Ge/Si半导体量子点的应变分布与平衡形态

基于各向异性弹性理论的有限元方法，研究了金字塔形自组织Ge/Si半导体量子点应变能随高宽比变化的规律：系统的应变能随着高宽比的增大而逐渐减小.并通过自由能(应变能与表面能之和)讨论了量子点的平衡形态.结果表明，对于固定体积的量子点，存在一个高宽比值，称之为平衡高宽比，使得系统的自由能最低.同时，还给出了量子点的应力、应变、流体静应变及双轴应变分布.这些可以作为阐明应变自组织量子点实验的理论基础. 关键词： 量子点 应变分布 自由能 平衡形态     

生长方向对量子点应变与应变弛豫的影响

由于材料弹性的各向异性与表面能的各向异性, 不同的生长方向或生长面, 量子点有不同的力学性能与行为. 本文基于各向异性弹性理论的有限元方法, 以金字塔型自组织InAs/GaAs半导体量子点为研究对象, 分别在7个常见的生长方向或生长面上, 对其应变能和应变弛豫能、自由能等进行了分析计算, 得到了这些能量随生长方向的变化规律. 结果表明(211)量子点应变弛豫能最大, 而(100)量子点应变弛豫能最小. 这些结果可为可控制备量子点提供理论参考. 关键词： 量子点 生长方向 平衡形态 应变弛豫     

离子束溅射Ge量子点的应变调制生长

采用离子束溅射技术制备了单层和双层Ge量子点, 通过原子力显微镜对比了不同Si隔离层厚度和不同掩埋量子点密度情况下表层量子点的尺寸和形貌差异, 系统研究了掩埋Ge量子点产生的应变对表层量子点的浸润层及形核的影响, 并用埋置应变模型对其进行解释. 实验结果表明, 覆盖Ge量子点的Si隔离层中分布着的应变场, 导致表层量子点浸润层厚度的降低, 从而增大点的体积; 应变强度随隔离层厚度的减小而增加, 造成表层量子点形状和尺寸的变化; 此外, 应变还调控了表层量子点的空间分布. 关键词： Ge量子点 埋层应变 离子束溅射     

Si组分对SiGe量子点形状演化的影响

研究了自组织生长SiGe岛（量子点）中Si组分对形状演化的影响.采用UHV/CVD方法生长了 不同Si组分的SiGe岛，用AFM对其形状和尺寸分布进行了分析，实验结果表明SiGe岛从金字 塔形向圆顶形转变的临界体积随Si组分的增大而增大.通过对量子点能量的应变能项进行修正，解释了量子点中Si组分对形状演化的影响.在特定的工艺条件下得到了单模尺寸分布的 金字塔和圆顶形量子点.结果表明，通过调节SiGe岛中的Si组分，可以实现对SiGe岛形状和 尺寸的控制. 关键词： 自组织生长SiGe岛 Si组分 临界体积     

InAs/GaAs透镜形量子点超晶格材料的纵向和横向周期对应变场分布的影响

对量子点超晶格材料中量子点纵向周期和同层量子点的横向周期间距对量子点及其周围应变场分布的影响进行了系统的研究.结果表明，横向和纵向周期通过衬底材料之间的长程相互作用对量子点沿中心轴路径应变分布的影响效果正好相反，在适当条件下，两者对量子点应变场分布的影响可以部分抵消.同时也论证了在单层量子点和超晶格量子点材料中，计算量子点的电子结构时，应综合考虑量子点空间周期分布对载流子限制势的影响，不能简单的利用孤立量子点模型来代替. 关键词： 应变 半导体量子点 自组织     

CdTe量子点的室温激子自旋弛豫动力学

利用交叉偏振三阶非线性瞬态光栅技术,研究了室温下CdTe胶体量子点激子自旋弛豫动力学的尺寸效应.在抽运-探测光子能量与CdTe量子点的最低激子吸收(1Se—1Sh)跃迁相共振时,量子点激子自旋弛豫显示了时间常数为0.1—0.5 ps的单指数衰减行为.CdTe量子点激子自旋的快速弛豫源于亮暗激子精细结构态跃迁,即J=±1←→■2跃迁.激子自旋弛豫主要由空穴的自旋翻转过程决定.研究结果表明:CdTe量子点激子自旋弛豫速率与量子点尺寸的4次方成反比.     

低维半导体材料应变分布

在各向同性弹性理论的假设下，探讨了理想简单化的二维、一维与零维半导体材料量子阱、量子线与量子点的应力和应变分布规律，并讨论了它们应力、应变与应变能密度分布之间的差异.结果有助于定性理解更复杂形状结构的低维半导体材料的应力、应变及应变能分布. 关键词： 低维材料 应变分布 量子阱 量子线 量子点     

分子束外延生长InGaN/AlN量子点的组分研究

报道了分子束外延生长的绿光波段InGaN/AlN量子点材料,并综合考虑InGaN量子点的应变弛豫,以及应力和量子限制斯塔克效应对量子点发光波长的影响,提出了一种结合反射式高能电子衍射原位测量与光致荧光测量确定InGaN量子点组分的方法.     

用格林函数法计算量子点中的应变分布

自组装量子点材料作为一种新型的光电材料无论在理论和实际应用都成为当今物理学界的研 究热点.由GaAs包围的InAs小岛，由于较大的晶格失配（≈-0.067），应变效应在量子点 的 形成过程中起主导作用.大部分计算量子点结构应变分布的方法都是基于数值解法，需要大 量的计算工作.给出用格林函数法推导各种常见形状量子点应变分布的解析表达式详细过程，讨论了弹性各向异性和形状各向异性对量子点应变分布的影响程度.结果表明对于不 同形状量子点结构中主要部分的应变分布都是相似的，流体静压变部分的特征值随量子点形状的变化不 关键词： 自组装量子点 格林函数 应变分布     

埋置量子点应力分布的有限元分析

通过衬底材料和外延材料的交替生长方式制备出多层排列的自组装量子点超晶格结构.这些埋置量子点的应力/应变场影响着它们的光电性能、压电性能以及力学稳定性.基于各向异性弹性理论的有限元方法,研究了埋置金字塔形应变自组织Ge/Si半导体量子点的应力/应变分布以及流体静应变和双轴应变分布,并与非埋置量子点的应力/应变分布做了比较,指出了它们之间的异同以及覆盖层对量子点应力/应变分布的影响. 关键词： 量子点 应力分布 应变分布     

The strain relaxation of InAs/GaAs self-organized quantum dot

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the dependence of degree of strain relaxation of the self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dot on the geometrical parameters. Differently shaped quantum dots arranged with different transverse periods are simulated in this analysis. It investigates the total residual strain energy that stored in the quantum dot and the substrate for all kinds of quantum dots with the same volume, as well as the dependence on both the aspect ratio and transverse period. The calculated results show that when the transverse period is larger than two times the base of the quantum dots, the influence of transverse periods can be ignored. The larger aspect ratio will lead more efficient strain relaxation. The larger angle between the faces and the substrate will lead more efficient strain relaxation. The obtained results can help to understand the shape transition mechanism during the epitaxial growth from the viewpoint of energy, because the strain relaxation is the main driving force of the quantum dot's self-organization.     

Raman study of Si–Ge intermixing in Ge quantum rings and dots

The Ge/Si (1 0 0) nanostructures have been studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Micro Raman optical spectroscopy. Two layers of Ge of total thickness 0.75 nm and Si cap with thickness 2.5 nm were deposited by the method of molecular beam epitaxy at the temperature range 640–700 °C. AFM shows both quantum dots and ring-shape Ge nanostructures. From the analysis of the intensity and energy shift of the Raman signal we have found that the average concentration of Ge decreases considerably from 44% to 27%, when the growth temperature increases, whereas the degree of strain relaxation remains roughly the same. This allows us to conclude that intermixing is a dominating mechanism for strain relaxation in processes of transformation of Ge quantum dots to quantum rings.     

Intraband carrier relaxation in quantum dots mediated by surface plasmon-phonon excitations

A new mechanism of the intraband carrier relaxation in quantum dots embedded into a heterostructure at a relatively large distance from its doped elements is proposed. The relaxation process is related to the coupling between the electronic subsystem of a quantum dot and surface plasmon-phonon excitations of the doped components of the heterostructure via the electric potential produced by these excitations. It is found that, in layered heterostructures, the dispersion relations of the surface plasmon-LO-phonon modes display critical points giving rise to pronounced singularities in the relaxation rate spectra. The estimates of the relaxation rates for InAs quantum dots embedded into a GaAs heterostructure have shown high efficiency of the proposed mechanism even when the quantum dots are located at a distance of up to 100 nm from the doped regions of the heterostructure. When this distance lies in the range of a few tens of nanometers, this mechanism appears to be predominant. Possible manifestations of the relaxation mechanism under consideration in the photoluminescence spectra of quantum dots are discussed.     

Composition maps in self-assembled alloy quantum dots

Nanoscale variations in composition arising from the competition between chemical mixing effects and elastic relaxation can substantially influence the electronic and optical properties of self-assembled alloy quantum dots. Using a combination of finite element and quadratic programming optimization methods, we have developed an efficient technique to compute the equilibrium composition profiles in strained quantum dots. We find that the composition profiles depend strongly on the morphological features such as the slopes and curvatures of their surfaces and the presence of corners and edges as well as the ratio of the strain and chemical mixing energy densities. More generally, our approach provides a means to quantitatively model the interplay among the composition variations, the temperature, the strain, and the shapes of small-scale lattice-mismatched structures.     

Electron and hole effective masses in self-assembled quantum dots

Electron and hole effective masses in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots are determined by fitting the energy levels calculated by a single-band model to those obtained by a more sophisticated tight-binding method. For the dots of various shapes and dimensions, the electron effective-mass is found to be much larger than that in the bulk and become anisotropic in the dots of large aspect ratio while the hole effective-mass becomes almost isotropic in the dots of small aspect ratio. For flat InAs/GaAs quantum dots, the most appropriate value for the electron and hole effective-mass is believed to be the electron effective-mass in bulk GaAs and the vertical heavy-hole effective-mass in bulk InAs, respectively.     

Hole states in artificial molecules formed by vertically coupled Ge/Si quantum dots

In the tight binding approximation, the spatial configuration of the ground state and the binding energy of a hole in a “diatomic” artificial molecule formed by vertically coupled Ge/Si(001) quantum dots are studied. The inhomogeneous spatial distribution of elastic strain arising in the medium due to the lattice mismatch between Ge and Si is taken into account. The strain is calculated using the valence-force-field model with a Keating interatomic potential. The formation of the hole states is shown to be determined by the competition of two processes: the appearance of a common hole due to the overlapping of “atomic” wavefunctions and the appearance of asymmetry in the potential energy of a hole in the two quantum dots because of the superposition of the elastic strain fields from the vertically aligned Ge nanoclusters. When the thickness of the Si layer separating the Ge dots (t _Si) is greater than 2.3 nm, the binding energy of a hole in the ground state of the two-dot system proves to be lower than the ionization energy of a single quantum dot because of the partial elastic stress relaxation due to the coupling of the quantum dots and due to the decrease in the depth of the potential well for holes. For the values of the parameter t _Si, an intermediate region is revealed, where the covalent molecular bond fails and the hole is localized in one of the two quantum dots, namely, in the dot characterized by the highest strain values.     

Saturation of optical transitions in quantum dots and wires of porous silicon

The bleaching bands have been observed in the time-resolved nonlinear transmission spectra of porous silicon. The increase of transmission at discrete frequencies has been attributed to a saturation of optical transitions between the energy levels of electrons and holes spatially confined within quasi-zero-dimensional (quantum dots) and quasi-one-dimensional (quantum wires) nanostructures. The results of independent measurements using transmission electron microscopy have confirmed the existence of quantum dots and wires of corresponding size. The slowed-down energy relaxation from upper to lower levels of size quantization compared with intraband relaxation in the bulk have been observed in the cooled (80K) platelets of porous silicon.     

Effects of nanocrystal shape on the physical properties of colloidal ZnO quantum dots

The effects of both nanocrystal shape and applied magnetic field on the electron energy spectra of colloidal ZnO quantum dots have been investigated in the frame of finite element method, using nonuniform triangular elements. Four shapes of quantum dots (spherical, ellipsoidal, rod-shaped, and lens-shaped) were studied. It was found that the physical properties of the semiconductor quantum dots could be manipulated by changing their size and/or their shape. The energies of an electron increase as one reduces the quantum dot shape symmetry from spherical towards the lens-shaped. The magnetic field effect strongly interplays with the nanocrystal size and the nanocrystal shape effects. Such interplay has been attributed to the competition of the quantum confinement effect introduced by the barrier potential and the quantum confinement effect introduced by the applied magnetic field.