The role of transport processes of nonequilibrium charge carriers in radiative properties of arrays of InAs/GaAs quantum dots

The results of time-resolved photoluminescence studies of heterostructures containing monolayer arrays of InAs/GaAs quantum dots are presented. A two-component time dependence of intensity of photoluminescence from the ground state of quantum dots, with characteristic times of the slow component up to hundreds of nanoseconds and those of rapid one several nanoseconds, is studied. It is shown that the slow component is determined by the transport of nonequilibrium charge carriers between the quantum dots. At low temperatures, the time of the slow component is determined by tunneling, and at high temperatures by thermal escape of nonequilibrium charge carriers. The ratio of the contributions of tunneling and thermal escape is determined by the degree of isolation of quantum dots. A theoretical model is constructed that describes the effect of the dynamics of carrier transport on the emergence and decay of the slow component of photoluminescence. © 2008 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.