Optical observation of single-carrier charging in type-II quantum ring ensembles

A high-purity GaSb/GaAs quantum ring system is introduced that provides both strong hole-confinement in the GaSb ring and electron confinement in its GaAs core. The latter is responsible for a reduced inhomogeous linewidth measured in photoluminescence, in comparison to the previous measurements made on nanostructures with differing morphology in this material system. This allows the resolution of multiple peaks in the photoluminescence due to discrete charging with holes, revealing the mechanism responsible for the excitation-power-induced blueshift. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3688037