Origins of Spectral Diffusion in the Micro-Photoluminescence of Single InGaN Quantum Dots

We report on optical characterization of self-assembled InGaN quantum dots (QDs) grown on three GaN pseudo-substrates with differing threading dislocation densities. QD density is estimated via microphotoluminscence on a masked sample patterned with circular apertures, and appears to increase with dislocation density. A non-linear excitation technique is used to observe the sharp spectral lines characteristic of QD emission. Temporal variations of the wavelength of emission from single QDs are observed and attributed to spectral diffusion. The magnitude of these temporal variations is seen to increase with dislocation density, suggesting locally fluctuating electric fields due to charges captured by dislocations are responsible for the spectral diffusion in this system. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics