Piezoelectric-induced quantum-confined Stark effect in self-assembled InAs quantum dots grown on (N11) GaAs substrates

We investigate the optical properties of InAs self-assembled quantum dots grown on (N11)A/B GaAs substrates, by means of cw photoluminescence under different excitation power densities. We observe a sizeable blue-shift of photoluminescence band induced by increasing the photogenerated carrier density. The shift depends on the substrate orientation and exhibits a strong asymmetric dependence on the substrate termination. We attribute the photoluminescence blue-shift to a reverse quantum confined Stark shift of ground state transition energies in the quantum dots. This effect arises from the photogenerated charge screening of the built-in piezoelectric field present in such strained structures grown on high index planes. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04738-0].