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We present eight-band k.p calculations of the electronic and polarization properties of columnar Inz Ga1-z As quantum dots (CQD) with high aspect ratio embedded in an Inx Ga1-x As/GaAs quantum well. Our model accounts for the linear strain effects, linear piezoelectricity, and spin-orbit interaction. We calculate the relative intensities of transverse-magnetic (TM) and transverse-electric (TE) linear polarized light emitted from the edge of the semiconductor wafer as a function of the two main factors affecting the heavy hole-light hole valence band mixing and hence, the polarization dependent selection rules for the optical transitions, namely, (i) the composition contrast z/x between the dot material and the surrounding well and (ii) the dot aspect ratio. The numerical results show that the former is the main driving parameter for tuning the polarization properties. This is explained by analyzing the biaxial strain in the CQD, based on which it is possible to predict the TM to TE intensity ratio. The conclusions are supported by analytical considerations of the strain in the dots. Finally, we present the compositional and geometrical conditions to achieve polarization independent emission from InGaAs/GaAs CQDs. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. U7 - Export Date: 2 August 2010 U7 - Source: Scopus U7 - Art. No.: 073509

The growth of InAs columnar quantum dots (CQDs) on GaAs substrates by MBE was studied. The CQDs were formed by depositing a 1.8 monolayer (ML) InAs seed dot layer and a short period GaAs/InAs superlattice (SL). The growth of the CQDs is very sensitive to growth interruption (GI) and growth temp. Both longer GI and higher growth temp. impact the size dispersion of the CQDs, which causes the broadening of photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and the presence of the addnl. PL peak tails. By properly choosing the GI and the growth temp., CQDs including GaAs (3 ML)/InAs (0.62 ML) SL with period no. up to 35 without plastic relaxation were grown. The corresponding equiv. thickness of the SL is 41 nm which is two times higher than the theor. crit. thickness of the strained InGaAs layer with the same av. In compn. of 16%. The increase of the crit. thickness is partially assocd. with the formation of the CQDs. Based on a five-stack CQD active region, laser diodes emitting around 1120 nm at room temp. were demonstrated, indicating a high material quality. CQDs with nearly isotropic cross section (20 nm*20 nm dimensions) were formed by depositing a 16-period GaAs (3 ML)/InAs (0.62 ML) SL on an InAs seed dot layer, indicating the feasibility of artificial shape engineering of QDs. Such a structure is expected to be very promising for polarization insensitive device applications, such as semiconductor optical amplifiers. [on SciFinder (R)]

In this paper, we present a systematic study of the effect of growth parameters on the structural and optical properties of InAs quantum dot (QD) grown under Stranski-Krastanov mode by molecular beam epitaxy. The dot density is significantly reduced from 1.9x10(10) to 0.6x10(10) cm(-2) as the growth rate decreases from 0.075 to 0.019 ML/s, while the island size becomes larger. Correspondingly, the emission wavelength shifts to the longer side. By increasing the indium fraction in the InGaAs capping layer, the emission wavelength increases further. At indium fraction of 0.3, a ground state transition wavelength as long as 1.4 mum with the excited state transition wavelength of around 1.3 mum has been achieved in our dots. The optical properties of QDs with a ground state transition wavelength of 1.3 mum but with different growth techniques were compared. The QDs grown with higher rate and embedded by InGaAs have a higher intensity saturation level from excitation dependent photoluminescence measurements and a smaller intensity decrease from temperature dependent measurements. Finally, single mirror light emitting diodes with a QD embedded in InGaAs have been fabricated. The quantum efficiency at room temperature is 1.3%, corresponding to a radiative efficiency of 21.5%. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

The authors experimentally investigate the effects of atomic layer deposition (ALD) and laser-assisted oxidation on the optical modes in GaAs L3 photonic crystal air-bridge cavities, using layers of InAs quantum dots as internal light source. Four distinct optical mode peaks are observed in the photonic bandgap and they show different wavelength-redshifts (0-6.5 nm) as the photonic crystal surface is coated with an Al2O3 layer (0-5.4 nm thick). Numerical finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations can well-reproduce the experimental result and give insight into the origin of the shifts of modes with different spatial profiles. By combining the ALD coating with in situ laser-assisted oxidation, we are able to both redshift and blueshift the optical modes and we attribute the blueshift to the formation of a GaAs-oxide at the expense of GaAs at the interface between GaAs and the Al2O3 layer. This result can be quantitatively reproduced by including a GaAs-oxide layer into the FDTD model. Selective etching experiments, confirm that this GaAs-oxide layer is mainly at the interface between GaAs and Al2O3 layers. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3559269]

The authors present the study of the modulation mechanisms in photoreflectance (PR) spectroscopy of an ensemble of self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). To distinguish between possible factors contributing to the total modulation efficiency of QD transitions, a photoreflectance excitation expt. was performed on an InAs/GaAs quantum dot structure grown by solid-source MBE. The intensity of PR features related to QDs changes in a function of the wavelength of the pumping laser, tuned from above-GaAs band gap down to below wetting layer ground state transition. Based on this dependence most of the QD PR signal intensity originates from the modulation of the built-in elec. field caused by carriers photogenerated in GaAs layers. Also the modulation of QD transitions related to a possible modification of the dot properties due to filling them with carriers is negligible in PR expt. on an ensemble of dots. An addnl. confirmation of the PR results was obtained by using contactless electroreflectance (CER), demonstrating that the line shape of PR and CER QD resonances is almost identical in both spectra. Thus, the QD transitions can be analyzed by using the std. low field line shape functional form applicable in any electromodulation spectroscopy.

Self-assembled InAs∕GaAs quantum dots have been grown at very low InAs growth rate in order to form sparse and large quantum dots (QDs) emitting in the near infrared (1300–1400nm), for application as single-photon sources. The structural and optical properties of these QDs as a function of the growth rate were systematically investigated. The QDs grown at the lowest rate (∼10−3ML∕s) present a very low dot density (∼2×108dots∕cm2), high In content, and good size homogeneity. Photoluminescence and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements performed at different powers and temperatures provide information on their luminescence efficiency, and on the recombination processes occurring in the low-density QDs as compared to higher densities.

We have investigated carrier spin relaxation in InAs columnar quantum dots (CQDs) using time-resolved photoluminescence measurement. The CQDs were formed by depositing a 1.8 monolayer InAs seed dot layer and a short-period GaAs/InAs superlattice (SL). The spin relaxations of the 3- and 35-period SL CQDs show double exponential decay up to 50 and 130 K, respectively. The spin relaxation times of the fast component, whose amplitudes are 4-11 times larger than that of the slow component, are around 100 ps for the two samples. For the 3-period SL CQDs, the fast spin relaxation time shows no temperature dependence up to around 50 K, indicating the relevance of the Bir-Aronov-Pikus process. The slow spin relaxation time of the 35-period SL CQDs was found to decrease from 3.42 ns at 10 K to 0.849 ns at 130 K. This large change may be explained by the Elliott-Yafet process considering acoustic phonon scattering. (C) 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

A systematic investigation of the temperature characteristics of quantum dot lasers emitting at 1.3 µm is reported. The temperature dependence of carrier lifetime, radiative efficiency, threshold current, differential efficiency, and gain is measured, and compared to the theoretical results based on a rate equation model. The model accurately reproduces all experimental laser characteristics above room temperature. The degradation of laser characteristics with increasing temperature is clearly shown to be associated to the thermal escape of holes from the confined energy levels of the dots toward the wetting layer and the nonradiative recombination therein. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

The epitaxial growth of quantum rods (QRs) on GaAs was investigated. It was found that GaAs thickness in the GaAs/InAs superlattice used for QR formation plays a key role in improving the QR structural properties. Increasing the GaAs thickness results in both an increased In compositional contrast between the QRs and surrounding layer, and an increased QR length. QRs with an aspect ratio of up to 10 were obtained, representing quasiquantum wires in a GaAs matrix. Due to modified confinement and strain potential, such nanostructure is promising for controlling gain polarization. c 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3032544]

We investigate the use of growth interruption to obtain low-density InAs quantum dots (QDs) on GaAs. The process was realized by Ostwald-type ripening of a thin InAs layer. It was found that the optical properties of the QDs as a function of growth interruption strongly depend on InAs growth rate. By using this approach, a low density of QDs (4 dots/mu m(2)) with uniform size distribution was achieved. As compared to QDs grown without growth interruption, a larger energy separation between the QD confined levels was observed, suggesting a situation closer to the ideal zero-dimensional system. Combining with an InGaAs capping layer such as In-rich QDs enable 1.3 mu m emission at 4 K. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3000483]

The electrical control of the lasing wavelength in two-section quantum dot lasers is investigated. By changing the optical loss in the absorber section, the control of the ground-state (GS) and excited-state (ES) lasing thresholds and output powers is achieved. Additionally, a complex self-pulsation dynamics with simultaneous oscillations of the GS and ES intensities is observed. The experimental results are well explained in the framework of a rate equation model.