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Register a new userTunneling blockade and single-photon emission in GaAs double quantum wells
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We report on the selective excitation of single impurity-bound exciton states in a GaAs double quantum well (DQW). The structure consists of two quantum wells (QWs) coupled by a thin tunnel barrier. The DQW is subject to a transverse electric field to create spatially indirect inter-QW excitons with electrons and holes located in different QWs. We show that the presence of intra-QW charged excitons (trions) blocks carrier tunneling across the barrier to form indirect excitons, thus opening a gap in their emission spectrum. This behavior is attributed to the low binding energy of the trions. Within the tunneling blockade regime, emission becomes dominated by processes involving excitons bound to single shallow impurities, which behave as two-level centers activated by resonant tunneling. The quantum nature of the emission is confirmed by the anti-bunched photon emission statistics. The narrow distribution of emission energies ($sim 10$~meV) and the electrical connection to the QWs make these single-exciton centers interesting candidates for applications in single-photon sources.
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Irradiating a semiconductor with circularly polarized light creates spin-polarized charge carriers. If the material contains atoms with non-zero nuclear spin, they interact with the electron spins via the hyperfine coupling. Here, we consider GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells, where the conduction-band electron spins interact with three different types of nuclear spins. The hyperfine interaction drives a transfer of spin polarization to the nuclear spins, which therefore acquire a polarization that is comparable to that of the electron spins. In this paper, we analyze the dynamics of the optical pumping process in the presence of an external magnetic field while irradiating a single quantum well with a circularly polarized laser. We measure the time dependence of the photoluminescence polarization to monitor the buildup of the nuclear spin polarization and thus the average hyperfine interaction acting on the electron spins. We present a simple model that adequately describes the dynamics of this process and is in good agreement with the experimental data.
In the present work, we were able to identify and characterize a new source of in-plane optical anisotropies (IOAs) occurring in asymmetric DQWs; namely a reduction of the symmetry from $D_{2d}$ to $C_{2v}$ as imposed by asymmetry along the growth direction. We report on reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS) of double GaAs quantum wells (DQWs) structures coupled by a thin ($<2$ nm) tunneling barrier. Two groups of DQWs systems were studied: one where both QWs have the same thickness (symmetric DQW) and another one where they have different thicknesses (asymmetric DQW). RAS measures the IOAs arising from the intermixing of the heavy- and light- holes in the valence band when the symmetry of the DQW system is lowered from $D_{2d}$ to $C_{2v}$. If the DQW is symmetric, residual IOAs stem from the asymmetry of the QW interfaces; for instance, associated to Ga segregation into the AlGaAs layer during the epitaxial growth process. In the case of an asymmetric DQW with QWs with different thicknesses, the AlGaAs layers (that are sources of anisotropies) are not distributed symmetrically at both sides of the tunneling barrier. Thus, the system losses its inversion symmetry yielding an increase of the RAS strength. The RAS line shapes were compared with reflectance spectra in order to assess the heavy- and light- hole mixing induced by the symmetry breakdown. The energies of the optical transitions were calculated by numerically solving the one-dimensional Schrodinger equation using a finite-differences method. Our results are useful for interpretation of the transitions occurring in both, symmetric and asymmetric DQWs.
Recent scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) experiments reported single-molecule fluorescence induced by tunneling currents in the nanoplasmonic cavity formed by the STM tip and the substrate.The electric field of the cavity mode couples with the current-induced charge fluctuations of the molecule, allowing the excitation of the mode. We investigate theoretically this system for the experimentally relevant limit of large damping rate $kappa$ for the cavity mode and arbitrary coupling strength to a single-electronic level. We find that for bias voltages close to the first inelastic threshold of photon emission, the emitted light displays anti-bunching behavior with vanishing second-order photon correlation function. At the same time, the current and the intensity of emitted light display Franck--Condon steps at multiples of the cavity frequency $omega_c$ with a width controlled by $kappa$ rather than the temperature $T$. For large bias voltages, we predict strong photon bunching of the order of the $kappa/Gamma$ where $Gamma$ is the electronic tunneling rate. Our theory thus predicts that strong coupling to a single level allows current-driven non-classical light emission.
Quantum communication networks require on-chip transfer and manipulation of single particles as well as their interconversion to single photons for long-range information exchange. Flying excitons propelled by GHz surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are outstanding messengers to fulfill these requirements. Here, we demonstrate the acoustic manipulation of single exciton centers consisting of individual excitons bound to shallow impurities centers embedded in a semiconductor quantum well. Time-resolved photoluminescence studies show that the emission intensity and energy from these centers oscillate at the SAW frequency of 3.5 GHz. Furthermore, these centers can be remotely pumped via acoustic transport of flying excitons along a quantum well channel over several microns. Time correlation studies reveal that the centers emit anti-bunched light, thus acting as single-photon sources operating at GHz frequencies. Our results pave the way for the exciton-based on-demand manipulation and on-chip transfer of single excitons at microwave frequencies with a natural photonic interface.
We investigate the ultrafast optoelectronic properties of single Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs-core-shell-nanowires. The nanowires contain GaAs-based quantum wells. For a resonant excitation of the quantum wells, we find a picosecond photocurrent which is consistent with an ultrafast lateral expansion of the photogenerated charge carriers. This Dember-effect does not occur for an excitation of the GaAs-based core of the nanowires. Instead, the core exhibits an ultrafast displacement current and a photo-thermoelectric current at the metal Schottky contacts. Our results uncover the optoelectronic dynamics in semiconductor core-shell nanowires comprising quantum wells, and they demonstrate the possibility to use the low-dimensional quantum well states therein for ultrafast photoswitches and photodetectors.
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