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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
Self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) have attracted significant attentionbecause of their potential applications in novel semiconductor devices. Inthis work, we investigated radiation effects induced by 1.0 MeV proton ionbeams on InAs self-assembled quantum dots. In particular, we emphasized theeffects of lattice environments of QDs on their luminescence emission afterion beam irradiation. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was used tocharacterize the optical properties of QDs subjected to proton irradiationand post-irradiation annealing. Compared to the single-layer QDs grown inGaAs films, the QDs embedded in an AlAs/GaAs superlattice exhibited muchhigher PL degradation resistance to proton beam bombardment, e.g., at thehighest dose (1.0×1014 cm−2) used in this work, adifference of ~ 20-fold in PL intensity was found between the QDs configuredin these two different lattice structures. After thermal annealing ofirradiated QD samples, ion beam enhanced blueshift of PL was observed to bemuch more pronounced for the single-layer QDs. We discuss mechanisms thatmay result in the differences in optical response to ion beams between QDswith different lattice surroundings.