Recombination properties of Si-doped InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots

The recombination properties of directly doped InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) for application in quantum dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) have been investigated by time-resolved photoluminescence. Compared with undoped and barrier-doped samples, the overall effect of direct dot doping is found to be small, resulting in only slight deterioration of dot homogeneity. Low-temperature photoluminescence decay times decrease very little, indicating that direct doping does not cause a significant increase of nonradiative recombination. In addition, directly doped quantum dots show a significantly weaker quenching of the photoluminescence intensity with temperature. At the same time, barrier doping causes the formation of more and smaller dots, which results in high photoluminescence intensity at low temperatures but an early onset of thermal carrier emission from the dots. The results suggest that direct QD doping is more prospective for realizing room-temperature operation in QDIPs. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)