Tunneling injection and recombination of carriers in self-assembled quantum dots

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Chaggar, Amrik Richard (2009) Tunneling injection and recombination of carriers in self-assembled quantum dots. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

This thesis describes an experimental investigation of the resonant injection of carriers into self-assembled indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dots incorporated in the intrinsic region of gallium arsenide (GaAs) p-i-n resonant tunneling diodes, and of the resulting electroluminescence spectrum associated with carrier recombination in the quantum dots, wetting layer and GaAs matrix.

A series of devices of different designs have been measured and it is shown that bipolar resonant injection, i.e. resonant injection of both electrons andholes, into the zero-dimensional states provided by the InAs quantum dots is possible. It is shown that bias-tunable tunneling of carriers into the dots provides a means of controlling injection and light emission from a small number of individual dots within a large ensemble. Magnetotunneling spectroscopy is used to investigate the possibility that fluctuations in the potential profile of the GaAs emitter layer play a significant role in the carrier dynamics of such devices. We also show that the extent of carrier energy relaxation prior to recombination can be controlled by tailoring the morphology of the quantum dot layer.

Additionally, a study into the phenomenon of low-temperature up-conversion electroluminescence (UCEL) is presented. Injection of carriers into the quantum dot states at an applied bias well below the GaAs flat-band condition results in near-band-edge GaAs electroluminescence, i.e., emission of photons with energies much larger than that supplied by the applied bias and the thermal energy. The origin of this UCEL is discussed and is attributed to carrier excitation resulting from (non-radiative) Auger recombination of electron-hole pairs in the quantum dot ground states.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Eaves, Laurence
Patane, Amalia
Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics > QC501 Electricity and magnetism
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Science > School of Physics and Astronomy
Item ID: 10757
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 09 Dec 2009 13:35
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2017 11:40
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/10757

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