Carrier dynamics in site- and structure-controlled InGaN/GaN quantum dots

Abstract

We report on the carrier dynamics in InGaN/GaN disk-in-a-wire quantum dots with precisely controlled location and structural parameters, including diameter, thickness and material composition. We measured the time-integrated and time-resolved spectra and the second-order correlation function of the photoluminescence from quantum dots with diameters ranging from 19 nm to 33 nm at temperatures of 10 K to 120 K. The influence of the small fluctuations in structural parameters, most importantly the quantum dot thickness, on the optical properties are also investigated through statistical correlations among multiple optical properties of many individual quantum dots. We found that in a single dot the strain-induced polarization field and the strain relaxation at the sidewall form a potential barrier to protect the exciton from reaching the sidewall surface. However, the exciton can overcome this potential barrier and recombine nonradiatively at the surface through two mechanisms: tunnelling through the barrier quantum mechanically and hopping over the barrier by attaining sufficient thermal energy. The former (latter) mechanism is temperature insensitive (sensitive) and dominates nonradiaitve exciton decay at low (high) temperatures. We also found that despite the good uniformities in structural parameters, all optical properties still exhibit inhomogeneities from dot to dot. However, all these inhomogeneities can be modeled by simply varying the potential barrier height, which also explains the observed correlation curves among all optical properties. Finally, we found that the biexciton-to-exciton quantum efficiency ratio, which determines the probability of multi-photon emission, can be tuned by adjusting the potential barrier height and the temperature, suggesting a new way to achieve single photon emission at high temperatures.