Single-pulse laser interference is applied to a Molecular Beam Epitaxy growth chamber to achieve in-situ patterning during the growth of III-V materials, with a focus on producing arrays of III-V quantum dots. We will describe the construction and characterization of the interference system as well as the in-situ patterning results. Pulsed laser interference is shown to strongly interact with the growing surface to produce periodic nanoscale features such as holes and islands, the nature of which is dependent on the local surface energy distribution. We describe a mechanism for the formation of these features in terms of surface diffusion under the influence of the periodic thermal gradient induced by the interference pattern. Nanoislands formed at the interference minima are shown to be ideal sites for quantum dot nucleation.
Laser interference lithography is used to directly pattern the growing surface during molecular beam epitaxy growth of self-assembled InAs quantum dots on GaAs (100) substrates. Arrays of few-monolayer high nano-islands are formed prior to InAs quantum dot growth, which we believe result from the surface diffusion promoted by transient photothermal gradients. The deposition of InAs on such a surface leads to the nucleation of quantum dots solely at the island sites. The number of dots per site is determined by the island size which varies with the laser energy intensity. We are able to achieve highly ordered dense arrays of quantum dots with a single nanosecond laser pulse exposure. InAs quantum dots formed in this fashion show bright narrow photoluminescence with a peak at 1.04 eV at 88 K.
Surface nano-texturing can play an important role for efficiency enhancement of light emission and absorption in optoelectronic devices through reduced surface reflection or enhanced broadband absorption. Periodic and uniform semiconductor nanostructures are highly applicable in bandgap tuning applications but are quite challenging to realize through conventional techniques. We present the fabrication of large area and uniform square lattice based periodic nanostructures with 300 - 400 nm spatial periodicity on a GaAs substrate using pulsed laser interference. Single pulses from a plane-polarized pulsed laser working at 355 nm with 20-50 mJ energy and 7 ns pulse duration are used in a conventional four beam interference geometry at an incidence angle of 36.3° to realize square lattice patterns on photoresist coated over the GaAs substrate. The optical properties of the proposed designs are studied using FDTD simulations and show more than 95% of electromagnetic energy trapping over a broad optical wavelength range. This semiconductor based nanostructuring technology can find applications in improving the efficiency of solar cells or light emitting devices.
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