Analytical Model and Experimental Analysis to Estimate the Interdiffusion and Optoelectronic Properties of Coupled InAs Quantum Dots Post Rapid Thermal Processing

The stoichiometric variations in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown In(Ga)As quantum dots (QDs) after rapid thermal processing (RTP) is estimated from an analytical model assisted by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. A systematically grown multilayer (bi-, penta-, hepta-, and deca-layer) InAs Stranski–Krastanov (SK) QDs coupled electronically to submonolayer (SML) QDs are used in this study. The As-grown (ASG) samples are treated with RTP at temperatures of 650 °C,
$700~^{\circ }\text{C}$
,
$750~^{\circ }\text{C}$
, and 800 °C for 30 s. Our model estimates a significant diffusion of In atoms in the growth direction compared with the in-plane direction altering the QD dimensions and composition. To check its reliability, we incorporated an eight-band k.p model on all the RTP-treated strained In(Ga)As QD heterostructures. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements reveal a strong correlation with the simulation results; furthermore, a strong PL blueshift (56 nm) and narrow linewidth from 67 nm (ASG) to 33 nm (
$800~^{\circ }\text{C}$
) are seen due to an increase in the uniformity of QDs supporting the atomic force microscopy (AFM) results. AFM images reveal the formation of highly uniform and dense QDs with increased annealing temperature. The activation energy (AE) shows a decreasing trend due to the reduction in carrier confinement with RTP, agreeing with the analytical model. This is probably the first report that presents the effect of RTP on SK-SML coupled QD devices both in terms of theoretical and experimental analyses. This analytical model can thus be extended to any annealing study and for any material with certain known parameters and is helpful for futuristic studies.