A comparative study of Stranski-Krastanov (SK), sub-monolayer (SML) and coupled SK on SML InAs quantum dots as active region in InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs DDWELL heterostructure was done. Incorporation of additional high band gap confinement enhancing (CE) AlxGa1-xAs barrier helps to create new energy levels, increase the absorption coefficient, reduce dark current and improve crystalline quality of the heterostructure. This is because of the CE barrier which reduces In-adatom out-diffusion. Three different DDWELL heterostructure A, B and C with active regions as SK, SML and SK on SML respectively, had been modelled using the Nextnano simulation tool keeping all other parameters same. Photoluminescence (PL) emission wavelength, biaxial strains and hydrostatic strain profiles of heterostructures A, B and C were compared. Hydrostatic strain with less magnitude leads to better carrier confinement within the conduction band, and biaxial strain with high magnitude increases splitting between heavy-hole and light- hole bands, generating a red-shift in PL emission wavelength. It can be observed from the computed result that biaxial and hydrostatic strain in the SK QD are enhanced in structure C compared to A. Likewise, biaxial strain and hydrostatic strain in the SML QD stacks are enhanced in structure C compared to B. PL emission wavelength of structures A, B, and C were observed to be 1116nm, 864nm and 1170nm respectively. Therefore, structure C exhibits minimum strain among the heterostructures and highest PL emission wavelength for SWIR applications.
In–Ga intermixing occurrence in InAs/In(Ga)As sub–monolayer (SML) quantum dots (QDs) is very consequential for the understanding of some optoelectronic properties. In this current study, we have performed a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process at various annealing temperatures (Ta: 650 – 800°C) on multiple SML QD layers (4,6,8,10) grown at 490°C by Molecular – beam Epitaxy (MBE) technique and it has led to some positive conclusions on the analysis of 19 K photoluminescence (PL) data. A blueshift in the ground-state PL peak indicates the formation of smaller – sized dots and at the same time we see the full – width at half – maximum (FWHM) gets narrowed down through annealing suggesting for uniform dot size distribution. It is noteworthy to mention that samples with 4 and 6 QD layers showed a same degree of In–Ga intermixing when compared to asgrown (ASG) samples (62 meV), while 8 and 10 QD layers was changeable due to multimodal dot characteristics and perhaps the intermixing induced defects. This derives to conclude that the latter possess more QD size inhomogeneity issues and it can affect the charge carrier confinement energy. The FWHM broadening seen in 8 and 10 QD layers will lead to the formation of broader electronic minibands as dots of various size distributions merge altogether from these vertically – aligned layers with increase in Ta, while the redistribution of thermal mass transport species led to a narrower FWHM in 4 and 6 QD layers (and discrete energy states). Also, In–Ga intermixing effects are more pronounced in 8 and 10 stacks encouraging the defect creation. Hence, for the fabrication of room-temperature high gain infrared photodetectors (IRPDs), samples containing 4 and 6 QD layers with higher thermal stability against annealing (at 700°C) are the best candidates.
The capping layer (CL) overgrowth process is a very mandate step to preserve the quantum dot (QD) basic parameters necessary for enhanced device performance. It is a well-known aspect that the strain fields inside QD(CL) gets altered both along [100] (perpendicular) and [001] (parallel) directions, when employed with an appropriate CL thickness and composition (%). In this study, we report on the InAs Sub-monolayer (SML) QDs capped by a tensile-strained CL: GaAs1−xNx (2 ML thick), to lessen the net compressive strain in the system. A 8-band k.p simulation was performed in this regard to understand the change in optical and strain properties, for varying dilute Nx contents (x): 1.5, 1.8, 2.2 and 2.5% respectively. Firstly, the hydrostatic (biaxial) strain along [001] inside QD region increases (decreases) with increasing x(%) and this supposedly should blueshift photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Secondly, the changes in band structure across the conduction and valence bands (CB, VB) gave some clear insights on the PL redshift. The CB minima in CL gets lowered, accounting for reduced carrier confinement and not due to the strain counterparts. The tensile strain nature of CL has a larger band gap bowing parameter that helps in this stronger redshift in PL energy. By this lowering of CB energy in CL, the electron eigen levels inside QD shift downwards, reducing the bandgap of the same. Finally, the simulated PL energy values at 19 K for varying N% was found to be 1.06, 1.02, 0.96, and 0.92 eV finding it suitable for laser applications.
The influence of the Sb composition both on the band-alignment and the optical characteristics of strain-coupled vertically aligned InAs/GaAsSb Stranski-Krastanov (SK) quantum dots (QDs) embedded on six stack InAs/In0.15Ga0.85As Sub-monolayer (SML) matrix has been studied using nextnano simulation tool. A ten-layer strain-coupled InAs SK QDs electronically coupled to six stack SML QDs which has been the optimized structure is utilized in this study. Four different structures with Sb composition of 10%, 14%, 18% and 22% are chosen as a capping layer over InAs QDs and it is found that a transition in the band-alignment from type-I to type-II occurs when the Sb composition is increased above 14%. The optical characteristics have been simulated for these heterostructures which showed a red shift in the photoluminescence (PL) peak values with increase in the Sb composition. The PL peak value of ~1035 nm has been validated with the experimental PL data for the ten-layer InAs/GaAs SK QDs grown on six stack SML QDs without GaAsSb capping. With the similar dot size, the PL peak occurred at ~1115 nm, ~1159 nm, ~1209 nm and ~1284 nm, respectively, for 10%, 14%, 18% and 22% Sb composition structures. Investigation of electron and hole eigen states has been done for these structures. The usage of GaAsSb capping layer (strain reducing layer: SRL) over the InAs SK QDs allows an undulated strain transition from one SK QD layer to the other. The hydrostatic and the biaxial parts of the strain are estimated and a decrease in the hydrostatic compressive strain in the QDs has been observed with increase in the Sb composition. An increase in the biaxial strain with Sb composition has been noticed which result in lowering of the energy band gap and a red shift in the PL emission wavelength. Along with type-II band alignment, the low hydrostatic strain with 22% Sb composition facilitates lower dark current and also a red shifted PL results from ~1035 nm to ~1284 nm shows a promising direction for the realization of several optoelectronic device applications.
The smaller lattice constant and high band gap quaternary – capped AlxInyGa1−x−yAs material acts as a confinement – enhancing (CE) barrier layer in type – I InAs/InxGa1−xAs sub-monolayer (SML) quantum dot (QD) optoelectronic devices. The QDs grown inside In0.15Ga0.85As matrix surrounded by AlxGayIn1−x−yAs/GaAs barriers, resembles of dot –in – a – well (DWELL) heterostructure to achieve higher device performance. A larger in – plane compressive strain gets induced due to smaller lattice constant of CE barrier layer and this effect can be probed for designing higher modal gain and low – threshold current density vertical cavity surface – emitting lasers (VCSELs). The decreasing In content in CE layers increases the compressive strain in QDs, leading to reduced threshold current by decreasing (increasing) the background carrier concentration (conduction band, CB offset). The increased CB offset with Al (0.21), In (0.21) contents will therefore prevent the carriers from escaping to quantum well (QW) or barrier layers, thus non – radiative leakage current effects can be reduced. We have analyzed the primary strain tensors: hydrostatic and biaxial strain, photoluminescence (PL) emission energies using Nextnano++ simulations based on 8 – band k.p theory. Both the hydrostatic and biaxial strain increases inside QD, capping layers for increasing In (Al) composition, facilitating the threshold current reduction. Through the strain analysis, the material gain to carrier characteristics can be figured out for the efficient design of VCSELs. The QD low (19 K) and room –temperature (300 K) PL eigen energies were found at 1.1805 (1.1759) eV and 1.111 (1.177) eV for Al0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs and Al0.21Ga0.58In0.21As/GaAs CE layers.
This study examines the photoluminescence (PL) properties and strain distribution in InAs/InGaAs heterostructure for varying number of sub-monolayer (SML) quantum dot stacks (nSML). High resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) probes the strain effects, whereas PL spectroscopy evaluated the optical response. The ground-state transition energies calculated from PL experiments were found to be 1.19, 1.13, 1.11, 1.12 eV for 4, 6, 8 and 10 stacks respectively. It was observed that, with the increasing nSML, the PL peak emission energy has an initial blue shift and later a red shift, due to build-up of strain energy propagating from the bottom layers of InAs quantum dots (QDs). The activation energies (Ea) calculated from temperature-dependent PL (TDPL) measurements are 414, 279, 260 and 231 meV for 4, 6, 8 and 10 stacks respectively. The Raman characterization results explores on the strain relaxation effects by observing the shift and broadening in TO and LO phonon peaks of GaAs bulk material. The strain energy distribution along the growth direction (z-direction) was studied using nextnano++ simulations. The relative change in hydrostatic and biaxial strain at a particular z - position was calculated to be 3.2% and 5.5% respectively These strain components are of prime importance in understanding the position of conduction and valence band energy levels and finally the band gap energy. Thus, with these articulated results, we conclude that sample with 6 SML stacks is the optimum choice for fabricating optoelectronic devices operating in long range infrared telecommunication regime.
In this study, we have discussed the effect of strain distribution and optical properties on In0.14Ga0.86As matrix thickness variation (tmat) in self-assembled InAs quantum dot (QD) heterostructure using temperature and power-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The calculated ground-state transition energies are 1.12, 1.14 and 1.09 eV for tmat of 2, 4 and 6 ML (monolayer) In0.14Ga0.86As matrix thickness respectively. We also discern that the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) broadens gradually as temperatures increases due to electron-phonon scattering. The calculated activation energy (Ea) values are 231, 302 and 98 meV for increasing tmat. The partial strain relief due to varying In0.14Ga0.86As layer thickness occurs due to QD size tunability by preventing Indium (In) segregation effect, that sets the possibility to understand about InAs inter-band and intersubband transitions of PL emission. This has been validated with HRXRD results where strain decreases linearly with increasing tmat. Here In0.14Ga0.86As layer acts as a strain-reducing layer (SRL) in QD heterostructure as well. Thus helps in reducing the hydrostatic strain (∊hyd) of InAs QDs, while the lower InGaAs layer increases the QD density, leading to a remarkable rise in PL intensity due to state filling of carriers. The effect of strain distribution for varying tmat in the heterostructure was also studied using nextnano++ simulations. The relative percentage change in hydrostatic (biaxial) strain was calculated to be 5.5% (8%) respectively. Thus, the results so obtained can help in tuning matrix thickness on the PL emission properties of QDs and therefore in the realization of several optoelectronic devices.
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