Random telegraph noise in photoluminescence from individual self-assembled quantum dots

M-E. Pistol; P. Castrillo; D. Hessman; J. A. Prieto; L. Samuelson

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.59.10725

Random telegraph noise in photoluminescence from individual self-assembled quantum dots

M-E. Pistol, P. Castrillo, D. Hessman, J. A. Prieto, and L. Samuelson

Phys. Rev. B 59, 10725 – Published 15 April 1999

Abstract

We have performed photoluminescence microscopy studies of spatially resolved quantum dots grown by the Stranski-Krastanow technique. A small fraction of the dots (one in about a thousand) has been found to exhibit an intermittence, with their emission intensity switching between discrete levels on a time scale of seconds. The statistics of the switching corresponds to a random telegraph signal and the frequency increases superlinearly with excitation power density. The intermittence can be irreversibly suppressed by strong illumination. Emission spectra of these dots show significant differences between the on-state and the off-state. The observed switching behavior is attributed to mobile photoactivated nonradiative recombination centers.

Received 8 October 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.59.10725

Authors & Affiliations

M-E. Pistol^*, P. Castrillo^†, D. Hessman, J. A. Prieto^‡, and L. Samuelson

Department of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden

^*Electronic address: mats-erik.pistol@ftf.lth.se
^†Permanent address: Dpto. E. y Electrónica, Universidad de Valladolid, ETSIT, Campus Miguel Delibes, E-47011 Valladolid, Spain.
^‡Permanent address: Instituto de Microelectrónica de Madrid, CSIC, Isaac Newton 8, E-28760 Tres Cantos, Spain.

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Vol. 59, Iss. 16 — 15 April 1999

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