Second-harmonic imaging of semiconductor quantum dots

Resonant second-harmonic generation is observed at room temperature in reflection from self-assembled InAlGaAs quantum dots grown on a GaAs (001) substrate. The detected second-harmonic signal peaks at a pump wavelength of similar to 885 nm corresponding to the quantum-dot photoluminescence maximum. In addition, the second-harmonic spectrum exhibits another smaller but well-pronounced peak at 765 nm not found in the linear experiments. We attribute this peak to the generation of second-harmonic radiation in the AlGaAs spacer layer enhanced by the local symmetry at the quantum-dot interface. We further observe that second-harmonic images of the quantum-dot surface structure show wavelength-dependent spatial variations. Imaging at different wavelength is used to demonstrate second-harmonic generation from the semiconductor quantum dots. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00932-3].