Structure and Photoluminescence Investigations of Self-Organized InAs/GaAs Quantum Wires

Abstract

Self –organized InAs quantum wires (QWRs) were fabricated on the step edges of GaAs (331)A surface by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The atomic force microscopy (AFM) results show that the lateral size of InAs QWRs is 90 nm while the size along the step lines increasing with the thicknesses of InAs layers, amounting to 1100nm. The height of InAs QWRs varies from 7.9nm to 13nm. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements on the two samples were explored and an obvious PL peak around 967 nm was observed at 25 K. The PL intensity decreases as the temperature increases, and it will vanish above 60 K. However, the QWR sample with thicker InAs layer emits a long emission of 1100 nm -1400 nm as the temperature rises above 50 K, and a longer emission of 1400-1600nm as the temperature approaches to 100 K. We considered that the complex photoluminescence spectra were originated from the multiple energy steps. The carrier migration among the different QWRs structures intensified with temperature, and the chance rate from the higher energy levels to the lower ones which generated a stronger emission of long wavelength. The carrier dynamics of QWR samples were measured by using time resolved PL (TRPL) spectra from 25 K to 100 K. The PL decay time in the QWR structure at longer emission was found to be independent of the temperature as T<100 K, showing a typical dynamical behavior of the localized excitons.