P. J. Carrington

Room temperature midinfrared electroluminescence from InSb/InAs quantum dot light emitting diodes

Self-assembled InSb submonolayer quantum dots (QDs) in an InAs matrix have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy using Sb2 and As2 fluxes. The structures exhibit bright midinfrared photoluminescence up to room temperature. Intense room temperature electroluminescence with a peak at wavelength near 3.8 μm was observed from p-i-n light emitting diode structures containing ten InSb submonolayer QD sheets inserted within the InAs active region.

Enhanced infrared photo-response from GaSb/GaAs quantum ring solar cells

GaAs-based solar cells containing stacked layers of nanostructured type II GaSb quantum ring solar cells are reported which show significantly enhanced infrared photo-response extending out to 1400 nm. The ring formation reduces the net strain energy associated with the large lattice mismatch making it possible to stack multi-layers without the need for strain balancing. The (1 sun) short-circuit current for a 10 layer sample is enhanced by ∼6% compared to a GaAs control cell. The corresponding open-circuit voltage of 0.6 V is close to the theoretical maximum expected from such structures.

Midinfrared GaInSb/AlGaInSb quantum well laser diodes operating above 200 K

Electroluminescence from GaInSb/AlGaInSb type I quantum well diode lasers, grown on GaAs, has been investigated as a function of strain in the quantum wells. Lasing was observed, in pulsed operation, up to temperatures of 161, 208, 219, and 202 K for structures containing 0.55%, 0.62%, 0.78%, and 1.1% strain, respectively, with lasing occurring at ∼3.3 μm at 200 K for the 1.1% structure.

Blueshifts of the emission energy in type-II quantum dot and quantum ring nanostructures

We have studied the ensemble photoluminescence (PL) of 11 GaSb/GaAs quantum dot/ring (QD/QR) samples over >= 5 orders of magnitude of laser power. All samples exhibit a blueshift of PL energy, Delta E, with increasing excitation power, as expected for type-II structures. It is often assumed that this blueshift is due to band-bending at the type-II interface. However, for a sample where charge-state sub-peaks are observed within the PL emission, it is unequivocally shown that the blueshift due to capacitive charging is an order of magnitude larger than the band bending contribution. Moreover, the size of the blueshift and its linear dependence on occupancy predicted by a simple capacitive model are faithfully replicated in the data. In contrast, when QD/QR emission intensity, I, is used to infer QD/QR occupancy, n, via the bimolecular recombination approximation (I alpha n(2)), exponents, x, in Delta E alpha I-x are consistently lower than expected, and strongly sample dependent. We conclude that the exponent x cannot be used to differentiate between capacitive charging and band bending as the origin of the blueshift in type-II QD/QRs, because the bimolecular recombination is not applicable to type-II QD/QRs

Temperature dependence of mid-infrared electroluminescence in type II InAsSb/InAs multi-quantum well light-emitting diodes

Intense room temperature emission at 3.7 mu m is reported from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) which contain ten InAsSb/InAs type II multi quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Interpretation of the spectra revealed the existence of two confined heavy-hole states with emission peaks of 0.33 and 0.37 eV at 4 K. Analysis of the temperature dependence of the electroluminescence shows that emission occurred predominantly from the excited heavy-hole state at high temperatures. At room temperature, the devices produced a quasi-cw power of 12 mu W at 100 mA injection current corresponding to an internal quantum efficiency of 2.2%.

Growth optimization of self-organized InSb/InAs quantum dots

The authors report the growth optimization of InSb/InAs quantum dots (QDs) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). QDs morphology and optical properties were investigated by atomic force microscope and photoluminescence (PL). We observed that the migration enhanced epitaxy technique without the annealing stage is a superior method for producing high quality coherent QDs with a high density of ~1.2 ? 1010?dots?cm?2. PL emission from buried InSb/InAs QDs was observed at low temperatures at a wavelength near 3.3??m. In addition, the emission efficiency was dramatically improved for the samples where the InAs cap layer was grown at a lower temperature, indicating that low growth temperatures are required to maintain good properties of QDs which is due to reduced As/Sb exchange.

InSb quantum dot LEDs grown by molecular beam epitaxy for mid-infrared applications

We report the molecular beam epitaxial growth of InSb quantum dots (QD) inserted as sub-monolayers in an InAs matrix which exhibit intense mid-infrared photoluminescence up to room temperature. The InSb QD sheets were formed by briefly exposing the surface to an antimony flux (Sb2) exploiting an As-Sb anion exchange reaction. Light emitting diodes were fabricated using 10 InSb QD sheets and were found to exhibit bright electroluminescence with a single peak at 3.8μm at room temperature.

Simulation of the enhanced infrared photoresponse of type-II GaSb/GaAs quantum ring solar cells

The extended photo-response of solar cells containing ten periods of GaSb/GaAs quantum rings imbedded in the p-i-n junction has been described using a single-band representation of the type-II quantum ring structure. By fitting the experimental data, the authors were able to deduce that the quantum rings are well represented by a Gaussian height distribution and a large valence band discontinuity. The simulated band of states is shown to be well matched to the photoluminescence analysis of the structure, with the inhomogeneous size distribution resulting in a band of hole states roughly 390 meV above the valence band.

Evaluation of the two-photon absorption characteristics of GaSb/GaAs quantum rings

The optical parameters describing the sub-bandgap response of GaSb/GaAs quantum rings solar cells have been obtained from photocurrent measurements using a modulated pseudo-monochromatic light source in combination with a second, continuous photo-filling source. By controlling the charge state of the quantum rings, the photoemission cross-sections describing the two-photon sub-bandgap transitions could be determined independently. Temperature dependent photo-response measurements also revealed that the barrier for thermal hole emission from the quantum rings is significantly below the quantum ring localisation energy. The temperature dependence of the sub-bandgap photo-response of the solar cell is also described in terms of the photo- and thermal-emission characteristics of the quantum rings.

GaInSb/AlInSb multi-quantum-wells for mid-infrared lasers

Photoluminescence (PL) from GaInSb/AlInSb type I multi-quantum-wells, grown on GaAs, has been investigated as a function of strain in the quantum wells. Luminescence, between 3 and 4 μm, was observed for all samples, with good agreement between the measured and calculated peak emission energies. Analysis of the temperature dependence of the luminescence suggests that population of excited quantum well hole subbands occurs at high temperature, leading to a reduction in the PL signal. Room temperature luminescence was obtained from a sample with ∼0.8% strain in the quantum wells. Preliminary results from laser diodes fabricated from companion wafers indicate lasing up to 220 K.