Daniele Barettin, Alexei V. Sakharov, Andrey F. Tsatsulnikov, Andrey E. Nikolaev, Alessandro Pecchia, Matthias Auf der Maur, Sergey Yu. Karpov, Nikolay Cherkashin, University Niccolò Cusano = Università Niccoló Cusano (UNICUSANO), A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences [Moscow] (RAS), Institute of Nanostructured Materials (ISMN), National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), University of Rome 'Tor Vergeta', Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata [Roma], Matériaux et dispositifs pour l'Electronique et le Magnétisme (CEMES-MEM), Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales (CEMES), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Toulouse (INSA Toulouse), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut de Chimie de Toulouse (ICT), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Toulouse (INSA Toulouse), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), ATHENA-European University (EPLUS2020-AG, Project 101004096)., and ANR-10-EQPX-0038,MIMETIS,Microscopie Interférométrique et Microscopie Electronique en Transmission In Situ(2010)
International audience; A possible solution for the realization of high-efficiency visible light-emitting diodes (LEDs) exploits InGaN-quantum-dot-based active regions. However, the role of local composition fluctuations inside the quantum dots and their effect of the device characteristics have not yet been examined in sufficient detail. Here, we present numerical simulations of a quantum-dot structure restored from an experimental high-resolution transmission electron microscopy image. A single InGaN island with the size of ten nanometers and nonuniform indium content distribution is analyzed. A number of two- and three-dimensional models of the quantum dot are derived from the experimental image by a special numerical algorithm, which enables electromechanical, continuum k→·p→, and empirical tight-binding calculations, including emission spectra prediction. Effectiveness of continuous and atomistic approaches are compared, and the impact of InGaN composition fluctuations on the ground-state electron and hole wave functions and quantum dot emission spectrum is analyzed in detail. Finally, comparison of the predicted spectrum with the experimental one is performed to assess the applicability of various simulation approaches.