Exciton lifetime and emission polarization dispersion in strongly in-plane asymmetric nanostructures

We present experimental and theoretical investigation of exciton recombination dynamics and the related polarization of emission in highly in-plane asymmetric nanostructures. Considering general asymmetry- and size-driven effects, we illustrate them with a detailed analysis of InAs/AlGaInAs/InP elongated quantum dots. These offer a widely varied confinement characteristics tuned by size and geometry that are tailored during the growth process, which leads to emission in the application-relevant spectral range of 1.25-1.65 {\mu}m. By exploring the interplay of the very shallow hole confining potential and widely varying structural asymmetry, we show that a transition from the strong through intermediate to even weak confinement regime is possible in nanostructures of this kind. This has a significant impact on exciton recombination dynamics and the polarization of emission, which are shown to depend not only on details of the calculated excitonic states but also on excitation conditions in the photoluminescence experiments. We estimate the impact of the latter and propose a way to determine the intrinsic polarization-dependent exciton light-matter coupling based on kinetic characteristics.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Carrier and Light Trapping in Graded Quantum Well Laser Structures

We investigated the carrier and light trapping in GaInAs/AlGaAs single quantum well laser structures by means of time resolved photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. The influence of the shape and depth of the confinement potential and of the cavity geometry was studied by using different AlGaAs/GaAs short-period superlattices as barriers. Our results show that grading the optical cavity improves considerably both carrier and light trapping in the quantum well, and that the trapping efficiency is enhanced by increasing the graded confining potential.Comment: PDF-format, 15 pages (including 4 figures), Applied Physics Letters (June 2000

Spontaneously Localized Photonic Modes Due to Disorder in the Dielectric Constant

We present the first experimental evidence for the existence of strongly localized photonic modes due to random two dimensional fluctuations in the dielectric constant. In one direction, the modes are trapped by ordered Bragg reflecting mirrors of a planar, one wavelength long, microcavity. In the cavity plane, they are localized by disorder, which is due to randomness in the position, composition and sizes of quantum dots located in the anti-node of the cavity. We extend the theory of disorder induced strong localization of electron states to optical modes and obtain quantitative agreement with the main experimental observations.Comment: 6 page

Development of high-speed directly-modulated DFB and DBR lasers with surface gratings

The conventional distributed feedback and distributed Bragg reflector edge-emitting lasers employ buried gratings, which require two or more epitaxial growth steps. By using lateral corrugations of the ridge-waveguide as surface gratings the epitaxial overgrowth is avoided, reducing the fabrication complexity, increasing the yield and reducing the fabrication cost. The surface gratings are applicable to different materials, including Al-containing ones and can be easily integrated in complex device structures and photonic circuits. Single-contact and multiple contact edge-emitting lasers with laterally-corrugated ridge waveguide gratings have been developed both on GaAs and InP substrates with the aim to exploit the photon-photon resonance in order to extend their direct modulation bandwidth. The paper reports on the characteristics of such surface-grating-based lasers emitting both at 1.3 and 1.55 μm and presents the photon-photon resonance extended small-signal modulation bandwidth (> 20 GHz) achieved with a 1.6 mm long single-contact device under direct modulation. Similarly structured devices, with shorter cavity lengths are expected to exceed 40 GHz smallsignal modulation bandwidth under direct modulatio

Excitonic fine structure and binding energies of excitonic complexes in single InAs quantum dashes

P.M., J.M. and G. S. acknowledge support from the grant of National Science Centre of Poland No. 2011/02/A/ST3/00152 (Maestro), whereas M.Z. acknowledges support from the Polish National Science Centre under grant No. 2015/18/E/ST3/005 (Sonata Bis). The experiments have partially been performed within the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology laboratory infrastructure financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Grant No. 6167/IA/119/2012.The fundamental electronic and optical properties of elongated InAs nanostructures embedded in quaternary InGaAlAs barrier are investigated by means of high-resolution optical spectroscopy and many-body atomistic tight-binding theory. These wire-like shaped self-assembled nanostructures are known as quantum dashes and are typically formed during the molecular beam epitaxial growth on InP substrates. In this work we study properties of excitonic complexes confined in quantum dashes emitting in a broad spectral range from below 1.2 to 1.55 μm. We find peculiar trends for the biexciton and negative trion binding energies, with pronounced trion binding in smaller size quantum dashes. These experimental findings are then compared and qualitatively explained by atomistic theory. The theoretical analysis shows a fundamental role of correlation effects for the absolute values of excitonic binding energies. Eventually, we determine the bright exciton fine structure splitting (FSS), where both the experiment and theory predict a broad distribution of the splitting varying from below 50 to almost 180 μeV. We identify several key factors determining the FSS values in such nanostructures including quantum dash size variation and composition fluctuations.PostprintPeer reviewe