Hidekazu Kumano

Growth and characterization of hypothetical zinc-blende ZnO films on GaAs(001) substrates with ZnS buffer layers

A stable wurtzite phase of ZnO is commonly observed. In this letter, we report the growth and characterization of zinc-blende ZnO on GaAs(001) substrates. The ZnO films grown on GaAs(001) substrates using microwave-plasma-assisted metalorganic molecular-beam epitaxy were characterized by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope, and atomic force microscope measurements. The use of a ZnS buffer layer was found to lead to the growth of the zinc-blende ZnO films. Although the zinc-blende ZnO films were polycrystalline with columnar structures, they showed bright band-edge luminescence at room temperature.

Nitrogen-Doped p-Type ZnO Layers Prepared with H2O Vapor-Assisted Metalorganic Molecular-Beam Epitaxy

Nitrogen (N) doping in ZnO is studied to realize reproducible p-type conductivity. Undoped ZnO layers prepared on a-face of sapphire substrates with H2O vapor-assisted growth showed n-type conductivity. However, N-doped ZnO (ZnO:N) layers grown in the similar manner showed the type conversion to p-type conductivity. As-grown p-type ZnO:N layers showed low net acceptor concentrations (NA–ND) of ~ 1014 cm-3, but thermal annealing of the N-doped ZnO samples as well as the optimization of growth parameters increased the NA–ND up to ~ 5×1016 cm-3. Photoluminescence measurements showed consistent spectra with the electrical properties by a clear conversion from neutral donor-bound exciton emission in n-ZnO to neutral acceptor-bound exciton emission in the p-ZnO layers.

Symmetric quantum dots as efficient sources of highly entangled photons: Violation of Bell's inequality without spectral and temporal filtering

An ideal emitter of entangled photon pairs combines the perfect symmetry of an atom with the convenient electrical trigger of light sources based on semiconductor quantum dots. Our source consists of strain-free GaAs dots self-assembled on a triangular symmetric (111)A surface. The emitted photons reveal a fidelity to the Bell state as high as 86(±2)% without postselection. We show a violation of Bells inequality by more than five times the standard deviation, a prerequisite to test a quantum cryptography channel for eavesdropping. Due to the strict nonlocal nature the source can be used for real quantum processing without any postprocessing. The remaining decoherence channel of the photon source is ascribed to random charge and nuclear spin fluctuations in and near the dot.

Position controlled nanowires for infrared single photon emission

We report the experimental demonstration of single-photon and cascaded photon pair emission in the infrared, originating from a single InAsP quantum dot embedded in a standing InP nanowire. A regular array of nanowires is fabricated by epitaxial growth on an electron-beam patterned substrate. Photoluminescence spectra taken on single quantum dots show narrow emission lines. Superconducting single photon detectors, which have a higher sensitivity than avalanche photodiodes in the infrared, enable us to measure auto and cross correlations. Clear antibunching is observed [g(2)(0) = 0.12] and we show a biexciton–exciton cascade, which can be used to create entangled photon pairs.

Growth and luminescence properties of self-organized ZnSe quantum dots

Self-organized ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) were grown on (100) ZnS/GaAs surfaces to study the relation of the size dispersion and luminescence. The exact dot sizes were obtained by measurements of atomic force microscope with its tip calibration and transmission electron microscope. The average dot size was 2.0 nm high and 11 nm in its diameter and the density was 1×1010 cm−2. Transition energies of ZnSe QDs were calculated using these measured dot sizes. These calculated peaks were in reasonable agreement with measured photoluminescence (PL) peaks. It was also revealed that the broadening of the PL spectra from ZnSe QDs were consistently explained by the dot size distribution.

Surface-emitting stimulated emission in high-quality ZnO thin films

High-quality ZnO thin films were grown by plasma-enhanced molecular-beam epitaxy on sapphire substrates. Three excitonic transitions associated with the valence bands A, B, and C were clearly revealed in the reflectance spectrum measured at 33K. This result indicates that the ZnO thin films have the wurtzite crystalline structure. The emission spectra were measured with backscattering geometry at room temperature. When the excitation exceeded a certain value, linewidth narrowing, nonlinear rise of emission intensity, and the shortening of the carrier lifetime were clearly observed and these demonstrate the onset of stimulated emission. Together with the ZnO thickness dependence, we conclude that the observation of a stimulated emission in a direction perpendicular to the film surface is predominantly due to scattering of the in-plane stimulated emission by slightly remaining surface undulations in the ZnO films.

Effect of indium doping on the transient optical properties of GaN films

We have investigated the effects of In doping on the optical properties of GaN films grown by gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy. Time-resolved photoluminescence was carried out to study the transient optical properties of the epitaxial films. In comparison to the undoped GaN film, the spontaneous emission lifetime was prolonged from below 20 to 70 ps by doping with In. Under high-excitation density, stimulated emission was observed from both samples. The threshold excitation density was found to be reduced in the In-doped sample. These significant improvements of the optical properties are attributed to the effective suppression of the formation of the nonradiative recombination centers caused by a change of the growth kinetics induced by a small amount of In supplied during growth of the GaN films.

Photoluminescence study of InAs quantum dots embedded in GaNAs strain compensating layer grown by metalorganic-molecular-beam epitaxy

Self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in GaN0.007As0.993 strain compensating layers have been grown by metalorganic-molecular-beam epitaxy on a GaAs (001) substrate with a high density of 1×1011 cm−2. The photoluminescence properties have been studied for two periods of InAs quantum dots layers embedded in GaN0.007As0.993 strain compensating layers. Four well-resolved excited-state peaks in the photoluminescence spectra have been observed from these highly packed InAs QDs embedded in the GaN0.007As0.993 strain compensating layers. This indicates that the InAs QDs are uniformly formed and that the excited states in QDs due to the quantum confinement effect are well defined. This is explained by tensile strain in GaNAs layers instead of the usual GaAs layers to relieve the compressive strain formed in InAs QDs to keep the total strain of the system at a minimum.

Epitaxial growth of zinc-blende ZnSe/MgS superlattices on (001) GaAs

We report the growth of zinc‐blende ZnSe/MgS superlattices (SLs) on GaAs (001) substrates. The SLs were grown with metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy by selecting appropriate precursors for Mg and S. MgS naturally forms rocksalt structures, but zinc‐blende MgS layers were grown. The lattice constant of MgS was estimated to be 5.59 A. X‐ray diffraction measurements show that the ZnSe/MgS SLs are grown coherently to the GaAs substrates up to the total thicknesses of ∼3000 A.

Temperature dependent carrier dynamics in telecommunication band InAs quantum dots and dashes grown on InP substrates

InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown on InP substrates can be used as light emitters in the telecommunication bands. In this paper, we present optical characterization of high-density circular quantum dots (QDots) grown on InP(311)B substrates and elongated dots (QDashes) grown on InP(001) substrates. We study the charge carrier transfer and luminescence thermal quenching mechanisms of the QDots and QDashes by investigating the temperature dependence of their time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence properties. This results in two different contributions of the thermal activation energies. The larger activation energies are attributed to the carrier escape to the barrier layer and the wetting layer (WL) from QDots and QDashes, respectively. The smaller activation energies are found to be originated from inter-dot/dash carrier transfer via coupled excited states. The variation of the average oscillator strength associated with the carrier re-distribution is discussed. The relation of the two activation...