Quantitative photothermal investigation of nonradiative recombination parameters in GaAs/InAs(QD)/GaAs quantum dot structures using a three-layer laser beam deflection model

In this paper, we developed a theoretical model for the photothermal deflection technique in order to investigate the electronic parameters of three-layer semiconductor structures. This model is based on the resolution of thermal and photogenerated carrier diffusion-wave equations in different media. Theoretical results show that the amplitude and phase of the photothermal deflection signal is very sensitive to the nonradiative recombination parameters. The theoretical model is applied to one layer of InAs quantum dots (QDs) inserted in GaAs matrix InAs/GaAs QDs in order to investigate the QD density effects on nonradiative recombination parameters in InAs through fitting the theoretical photothermal beam deflection signal to the experimental data. It was found that the minority carrier lifetime and the electronic diffusivity decrease as functions of increasing InAs QD density. This result is also related to the decrease in the mobility from 21.58 to 4.17 (±12.9%) cm2/V s and the minority carrier diffusion length from 0.62 (±5.8%) to 0.14 (±10%) μm, respectively. Furthermore, both interface recombination velocities S2/3 of GaAs/InAs (QDs) and S1/2 of InAs (QDs)/GaAs increase from 477.7 (±6.2%) to 806.5 (±4%) cm/s and from 75 (±7.8%) to 148.1 (±5.5%) cm/s, respectively.