Closely stacked InAs/GaAs quantum dots grown at low growth rate

We present a systematic study of closely stacked InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown at low growth rates. Transmission electron microscopy reveals that for thin spacer layers vertically aligned QDs merge into one large QD. After capping the initial QD layer the GaAs surface is decorated with well- developed nanostructures, which act as nucleation centers for the QDs deposited in the second layer. Despite the size increase, photoluminescence (PL) experiments show a systematic blueshift up to 103 meV of the QD related signal with decreasing spacer thickness. We explicitly show that this significant blueshift cannot fully be ascribed to specific growth phenomena, but instead is caused by the actual presence of the second dot layer. We report a PL linewidth as narrow as 16 meV at low temperature for a sample with 5 nm spacer thickness. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics