Photoluminescence study of InAs quantum dots embedded in GaNAs strain compensating layer grown by metalorganic-molecular-beam epitaxy

Self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in ${\mathrm{GaN}}_{\text{0.007}}{\mathrm{As}}_{\text{0.993}}$ strain compensating layers have been grown by metalorganic-molecular-beam epitaxy on a GaAs (001) substrate with a high density of ${\text{1×10}}^{11}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\text{−2}}.$ The photoluminescence properties have been studied for two periods of InAs quantum dots layers embedded in ${\mathrm{GaN}}_{\text{0.007}}{\mathrm{As}}_{\text{0.993}}$ strain compensating layers. Four well-resolved excited-state peaks in the photoluminescence spectra have been observed from these highly packed InAs QDs embedded in the ${\mathrm{GaN}}_{\text{0.007}}{\mathrm{As}}_{\text{0.993}}$ strain compensating layers. This indicates that the InAs QDs are uniformly formed and that the excited states in QDs due to the quantum confinement effect are well defined. This is explained by tensile strain in GaNAs layers instead of the usual GaAs layers to relieve the compressive strain formed in InAs QDs to keep the total strain of the system at a minimum.