Effects of rapid thermal annealing on self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots superlattice

Postgrowth rapid thermal annealing was used to study the relaxation mechanism and optical properties of InGaAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots superlattice grown by molecular beam epitaxy. It is found that a significant narrowing of the luminescence linewidth (from 80 to 42 meV) occurs together with about 86 meV blue shift at annealing temperature up to 950 degrees C. Double crystal X-ray diffraction measurements show that the intensity of the satellite diffraction peak, which corresponds to the quantum dots superlattice, decreased with the increasing annealing temperature and disappeared at 750 degrees C, but recovered and increased again at higher annealing temperatures. This behavior can be explained by two competing relaxation mechanisms; interdiffusion and favored migration. The study indicates that a suitable annealing treatment can improve the structural properties of the quantum dots superlattice. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.