Correlation lengths in stacked InAs quantum dot systems studied by cross-sectional scanning tunnelling microscopy

In English We have studied the influence of the InP spacer layer thickness on stacked InAs/InP quantum dots, using cross-sectional scanning tunnelling microscopy. We show that for a spacer layer thickness of up to 30 nm, the quantum dots are spatially correlated but for a separating distance of 50 nm the vertical ordering of the dots is lost. These values are the same as previously found for quantum dots in the InAs/GaAs system despite the large difference in lattice mismatch between the InAs/GaAs ( 7%) and InAs/InP ( 3%) systems. We show that the apparent similarities can be understood by a combination of intermixing in the dots and differences in dot size. Finally, we demonstrate that the size of the quantum dots is affected by their vertical correlation.