Vortex pinning by natural defects in thin films of YBa2Cu3O7−δ

Although vortex pinning in laser-ablated YBa2Cu3O7−δ films on (100) SrTiO3 is dominated by threading dislocations, many other natural pinning sites are present. To identify the contribution from twin planes, surface corrugations and point defects, we manipulate the relative densities of all defects by post-annealing films with various as-grown dislocation densities, ndisl. While a universal magnetic field B dependence of the transport current density js(B, T) is observed (independently of ndisl, temperature T and the annealing treatment), the defect structure changes considerably. Correlating the microstructure to js(B, T), it becomes clear that surface roughness, twins and point defects are not important at low magnetic fields compared to linear defect pinning. Transmission electron microscopy indicates that threading dislocations are not part of grain boundaries nor are they related to the twin domain structure. We conclude that js(B, T) is essentially determined by pinning along threading dislocations, naturally induced during the growth process. Even in high magnetic fields, where the vortex density outnumbers ndisl, it appears that linear defects stabilize the vortex lattice by means of the vortex–vortex interaction.

Effects of annealing on self-assembled InAs quantum dots and wetting layer in GaAs matrix

Post-growth thermal annealing effects on InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) near Stransky-Krastanow transformation were investigated. Self-assembled QDs of average size of about 10 nm were grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. The photoluminescence (PL) due to emission from QDs as well as two peaks due to emission from the strained InAs wetting layer (WL) were observed in as-grown samples. Bimodal structure of the WL PL was attributed to WL regions of different thickness. There was almost no difference in the PL spectrum after 30 s annealing at 600 C. However, annealing at temperatures in the range between 700 C and 950 C resulted in quenching of the PL from QDs and the thinner WL. The PL peak from the new, thicker WL blue-shifted and narrowed with increasing annealing temperature. This behavior was in agreement with TEM observations. Complete dissolution of the QDs and substantial broadening of the WL was observed. All our results indicate that thermally induced modifications of the WL rather than QDs can be responsible for the blue-shift and narrowing of the PL peaks in structures containing InAs QDs