Carrier Recombination in the Base, Interior, and Surface of InAs/InAlAs Core-Shell Nanowires Grown on Silicon.

We report on carrier recombination within self-catalyzed InAs/InAlAs core-shell nanowires (NWs), disentangling recombination rates at the ends, sidewalls, and interior of the NWs. Ultrafast optical pump-probe spectroscopy measurements were performed from 77-293 K on the free-standing, variable-sized NWs grown on lattice-mismatched Si(111) substrates, independently varying NW length and diameter. We found NW carrier recombination in the interior is nontrivial compared to the surface recombination, especially at 293 K. Surface recombination is dominated by carrier recombination at the NW sidewall, while contributions from the highly strained, impure NW base are negligible.

Broadband 2.4 µm superluminescent GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb quantum well diodes for optical sensing of biomolecules.

High power, high radiance, broadband light sources emitting in the 2.0-2.5 µm wavelength range are important for optical sensing of biomolecules such as glucose in aqueous solutions. Here we demonstrate and analyze superluminescent diodes with output centered at 2.4 µm (range ~2.2-2.5 µm) from GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb quantum wells in a separate confinement structure. Pulsed wave output of 1 mW (38 kW/cm2/sr) is achieved at room temperature for 40µm × 2mm devices. Superluminescence is evidenced in superlinear increase in emission, spectral narrowing, and angular narrowing of light output with increasing current injection. Optical output is analyzed and modeled with rate equations. Potential routes for future improvements are explored, such as additional Auger suppression and photonic mode engineering.

Interaction of strong single-cycle terahertz pulses with semiconductor quantum wells.

An experiment-theory comparison is presented to demonstrate terahertz-induced extreme-nonlinear transients in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well system. The terahertz-pump and optical-probe experiments show pronounced spectral modulations of the light- and heavy-hole excitonic resonances. Excellent agreement with the results of microscopic many-body calculations is obtained, identifying clear ponderomotive contributions and the generation of terahertz harmonics.

Excitonic photoluminescence in semiconductor quantum wells: plasma versus excitons.

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectra after nonresonant excitation show a distinct 1s resonance, independent of the existence of bound excitons. A microscopic analysis identifies exciton and electron-hole plasma contributions. For low temperatures and low densities, the excitonic emission is extremely sensitive to details of the electron-hole-pair population making it possible to identify even minute fractions of optically active excitons.

Dominance of radiative coupling over disorder in resonance Rayleigh scattering in semiconductor multiple quantum-well structures.

Resonance Rayleigh scattering by periodic semiconductor multiple quantum-well structures is studied experimentally and theoretically. Polaritonic effects are found to dominate disorder in the secondary emission dynamics. The coexistence of several radiant polaritonic modes with different radiative decay times leads to polarization beating between modes, strongly influences the rise times, and determines the fast decay times of the resonance Rayleigh scattered signals.

Quantum correlations in the nonperturbative regime of semiconductor microcavities.

The nonlinear optical response of semiconductor microcavities in the nonpertubative regime is studied in resonant single-beam-transmission and pump-probe experiments. In both cases a pronounced third transmission peak lying spectrally between the two normal modes is observed. A fully quantized theory is essential for the agreement with the experimental observations, demonstrating that quantum fluctuations leading to intraband polarizations are responsible for this effect.