Single-dot Spectroscopy of GaAs Quantum Dots Fabricated by Filling of Self-assembled Nanoholes

Dot-Size Dependent Excitons in Droplet-Etched Cone-Shell GaAs Quantum Dots

Strain-free GaAs quantum dots (QDs) are fabricated by filling droplet-etched nanoholes in AlGaAs. Using a template of nominally identical nanoholes, the QD size is precisely controlled by the thickness of the GaAs filling layer. Atomic force microscopy indicates that the QDs have a cone-shell shape. From single-dot photoluminescence measurements, values of the exciton emission energy (1.58...1.82 eV), the exciton-biexciton splitting (1.8...2.5 meV), the exciton radiative lifetime of bright (0.37...0.58 ns) and dark (3.2...6.7 ns) states, the quantum efficiency (0.89...0.92), and the oscillator strength (11.2...17.1) are determined as a function of the dot size. The experimental data are interpreted by comparison with an atomistic model.

Imaging the electrostatic landscape of unstrained self-assemble GaAs quantum dots

Unstrained GaAs quantum dots are promising candidates for quantum information devices due to their optical properties, but their electronic properties have remained relatively unexplored until now. In this work, we systematically investigate the electronic structure and natural charging of GaAs quantum dots at room temperature using Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). We observe a clear electrical signal from these structures demonstrating a lower surface potential in the middle of the dot. We ascribe this to charge accumulation and confinement inside these structures. Our systematical investigation reveals that the change in surface potential is larger for a nominal dot filling of 2 nm and then starts to decrease for thicker GaAs layers. Usingk·pcalculation, we show that the confinement comes from the band bending due to the surface Fermi level pinning. We find a correlation between the calculated charge density and the KPFM signal indicating thatk·pcalculations could be used to estimate the KPFM signal for a given structure. Our results suggest that these self-assembled structures could be used to study physical phenomena connected to charged quantum dots like Coulomb blockade or Kondo effect.

Luminescence from Droplet-Etched GaAs Quantum Dots at and Close to Room Temperature

Epitaxially grown quantum dots (QDs) are established as quantum emitters for quantum information technology, but their operation under ambient conditions remains a challenge. Therefore, we study photoluminescence (PL) emission at and close to room temperature from self-assembled strain-free GaAs quantum dots (QDs) in refilled AlGaAs nanoholes on (001)GaAs substrate. Two major obstacles for room temperature operation are observed. The first is a strong radiative background from the GaAs substrate and the second a significant loss of intensity by more than four orders of magnitude between liquid helium and room temperature. We discuss results obtained on three different sample designs and two excitation wavelengths. The PL measurements are performed at room temperature and at T = 200 K, which is obtained using an inexpensive thermoelectric cooler. An optimized sample with an AlGaAs barrier layer thicker than the penetration depth of the exciting green laser light (532 nm) demonstrates clear QD peaks already at room temperature. Samples with thin AlGaAs layers show room temperature emission from the QDs when a blue laser (405 nm) with a reduced optical penetration depth is used for excitation. A model and a fit to the experimental behavior identify dissociation of excitons in the barrier below T = 100 K and thermal escape of excitons from QDs above T = 160 K as the central processes causing PL-intensity loss.

Resolving the temporal evolution of line broadening in single quantum emitters

Light emission from solid-state quantum emitters is inherently prone to environmental decoherence, which results in a line broadening and in the deterioration of photon indistinguishability. Here we employ photon correlation Fourier spectroscopy (PCFS) to study the temporal evolution of such a broadening in two prominent systems: GaAs and In(Ga)As quantum dots. Differently from previous experiments, the emitters are driven with short laser pulses as required for the generation of high-purity single photons, the time scales we probe range from a few nanoseconds to milliseconds and, simultaneously, the spectral resolution we achieve can be as small as ∼ 2µeV. We find pronounced differences in the temporal evolution of different optical transition lines, which we attribute to differences in their homogeneous linewidth and sensitivity to charge noise. We analyze the effect of irradiation with additional white light, which reduces blinking at the cost of enhanced charge noise. Due to its robustness against experimental imperfections and its high temporal resolution and bandwidth, PCFS outperforms established spectroscopy techniques, such as Michelson interferometry. We discuss its practical implementation and the possibility to use it to estimate the indistinguishability of consecutively emitted single photons for applications in quantum communication and photonic-based quantum information processing.

Fabrication and Optical Properties of Strain-free Self-assembled Mesoscopic GaAs Structures

We use a combined process of Ga-assisted deoxidation and local droplet etching to fabricate unstrained mesoscopic GaAs/AlGaAs structures exhibiting a high shape anisotropy with a length up to 1.2 μm and a width of 150 nm. We demonstrate good controllability over size and morphology of the mesoscopic structures by tuning the growth parameters. Our growth method yields structures, which are coupled to a surrounding quantum well and present unique optical emission features. Microscopic and optical analysis of single structures allows us to demonstrate that single structure emission originates from two different confinement regions, which are spectrally separated and show sharp excitonic lines. Photoluminescence is detected up to room temperature making the structures the ideal candidates for strain-free light emitting/detecting devices.

Droplet etching of deep nanoholes for filling with self-aligned complex quantum structures

Strain-free epitaxial quantum dots (QDs) are fabricated by a combination of Al local droplet etching (LDE) of nanoholes in AlGaAs surfaces and subsequent hole filling with GaAs. The whole process is performed in a conventional molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber. Autocorrelation measurements establish single-photon emission from LDE QDs with a very small correlation function g ((2))(0)≃ 0.01 of the exciton emission. Here, we focus on the influence of the initial hole depth on the QD optical properties with the goal to create deep holes suited for filling with more complex nanostructures like quantum dot molecules (QDM). The depth of droplet etched nanoholes is controlled by the droplet material coverage and the process temperature, where a higher coverage or temperature yields deeper holes. The requirements of high quantum dot uniformity and narrow luminescence linewidth, which are often found in applications, set limits to the process temperature. At high temperatures, the hole depths become inhomogeneous and the linewidth rapidly increases beyond 640 °C. With the present process technique, we identify an upper limit of 40-nm hole depth if the linewidth has to remain below 100 μeV. Furthermore, we study the exciton fine-structure splitting which is increased from 4.6 μeV in 15-nm-deep to 7.9 μeV in 35-nm-deep holes. As an example for the functionalization of deep nanoholes, self-aligned vertically stacked GaAs QD pairs are fabricated by filling of holes with 35 nm depth. Exciton peaks from stacked dots show linewidths below 100 μeV which is close to that from single QDs.

Vertically stacked quantum dot pairs fabricated by nanohole filling

Strain-free, vertically coupled GaAs quantum dots (QDs) with an ultra-low density below 1 × 10(7) cm(-2) are fabricated by filling of self-assembled nanoholes with a GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs layer sequence. The sizes of the two QDs, forming a QD pair (QDP), as well as the AlGaAs tunnel-barrier between the dots are tuned independently. We present atomic force microscopy studies of the QDP formation steps. We have performed photoluminescence studies of single QDPs with varied dot size and tunnel-barrier thickness. The data indicate non-resonant tunnelling between the dots. Furthermore, we apply the quantum confined Stark effect to tune the photoluminescence energy by up to 25 meV.

Origin of nanohole formation by etching based on droplet epitaxy

Creating and manipulating materials at the nanoscale with controllable size, shape and nucleation site is an important task to meet the urgent demands for quantum structures with designed properties. In the last ten years, droplet epitaxy has been emerging as a versatile fabrication method for various complex nanostructures, such as quantum dots, quantum rings, double-rings, and so on. However, there is a lack of understanding of the deep nanohole formation based on droplet epitaxy at a high substrate temperature. Here we fabricate self-organized GaAs nanoholes by Ga droplet etching at high temperature based on droplet epitaxy, and they present good optoelectronic properties and have promising applications in fabrication of nanodevices due to their unique topology. A theoretical model is correspondingly proposed to explain the basic mechanism and simulate the time evolution of the nanohole structures. Our analysis shows that the morphology of the nanohole nanostructures can be well controlled through regulating experimental conditions.

Stacked GaAs quantum dots fabricated by refilling of self-organized nanoholes: optical properties and post-growth annealing

We study the photoluminescence and impact of post-growth annealing of stacked, strain-free GaAs quantum dots fabricated by refilling of self-organized nanoholes using molecular beam epitaxy. Temperature- and power-dependent photoluminescence studies reveal an excellent optical quality of the quantum-dot stack. After high-temperature post-growth annealing only slight blueshifts and an increase in full width at half-maximum of the photoluminescence peak are observed, indicating very high-temperature stability and crystalline quality of the stacked GaAs quantum-dot structure.