The Effect of the Individual Species of the N Plasma on the Characteristics of InAsN Quantum Dots Grown by MBE

Abstract

The influence of the different species which constitute N plasma, such as atomic nitrogen, diatomic nitrogen and ionized species, on the morphological and optical characteristics of the InAsN quantum dots (QDs) has been studied in this work. We have performed several sets of growths modifying in each one the concentration of these species. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and photoluminescence (PL) techniques have been used to perform the surface characterization and the optical analysis of these samples, respectively. Clearly, we have found a strong correlation between the structural and optical characteristics of the InAsN QDs with the plasma composition used during the growth. Ionized species favour the high density of QDs, atomic nitrogen increase dimensions of the QDs and molecular nitrogen does not almost affect the characteristics of these nanostructures. An increment of ionized species in the plasma yields a higher density of QDs, an increase in the atomic nitrogen increases the dimensions of the QDs and the molecular nitrogen flux used does not almost affect the characteristics of these nanostructures. Also, we have found that there is not redshift of the peak wavelength of the PL emission as we increase the atomic nitrogen concentration during the growth. This may be due to equal nitrogen incorporation into the quantum dots. We supposed that the mechanism dominating in it is possible that the nitrogen incorporation in these types of nanostructures depend on another growth parameter.