No Arabic abstract
We present here an atomistic theory of the electronic and optical properties of hexagonal InAsP quantum dots in InP nanowires in the wurtzite phase. These self-assembled quantum dots are unique in that their heights, shapes, and diameters are well known. Using a combined valence-force-field, tight-binding, and configuration-interaction approach we perform atomistic calculations of single-particle states and excitonic, biexcitonic and trion complexes as well as emission spectra as a function of the quantum dot height, diameter and As versus P concentration. The atomistic tight-binding parameters for InAs and InP in the wurtzite crystal phase were obtained by ab initio methods corrected by empirical band gaps. The low energy electron and hole states form electronic shells similar to parabolic or cylindrical quantum confinement, only weakly affected by hexagonal symmetry and As fluctuations. The relative alignment of the emission lines from excitons, trions and biexcitons agrees with that for InAs/InP dots in the zincblende phase in that biexcitons and positive trions are only weakly bound. The random distribution of As atoms leads to dot-to-dot fluctuations of a few meV for the single-particle states and the spectral lines. Due to the high symmetry of hexagonal InAsP nanowire quantum dots the exciton fine structure splitting is found to be small, of the order a few $mu$eV with significant random fluctuations in accordance with experiments.
We have investigated the optical properties of a single InAsP quantum dot embedded in a standing InP nanowire. A regular array of nanowires was fabricated by epitaxial growth and electron-beam patterning. The elongation of transverse exciton spin relaxation time of the exciton state with decreasing excitation power was observed by first-order photon correlation measurements. This behavior is well explained by the motional narrowing mechanism induced by Gaussian fluctuations of environmental charges in the InP nanowire. The longitudinal exciton spin relaxation time was evaluated by the degree of the random polarization of emission originating from exciton state confined in a single nanowire quantum dots by using Mueller Calculus based on Stokes parameters representation.
We present a comprehensive study of the optical properties of InAs/InP self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) using an empirical pseudopotential method and configuration interaction treatment of the many-particle effects. The results are compared to those of InAs/GaAs QDs. The main results are: (i) The alignment of emission lines of neutral exciton, charged exciton and biexciton in InAs/InP QDs is quite different from that in InAs/GaAs QDs. (ii) The hidden correlation in InAs/InP QDs is 0.7 - 0.9 meV, smaller than that in InAs/GaAs QDs. (iii) The radiative lifetimes of neutral exciton, charged exciton and biexciton in InAs/InP QDs are about twice longer than those in InAs/GaAs QDs. (v) The phase diagrams of few electrons and holes in InAs/InP QDs differ greatly from those in InAs/GaAs QDs. The filling orders of electrons and holes are shown to obey the Hunds rule and Aufbau principle, and therefore the photoluminescence spectra of highly charged excitons are very different from those of InAs/GaAs QDs.
We report results on the control of barrier transparency in InAs/InP nanowire quantum dots via the electrostatic control of the device electron states. Recent works demonstrated that barrier transparency in this class of devices displays a general trend just depending on the total orbital energy of the trapped electrons. We show that a qualitatively different regime is observed at relatively low filling numbers, where tunneling rates are rather controlled by the axial configuration of the electron orbital. Transmission rates versus filling are further modified by acting on the radial configuration of the orbitals by means of electrostatic gating, and the barrier transparency for the various orbitals is found to evolve as expected from numerical simulations. The possibility to exploit this mechanism to achieve a controlled continuous tuning of the tunneling rate of an individual Coulomb blockade resonance is discussed.
We demonstrate high-temperature thermoelectric conversion in InAs/InP nanowire quantum dots by taking advantage of their strong electronic confinement. The electrical conductance G and the thermopower S are obtained from charge transport measurements and accurately reproduced with a theoretical model accounting for the multi-level structure of the quantum dot. Notably, our analysis does not rely on the estimate of co-tunnelling contributions since electronic thermal transport is dominated by multi-level heat transport. By taking into account two spin-degenerate energy levels we are able to evaluate the electronic thermal conductance K and investigate the evolution of the electronic figure of merit ZT as a function of the quantum dot configuration and demonstrate ZT ~ 35 at 30 K, corresponding to an electronic effciency at maximum power close to the Curzon- Ahlborn limit.
In this paper we present a detailed analysis of the structural, electronic, and optical properties of an $m$-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum well structure grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. The sample has been structurally characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and 3D atom probe tomography. The optical properties of the sample have been studied by photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL spectroscopy, and polarized PL excitation spectroscopy. The PL spectrum consisted of a very broad PL line with a high degree of optical linear polarization. To understand the optical properties we have performed atomistic tight-binding calculations, and based on our initial atom probe tomography data, the model includes the effects of strain and built-in field variations arising from random alloy fluctuations. Furthermore, we included Coulomb effects in the calculations. Our microscopic theoretical description reveals strong hole wave function localization effects due to random alloy fluctuations, resulting in strong variations in ground state energies and consequently the corresponding transition energies. This is consistent with the experimentally observed broad PL peak. Furthermore, when including Coulomb contributions in the calculations we find strong exciton localization effects which explain the form of the PL decay transients. Additionally, the theoretical results confirm the experimentally observed high degree of optical linear polarization. Overall, the theoretical data are in very good agreement with the experimental findings, highlighting the strong impact of the microscopic alloy structure on the optoelectronic properties of these systems.