Direct Observation of Lateral Coupling Between Self-Assembled Qauntum Dots

We image the micro-electroluminescence (EL) spectra of self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in the intrinsic region of a GaAs p-i-n diode and demonstrate optical detection of resonant carrier injection into a single QD. Resonant tunneling of electrons and holes into the QDs at bias voltages below the flat-band condition leads to sharp EL lines characteristic of individual QDs, accompanied by a spatial fragmentation of the surface EL emission into small and discrete...

Optical control of the lateral quantum confinement and number of electrons confined in nanofabricated GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots is achieved by illumination with a weak laser beam that is absorbed in the AlGaAs barrier. Precise tuning of energy-level structure and electron population is demonstrated by monitoring the low-lying transitions of the electrons from the lowest quantum-dot energy shells by resonant inelastic light scattering. These findings open the way to the manipul...

Two electron spins in quantum dots coupled through coherent tunneling are generally acknowledged to approximately obey Heisenberg isotropic exchange. This has not been established for two holes. Here we measure the spectra of two holes and of two electrons in two vertically stacked self-assembled InAs quantum dots using optical spectroscopy as a function of electric and magnetic fields. We find that the exchange is approximately isotropic for both systems, but that significan...

Micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy at variable temperature, excitation intensity and energy was performed on a single InAs/AlAs self-assembled quantum dot. The exciton emission line (zero-phonon line, ZPL) exhibits a broad sideband due to exciton-acoustic phonon coupling by the deformation potential mechanism. Additionally, narrow low-energy sidebands at about 0.25 meV of the ZPL are attributed to exciton-acoustic phonon piezoelectric coupling. In lowering the excitation en...

We present a comprehensive study of the optical transitions and selection rules of variably charged single self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots. We apply high resolution polarization sensitive photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy to the same quantum dot for three different charge states: neutral and negatively or positively charged by one additional electron or hole. From the detailed analysis of the excitation spectra, a full understanding of the single-carrier energy ...

The Stranski-Krastanov (SK) growth-mode facilitates the self-assembly of quantum dots (QDs) using lattice-mismatched semiconductors, for instance InAs and GaAs. SK QDs are defect-free and can be embedded in heterostructures and nano-engineered devices. InAs QDs are excellent photon emitters: QD-excitons, electron-hole bound pairs, are exploited as emitters of high quality single photons for quantum communication. One significant drawback of the SK-mode is the wetting layer (W...

We applied low temperature diffraction limited confocal optical microscopy to spatially resolve, and spectroscopically study photoluminescence from single self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots. Using selective wavelength imaging we unambiguously demonstrated that a single photoexcited quantum dot emits light in a few very narrow spectral lines. The measured spectrum and its dependence on the power of either cw or pulsed excitation are explained by taking carrier correlati...

We present an optical spectroscopy study of non-polar GaN/AlN quantum dots by time-resolved photoluminescence and by microphotoluminescence. Isolated quantum dots exhibit sharp emission lines, with linewidths in the 0.5-2 meV range due to spectral diffusion. Such linewidths are narrow enough to probe the inelastic coupling of acoustic phonons to confined carriers as a function of temperature. This study indicates that the carriers are laterally localized on a scale that is mu...

We have studied the size dependence of the exciton g-factor in self-assembled InAs/InP quantum dots. Photoluminescence measurements on a large ensemble of these dots indicate a multimodal height distribution. Cross-sectional Scanning Tunneling Microscopy measurements have been performed and support the interpretation of the macro photoluminescence spectra. More than 160 individual quantum dots have systematically been investigated by analyzing single dot magneto-luminescence ...

Systematic ensemble photoluminescence studies have been performed on type-I InP-quantum dots in Al0.20Ga0.80InP barriers, emitting at approximately 1.85 eV at 5 K. The influence of different barrier configurations as well as the incorporation of additional tunnel barriers on the optical properties has been investigated. The confinement energy between the dot barrier and the surrounding barrier layers, which is the sum of the band discontinuities for the valence and the conduc...