Search

We present a detailed analysis of the emission of individual GaAs/AlGaAs complex nano-systems composed of two concentric and topologically distinct quantum nanostructures, namely, a quantum dot and a quantum ring. Time resolved, temperature and excitation power density dependence of the photoluminescence from single and ensemble dot/ring structures have been used in order to determine the carrier dynamics. Despite the small spatial separation between the dot and the ring, the exciton dynamics in the two nanostructures is completely decoupled at low temperatures. At higher temperatures, we observe a clear change in the carrier dynamics, which shows the onset of the coupling between the two nanostructures. We attribute such change in carrier dynamics to the breaking of topology induced selection rules which allows the transfer of the carriers between the dot and the ring via an electronic quantum state, common to the two nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present self-assembly of InAs/InAlAs quantum dots by the droplet epitaxy technique on vicinal GaAs(111)A substrates. The small miscut angle, while maintaining the symmetries imposed on the quantum dot from the surface, allows a fast growth rate thanks to the presence of preferential nucleation sites at the step edges. A 100 nm InAlAs metamorphic layer with In content ≥ 50% directly deposited on the GaAs substrate is already almost fully relaxed with a very flat surface. The quantum dots emit at the 1.3 μm telecom O-band with fine structure splitting as low as 16 μeV, thus making them suitable as photon sources in quantum communication networks using entangled photons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the epitaxial growth of height-controlled GaAs quantum dots, leading to the reduction of the inhomogeneous emission bandwidth, produces individual nanostructures of peculiar morphology. Besides the height controlled quantum dots, we observe nanodisks formation. Exploiting time resolved and spatially resolved photoluminescence we establish the decoupling between quantum dots and nanodisks and demonstrate the high optical properties of the individual quantum dots, despite the processing steps needed for height control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy is used to analyze the effects of the postgrowth thermal annealing on the electronic structure ad carrier dynamics of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot and quantum ring structures grown by droplet epitaxy. All the samples show a large increase in the photoluminescence efficiencies after the thermal treatment due to sizeable reduction in the material defectivity. Modifications of the photoluminescence band, which depend on thermal annealing temperature, are found and quantitatively interpreted by means of a simple model based on the Al–Ga interdiffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiexciton properties of extrinsic centers from AlGaAs layers on Ge and Si substrates are addressed. The two photon cascade is found both in steady state and in time resolved experiments. Polarization analysis of the photoluminescence provides clearcut attribution to neutral biexciton complexes. Our findings demonstrate the prospect of exploiting extrinsic centers for generating entangled photon pairs on a Si based device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the multiexciton properties of GaAs quantum dots self aggregated on Si substrates. Sequential emission of two photons radiative cascade is observed both in continuous wave and in time resolved measurements. Polarization resolved measurements, with high spectral resolution, allow us to attribute the observed photon cascade to positively charged biexciton. Our results highlight the possibility of obtaining systems showing quantum correlations on a Si based device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the epitaxial growth of thin layers of AlGaAs on Ge and Si substrates allows to obtain single photon sources by exploiting the sparse and unintentional contamination with acceptors of the AlGaAs. Very bright and sharp single photoluminescence lines are observed in confocal microscopy. These lines behave very much as single excitons in quantum dots, but their implementation is by far much easier, since it does not require 3D nucleation. The photon antibunching is demonstrated by time resolved Hanbury Brown and Twiss measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the nucleation of low density and defect-free GaAs quantum dots (QDs) on Ge substrates. The growth of III-V nanostructures was realized via droplet epitaxy technique. A detailed micro- and macro-photoluminescence analysis shows that the optical quality of the GaAs QDs is almost comparable with state-of-the-art QDs directly grown on GaAs substrates. Bright and sharp exciton and biexciton lines of individual QDs have been observed. This achievement opens the route to the realization of quantum optoelectronic devices on IV semiconductor substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the fabrication and discuss the growth dynamics of two classes of GaAs quantum nanostructures fabricated by droplet epitaxy, namely, double rings and coupled ring-disks. Their morphological differences has been investigated and found to be originated by the kinetic of the changes in the surface reconstruction around the initially formed Ga droplets during the arsenization step. The control of surface reconstruction dynamics thus permits a fine tuning of the actual nanostructure shape at the nanoscale, based on pure self-assembling techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We presented an innovative fabrication technique for the self-assembly of GaAs islands on Si substrates by droplet epitaxy. The islands show highly tunable density (from 107 to some 109 islands/cm2) and size (from 75 to 250 nm), and small size dispersion (below 10%). The islands, made by single relaxed crystals with lattice parameters close to the GaAs bulk, show well defined shapes, with a high aspect ratio. The low thermal budget required for the island self-assembly, together with the high scalability of the process, make these islands good candidates for local artificial substrates or local strain sources with the required lattice parameters, band alignment, and crystalline quality as now required for the implementation of high quality devices on Si. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We fabricate high efficiency GaAs/AlGaAs quantum nanostructure active layer for intersubband detectors and light emitting devices on a silicon substrate. The whole process of formation of the GaAs/AlGaAs active layer was realized via droplet epitaxy and migration enhanced epitaxy maintaining the growth temperature ≤350 °C, thus resulting in a low thermal budget procedure compatible with back-end integration of the fabricated materials on integrated circuits. The realized quantum nanostructures show optical efficiencies comparable to those achievable with state of the art quantum dot materials grown on GaAs substrates [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate the thermal tunability of the emission of polymer embedded in microcavities. The large thermo-optic coefficients of a conjugated polymer is combined with the possibility to tailor the emission properties by means of cavities acting as optical filters. Both the transmission and the photoluminescence spectra of the polymer in cavities can be finely tuned with slopes up to about -0.2 nm/°C. Such an effect could be exploited to realize thermally tunable organic light-emitting devices for optical communication or sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on triggered single photon emission from GaAs quantum dots, grown on Si substrates and obtained by means of fabrication protocols compatible with the monolithic integration on Si based microelectronics. Very bright and sharp individual exciton lines are resolved in the spectra and can be followed up to 150 K. The nature of quantum emitters of single photon pulses can be measured up to liquid nitrogen temperature by Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometric correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]