Excitonic lasing of strain-free InP(As) quantum dots in AlInAs microdisk

Abstract

Formation, emission and lasing properties of strain-free InP(As)/AlInAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in AlInAs microdisk (MD) cavity were investigated using transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence (PL) techniques. In MD structures, the QDs having nano-pan-cake shape have height of ~2 nm, lateral size of 20-50 nm and density of ~5x109 cm-2. Their emission observed at ~940 nm revealed strong temperature quenching, which points to exciton decomposition. It also showed unexpected type-I character indicating In-As intermixing, as confirmed by band structure calculations. We observed lasing of InP(As) QD excitons into whispering gallery modes in MD having dimeter ~3.2 mkm and providing free spectral range of ~27 nm and quality factors up to Q~13000. Threshold of ~50 W/cm2 and spontaneous emission coupling coefficient of ~0.2 were measured for this MD-QD system.