Optical properties of 1.3-μm InAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

The optical properties of self-assembled InAs quantum dots （QDs） on GaAs substrate grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition （MOCVD） are reported. Photoluminescence （PL） measurements prove the good optical quality of InAs QDs, which axe achieved using lower growth temperature and higher InAs coverage. At room temperature, the ground state peak wavelength of PL spectrum and full-width at half-maximum （FWHM） are 1305 nm and 30 meV, respectively, which are obtained as the QDs are finally capped with 5-nm In0.06Ga0.94As strain-reducing layer （SRL）. The PL spectra exhibit two emission peaks at 1305 and 1198 nm, which correspond to the ground state （GS） and the excited state （ES） of the QDs, respectively.     

Effective-mass theory for coupled quantum dots grown on （11N）-oriented substrates

The electronic structures of coupled quantum dots grown on （11N）-oriented substrates are studied in the framework of effective-mass envelope-function theory. The results show that the all-hole subbands have the smallest widths and the optical properties are best for the （113）, （114）, and （115） growth directions. Our theoretical results agree with the available experimental data. Our calculated results are useful for the application of coupled quantum dots in photoelectric devices.     

Effect of Annealing on Optical Properties of InAs Quantum Dots Grown by MOCVD on GaAs （100） Vicinal Substrates

Thermal annealing effect on lnAs quantum dots grown on vicinal （100） GaAs substrates is studied in comparison with dots on exact （100） GaAs substrates. We find that annealing acts stronger effect on dots with vicinal substrates by greatly accelerating the degradation of material quality, as well as slightly increasing the blueshift of the emission wavelength and the narrowing of PL linewidth. It is attributed to the higher strain in the dots formed on the vicinal substrates.     

Self-Organized InAs Quantum Wires on GaAs （331）A Substrates

Self-organized InAs quantum wires (QWRs) were fabricated on the step edges of the GaAs (331)A surface by molecular beam epitaxy. The lateral size of InAs QWRs was saturated by the terrace width (i.e., 9Ohm) while the size along the step lines increased with the increasing thicknesses of the InAs layers, up to 1100nm. The height of InAs QWRs varied from 7.9nm to 13nm. The evolution of the morphology of InAs QWRs was attributed to the diffusion .andsotropy of In adatoms.     

Structural and optical properties of InxGa1−xAs strained layers grown on GaAs substrates by MOVPE

In_xGa_1−xAs/GaAs pseudomorphic structures were grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Reciprocal space mapping were recorded in the vicinity of (0 0 4) and (1 1 5) nodes using high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) in order to determine strain tensor components, indium compositions and thicknesses of alloys. Near-infrared photoluminescence (PL) was performed at 10 K. The impact of strain on PL response was revealed by peak energy positions and line width. In addition, valence-band splitting (VBS) and the shift of the heavy-hole were measured. Besides, photoreflectance (PR) at room temperature was useful to establish experimentally the dependence of VBS and band energy shifts (E₀ and E₀+∆₀) on elastic strain due to lattice mismatches. Other parameters such as the internal electric-field and the electro-optical energy were determined from Franz–Keldysh oscillations analysis. Good correlation between the results obtained from all investigated techniques and theoretical predictions was confirmed.     

Photoluminescence of Self－Assembled InAs／GaAs Quantum Dots Covered by InAlAs and InGaAs Combination Strain－Reducing Layer

Self-assembled lnAs/GaAs quantum dots covered by the 1-nm InxAI(1-x)As (x = 0.2, 0.3) and 3-nm In0.2Ga0.8As combination strain-reducing layer are fabricated, whose height can take up to 30-46 nm. The luminescence emission at a long-wavelength of 1.33μm and the energy separation between the ground and the first-excited state of 86meV are observed at room temperature. Furthermore, comparative study proves that the energy separation can increase to 91 meV by multiple stacking.     

Rapid Thermal Annealing Effects on Structural and Optical Properties of Self-Assembled InAs／GaAs Quantum Dots Capped by InAIAs／InGaAs Layers

Effects of rapid thermal annealing on the optical and structural properties of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots capped by the InAlAs/InGaAs combination layers are studied by photoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy. The photoluminescence measurement shows that the photoluminescence peak of the sample after 850℃ rapid thermal annealing is blue shifted with 370meV and the excitation peak intensity increases by a factor of about 2.7 after the rapid thermal annealing, which indicates that the InAs quantum dots have experienced an abnormal transformation during the annealing. The transmission electron microscopy shows that the quantum dots disappear and a new InAlGaAs single quantum well structure forms after the rapid thermal annealing treatment. The transformation mechanism is discussed. These abnormal optical properties are attributed to the structural transformation of these quantum dots into a single quantum well.     

Evolution of surface morphology and photoluminescence characteristics of 1.3-μm In_(0.5)Ga_(0.5)As/GaAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Evolution of surface morphology and optical characteristics of 1.3-μm In0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs quantum dots （QDs） grown by molecular beam epitaxy （MBE） are investigated by atomic force microscopy （AFM） and photoluminescence （PL）. After deposition of 16 monolayers （ML） of In0.5Ga0.5As, QDs are formed and elongated along the [120] direction when using sub-ML depositions, while large size InGaAs QDs with better uniformity are formed when using ML or super-ML depositions. It is also found that the larger size QDs show enhanced PL efficiency without optical nonlinearity, which is in contrast to the elongated QDs.     

Atomic hydrogen induced step bunching and fabrication of quantum wire arrays on GaAs（311） A Substrate by molecular eam epitaxy

Atomic hydrogen assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is a novel type of epitaxial growth of nanostructures. The GaAs (311)A surface naturally forms one-dimensional step arrays by step bunching along the direction of 〈-233〉 and the space period is around 40nm. The step arrays extend over several μm without displacement. The InGaAs quantum wire arrays are grown on the step arrays as the basis. Our results may prompt further development of more uniform quantum wire and quantum dot arrays.     

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.     

InAs自组装量子点GaAs肖特基二级管的电学特性研究

分析研究了GaAsInAs自组装量子点的电输运性质,通过对实验数据的分析,讨论了Schottky势垒对InAs量子点器件的影响和IV曲线中迟滞回路以及电导曲线中台阶结构产生的原因.迟滞回路和台阶的出现与电场中量子点的充放电过程相关:迟滞回路反映了量子点充电后对载流子的库仑作用,而电导台阶则反映了量子点因共振隧穿的放电现象 关键词： 迟滞现象 自组装量子点 共振隧穿     

Theoretical study of quantum confined Stark shift in InAs／GaAs quantum dots

The quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) of the self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots has been investigated theoretically. The ground-state transition energies for quantum dots in the shape of a cube, pyramid or “truncated pyramid” are calculated and analysed. We use a method based on the Green function technique for calculating thestrain in quantum dots and an efficient plane-wave envelope-function technique to determine the ground-state electronic structure of them with different shapes. The symmetry of quantum dots is broken by the effect of strain. So the properties of carriers show different behaviours from the traditional quantum device. Based on these results, we also calculate permanent built-in dipole moments and compare them with recent experimental data. Our results demonstrate that the measured Stark effect in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dot structures can be explained by including linear grading.     

尺寸分布对量子点激发态发光性质的影响

采用有效质量近似方法研究了量子点的激发态光致发光峰的展宽问题. 对尺寸不均匀分布下量子点各能级发光峰与平均尺寸量子点发光峰的能量偏差进行了计算，定性地描述了尺寸分布对量子点基态和激发态发光峰展宽的影响. 研究表明，量子点的高度、直径以及体积等不均匀分布使量子点具有不同的垂直、平面方向的量子束缚. 这两种量子限制的相互作用决定了量子点激发态发光峰的宽度相对于基态发光峰的大小. 在各种不同性质的尺寸分布下，量子点激发态发光峰的展宽有可能大于、等于或小于基态发光峰的展宽. 关键词： 量子点 尺寸分布 激发态     

Formation and evolution of multimodal size distributions of InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Self-organized formation and evolution of quantum dot (QD) ensembles with a multimodal size distribution is reported. Such ensembles form after fast deposition near the critical thickness during a growth interruption (GRI) prior to cap layer growth and consist of pure InAs truncated pyramids with heights varying in steps of complete InAs monolayers, thereby creating well-distinguishable sub-ensembles. Ripening during GRI manifests itself by an increase of sub-ensembles of larger QDs at the expense of sub-ensembles of smaller ones, leaving the wetting layer unchanged. The dynamics of the multimodal QD size distribution is theoretically described using a kinetic approach. Starting from a broad distribution of flat QDs, a predominantly vertical growth is found due to strain-induced barriers for nucleation of a next atomic layer on different facets. QDs having initially a shorter base length attain a smaller height, accounting for the experimentally observed sub-ensemble structure. The evolution of the distribution is described by a master equation, which accounts for growth or dissolution of the QDs by mass exchange between the QDs and the adatom sea. The numerical solution is in good agreement with the measured dynamics.     

Photoluminescence and lasing properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition

Photoluminescence （PL） and lasing properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots （QDs） with different growth procedures prepared by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition are studied. PL measurements show that the low growth rate QD sample has a larger PL intensity and a narrower PL line width than the high growth rate sample. During rapid thermal annealing, however, the low growth rate sample shows a greater blueshift of PL peak wavelength. This is caused by the larger InAs layer thickness which results from the larger 2-3 dimensional transition critical layer thickness for the QDs in the low-growth-rate sample. A growth technique including growth interruption and in-situ annealing, named indium flush method, is used during the growth of GaAs cap layer, which can flatten the GaAs surface effectively. Though the method results in a blueshift of PL peak wavelength and a broadening of PL line width, it is essential for the fabrication of room temperature working QD lasers.     

Self-assembly of InAs quantum dots on GaAs(001)by molecular beam epitaxy

Currently, the nature of self-assembly of three-dimensional epitaxial islands or quantum dots (QDs) in a lattice-mismatched heteroepitaxial growth system, such as InAs/GaAs(001) and Ge/Si(001) as fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), is still puzzling. The purpose of this article is to discuss how the self-assembly of InAs QDs in MBE InAs/GaAs(001) should be properly understood in atomic scale. First, the conventional kinetic theories that have traditionally been used to interpret QD self-assembly in heteroepitaxial growth with a significant lattice mismatch are reviewed briefly by examining the literature of the past two decades. Second, based on their own experimental data, the authors point out that InAs QD self-assembly can proceed in distinctly different kinetic ways depending on the growth conditions and so cannot be framed within a universal kinetic theory, and, furthermore, that the process may be transient, or the time required for a QD to grow to maturity may be significantly short, which is obviously inconsistent with conventional kinetic theories. Third, the authors point out that, in all of these conventional theories, two well-established experimental observations have been overlooked: i) A large number of “floating” indium atoms are present on the growing surface in MBE InAs/GaAs(001); ii) an elastically strained InAs film on the GaAs(001) substrate should be mechanically unstable. These two well-established experimental facts may be highly relevant and should be taken into account in interpreting InAs QD formation. Finally, the authors speculate that the formation of an InAs QD is more likely to be a collective event involving a large number of both indium and arsenic atoms simultaneously or, alternatively, a morphological/structural transformation in which a single atomic InAs sheet is transformed into a three-dimensional InAs island, accompanied by the rehybridization from the sp²-bonded to sp³- bonded atomic configuration of both indium and arsenic elements in the heteroepitaxial growth system.     

Controlling emission wavelength from InAs self-assembled quantum dots on InP (0 0 1) during MOCVD

We studied the growth of InAs quantum dots on InP (0 0 1) substrates in a low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition by using a so-called InP ‘double-cap’ procedure. With double-capping, a photoluminescence spectrum is modified into a series of multiple peaks, where the emission peaks arise from several quantum dot families with different heights changing in a step of integer number of an InAs monolayer. Cross-sectional transmission electron micrograph observations revealed that the shape of double-capped dots is dramatically changed into a thin plate-like shape with extremely flat upper and lower interfaces, being consistent with our interpretation of the photoluminescence spectrum. We showed that the procedure was extremely useful for controlling the emission wavelength from quantum dots in an InAs/InP (0 0 1) system.     

GaSb/GaAs复合应力缓冲层上自组装InAs量子点的生长

研究了GaSb/GaAs复合应力缓冲层上自组装生长的InAs量子点.在2ML GaSb/1ML GaAs复合应力缓冲层上获得了高密度的、沿［100］方向择优分布量子点.随着复合应力缓冲层中GaAs层厚度的不同,量子点的密度可以在1.2×10¹⁰cm^-2和8×10¹⁰cm^-2进行调控.适当增加GaAs层的厚度至5ML,量子点的发光波长红移了约25nm,室温下PL光谱波长接近1300nm. 关键词： 自组装量子点 分子束外延 Ⅲ-Ⅴ族化合物半导体     

Suppressing the multimodal size distribution of InAs/GaAs quantum dots through flattening the surface fluctuation

A method of suppressing the multimodal size distribution of InAs/GaAs quantum dots(QDs) using molecular beam epitaxy through flattening the substrate surface is reported in this work.It is found that the surface roughness plays an important role in the growth of QDs through continuous surface evolution(SEQDs).SEQDs are the main components of small QD ensemble in QDs with multimodal size distribution.It is suggested that most of the SEQDs are very likely to nucleate during the growth interruption rather than...