Epitaxial growth and optical characterization of InAs/InGaAsP/InP self-assembled quantum dots

Abstract

Five stacks of InAs quantum dots (QDs) with InGaAsP barriers were grown on (100) InP and luminescence characteristics were analyzed. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy shows that small dots with a lateral size of ∼30 nm and a height of ∼3 nm are formed with an areal density of ∼5×1010 cm−2. The QDs emit strong photoluminescence (PL) peaks in the range of 1.4–1.6 μm that can be controlled by nominal InAs thickness. The integrated PL intensity from QDs stays very high at room temperature as much as 20% of that at 10 K. At weak excitation, the carrier lifetimes are measured to be almost the same across the whole PL band at low temperature with a value of ∼4 ns and they remain at that value at room temperature. These characteristics strongly evidence that individual QDs are well isolated and have a strong carrier confinement at room temperature.