Pressure dependence of photoluminescence spectra of self‐assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed in InAs/GaAs self‐assembled quantum dots (QDs) under high excitation conditions at low temperatures and under high hydrostatic pressures up to 10 GPa. Mechanically polished samples for high pressure experiments exhibited PL emission from the QD ground state but not from the excited states. Instead, a new broad band is observed in the energy range of the first excited state, which is tentatively attributed to emission from smaller dots formed during the mechanical thinning of the sample. With increasing pressure we found a similar blue shift for the PL maxima of the QD ground state (65 meV/GPa) and of the new broad band (69 meV/GPa). These pressure coefficients are 20% and 40% lower than those reported for dots of less than half the height as in our case and for the wetting layer, respectively. Our results point to a systematic reduction of the pressure coefficient of the InAs QDs with the increase of the dot height.