Suppression of interdiffusion in InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots using dielectric layer of titanium dioxide

In this work, titanium dioxide (TiO2) film was deposited onto the In0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs quantum-dot structure by electron-beam evaporation to investigate its effect on interdiffusion. A large redshifted and broadened spectrum from the dot emission was observed compared with that from the uncapped (but annealed) reference sample, indicating the suppression of thermal interdiffusion due to TiO2 deposition. The structure was also capped with a silicon dioxide (SiO2) single layer or SiO2/TiO2 bilayer with the thickness of SiO2 varied from similar to6 to similar to145 nm. In the former case, an increased amount of impurity-free vacancy disordering (IFVD) was introduced with the increase of SiO2 thickness due to the enhanced Ga outdiffusion into the film. With TiO2 deposited on top, IFVD and thermal interdiffusion were suppressed to different extents with the variation of SiO2 thickness. To explain the suppression of interdiffusion, thermal stress introduced by the large thermal expansion coefficient of TiO2 (when compared with GaAs) as well as the metallurgical reactions between the TiO2 and GaAs were proposed as possible mechanisms. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.