Carrier transfer and thermal escape in CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots.

We report on the carrier transfer and thermal escape in CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots (QDs) grown on a GaAs substrate. The significant emission-energy-dependent decay time at high excitation intensity (35 W/cm2) is attributed to the lateral transfer of carriers in the QDs. At low temperature (< 35 K) and low emission energy (< 2.168 eV), a thermally activated transition occurs between two different states separated by approximately 9 meV, while the main contribution to nonradiative processes is the thermal escape from QDs that is assisted by carrier scattering via the emission of longitudinal phonons through the excited QD states at high temperature, with energies of approximately 19 meV.