Optical stability of shape-engineered InAs/InAlGaAs quantum dots

The optical properties of shape-engineered InAs/InAlGaAs quantum dots (SEQDs) were investigated by temperature-dependent and excitation-power- dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and compared with those of the conventionally grown InAs QDs (CQDs). The emission wavelength of the InAs/InAlGaAs SEQDs at 240 K was redshifted by 18 nm from that at 15 K, which was relatively smaller than that of the InAs CQDs (97 nm). The PL yield at 240 K was reduced to 1/86 and 1/65 of that measured at 15 K for the InAs CQDs and the InAs/InAlGaAs SEQDs, respectively. The emission wavelength for the InAs CQDs was blueshifted by 76 nm with increasing excitation power from 0.56 to 188 mW, compared to only by 7 nm for the InAs/InAlGaAs SEQDs. These results indicated that the InAs/InAlGaAs SEQDs were optically more stable than the InAs CQDs mainly due to the enhancement of the carrier confinement in the vertical direction and the improvement in the size uniformity.