A TEM study of the evolution of InAs/GaAs self-assembled dots on (3 1 1)B GaAs with growth interruption

The effect of growth interruption time on the structural properties of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (3 1 1)B GaAs substrates is studied. Changes both in the density and the size of the dots in comparison with a sample without growth interruption are presented. The trends of both parameters with the interruption time are closely related to red shift and increased photoluminescence intensity observed in the set of samples. Growth interruption allows larger dots; however there is a limit after which dots exceed a critical size and become defective.