Ellipsometric study of InAs wetting layer in InAs/GaAs quantum dots at the threshold of quantum dot formation

Using room temperature spectroscopic ellipsometry, we measured the pseudo-dielectric function of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots at the onset of quantum-dot nucleation in the spectral range from 0.8 to 6 eV. The nominal In coverage varied from 1 to 2.6 ML. In addition to the quantum-dot-related feature at 1.1 eV, we observed two high energy transitions near 1.34 and 1.38 eV which arose from the InAs wetting layer. These two high energy features merged in 1-ML-thick wetting layer. We fitted the dielectric function of InAs wetting layer in the visible range performing multilayer analysis, and found strong excitonic enhancement and blue shift of the E1 peak.