Optical properties of coupled three-dimensional Ge quantum dot crystals.

We report on optical properties of coupled three-dimensional (3D) Ge quantum dot crystals (QDCs). With increasing the vertical periodic number of the QDCs, the photoluminescence (PL) spectral linewidth decreased exponentially, and so did the peak energy blueshift caused by increasing excitation power, which are attributed to the electronic coupling and thus the formation of miniband. In the PL spectra, the relative intensity of the transverse-optical (TO) phonon replica also decreases with increasing the vertical periodic number, which is attributed to the increased Brillouin-zone folding effect in vertical direction and therewith the relaxation of indirect transition nature of exciton recombination. Besides, the optical reflectivity at the interband transition energy was much more reduced for the QDCs than for the in-plane disordered QDs grown with the same parameters, indicating a higher interband absorption of the QDCs due to the miniband formation.