Determination of critical diameters for intrinsic carrier diffusion-length of GaN nanorods with cryo-scanning near-field optical microscopy.

Direct measurements of carrier diffusion in GaN nanorods with a designed InGaN/GaN layer-in-a-wire structure by scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) were performed at liquid-helium temperatures of 10 K. Without an applied voltage, intrinsic diffusion lengths of photo-excited carriers were measured as the diameters of the nanorods differ from 50 to 800 nm. The critical diameter of nanorods for carrier diffusion is concluded as 170 nm with a statistical approach. Photoluminescence spectra were acquired for different positions of the SNOM tip on the nanorod, corresponding to the origins of the well-defined luminescence peaks, each being related to recombination-centers. The phenomenon originated from surface oxide by direct comparison of two nanorods with similar diameters in a single map has been observed and investigated.

Excitons and biexcitons in InGaN quantum dot like localization centers.

Indium segregation in a narrow InGaN single quantum well creates quantum dot (QD) like exciton localization centers. Cross-section transmission electron microscopy reveals varying shapes and lateral sizes in the range ∼1-5 nm of the QD-like features, while scanning near field optical microscopy demonstrates a highly inhomogeneous spatial distribution of optically active individual localization centers. Microphotoluminescence spectroscopy confirms the spectrally inhomogeneous distribution of localization centers, in which the exciton and the biexciton related emissions from single centers of varying geometry could be identified by means of excitation power dependencies. Interestingly, the biexciton binding energy (E(b)xx) was found to vary from center to center, between 3 to -22 meV, in correlation with the exciton emission energy. Negative binding energies are only justified by a three-dimensional quantum confinement, which confirms QD-like properties of the localization centers. The observed energy correlation is proposed to be understood as variations of the lateral extension of the confinement potential, which would yield smaller values of E(b)xx for reduced lateral extension and higher exciton emission energy. The proposed relation between lateral extension and E(b)xx is further supported by the exciton and the biexciton recombination lifetimes of a single QD, which suggest a lateral extension of merely ∼3 nm for a QD with strongly negative E(b)xx = -15.5 meV.

InGaN quantum dot formation mechanism on hexagonal GaN/InGaN/GaN pyramids.

Growing InGaN quantum dots (QDs) at the apex of hexagonal GaN pyramids is an elegant approach to achieve a deterministic positioning of QDs. Despite similar synthesis procedures by metal organic chemical vapor deposition, the optical properties of the QDs reported in the literature vary drastically. The QDs tend to exhibit either narrow or broad emission lines in the micro-photoluminescence spectra. By coupled microstructural and optical investigations, the QDs giving rise to narrow emission lines were concluded to nucleate in association with a (0001) facet at the apex of the GaN pyramid.

Symmetries and the polarized optical spectra of exciton complexes in quantum dots.

A systematic and simple theoretical approach is proposed to analyze true degeneracies and polarized decay patterns of exciton complexes in semiconductor quantum dots. The results provide reliable spectral signatures for efficient symmetry characterization, and predict original features for low C(2v) and high C(3v) symmetries. Excellent agreement with single quantum dot spectroscopy of real pyramidal InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots grown along [111] is demonstrated. The high sensitivity of biexciton quantum states to exact high symmetry can be turned into an efficient uninvasive postgrowth selection procedure for quantum entanglement applications.

Alternation of band gap and localization of excitons in InGaNAs nanostructures with low nitrogen content.

Continuous wave photoluminescence (cw PL) spectroscopy has been used to study the optical properties of a set of InGaNAs epilayers and single quantum wells with nitrogen concentration less than a few per cent at different temperatures and different excitation powers. We found that nitrogen has a critical role on the emission light of InGaNAs nanostructures and the recombination mechanism. The incorporation of a few per cent of nitrogen leads to shrinkage of the InGaNAs band gap. The physical origin of such band gap reduction has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically by using a band anticrossing model. We have found that localization of excitons that have been caused by incorporation of a few per cent of nitrogen in these structures is the main explanation of such anomalous behavior observed in the low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of these nanostructures. The localization energies of carriers have been evaluated by studying the variation of the quantum well (QW) emission versus temperature, and it was found that the localization energy increases with increasing nitrogen composition. Our data also show that, with increasing excitation intensity, the PL peak position moves to higher energies (blue shift) due to the filling of localized states and capture centers for excitons by photo-generated carriers.

Optically addressed spatial light modulators by MBE-grown nipi MQW structures.

Promising approaches for achieving optically addressed spatial light modulators (O-SLMs) are investigated based on combining nipi and multiple quantum well structures. Theoretical aspects of photooptic effects achievable in such structures are treated. Test structures are grown by molecular beam epitaxy using two material systems, (In,Ga)As/GaAs and (Al,Ga)As/GaAs. Experiments show large optically controlled modulation of the absorption coefficient in the quantum well layers ( approximately 10(4) cm(-1)), a log power dependence on the control signal, millisecond and shorter time response, and generally predictable behavior. The results are encouraging for several different O-SLM device structures proposed.