Interdiffusion induced changes in the absorption spectra of III-V quantum dot systems

Abstract

III-V Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) grown with growth interruption technique do not have uniform group III composition inside the dot. Modelling such as-grown structures requires in-depth knowledge of the composition and potential well profile. In this work, we have developed a three-dimensional analytical model which incorporates strain, as well as the variation of group III composition profile in both lateral and vertical directions inside an as-grown QD in order to quantify the effect of dot size variation on the interband optical absorption spectra of as-grown QD systems. Earlier reports on this subject considered the variation of either the dot height or base to account for the size deviation, which may not be sufficient enough to predict the dot size distribution in realistic systems, where all dimensions are likely to suffer from deviation. Keeping this in mind, Gaussian distribution of dot volume has been adopted here to consider the variations of height and base of QDs in a cumulative way. In our study, we considered InGaAs/GaAs and InGaN/GaN QD systems. The non-uniform distribution of indium inside the as-grown dot leads to a non-rectangular potential well profile, which eventually transforms into a rectangular one after annealing. Through the proposed model, we have investigated the effect of inhomogeneous indium composition and dot size variation on the optical absorption spectra of InGaAs/GaAs and InGaN/GaN as-grown QD systems through Gaussian distribution of dot volume. We have also discussed the effect of size deviation on the full width at half maxima (FWHM) of both as-grown and annealed QD systems. Emphasis has been given to the changes in the conduction and valence band potential profiles due to changes in the morphology inside the dot leading to subsequent changes in the energy levels caused by composition uniformity due to annealing and interdiffusion, thus modifying the nature of absorption spectra.