Effect of size and composition fluctuations on the luminescent properties of ensemble of InGaAs nano-objects

The luminescent properties of InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with InGaAs nanoscale objects were investigated. Multilayer heterostructures were grown using molecular beam epitaxy technique. The shapes of the photoluminescence spectra were studied in the temperature range from 10 K to 290 K. The electronic spectrum of heterosystems as well as the energy of interband transitions for InGaAs nano-objects were calculated for different sizes and InGaAs component composition. It is shown that the shape of the photoluminescence spectra is determined by the Gaussian distribution of the energy of band-to-band optical transitions between the ground states of the conduction band and valence band of nanoscale objects. The physical reason for the observed energy dispertion is the variation of sizes, heterogeneity of component composition and strain relief in the ensemble of InGaAs nano-objects. Non-monotonous temperature dependence of the width of the photoluminescence spectra indicates the existence of temperature-dependent redistribution of photoexcited charge carriers between neighbouring nanoislands having different energy of the ground states.