Evidence of thermally activated transfer of excited carriers between CdSe/ZnSe quantum dots

Temperature dependent photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence of selfassembled CdSe/ZnSe quantum dots grown by metalorganic vapor phase deposition were investigated. We found an unusual large red shift and a narrowing of the photoluminescence peak with temperature increases. Cathodoluminescence studies of a small number of quantum dots showed that the broad peak observed in the photoluminescence spectra is, in fact, made up of a series of narrower peaks, coming from quantum dots of different sizes. While the intensity of luminescence from small dots drops monotonously with temperature rises, that from the large dots displays a peculiar behavior. It actually increases within the temperature range of 140–170 K, the same range in which the photoluminescence peak shows narrowing. The simultaneous increase of luminescence from some quantum dots and decrease from others are believed to be responsible for the red shift and narrowing of the observed photoluminescence peak. A simple analytically solvable rate equation model was used to understand the spectral data. We suggest that the unusual behaviors observed can be understood as resulting from a transfer of thermally activated carriers from small to large quantum dots.