Photoluminescence properties as a function of growth mechanism for GaSb/GaAs quantum dots grown on Ge substrates

In this work, we use photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to investigate how self-assembled GaSb/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) depend on their growth mechanism. Carrier transfer (i.e., carrier recombination in QDs and escape through the barrier layer) is investigated as a function of excitation-power- and temperature-dependent PL measurements. A drastic blueshift of the QD peak energy from 1.23 to 1.30 eV and a further shift to 1.33 eV reveal the influence of the GaSb growth rate and the growth temperature on the optical properties of these QDs. The thermal activation energy is extracted from the temperature-dependent PL by fitting the integrated PL intensity of the QD peaks to the Arrhenius relation. The QDs grown at the growth rate of 0.1 monolayers/s at 450 °C have higher thermal activation energy (109 meV) than those grown at a lower growth rate and higher QD growth temperature. The observed PL characteristics are discussed in terms of QD size, uniformity of QDs, and material intermixing occurring during QD growth on the buffer layer and capping layer.