Evolution of wetting layer in InAs/GaAs quantum dot system

For InAs/GaAs quantum dot system, the evolution of the wetting layer (WL) with the InAs deposition thickness has been studied by reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS). Two transitions related to the heavy-and light-hole in the WL have been distinguished in RD spectra. Taking into account the strain and segregation effects, a model has been presented to deduce the InAs amount in the WL and the segregation coefficient of the indium atoms from the transition energies of heavy-and light-holes. The variation of the InAs amount in the WL and the segregation coefficient are found to rely closely on the growth modes. In addition, the huge dots also exhibits a strong effect on the evolution of the WL. The observed linear dependence of In segregation coefficient upon the InAs amount in the WL demonstrates that the segregation is enhanced by the strain in the WL.

Self-organized hexagonal ordering of quantum dot arrays

We report a structure of (In, Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots which are vertically correlated and laterally aligned in a hexagonal way thus forming three-dimensionally ordered arrays. The growth pathway is based on a mechanism of self-assembly by strain-mediated multilayer vertical stacking on a planar GaAs(100) substrate, rather than molecular-beam epitaxy on a prepatterned substrate. The strain energy of lateral island-island interaction is minimum for the arrangement of hexagonal ordering. However, realization of hexagonal ordering not only depends on a complicated trade-off between lateral and vertical island-island interaction but is also related to a delicate and narrow growth kinetics window.

Monte Carlo simulation of the modulated effect induced by the dislocation to the quantum dot growth

Performing an event-based continuous kinetic Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the modulated effect induced by the dislocation on the substrate to the growth of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). The relative positions between the QDs and the dislocations are studied. The stress effects to the growth of the QDs are considered in simulation. The simulation results are compared with the experiment and the agreement between them indicates that this simulation is useful to study the growth mode and the atomic kinetics during the growth of the semiconductor QDs. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selective growth of InAs islands on patterned GaAs (100) substrate

By a combination of prepatterned substrate and self-organized growth, InAs islands are grown on the stripe-patterned GaAs (100) substrate by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy. It is found that the InAs quantum dots can be formed either on the ridge or on the sidewall of the stripes near the bottom, depending on the structure of the stripes on the patterned substrate or molecular beam epitaxy growth conditions. When a InxGa(1-x)As strained layer is grown first before InAs deposition, almost all the InAs quantum dots are deposited at the edges of the top ridge. And when the InAs deposition amount is larger, a quasi-quantum wire structure is found. The optical properties of the InAs dots on the patterned substrate are also investigated by photoluminescence. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Theory of ultrafast optical manipulation of electron spins in quantum wells

Based on a multiparticle-state stimulated Raman adiabatic passage approach, a comprehensive theoretical study of the ultrafast optical manipulation of electron spins in quantum wells is presented. In addition to corroborating experimental findings [Gupta , Science 292, 2458 (2001)], we improve the expression for the optical-pulse-induced effective magnetic field, in comparison with the one obtained via the conventional single-particle ac Stark shift. Further study of the effect of hole-spin relaxation reveals that, while the coherent optical manipulation of electron spin in undoped quantum wells would deteriorate in the presence of relatively fast hole-spin relaxation, the coherent control in doped systems can be quite robust against decoherence. The implications of the present results on quantum dots will also be discussed. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

InAs/GaAs quantum-dot superluminescent diodes with 110 nm bandwidth

Broadband superluminescent diodes are fabricated by using InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots as an active region. The devices exhibited properties of 110 run bandwidth with the centre of 1.1 mu m and above 30 mW output under pulse injection at room temperature.

Influence of transverse interdot coupling on transport properties of an Aharonov-Bohm structure composed by two dots and two reservoirs

We derive the modified rate equations for an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring with two transversely coupled quantum dots (QD's) embedded in two arms in the presence of a magnetic field. We find that the interdot coupling between the two QD's can cause a temporal oscillation in electron occupation at the initial stage of the quantum dynamics, while the source-drain current decays monotonically to a stationary value. On the other hand, the interdot coupling equivalently divides the AB ring into two coupled subrings. That also destroys the normal AB oscillations with a period of 2pi, and generates new and complex periodic oscillations with their periods varying in a linear manner as the ratio between two magnetic fluxes (each penetrates one AB subring) increases. Furthermore, the interference between two subrings is also evident from the observation of the perturbed fundamental AB oscillation.

A novel application to quantum dot materials to the active region of superluminescent diodes

We have proposed a new superluminescent diodes (SLD) aimed at wide spectrum-quantum dot superluminescent diodes (QD-SLD), which is characterized by the introduction of a self-assembled asymmetric quantum dot pairs active region into conventional SLID structure. We investigated the structure and optical properties of a bilayer sample with different InAs deposition amounts in the first and second layer. We find that the structure of a self-assembled asymmetric quantum dot pairs can operate up to a 150 nm spectral width. In addition, as the first QDs' density can modulate the density of the QDs on the second layer, due to relatively high QDs density of the first layer, we can get the strong PL intensity from a broad range. We think that for the broad spectral width and the strong PL intensity, this structure can be a promising candidate for QW-SLD. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Valence band structures of the InAs/GaAs quantum ring

In the framework of effective-mass envelope function theory, the valence energy subbands and optical transitions of the InAs/GaAs quantum ring are calculated by using a four-band valence band model. Our model can be used to calculate the hole states of quantum wells, quantum wires, and quantum dots. The effect of finite offset and valence band mixing are taken into account. The energy levels of the hole are calculated in the different shapes of rings. Our calculations show that the effect of the difference between effective masses of holes in different materials on the valence subband structures is significant. Our theoretical results are consistent with the conclusion of the recent experimental measurements and should be useful for researching and making low-dimensional semiconductor optoelectronic devices. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

InAs/GaAs single-electron quantum dot qubit

The time evolution of the quantum mechanical state of an electron is calculated in the framework of the effective-mass envelope function theory for an InAs/GaAs quantum dot. The results indicate that the superposition state electron density oscillates in the quantum dot, with a period on the order of femtoseconds. The interaction energy E-ij between two electrons located in different quantum dots is calculated for one electron in the ith pure quantum state and another in the jth pure quantum state. We find that E-11]E-12]E-22, and E-ij decreases as the distance between the two quantum dots increases. We present a parameter-phase diagram which defines the parameter region for the use of an InAs/GaAs quantum dot as a two-level quantum system in quantum computation. A static electric field is found to efficiently prolong the decoherence time. Our results should be useful for designing the solid-state implementation of quantum computing. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Photoluminescence of AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs with different thickness of spacer layer

The photoluminescence spectra of the single delta -doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs with different thickness of spacer layer were studied. There are two peaks in the PL spectra of the structure corresponding to two sub-energy levels of the InGaAs quantum well. It was found that the photoluminescence intensity ratio of the two peaks changes with the spacer thickness of the pseudomorphic HEMTs. The reasons were discussed. The possible use of this phenomenon in optimization of pseudomorphic HEMTs was also proposed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Analog computation using quantum-dot cell network

A novel analog-computation system using a quantum-dot cell network is proposed to solve complex problems. Analog computation is a promising method for solving a mathematical problem by using a physical system analogous to the problem. We designed a novel quantum-dot cell consisting of three-stacked. quantum dots and constructed a cell network utilizing the nearest-neighbor interactions between the cells. We then mapped a graph 3-colorability problem onto the network so that the single-electron configuration of the network in the ground state corresponded to one of the solutions. We calculated the ground state of the cell network and found solutions to the problems. The results demonstrate that analog computation is a promising approach for solving complex problems.

X-ray diffraction analysis on gallium-indium interdiffusion in quantum dot superlattices

Thermal-induced interdiffusion in InAs/GaAs quantum dot superlattices is studied by high-resolution x-ray diffraction rocking curve and photoluminescence techniques. With increasing annealing temperatures, up to 300 meV a blueshift of the emission peak position and down to 16.6 meV a narrowing of the line width are found in the photoluminescence spectra, and respective intensity of the higher-order satellite peaks to lower-order ones in the x-ray rocking curves decreases. Dynamical theory is employed to simulate the measured x-ray diffraction data. Excellent agreement between the experimental curves and the simulations is achieved when the composition, thickness and stress variations caused by interdiffusion are taken into account. It is found that the significant In-Ga intermixing occurs even in the as-grown InAs/GaAs quantum dots. The estimated diffusion coefficient is 1.8 x 10(-17) cm(2) (.) s(-1) at 650 degreesC, 3.2 x 10(-17) cm(2 .) s(-1) at 750 degreesC, and 1.2 x 10(-14) cm(2 .) s(-1) at 850 degreesC.

Using photoluminescence as optimization criterion to achieve high-quality InGaAs/AlGaAs pHEMT structure

The single delta -doped InGaAs/AlGaAs pseudomorphic HEMT structure materials were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The photoluminescence spectra of the materials were studied. There are two peaks in the photoluminescence spectra of the materials, corresponding to two sub energy levels of InGaAs quantum well. The ratio of the two peak's intensity was used as criterion to optimize the layer structures of the materials. The material with optimized layer ;tructures exhibits the 77 It mobility and two-dimensional electron gas density of 16 500 cm(2)/Vs and 2.58 x 10(12) cm(-2) respectively, and the 300 K mobility and two-dimensional electron gas density of 6800 cm(2)/Vs and 2.55 x 10(12) cm(-2) respectively. The pseudomorphic HEMT devices with gate length of 0.2 mum were fabricated using this material. The maximum transconductance of 650 mS/mm and the cut-off frequency of 81 GHz were achieved. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Properties and turning of intraband optical absorption in InxGa1-xAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dot superlattice

We investigated properties of intraband absorption in In-x Ga1-xAs quantum dots (QDs) superlattice. Energy levels in conduction band in QDs were calculated for a cone-shaped quantum dot associated with coupling between QDs in the framework of the effective-mass envelope-function theory. Theoretical results demonstrated that energy levels in conduction band were greatly affected by the vertical coupling between quantum dots, which can be used to modify transition wavelength by adjusting the space layer thickness. Intraband transition is really sensitive to normal incidence and the absorption peak intensity is dependent on the polarization. A satisfying agreement is found between theoretical and experimental values. This result opens up prospects for the fabrication of QDs infrared detectors, which work at atmospheric windows.