Gated spin relaxation in (1 1 0)-oriented quantum wells

Growth, photoluminescence characterisation and time-resolved optical measurements of electron spin dynamics in (1 1 0)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells are described. Conditions are given for MBE growth of good-quality quantum wells, judged by the width of low-temperature excitonic photoluminescence. At 170 K the electron spin relaxation rate in (1 1 0)-oriented wells shows a 100-fold reduction compared to equivalent (1 0 0)-oriented wells and also a 10-fold increase with applied electric field from 20 to 80 kV cm⁻¹. There is evidence for similar dramatic effects at 300 K. Spin relaxation is field independent below 20 kV cm⁻¹ reflecting quantum well asymmetry. The results indicate the achievability of voltage-gateable quantum well spin memory time longer than 10 ns at room temperature simultaneously with high electron mobility.     

Trions in quantum wells

An overview is given of our investigation of the energy levels and of the correlation functions of the negatively and positively charged excitons (also called trions) in quantum wells in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. A detailed comparison is made with available experimental data in III–V and II–VI semiconductor quantum wells.     

Quantum dots fabricated by twofold cleaved edge overgrowth

Cleaved edge overgrowth (CEO) has proven to be a powerful technique for the fabrication of atomic scale T-shaped quantum wires (QWRs) which form at the intersection of two quantum wells (QWs). Here we report on the first experimental demonstration of quantum dots (QDs) which result when three QWs intersect each other at right angles. Optical emission from zero-dimensional (0D) states in these QDs which were fabricated by a twofold CEO technique is clearly identified by means of micro-photoluminescence ( PL) and PL excitation ( PLE) spectroscopy. In contrast to the inhomogeneously broadened QW and QWR signals originating from the complex sample structure, the QD response, which is characterised by sharp lines (FWHM 70 eV), is strongly spatially localised at a position where the QWs meet.     

Effect of GaAs(1 0 0) 2° surface misorientation on the formation and optical properties of MOCVD grown InAs quantum dots

The influence of GaAs(1 0 0) 2° substrate misorientation on the formation and optical properties of InAs quantum dots (QDs) has been studied in compare with dots on exact GaAs(1 0 0) substrates. It is shown that, while QDs on exact substrates have only one dominant size, dots on misoriented substrates are formed in lines with a clear bimodal size distribution. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements show that QDs on misoriented substrates have narrower FWHM, longer emission wavelength and much larger PL intensity relative to those of dots on exact substrates. However, our rapid thermal annealing (RTA) experiments indicate that annealing shows a stronger effect on dots with misoriented substrates by greatly accelerating the degradation of material quality.     

Temperature dependence of photoluminescence spectra in n-type modulation-doped quantum dot arrays

Temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) spectra of an electrostatically prepared modulation-doped quantum dot array is investigated. We report a strong temperature dependence of the enhanced PL near the Fermi energy between 0.4 and 4.2 K under a negative bias condition, where an interconnected quantum dot array is formed. This strong temperature dependence suggests that the Fermi-surface-mediated many-body interaction between a photo-created hole and the electron-gas plays an important role in the observed enhanced PL near the Fermi energy.     

Photoreflectance spectroscopy of self-organized InAs/InP(0 0 1) quantum sticks emitting at 1.55 μm

Photoreflectance (PR) measurements are performed as a function of temperature on self-organized InAs/InP(0 0 1) quantum sticks (QSs) grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy. With a very weak excitation power, three PR transition energies are arising and associated with the ground state and two excited states, respectively, in good agreement with both photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation measurements. The temperature dependence of the PR transition energies is in good agreement with the Bose-Einstein behavior.From PL analysis of these InAs/InP QSs, the ground state was assumed to be partially filled because of the residual n-type doping of the InP barrier layers. The PR spectra analysis allows us to further confirm this assumption, considering mainly the relative PR intensity of the different transitions, as well as the Franz Keldysh oscillations (FKO) above the InP bandgap.     

Auger relaxation processes in semiconductor nanocrystals and quantum wells

Auger recombination rates in mesoscopic semiconductor structures have been studied as a function of energy band parameters and heterostructure size. It is shown that nonthreshold Auger processes stimulated by the presence of heteroboundaries become the dominant nonradiative recombination channel in nanometer size semiconductor structures. The size dependence of luminescence quantum yields in nanostructures and microcrystals are discussed. Auger-like collisions of electrons and heavy holes are shown to serve as “accelerators” of thermalization processes in semiconductor quantum dots.     

TE- and TM-polarization-resolved spectroscopy on quantum wells under normal incidence

We present TE- and TM-polarization-resolved photocurrent measurements on quantum well pin diodes under normal incidence. Usually, optical experiments performed in such a geometry yield information only about transitions involving in-plane (p_x and p_y) components of the hole wave functions because of the in-plane (TE) polarization of the light. Information on transitions sensitive to the p_z components can be obtained by focussing a radially polarized laser beam through a microscope objective with high numerical aperture (NA=0.9). With our setup, the electrical field vector at the focal tail has a significant component along the optical axis (TM-polarization!) which enables excitation of transitions sensitive to p_z components also. Additionally, the existence of a degenerate (azimuthally polarized) optical mode enables switching these p_z components on and off easily.Experimental evidence of these features has been achieved by exploiting the selection rules for e–hh and e–lh transitions in a quantum well structure. We present a comparison of our recorded spectra with theoretical predictions obtained from simple geometric optics assumptions. For our quantum wells the polarization effects are small because our measurement averages the intensity distribution of the whole focal plane. We plan to extend our measurements to polarization resolved single quantum dot spectroscopy. By restricting the detection region to the spatial extent of a single dot, one can exploit the almost pure TM-polarization on the optical axis for obtaining high contrast between heavy- and light-hole exciton absorption.     

Hydrostatic pressure effect on the donor impurity states in asymmetric multiple quantum wells

Based on the effective-mass approximation, hydrostatic pressure effect on the donor binding energy in zinc blende (ZB) InGaN/GaN asymmetric multiple quantum wells (AMQWs) is investigated variationally. Numerical results show that the hydrostatic pressure increases the donor binding energy for any impurity position. Moreover, the hydrostatic pressure effect is more noticeable if the impurity is localized inside the wide well of the AMQWs. For any hydrostatic pressure, the donor binding energy is distributed asymmetrically with respect to the center of the AMQWs. In particular, the donor binding energy of impurity located at the center of the wide well of the AMQWs is insensitive to the increment of the inter-well barrier width if the inter-well barrier width is large.     

Analytic methods for field induced tunneling in quantum wells with arbitrary potential profiles

Electric field induced tunneling is studied in three different types of quantum wells by solving time-independent effective mass equation in analytic methods based on three different Airy function approaches. Comparison of different Airy function methods indicates that they are identical and connected to each other by the Breit-Wigner formula.     

Carrier diffusion in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells grown on vicinal GaAs(0 0 1) substrates

We have investigated the influence of vicinal GaAs substrates on the optical and electronic properties of InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs). A single In_0.10Ga_0.90As QW was grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on a vicinal GaAs(0 0 1) substrate with a miscut angle of 0° (nominal), 2°, 4° and 6° towards [1 1 0]. The carrier diffusion was obtained by a micro-photoluminescence scan technique that permits to observe the effective diffusion length characterized by the lateral spread of carriers in the QW followed by radiative recombination. The carrier diffusion length was obtained parallel (L_||) and perpendicular (L) to the atomic steps. The diffusion length decreases as the temperature increases up to 100 K. Above this temperature we found different behaviours that depend on the sample miscut angle.     

Third-harmonic generation in asymmetric coupled quantum wells

The third-harmonic generation (THG) in asymmetric coupled quantum wells (ACQWs) for different values of the well parameter Δ$\Delta$ and width of barrier (_WB)$\left(W_B\right)$ are theoretically studied. The analytical expression of the third-harmonic generation is derived by using the compact density-matrix approach and the iterative method. Finally, the numerical calculations are presented for typical GaAs/Al_xGa_1−xAs asymmetric coupled quantum wells. Results obtained show that the third-harmonic generation in the asymmetric coupled quantum wells can be importantly modified by the parameter Δ$\Delta$ and _WB$W_B$. Moreover, third-harmonic generation also depends on the relaxation rate of the asymmetric coupled quantum wells.     

Excitonic optical absorption in wurtzite InGaN/GaN quantum wells

Within the framework of the effective-mass and envelope function theory, exciton states and optical properties in wurtzite (WZ) InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) are investigated theoretically considering the built-in electric field effects. Numerical results show that the built-in electric field, well width and in composition have obvious influences on exciton states and optical properties in WZ InGaN/GaN QWs. The built-in electric field caused by polarizations leads to a remarkable reduction of the ground-state exciton binding energy, the interband transition energy and the integrated absorption probability in WZ InGaN/GaN QWs with any well width and In composition. In particular, the integrated absorption probability is zero in WZ InGaN/GaN QWs with any In composition and well width L > 4 nm. In addition, the competition effects between quantum confinement and the built-in electric field (between quantum size and the built-in electric field) on exciton states and optical properties have also been investigated.     

直接带隙Ge耦合双量子阱中的光吸收系数

在有效质量近似下,详细研究了直接带隙Ge/GeSi耦合双量子阱中带间光跃迁吸收系数和阈值能量随量子阱结构参数的变化情况。结果表明：随着量子阱阱宽增大,带间光跃迁吸收强度会逐渐减弱,阈值能量减小,吸收曲线向低能方向移动,出现了红移现象。增强耦合量子阱间的耦合效应使得带间光吸收强度显著提升。此外,与非对称耦合量子阱相比,耦合效应对对称耦合量子阱中光吸收系数的影响更为显著。     

Field-induced energy band and effective mass anisotropy in coupled double quantum wells

The effects of the field-induced conduction band anisotropy on the electron effective mass and electrical transport properties of coupled double quantum well structures are discussed. This anisotropy is due to the formation of a partial energy gap in the dispersion curves of coupled double quantum wells by an in-plane magnetic field. The reported data show that the magnitude of this gap is mainly dependent on the interwell coupling, although it also depends on the magnitude of the applied magnetic field. A field-induced anisotropy of the electron effective mass and the in-plane electrical transport properties, due to the formation of a saddle point at the lower edge of this gap, is predicted. Further, a simple model to estimate the critical field at which a saddle point appears is also discussed.     

直接带隙Ge耦合双量子阱中的光吸收系数

在有效质量近似下,详细研究了直接带隙Ge/Ge Si耦合双量子阱中带间光跃迁吸收系数和阈值能量随量子阱结构参数的变化情况.结果表明:随着量子阱阱宽增大,带间光跃迁吸收强度会逐渐减弱,阈值能量减小,吸收曲线向低能方向移动,出现了红移现象.增强耦合量子阱间的耦合效应使得带间光吸收强度显著提升.此外,与非对称耦合量子阱相比,耦合效应对对称耦合量子阱中光吸收系数的影响更为显著.     

Effects of intersubband interaction on multisubband electron transport in single and double quantum wells

The multisubband electron transport properties are studied for doped single quantum well and gated double asymmetric quantum well structures. The effects due to intersubband interaction and screening of the ionized impurity scattering are also investigated. We show that intersubband coupling plays an essential role in describing the screening properties as well as the effect of ionized impurity scattering on the mobility in a doped single quantum well. For coupled double quantum well structures, negative transconductance is found theoretically which is due to resonant tunneling between the two quantum wells.     

Optically induced level anticrossing in undoped GaAs/AlGaAs coupled double quantum wells

We report a photoluminescence detected anticrossing of the energy levels in an undoped asymmetric coupled-double-quantum-well buried in a p-i-n structure. Due to the built-in electric field, the quantum wells are tilted in such a way that the symmetric energy level is higher than that of the antisymmetric one in the conduction band. Keeping the laser excitation energy below the barrier, with increasing laser power, the level anticrossing and the quantum confined Stark effect were observed due to decreasing built-in electric field by the photogenerated electron and hole pairs.     

Modulation of the electronic properties of GaAs quantum wells induced by surface acoustic waves

We investigated the modulation of the optical properties of GaAs-based structures by a surface acoustic wave (SAW) by microscopic measurements of reflectance and photoluminescence. We demonstrate that for photon energies away from electronic resonances, the modulation of the optical properties is associated with the strain field of the SAW (elastooptical mechanism). Close to the E₀ resonance, the electrooptical modulation due to the SAW piezoelectric fields becomes important and leads to a spatial modulation of the photoluminescence intensity.     

Dimensional effects and magnetic field influence on excitons in coupled quantum dots and coupled quantum wells

Direct and indirect excitons in coupled quantum wells and in coupled quantum dots are studied. We consider excitons with two-dimensional, quasi-two-dimensional and three-dimensional carriers. Problems were investigated for a wide range of characteristic parameters—confining to potential steepness, distances between quantum wells or dots, effective width of wells and magnetic fields. The mutual influence of the controlling parameters of the problem on exciton properties is analyzed. Energy and wave function spectra were calculated and dispersion law and effective masses were obtained.