arXiv subjects

Krzysztof Gawarecki

Publications and source records attributed to Krzysztof Gawarecki.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Excitonic complexes in MOCVD-grown InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots emitting at telecom wavelengths

Hereby, we present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of the electronic structure and optical properties of excitonic complexes in strain-engineered InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition and emitting at the 1300 nm telecommunication window. Single QD properties have been determined experimentally for a number of nanostructures by means of excitation-power-dependent and polarization-resolved microphotoluminescence and further compared with the results of confined states calculations employing the 8-band kp theory combined with the configuration interaction method. The origin of excitonic complexes has been exemplarily confirmed based on magnetooptical and correlation spectroscopy study. Understanding the influence of structural parameters and compositions (of QDs themselves as well as in the neighbouring strain reducing layer) allows to distinguish which of them are crucial to control the emission wavelength to achieve the telecommunication spectral range or to affect binding energies of the fundamental excitonic complexes. The obtained results provide deeper knowledge on control and on limitations of the investigated structures in terms of good spectral isolation of individual optical transitions and the spatial confinement that are crucial in view of QD applications in single-photon sources of high purity at telecom wavelengths.

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arXiv2019

The importance of second order deformation potentials in modeling of InAs/GaAs nanostructures

Accurate modeling of electronic properties of nanostructures is a challenging theoretical problem. Methods making use of continuous media approximation, such as k.p, sometimes struggle to reproduce results obtained with more accurate atomistic approaches. On the contrary, atomistic schemes generally come with a substantially larger cost of computation. Here, we bridge between these two approaches by taking 8-band k.p method augmented with non-linear strain terms fit to reproduce sp3d5s* tight-binding results. We illustrate this method on the example of electron and hole states confined in quantum wells and quantum dots of photonics applications relevant InAs/GaAs material system, and demonstrate a good agreement of a non-linear k.p scheme with empirical tight-binding method. We discuss limits of our procedure as well as provide non-linear 8-band k.p parameter sets for InAs and GaAs. Finally, we propose a parameterization for effective term used to improve the accuracy of the standard effective mass method.

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arXiv2019

Hyperfine interaction for holes in quantum dots: k.p model

We formulate the multi-band kp theory of hyperfine interactions for semiconductor nanostructures in the envelope function approximation. We apply this theoretical description to the fluctuations of the longitudinal and transverse Overhauser field experienced by a hole for a range of InGaAs quantum dots of various compositions and geometries. We find that for a wide range of values of $d$-shell admixture to atomic states forming the top of the valence band, the transverse Overhauser field caused by this admixture is of the same order of magnitude as the longitudinal one, and band mixing adds only a minor correction to this result. In consequence, the kp results are well reproduced by a simple box model with the effective number of ions determined by the wave function participation number, as long as the hole is confined in the compositionally uniform volume of the dot, which holds in a wide range of parameters, excluding very flat dots.

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arXiv2019

Spin-orbit coupling and spin relaxation of hole states in [001]- and [111]-orientedquantum dots of various geometry

We study the influence of spin-orbit coupling on the hole states in InAs/GaAs quantum dots grown on [001]- and [111]-oriented substrates belonging to symmetry point groups: C2v, C3v and D2d. We investigate the impact of various spin-orbit mechanisms on the strength of coupling between s- and p-shell states, which is a significant spin-flip channel in quantum dots. We calculate spin relaxation rates between the states of lowest Zeeman doublet and show that the [111]-oriented structure offers one order of magnitude slower relaxation compared to the usual [001]-oriented self-assembled QD. The magnetic-field dependence of the hole states is calculated using multiband (up to 14 bands) k.p model. We identify the irreducible representations linked to the states and discuss the selection rules, which govern the avoided-crossing pattern in magnetic-field dependence of the energy levels. We show that dominant contribution to the coupling between some of these states comes from the shear strain. On the other hand, we demonstrate no coupling between s- and p-shell states in the [111]-oriented structure.

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arXiv2018

Controllable electron spin dephasing due to phonon state distinguishability in a coupled quantum dot system

We predict a spin pure dephasing channel in electron relaxation between states with unequal Zeeman splittings, exemplified by a spin-preserving electron tunneling between quantum dots in a magnetic field. The dephasing is caused by a mismatch in electron $g$-factors in the dots leading to distinguishability of phonons emitted during tunneling with opposite spins. Combining multiband $\boldsymbol{k}{\cdot}\boldsymbol{p}$ modeling and dynamical simulations via a Master equation we show that this fundamental effect of spin measurement effected by the phonon bath may be widely controlled by the size and composition of the dots or on demand, via tuning of external fields. By comparing the numerically simulated degree of dephasing with the predictions of general theory based on distinguishability of environment states, we show that the proposed mechanism is the dominant phonon-related spin dephasing channel and may limit spin coherence time in tunnel-coupled structures at cryogenic temperatures.

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arXiv2018

Dominant role of the shear strain induced admixture in spin-flip processes in self-assembled quantum dots

We study theoretically the spin-flip relaxation processes for a single electron in a self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dot, using an 8-band kp theory in the envelope function approximation. We show that the dominating channel of spin relaxation is spin admixture induced by symmetry-breaking shear strain, which can be mapped onto two effective spin-phonon terms in a conduction band (effective mass) Hamiltonian that have a similar structure and interfere constructively. Unlike the Dresselhaus coupling that dominates spin relaxation in larger, unstrained dots, the shear strain contribution cannot be modeled by a unique standard term in the Hamiltonian but rather relies on the actual strain distribution in the quantum dot.

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arXiv2018

Limited accuracy of conduction band effective mass equations for semiconductor quantum dots

Effective mass equations are the simplest models of carrier states in a semiconductor structures that reduce the complexity of a solid-state system to Schrödinger- or Pauli-like equations resempling those well known from quantum mechanics textbooks. Here we present a systematic derivation of a conduction-band effective mass equation for a self-assembled semiconductor quantum dot in a magnetic field from the 8-band kp theory. The derivation allows us to classify various forms of the effective mass equations in terms of a hierarchy of approximations. We assess the accuracy of the approximations in calculating selected spectral and spin-related characteristics. We indicate the importance of preserving the off-diagonal terms of the valence band Hamiltonian and argue that an effective mass theory cannot reach satisfactory accuracy without self-consistently including non-parabolicity corrections and renormalization of kp parameters. Quantitative comparison with the 8-band kp results supports the phenomenological Roth-Lax-Zwerdling formula for the g-factor in a nanostructure.

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arXiv2017

Spin-orbit coupling and magnetic field dependence of carriers states in a self-assembled quantum dot

In this work I investigate the influence of spin-orbit coupling on the magnetic field dependence of carrier states in a self-assembled quantum dot. I calculate the hole energy levels using the 6, 8 and 14 band k.p model. Through a detailed study within these models, I extract the information about the impact of various spin-orbital coupling channels in the hole p-shell. I also show that complicated magnetic field dependence of the hole p-shell resulting from numerical simulations, can be very well fitted using a phenomenological model. I compare the electron and hole g-factors calculated within 8 and 14 band k.p models and show that these methods give reasonably good agreement.

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arXiv2017

Polaron resonances in two vertically stacked quantum dots

In this work, we present a theoretical study of polaron states in a double quantum dot system. We present realistic calculations which combine 8 band \kp model, configuration interaction approach and collective modes method. We investigate the dependence of polaron energy branches on axial electric field. We show that coupling between carriers and longitudinal optical phonons via Fröhlich interaction leads to qualitative and quantitative reconstruction of the optical spectra. In particular, we study the structure of resonances between the states localized in different dots. We show that $p$-shell states are strongly coupled to the phonon replicas of $s$-shell states, in contrast to the weak direct $s$-$p$ coupling. We discuss also the dependence of the phonon-assisted tunnel coupling strength on the separation between the dots.

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arXiv2014

Phonon-assisted tunnelling of electrons in a quantum well-quantum dot injection structure

We study theoretically phonon-assisted relaxation and tunnelling in a system composed of a quantum dot which is coupled to a quantum well. Within the kp method combined with the Löwdin elimination, we calculate the electron states. We calculate acoustic phonon-assisted relaxation rates between the states in the quantum well and in the quantum dot and study the resulting electron kinetics. We show that transition efficiency crucially depends on the system geometry. We show also that under some conditions, transition efficiency can decrease with the temperature.

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arXiv2014

Electron states in a double quantum dot with broken axial symmetry

We study theoretically the electron states in a system of two vertically stacked quantum dots. We investigate the influence of the geometrical symmetry breaking (caused by the displacement as well as the ellipticity of the dots) on the electron states. Our modeling is based on the 8-band kp method. We show that the absence of axial symmetry of the system leads to a coupling of the s state from one dot with the p and d states from the other. Our findings indicate, that this coupling can produce a strong energy splitting at resonance (on the order of several meV) in the case of closely spaced quantum dots. Furthermore, we show that in the presence of a piezoelectric field, the direction of the displacement plays an important role in the character of the coupling.

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arXiv2012

Phonon-assisted relaxation between hole states in quantum dot molecules

We study theoretically phonon-assisted relaxation and inelastic tunneling of holes in a double quantum dot. We derive hole states and relaxation rates from kp Hamiltonians and show that there is a finite distance between the dots where lifetimes of hole states are very long which is related to vanishing tunnel coupling. We show also that the light hole admixture to hole states can considerably affect the hole relaxation rates even though its magnitude is very small.

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arXiv2010

Phonon-assisted relaxation and tunneling in self-assembled quantum dot molecules

We study theoretically phonon-assisted relaxation processes in a system consisting of one or two electrons confined in two vertically stacked self-assembled quantum dots. The calculation is based on a k.p approximation for single particle wave functions in a strained self-assembled structure. From these, two-particle states are calculated by including the Coulomb interaction and the transition rates between the lowest energy eigenstates are derived. We take into account phonon couplings via deformation potential and piezoelectric interaction and show that they both can play a dominant role in different parameter regimes. Within the Fermi golden rule approximation, we calculate the relaxation rates between the lowest energy eigenstates which lead to thermalization on a picosecond time scale in a narrow range of dot sizes.

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arXiv2010

Electron states, phonon-assisted relaxation and tunneling in self-assembled quantum dot molecules in an electric field

We present a theoretical analysis of the phonon-assisted relaxation in a system composed of two self-assembled vertically stacked quantum dots. We construct realistic model, which takes into account the geometry and strain distribution in the system. We calculate phonon-assisted relaxation rates between the two lowest states (in one- and two-electron cases). The relaxation rates and energy levels are studied as a function of external (axial) electric field and geometry of the structure (dot sizes). We show that the relaxation times can be as low as 1~ps but efficent relaxation occurs only for very finely tuned dots.

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