ways for in situ quantum dot fabrication.

In this work the authors

present photoluminescence (PL), electroluminescence (EL) and las-
I 5 O 1 ing characteristics of (In,Ga)As-GaAs quantum dots formed on a
GaAs (100) surface.

Experiment: The structures are grown by elemental source molecu-

lar beam epitaxy (MBE) on GaAs (100) substrates. Two laser
structures referred to as A and B in the following, with different

:I
average deposited thickness 1, of Iq,,Gq,,As, are compared in
9 13 5 this work. They are grown on Si-doped substrate at 600°C and
represent double heterostructure lasers with p- and n-type 1 . 5 ~
thick &.,Gq,,As cladding layers. The GaAs waveguide layer
1 3 - 0 1 , , . , . , , , . I thickness is 0.2nm (A) and 0 . l (B). ~ Short superlattices are
0 100 200 300 400 500 introduced to provide better morphology. The Iq.,Gq,,As deposi-
time, h tion is performed at 460°C (A) and at 490°C (B) in a suhmonol-
Fig. 4 Output power meosured during exposure to O.latm hydrogen ayer growth mode [6] using O.lnm growth cycles. Formation of
IS0 “C dots started after the deposition of a 0.9nm thick l ~ . , G q . , A slayer
and leads to the transformation of a ‘streaky’ reflection high-
Pump power 45mW at 1480nm, input signal power -7SdBm at energy electron diffraction (RHEED) pattern to a ’spotty’ pattern.
1558nm For structure B, Iq.,Gh,,As deposition is stopped at the initial
On the basis of these results, it can be concluded that potential stage of layer transformation to dots (tav= 1nm). For structure A,
degradation of AI-La-doped optical amplifiers due to hydrogen deposition is continued up to fa. = 1.8nm. A lOnm thick GaAs
and high temperatures will be insignificant over the lifetime of the contact layer is grown on the top of both structures.
ampliier. Samples for TEM studies are prepared in a similar manner at
460°C without a cladding layer and superlattice buffer layer. Plan-
0 IEE 1994 27 July 1994 view TEM studies are performed using a JEOL JEM 1000 (IMV)
Electronics Letters Online No: 19940975 high voltage electron microscope.
C. C. Larsen and B. PAlsd6ttir (LYCOM AB,NKT Alld 7S3DK-26OS
Broendby, Denmark)
. Au- Zn-Au - T i -Pt-Au
I

References

1 LUMHOLT, O., DYBDAL, K., LARSEN, C.C., DAHL-PETERSON, S.,

((GaAI)As-SL I ,
1- I, , I 1
SCHUSLER, K., BJARKLEV, A., HEDEGAARD, J., RASMUSSEN, T.P., and
ROITWITT,K.: ‘Er-La doped fibre amplifier, pumped at 1.47pm’.
Proc. IOOC-ECOC ’91, 1991, Paper TuPSI-3, Regular Papers, pp.
285-288
2 LARSEN, C.C.: ‘&La doped optical amplifier fiber with extremely GaAs / n-AIGaAs
low hydrogen sensitivity’. Proc. ECOC ’93, 1993, Vol. 3, Paper
(Ga AI)As-SL
T h c 12.1, pp. 1 4
n-GaAs
3 MARCEROU, J.F., HERVO. J., ARTIGAUD, S., FEVRIER, H., GUITTON, P., n-AIGaAs
and LANDAIS, s.: ‘Hydrogen sensitivity of erbium-doped fiber
amplifiers’. Proc. ECOC ’90, 1990, Paper WeP2.8, pp. 497-500 Ni-Ge-Au
4 LEMAIRE, P.J., WATSON, H.A., DIGIOVANM, D.J., and WALKER, K.L.:
‘Prediction of long-term hydrogen-induced loss increases in Er- Fig. 1 Schematic laser structure and shallow mesa stripe geometry
doped amplifier fibers’, Photonics Technol. Lett., 1993, 5, (2), pp.
21&217
The fabricated shallow mesa stripe laser geometry is schemati-
5 PALsDCYITIR,~.,and LARSEN,C.C.: ‘Short erbium doped fiber
amplifiers optimized for high output power’. Proc. ECOC ’93, cally shown in Fig. 1. The laser cavity length is l O O O p and the
1993, Vol. 2, Paper Tu 4, pp. 181-194 stripe width 10 and 2 0 p for structures A and B, respectively.
Photoluminescence (PL) is excited using the 632.8nm line of an
He-Ne laser and detected using a cooled germanium photodetector.

Low threshold, large Toinjection laser

emission from (InGalAs quantum dots
N. Kirstaedter, N.N. Ledentsov, M. Grundmann,
D. Bimberg, V.M. Ustinov, S.S. Ruvimov,
M.V. Maximov, P.S. Kop’ev, Zh.1. Alferov,
U. Richter, P. Werner, U. Gdsele and J. Heydenreich

Indexing terms: Semiconductor junction losers, Semiconductor

quantum dots
Low threshold, large To injection laser emission via zero-
dimensional states in (1nCa)As quantum dots is demonstrated. Fig. 2 Plab-view TEM images of In,&a&s qunntum dots in GaAs
The dots are formed due to a morphological transformation of a matrix
pseudomorphic ln&~,5As layer. Laser diodes are fabricated Average thickness of Ib,5Gh,As deposited :
with a shallow mesa stripe geometry.
a Inm
Introduction: Quantum dot lasers are expected to exhibit proper- b 2.2nm
ties much superior to quantum well based devices, such as reduced
temperature sensitivity [I]. The self-organisation .of nanoscale 3-D Experimental results: At the initial stage of dot transformation (tow
clusters due to the strain-induced transformation of the pseudo- = 1nm, Fig. 2a) a small scale granular structure with details up to
morphic layers [Z-SI has emerged as one of the most promising l O n m in size as well as their agglomerations of 20-50nm lateral
1416 ELECTR’ONICSLETTERS 18th August 1994 Vol. 30 No. 17
extent are present. For I,, = 1.6nm coherent and elongated islands range 50 - 120K. This is much higher than the theoretical predic-
of size lCL30nm are formed. A further increase of In,,Ga,,As tion of 285K for quantum well lasers [I]. However the threshold
deposited up to I,, = 2.2nm (Fig. 2b) results in the formation of current is observed to increase dramatically for temperatures
well developed dots, with -70% of them having a size between 12 above 130K. We attribute this effect to the non-optimised growth
and 17nm. Thus for laser structure A the strain induced island conditions which result in a x5 lower PL intensity as compared to
formation results in larger, better developed and more uniform structure B and do not permit room temperature laser operation.
islands than for structure B.
In laser structure B, the characteristic temperature is To= 330K
between 77 and 140K and the threshold current density is equal to
120Ncmz at 77K. In the range 150 - 300K the temperature
dependence on the threshold current is much stronger, described
by a much lower Toof 120K. We attribute this dramatic decrease
of Toabove 150K to the thermal excitation of carriers in the GaAs
barrier region, which increases the injected carrier density neces-
sary to maintain a given threshold gain.

Conclusion: We have demonstrated lasing from (1nGa)As quan-

tum dots in a (Ga,AI)As injection laser structure at room temper-
ature with a threshold current density of 950Ncm2. A Tovalue of
350K at low temperatures between 50 and 120K and a threshold
current density of 120Ncm‘ are found.

12 13 14 15 Acknowledgments: Part of this work is supported by the Volkswa-

energy.eV gen Stiftung, Germany and the DFG in the framework of SFB
Fig. 3 Electroluminescence spectra below and above threshold 296.

_ _ _ - PL spectra at low excitation density ( I W/cmz));arrows denote

energetic position of GaAs bandgap and 1nm thick uniform 0 IEE 1994 29 June 1994
In,,G~.,As/GaAs quantum well Electronics Letters Online No: 19940939

PL and EL spectra at 77K for both laser structures are shown N. Kirstaedter, N. N. Ledentsov, M. Grundmann and D. Bimberg
in Fig. 3. The calculated El-HHI optical transition energy assum- (Instirut fur Festkorperphysik, Trchnische Universitat Berlin,
Hurdenbergsrr. 36, 0-10623 Berlin, Germany)
ing a uniform l n m thick In,,Ga,& layer is 1.42eV and more
than IOOmeV higher than all observed luminescence features [&SI. V. M. Ustinov, S. S. Ruvimov, M. V. Maximov, P. S. Kop’ev and Zh.
Similar results [5] are obtained from a comparison of the PL spec- I. Alferov (A. F Ioffe Physicul-Technical Institute of Academy of
tra of In&3q,,As dots (tav = 1.2nm) and an In,.,Ga,,,As SQW of Science, 194021 Politekhnicheskaya 26, St. Petersburg, Russia)
4nm thickness grown on GaAs (100). P. Werner, U. Gosele, J. Heydenreich and U. Richter (Max-Planck-
The quantum dot induced PL peak energy for laser structures A Institut fur Mikrostrukrurphysik und Labor fur Elektronenmikroskopie
and B at low excitation density is nearly independent of the aver- in Natarwissenschaft und Medizin, Weinberg 2, 0-06120 Halle(S),
age thickness of In,,Ga,,& because relatively large dots or Germany)
agglomerations of smaller dots are already formed at the initial
stage of layer transformation in agreement with the TEM data.
Non-equilibrium carriers are also more effectively trapped by References
larger dots. Further In,,Gao,As deposition results in an increase
of the number per unit area of large and uniform dots rather than 1 ARAKAWA. Y., and SAKAKI. H.: ‘Multidimensional quantum well
in an increase in their size, as can be seen in Fig. 2. laser and temperature dependence of its threshold current’, Appl.
In laser structure A (well developed larger dots), the EL inten- Phys. Len., 1982,40, pp. 939-941
sity maximum is at the low energy side of the PL spectrum. This 2 MO, Y.M., SAVAGE, D.E.,SWARTZENTRUBER. B.s., and LAGALLY, M.G.:
shift is typical for quantum well lasers and indicates pronounced ‘Kinetic pathway in Stranski-Krastanovgrowth of Ge on Si(OOl)’,
self-absorption in the waveguide geometry. Fig. 3 shows that an Phys. Rev. Lett., 1990,65, pp. 102CL1023
increase in injection current density results in a small blue shift of 3 GRUNDMANN, M., CHRISTEN, J , LEDENTSOV, N.N., BOHRER. J.,
the EL maximum but lasing remains on the low energy side of the D., RUVIMOV. S.S., WERNER, P., RICHTER, U., COSELE, U,,
BIMBERG,
PL spectrum. This is direct proof that lasing occurs through the HEYDENREICH, I., USTINOV, v.M., EGOROV, A. YU., KOP‘EV, P.s., and
zero-dimensional states in uniformly developed quantum dots. ALFEROV, ZH.I.: ’Ultranarrow luminescence lines from single
In laser structure B (initial stage of dot formation) the EL max- quantum dots’, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett.
imum coincides with the maximum of the PL spectrum indicating 4 TERSOFF.I., and TROMP,R.M.: ‘Shape transition in growth of
only minor self-absorption in the waveguide geometry. The EL strained islands: Spontaneous formation of quantum wires’, Phys.
maximum shifts towards higher energies with increasing injection Rev. Lett., 1993,70, pp. 2782-2785
current density (this shift is also found for the PL maximum) and
5 LEONARD, D., KRISHNAMURTHY, M., REAVES, c.M., DENBARS, s.P., and
the lasing occurs on the high energy side of the PL spectrum. This
PETROFF, P.M.: ‘Direct formation of quantum-sized dots from
effect is not observed for structure A and is explained by gain sat-
uniform coherent islands of InGaAs on GaAs surfaces’, Appl.
uration for larger dots in structure B because there are fewer per
Phys. Lett., 1993, 63, pp. 3203-3205
unit area. The difference in energy between the laser emission and
the El-HHI transition of a uniform Inm-thick In,,Ga,,As layer 6 WANG, P.D.,LEDENTSOV, N.N.,SOTOMAYOR TORRES, c.M., KOP’EV, P.s.,
still exceeds 100meV. Therefore we conclude that the smaller dots, and USTINOV, v.M.:‘Optical characterization of submonolayer and
characteristic of the initial stage of layer transformation, are monolayer InAs structures grown in a GaAs mattrix on (100) and
responsible for lasing in this case. The high resolution gain spec- high-index surfaces’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 1994, 64, pp. 1526-1528
trum in Fig. 3 shows single longitudinal mode oscillation with a I WILLARDSON, R.K.. and BEER, A.c.: ‘Strained-layer superlattices:
sidemode suppression ratio of 6dB and more than 50% of the las- Physics, semiconductors and semimetals’ (Academic Press, Inv.
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quantum well lasers and reflects the very narrow gain function 1990, 32), pp. 17-53
expected in quantum dot lasers. 8 HELLWEGE. K.-H.: ‘Numerical data and functional relationships in
The temperature dependence of the threshold current density science and technology’, in: ‘Landolt-Bornstein new series groups
for laser structure A is shown in the inset of Fig. 3. The character- III-V’ (Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York 1982, 22a),
istic temperature T, is measured to be 350K in the temperature pp. 82-144
ELECTRONICS LElTERS 18th August 1994 Vol. 30 No. 17 1417