We study how the optical properties of InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) grown on GaAs substrate are affected when using AlGaAs barriers to increase the carrier confinement. The inhomogeneous broadening of the QD ensemble is found to increase when ternary aluminum alloys are used next to or within the QDs. By growing thin GaAs spacers to separate the QDs from the AlGaAs barriers, we obtain QD ensembles which exhibit little photoluminescence quenching and well-defined excited states up to room temperature. Postgrowth rapid thermal annealing is then used to intermix these InAs/GaAs/AlGaAs QDs and diffuse the Al towards the QDs. In contrast with QDs having thick binary GaAs barriers, the inhomogeneous broadening of QDs with nearby AlGaAs barriers is not decreased with intermixing, leading to unresolved excited state peaks when the interdiffusion length becomes comparable to the GaAs spacer thickness.
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