Surface-related reduction of photoluminescence in GaAs quantum wires and its recovery by new passivation

Etched GaAs quantum wires (QWRs) and selectively grown (SG) QWRs were fabricated, and dependence of their photoluminescence (PL) properties on QWR width (W) and QWR distance to surface (d) were investigated. PL intensity greatly reduced with reduction of W and d, due to non-radiative recombination through surface states. Surface passivation by growing a Si interface control layer (Si-ICL) on group III-terminated surfaces greatly improved PL properties.