Formation of InAs quantum dots in a GaAs matrix during growth on misoriented substrates

The formation of InAs quantum dots grown by submonolayer migration-enhanced molecular-beam epitaxy on GaAs(100) surfaces with various misorientation angles and directions is investigated. It is shown for the deposition of 2 monolayers (ML) of InAs that increasing the misorientation angle above 3° along the [010], , and [011] directions leads to the formation of several groups of quantum dots differing in geometric dimensions and electronic structure. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 95–100 (January 1998)     

Calculation of the surface characteristics and pressures of InAs quantum dots in a GaAs matrix

A theoretical model for calculating the energy characteristics of surfaces of InAs quantum dots in a GaAs(100) matrix is described. The model is based on notions of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and surface physics. The results of calculating the magnitudes of the surface energy and adhesion physical quantities as well as pressures in the vicinity of the edges of InAs quantum dots in a GaAs(100) matrix are presented. The causes of bending of the profile of the lower part of the quantum dot are presented using the Young relationship. These results can be used to asses the stress-relaxation mechanisms during the course of the selforganization of InAs quantum dots in a GaAs(100) matrix.     

Effects of GaAs-spacer strain on vertical ordering of stacked InAs quantum dots in a GaAs matrix

Vertical ordering in stacked layers of InAs/GaAs quantum dots is currently the focus of scientific research because of its potential for optoelectronics applications. Transmission electron microscopy was applied to study InAs/GaAs stacked layers grown by molecular-beam-epitaxy with various thicknesses of GaAs spacer. Thickness dependencies of quantum dot size and their ordering were observed experimentally and, then, compared with the results of strain calculations based on the finite element method. The vertical ordering did occur when the thickness of the GaAs spacer was comparable with the dot height. The ordering was found to be associated with relatively large InAs dots on the first layer. Quantum dots tend to become larger in size and more regular in plane with increasing numbers of stacks. Our results suggest that the vertical ordering is not only affected by strain from the InAs dots on the lower layer, but by total strain configuration in the multi-stacked structure.     

Formation of dislocation defects in the process of burying of InAs quantum dots into GaAs

Evidence given by electron microscopy of dislocation relaxation of stresses near InAs quantum dots buried into GaAs is presented. It was found that dislocation defects not emerging to the film surface are formed in some buried quantum dots. This suggests that stress relaxation occurs in the buried state of the quantum dot, rather than at the stage of the formation and growth of an InAs island on the GaAs surface. Models of internal dislocation relaxation of buried quantum dots are presented.     

Electron microscopy of GaAs Structures with InAs and as quantum dots

An electron-microscopy study of GaAs structures, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy, containing two coupled layers of InAs semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) overgrown with a thin buffer GaAs layer and a layer of low-temperature-grown gallium arsenide has been performed. In subsequent annealing, an array of As nanoinclusions (metallic QDs) was formed in the low-temperature-grown GaAs layer. The variation in the microstructure of the samples during temperature and annealing conditions was examined. It was found that, at comparatively low annealing temperatures (400–500°C), the formation of the As metallic QDs array weakly depends on whether InAs semiconductor QDs are present in the preceding layers or not. In this case, the As metallic QDs have a characteristic size of about 2–3 nm upon annealing at 400°C and 4–5 nm upon annealing at 500°C for 15 min. Annealing at 600°C for 15 min in the growth setup leads to a coarsening of the As metallic QDs to 8–9 nm and to the formation of groups of such QDs in the area of the low-temperature-grown GaAs which is directly adjacent to the buffer layer separating the InAs semiconductor QDs. A more prolonged annealing at an elevated temperature (760°C) in an atmosphere of hydrogen causes a further increase in the As metallic QDs’ size to 20–25 nm and their spatial displacement into the region between the coupled InAs semiconductor QDs.     

Wannier-Stark states in a superlattice of InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Electron and hole emission from states of a ten-layer system of tunneling-coupled vertically correlated InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) is studied experimentally by capacitance—voltage measurements and deep-level transient spectroscopy. The thickness of GaAs interlayers separating sheets of InAs QDs was ≈3 nm, as determined from transmission electron microscope images. It is found that the periodic multimo-dal DLTS spectrum of this structure exhibits a pronounced linear shift as the reverse-bias voltage U _r applied to the structure is varied. The observed behavior is a manifestation of the Wannier—Stark effect in the InAs/GaAs superlattice, where the presence of an external electric field leads to the suppression of coupling between the wave functions of electron states forming the miniband and to the appearance of a series of discrete levels called Wannier—Stark ladder states.     

Photoluminescence of InAs quantum dots grown on disoriented GaAs substrates

The photoluminescence spectra in an external magnetic field of an ensemble of InAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a (001) GaAs substrate with a disorientation in the [010] direction are studied. A redistribution of the photoexcited carriers among different groups of dots under the influence of the magnetic field is observed. The concentration of quantum dots is determined by analyzing the data. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 33, 1084–1087 (September 1999)     

Metastable population of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots

In the present work, we report on the investigation of a p-n heterostructure with InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QD) by capacitance-voltage and deep level transient spectroscopy. We have observed controllable and reversible metastable population of the energy states of quantum dots and interface in the structure containing one plane of InAs QDs as a function of temperature of isochronous annealing as well as under bias-on-bias-off cooling conditions and white light illumination. This effect was attributed to the change in the Fermi level position due to the hole capture on self-trapped defects similar to the DX center in GaAs after isochronous annealing and white light illumination.     

Effect of the cap-layer composition on the electronic properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots

The capping of an array of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots by an InGaAs quantum-well layer leads to an increase in their size due to indium enrichment of the region near the top of the quantum dots, which decreases the energy of the ground-state optical transition in quantum dots by 50 meV and shifts the hole wave function toward the top of the quantum dot.     

STM probe-assisted site-control of self-organized InAs quantum dots on GaAs surfaces

A site-control technique for individual InAs quantum dots (QDs) has been developed by using scanning tunneling microscope (STM) probe-assisted nanolithography and self-organizing molecular-beam epitaxy. We find that nano-scale deposits can be created on a GaAs surface by applying voltage and current pulses between the surface and a tungsten tip of the STM, and that they act as “nano-masks” on which GaAs does not grow directly. Accordingly, subsequent thin GaAs growth produces GaAs nano-holes above the deposits. When InAs is supplied on this surface, QDs are self-organized at the hole sites, while hardly any undesirable Stranski-Krastanov QDs are formed in the flat surface region. Using this technique with nanometer precision, a QD pair with 45-nm pitch is successfully fabricated. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Recombination emission from InAs quantum dots grown on vicinal GaAs surfaces

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of InAs/GaAs heteroepitaxial structures with quantum dots (QDs) have been studied. The structures were grown by submonolayer migration-enhanced epitaxy on vicinal substrates with the amount of deposited InAs close to the critical value of 1.8 monolayer (ML). The origin and evolution of the structure of PL spectra were studied in relation to the direction and angle of misorientation, temperature, and power density and spectrum of the exciting radiation. A blue shift and narrowing of the PL band with increasing misorientation angle was established experimentally. The fact that QDs become smaller and more uniform in size is explained in terms of a lateral confinement of QDs on terraces with account taken of the step bunching effect. The temperature dependences of the positions and full widths at half-maximum (FWHM) of PL bands are fundamentally different for isolated and associated QDs. The exciton ground states contribute to all low-temperature spectral components. The excited exciton state contributes to the recombination emission from QDs, as evidenced by the temperature dependence of the integrated intensity of the PL bands. A quantitative estimate is given of the electronic structure of different families of InAs QDs grown on GaAs substrates misoriented by 7° in the [001] direction.     

Photoelectric properties of GaAs/InAs heterostructures with quantum dots

The capacitive photovoltage and photoconductivity spectra of GaAs/InAs heterostructures with quantum dots is discussed. For these structures, which were fabricated by metallorganic gas-phase epitaxy, the photosensitivity spectrum has a sawtoothed shape in the wavelength range where absorption by the quantum dots takes place, which is characteristic of a δ-function-like density of states function. The spectra also exhibit photosensitivity bands associated with the formation of single-layer InAs quantum wells in the structure. An expression is obtained for the absorption coefficient of an ensemble of quantum dots with a prespecified size distribution. It is shown that the energy distribution of the joint density of states, the surface density of quantum dots, and the effective cross section for trapping a photon can all be determined by analyzing the photosensitivity spectrum based on this assumption. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 31, 1100–1105 (September 1997)     

Pulsed laser annealing of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots

The effect of pulsed laser annealing (PLA), using an excimer laser, on the luminescence efficiency of self-organized InAs/GaAs and In_0.4Ga_0.6As/GaAs quantum dots has been investigated. It is found that such annealing can enhance both the peak and integrated photoluminescence (PL) efficiency of the dots, up to a factor of 5–10 compared to as-grown samples, without any spectral shift of the luminescence spectrum. The improved luminescence is attributed to the annealing of nonradiative point and extended defects in and around the dots.     

Temperature dependence of InAs/GaAs quantum dots solar photovoltaic devices

This paper presents the temperature dependence measurements characterisation of several InAs/GaAs quantum dots （QDs） solar cell devices. The devices with cylindrical geometry were fabricated and characterised on-wafer under 20 suns in a temperature range from 300°K to 430°K. The temperature dependence parameters such as open circuit voltage, short circuit density current, fill factor and efficiency are studied in detail. The increase of temperature produces an enhancement of the short circuit current. However, the open circuit voltage is degraded because the temperature increases the recombination phenomena involved, as well as reducing the effective band gap of the semiconductor.     

Electric field effects on the carrier migration in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Electron and hole dynamics from self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) subject to vertical electric fields have been studied by observing the photoluminescence (PL) image on the sample surface. We have observed an asymmetric profile associated to migration of optically excited electron and holes in the quantum dot structure. The asymmetric profile is increased by rising the applied bias voltage. This behaviour was associated with charge accumulation at different regions of the QD layer plane due to an asymmetric electric field, upon which the QDs are immersed.     

Temperature dependent optical properties of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots

We report photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL, and PL excitation experiments on InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) of different size as a function of temperature. The results indicate that both the inhomogeneous properties of the ensemble and the intrinsic properties of single QDs are important in understanding the temperature-dependence of the optical properties. With increasing temperature, excitons are shown to assume a local equilibrium distribution between the localized QD states, whereas the formation of a position-independent Fermi-level is prevented by carrier-loss to the barrier dominating thermally stimulated lateral carrier transfer. The carrier capture rate is found to decrease with increasing temperature and, at room temperature, long escape-limited ground state lifetimes of some 10 ps are estimated. PL spectra excited resonantly in the ground state transition show matching ground state absorption and emission, indicating the intrinsic nature of exciton recombination in the QDs. Finally, the PL excitation spectra are shown to reveal size-selectively the QD absorption, demonstrating the quantum-size effect of the excited state splitting.     

Effect of Bi isovalent dopants on the formation of homogeneous coherently strained InAs quantum dots in GaAs matrices

The distribution of hydrostatic strains in Bi³⁺-doped InAs quantum dots embedded in a GaAs matrix are calculated in the context of the deformation-potential model. The dependences of strains in the material of spherical InAs quantum dots with substitutional (Bi → As) and interstitial (Bi) impurities on the quantum-dot size are derived. The qualitative correlation of the model with the experiment is discussed. The data on the effect of doping on the morphology of self-assembled InAs:Bi quantum dots in a GaAs matrix are obtained.     

Structural and optical properties of InAs quantum dots in AlGaAs matrix

Structural and optical properties of InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown in a wide-bandgap Al_0.3Ga_0.7As matrix is studied. It is shown that a high temperature stability of optical properties can be achieved owing to deep localization of carriers in a matrix whose band gap is wider than that in GaAs. Specific features of QD formation were studied for different amounts of deposited InAs. A steady red shift of the QD emission peak as far as ∼1.18 μm with the effective thickness of InAs in Al_0.3Ga_0.7As increasing was observed at room temperature. This made it possible to achieve a much higher energy of exciton localization than for QDs in a GaAs matrix. To obtain the maximum localization energy, the QD sheet was overgrown with an InGaAs layer. The possibility of reaching the emission wavelength of ~1.3 μm is demonstrated. __________ Translated from Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, Vol. 37, No. 5, 2003, pp. 578–582. Original Russian Text Copyright ? 2003 by Sizov, Samsonenko, Tsyrlin, Polyakov, Egorov, Tonkikh, Zhukov, Mikhrin, Vasil’ev, Musikhin, Tsatsul’nikov, Ustinov, Ledentsov.     

Electronic Raman scattering from holes in InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots

A report is presented on the observation of hole excitations in unintentionally p-doped self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots by resonant Raman spectroscopy. The small difference in the valence intraband energy values obtained by Raman and PL spectra is explained by the Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes. However, the reason why the maximum resonance occurs at a slightly higher energy than that of the hole excitation seen in Raman spectra is unknown.