Dependence of the interband transition and the activation energy on the ZnTe spacer thickness in CdTe/ZnTe double quantum dots

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out to investigate the interband transition and the activation energy in CdTe/ZnTe double quantum dots (QDs). While the excitonic peaks corresponding to the interband transition from the ground electronic subband to the ground heavy-hole (E1–HH1) in the CdTe/ZnTe double QDs shifted to higher energy with decreasing ZnTe spacer thickness from 30 to 10 nm due to transformation from CdTe QDs to CdxZn1−xTe QDs, the peaks of the (E1–HH1) transitions shifted to lower energy with decreasing spacer thickness from 10 to 3 nm due to the tunneling effects of the electrons between CdTe double QDs. The decrease in the activation energy with decreasing ZnTe spacer thickness might originate from an increase in the number of defects in the ZnTe spacer. The present results can help improve the understanding of the interband transition and the activation energy in CdTe/ZnTe double QDs.