Effect of symmetric and asymmetric In0.2Ga0.8As wells on the structural and optical properties of InAs quantum dots grown by migration enhanced molecular beam epitaxy for the application to a 1.3 μm laser diode

In this article, we present an in-depth study of the effects of the structural and optical properties of InAs “dots in an In0.2Ga0.8As well” (DWELL) and InAs “dots in an asymmetric In0.2Ga0.8As well” (asym. DWELL) grown by migration-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy. The energy spacing (ΔE1) between the ground-state and the first-excited-state transitions increases from 66 meV for the DWELL to 73 meV for the asym. DWELL. These results are consistent with ΔE1 measured by photoluminescence excitation and the values of activation energy fitting. The photoluminescence linewidth of the asym. DWELL (40 meV) is narrower than that of the DWELL (70 meV), which shows superior uniformity in the former over the latter. The trends of the properties of the DWELL and the asym. DWELL deduced from the structural properties are in good agreement with those from the optical properties. From the results, it is strongly supported that the asym. DWELL is more suitable for application to long wavelength optical communication than...