theoretically.The strong built-in electric field due to the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations of a GaN/GaAlN quantum dot is included.Numerical calculations are performed using a variational procedure within the single band effective mass approximation.Valence-band anisotropy is included in our theoretical model by using different hole masses in different spatial directions.The exciton oscillator strength and the exciton lifetime for radiative recombination each as a function of dot radius have been computed.The result elucidates that the strong built-in electric field influences the oscillator strength and the recombination life time of the exciton.It is observed that the ground state exciton binding energy and the interband emission energy increase when the cylindrical quantum dot height or radius is decreased,and that the exciton binding energy,the oscillator strength and the radiative lifetime each as a function of structural parameters (height and radius) sensitively depend on the strong built-in electric field.The obtained results are useful for the design of some opto-photoelectronic devices.     

Lateral electric field effects on quantum size confinement in cylindrical quantum dot under parabolic potential

Within the effective mass approximation, we investigated theoretically the ground-state energy of a single particle and the binding energy of the neutral donor impurity (D⁰) affected by a lateral electric field in a parabolic quantum dot (QD). The results show that the electron and the hole ground-state energy and the band to band transition energies shift to lower values (red shift) by increasing the field intensity. The quantum Stark shift (QSS) for the electron increases rapidly in the quasi spherical QD (QSQD) by increasing the lateral field, whereas for the hole it increases monotony. In the cylindrical QDs (CQDs), we found that the QSS for electron and hole increase monotonically. The quantum size, lateral electric field and impurity position effect on the binding energy of neutral donor (D⁰) is studied. Unexpected behavior of D⁰ in quantum well limit (QW), the binding energy of D⁰ is increasing (blue shift) with increasing QD radius R$R$ at the presence of a lateral electric field. It appears that for a fixed size of the QD, the off-center binding energy decreases when the impurity ion is displaced from the center to the QD borders, while it is shifted to lower energy with increasing the field.     

磁场对非对称量子点中极化子性质的影响

采用线性组合算符和幺正变换方法研究磁场对非对称量子点中弱耦合磁极化子性质的影响.导出了非对称量子点中弱耦合磁极化子的振动频率、基态能量和基态结合能随量子点的横向和纵向有效受限长度、磁场和电子-声子耦合强度的变化关系.数值计算结果表明:非对称量子点中弱耦合磁极化子的基态能量和基态结合能随量子点的横向和纵向有效受限长度的增加而迅速增大.随回旋频率的增加而增大,随电子-声子耦合强度的增加而减小.     

抛物量子点中弱耦合磁极化子的性质

应用线性组合算符和幺正变换方法研究了抛物量子点中磁极化子的基态性质。得出基态能和基态束缚能随有效束缚强度增大而减小,随回旋频率增大而增大。当有效柬缚强度给定,基态能量随电子-体纵光学声子耦合强度增加而减小。当有效束缚强度l0>0.3时,电子-体纵光学声子耦合强度的变化对量子点中弱耦合磁极化子的基态能量的影响变得显著。当有效束缚强度l0<0.3时,电子-体纵光学声子耦合强度的变化对基态能量影响很小。由于有效束缚强度与量子点受限强度的平方根成反比,所以量子点受限越强,基态能量、基态束缚能越大,电子一体纵光学声子耦合强度和磁场的变化对量子点的影响相对越小;当量子点受限变弱时,电子-声子耦合强度变化对量子点的影响变大,磁场对量子点的影响也变大,所以在量子点中,极化子对量子点的影响不容忽略。     

InAs quantum dot field effect transistors

We have studied single electron and hole storage in self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in GaAs/n-AlGaAs field effect transistors (QD-FETs). We prepared two types of QD-FETs. A single electron and a photo-generated single hole can be stored in each QD in Type 1. In the new Type II, single-electron discharge processes can be controlled by a surface gate voltage (V_g) as well as single-electron storage processes. We demonstrate possible application to novel photo devices and quantum dot memory devices.     

Frequency-dependent C(V) spectroscopy of the hole system in InAs quantum dots

The hole system in InAs quantum dots was investigated by frequency-dependent capacitance–voltage spectroscopy. Up to eight distinct charging peaks could be observed and the energy difference between the individual peaks could be estimated. All charging peaks decrease with increasing measurement frequency; however, the lower the energy of the hole level the stronger the decrease. A comparison with the results of the electron system in similar quantum dots yields that for all hole levels the effective mass in the barrier is much larger than in the electron system.     

Coherent spin precession of electrons and excitons in charge tunable InP quantum dots

Coherent spin precession of electrons and excitons is observed in charge tunable InP quantum dots under the transverse magnetic field by means of time-resolved Kerr rotation. In a quantum dot doped by one electron, spin precession of the doped electron in the quantum dot starts out of phase with spin precession of the doped electrons in a GaAs substrate just after a trion is formed and persists for more than 2 ns even after the trion recombines. Simultaneously spin precession of a trion (hole) starts. Observation of spin precession of both a doped electron and a trion (hole) confirms creating coherent superposition of an electron and a trion as the initialization process of spin of doped electrons in quantum dots. In a neutral quantum dot, the exciton spin precession starts out of phase with spin precession of the doped electrons in a GaAs substrate and the precession frequency does not converge to 0 at the zero field limit. It contains the electron–hole exchange interaction and corresponds to the splitting between bright and dark excitons under the transverse magnetic field.     

Lasing spectra of 1.55 μm InAs/InP quantum dot lasers: theoretical analysis and comparison with the experiments

In this paper, a theoretical model is used to investigate the lasing spectrum properties of InAs/InP (113)B quantum dot (QD) lasers emitting at 1.55 μm. The numerical model used is based on a multi-population rate equation (MPRE) analysis. It takes into account the effect of the competition between the inhomogeneous broadening (due to the QD size dispersion) and the homogenous broadening as well as a nonlinear gain variation associated to a multimode laser emission. The double laser emission and the temperature dependence of lasing spectra of self-assembled InAs/InP quantum dot lasers is studied both experimentally and theoretically.     

Integral and local density of states of InAs quantum dots in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure observed by ballistic electron emission spectroscopy near one-electron ground state

Density of states is studied by a ballistic electron emission microscopy/spectroscopy on self-assembled InAs quantum dots embedded in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure prepared by metal–organic vapor phase epitaxy. An example of integral quantum dot density of states which is proportional to superposition of a derivative of ballistic current–voltage characteristics measured at every pixel (1.05 nm×1.05 nm) of quantum dot is presented. For the two lowest observed energy levels of quantum dot (the maxima in density of states) the density of states is mapped and correlated with the shape of quantum dot. It was found that prepared quantum dots have a few peaks on their flatter top and a split of the lowest energy level can be observed. This effect can be explained by inhomogeneous (nonuniform) stress distribution in the examined quantum dot.     

Analysis of wetting layer effect on electronic structures of truncated-pyramid quantum dots

We carry out a theoretical analysis of wetting layer effect on band-edge profiles and electronic structures of InAs/GaAs truncated-pyramid quantum dots, including the strain effect. A combination of an analytical strain model and an eight-band Fourier transform-based k · p method is adopted in the calculation. Strain modified band-edge profiles indicates that wetting layer widens the potential well inside the dot region. Wetting layer changes ground-state energy significantly whereas modifies probability density function only a little. The main acting region of wetting layer is just underneath the base of the dot. Wetting layer redistributes probability density functions of the lowest electron state and probability density functions of highest hole state differently because of the different action of quantum confinement on electrons and holes.     

Laser location and manipulation of a single quantum tunneling channel in an InAs quantum dot

We use a femtowatt focused laser beam to locate and manipulate a single quantum tunneling channel associated with an individual InAs quantum dot within an ensemble of dots. The intensity of the directed laser beam tunes the tunneling current through the targeted dot with an effective optical gain of 10(7) and modifies the curvature of the dot's confining potential and the spatial extent of its ground state electron eigenfunction. These observations are explained by the effect of photocreated hole charges which become bound close to the targeted dot, thus acting as an optically induced gate electrode.