Temperature-Dependent Photoluminescence in Coupling Structures of CdSe Quantum Dots and a ZnCdSe Quantum Well

A coupling structure of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) and a ZnCdSe quantum well (QW) is fabricated by using the molecular-beam epitaxy technique. The effect o~ temperature on the photoluminescence (PL) of the structure is studied. The results reveal that the activation energy of exciton dissociation in the coupling QDs/QW structure is much higher than that of simple CdSe QDs, which is attributed to the exciton tunnelling from the QW to QDs through a thin ZnSe barrier layer. The results also reveal that the position and width of the emission band of the QDs vary discontinuously at certain temperatures. This phenomenon is explained by the QD ionization and exciton tunnelling from the QW to the QDs. It is demonstrated that the coupling structure significantly improves the PL intensity of CdSe QDs.     

EFFECT OF DIELECTRIC CONSTANT ON THE EXCITON GROUND STATE ENERGY OF CdSe QUANTUM DOTS

The B-spline technique is used in the calculation of the exciton ground state energy based on the effective mass approximation (EMA) model. The exciton is confined in CdSe microspherical crystallites with a finite-height potential wall (dots). In this approach, (a) the wave function is allowed to penetrate to the outside of the dots; (b) the dielectric constants of the quantum dot and the surrounding material are considered to be different; and (c) the dielectric constant of the dots are size-dependent. The exciton energies as functions of radii of the dots in the range 0.5-3.5 nm are calculated and compared with experimental and previous theoretical data. The results show that: (1) The exciton energy is convergent as the radius of the dot becomes very small. (2) A good agreement with the experimental data better than other theoretical results is achieved. (3) The penetration (or leaking) of the wave function and the difference of the dielectric constants in different regions are necessary for correcting the Coulomb interaction energy and reproducing experimental data. (4) The EMA model with B-spline technique can describe the status of excition confined in quantum dot very well.     

Absorption Spectra and Refractive Index Changes of an Exciton in a Core/Shell Quantum Dot

The absorption spectra and the refractive index changes are calculated theoretically for an exciton in a core/shell quantum dot. The advantage of our methodology is that one can investigate the influence of the repulsive core by varying two parameters in the confinement potential. The dimensionality effect of exciton quantum dots on the optical absorptions has been studied. It has been found that in the same regime, the optical absorption intensities of excitons are much smaller for the core/shell quantum dots than for the two-dimensional quantum rings. The linear and the nonlinear optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes have been examined with the change of the confinement potential. The results show that the optical absorptions and the refractive index changes are strongly affected by the repulsive core of core/shell quantum dots. Moreover, the calculated results also reveal that as the inner radius increases, the peak values of the absorption coefficients and the refractive index changes of an exciton will show the optical Aharonov–Bohm oscillation in core/shell quantum dots.     

Temperature Dependence of Photoluminescence from Single and Ensemble InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots

We investigate the temperature dependence of photoluminescence from single and ensemble InAs/GaAs quantum dots systematically. As temperature increases, the exciton emission peak for single quantum dot shows broadening and redshift. For ensemble quantum dots, however, the exciton emission peak shows narrowing and fast redshift. We use a simple steady-state rate equation model to simulate the experimental data of photoluminescence spectra. It is confirmed that carrier-phonon scattering gives the broadening of the exciton emission peak in single quantum dots while the effects of carrier thermal escape and retrapping play an important role in the narrowing and fast redshift of the exciton emission peak in ensemble quantum dots.     

Micro-Photoluminescence Investigation of Single Quantum Dot and its Molecule of CdSe/ZnSe

The single and a few coupled quantum dots are important for future quantum information sciences and their investigation is also a big challenge in physics. We investigate here the electronic and exciton states and their interaction with each other via micro photoluminescence. The luminescence for single and a few dots as well as a dot molecule of CdSe/ZnSe are measured with very high resolution, under liquid He temperature and magnetic fields and with different polarization of excitation laser. The observed sharp spectral lines are attributed to the atomlike transitions of exciton, trion, biexciton… in the investigated single QD or QD molecule. Band filling, Zeeman splitting, spin transition and their relaxation are observed and investigated＇from the spectra and compared with those of same material in different dimensions, and compared with the primary calculation as well. In addition, quite a few new phenomena, which can not be understood based on our present model and knowledge, are also observed; and some very interesting problems are left for further investigation.     

Wetting Layer Effect on Optical Gain of Strained CdTe/ZnTe Pyramidal Quantum Dots

The optical properties of strained CdTe/ZnTe pyramidal quantum dots （QDs） are investigated as a function of the wetting layer thickness using an eight-band strain-dependent k.p Hamiltonian. The ground-state subband energies in the conduction and valence bands rapidly decreases with the increasing wetting layer thickness. This is attributed to the reduction of subband energies in both the conduction and the valence bands due to the strain effect. The optical gain peak on the shorter wavelength side decreases with the increasing wetting layer thickness. On the other hand, the gain peak on the longer wavelength side is nearly independent of the wetting layer thickness. The decrease in the gain peak on the shorter wavelength side is related to the decrease in matrix elements corresponding to transitions between higher subbands such as （3, 4） and （4, 3）.     

Exciton States in Spherical Gaussian Potential Wells

The exciton L = 0 and L = 1 states of a spherical GaAs quantum dot with a Gaussian confining potential are calculated by using the matrix diagonalization method.The size dependence of the exciton levels and the influence of the depth of the confining potential well in the spherical quantum dots are investigated. The same calculations performed with the parabolic approximation of the Gaussian potential lead to the results, which are qualitatively and quantitatively different.     

Spectroscopy of the Forming Process of Quantum Dots Accompanied by the Thinning of Wetting Layer

A series of Cd0.44Zn0.56Se/ZnSe sandwich structures with different Cd0.44Zn0.56Se embedded layer thicknesses were fabricated by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. When the embedded layer thickness exceeded 3.0 nm, the photoluminescence spectra of the sample changed into the two-band structure from the one-band structure, and atomic force microscopy images indicate that Cd0.44Zn0.56Se quantum dots were formed. In the two-band photoluminescence spectrum, the band at the low energy side was attributed to be from quantum dots, and the high-energy one arose from the wetting layer. Thinning of the wetting layer with quantum dots forming was confirmed indirectly by the significant blue shift of the wetting-layer photoluminescence band compared to the photoluminescence band of the samples for which the Cd0.44Zn0.56Se layer thickness was less than 3.0nm. This thinning arose from mass migration during the Stranski-Krastanow growth of Cd0.44Zn0.56Se quantum dots.     

Abnormal Energy Dependence of Photoluminescence Decay Time in InGaN Epilayer

We employ photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL to study exciton localization effect in InGaN epilayers.By measuring the exciton decay time as a function of the monitored emission energy at different temperatures,we have found unusual behaviour of the energy dependence in the PL decay process. At low temperature, the measured PL decay time increases with the emission energy. It decreases with the emission energy at 200K, and remains nearly constant at the intermediate temperature of 12OK. We have studied the dot size effect on the radiative recombination time by calculating the temperature dependence of the exciton recombination lifetime in quantum dots, and have found that the observed behaviour can be well correlated to the exciton localization in quantum dots. This suggestion is further supported by steady state PL results.     

An Exciton bound to a Neutral Donor in Quantum Dots

The binding energies for an exciton(X) trapped in a two-dimensional quantum dot by a neutral donor have been calculated using the method of few-body physics for the heavy hole(σ=0.196) and the light hole (σ=0.707).We find that the (D^0,X) complex confined in a quantum dot has in general a larger binding energy than those in a two-dimensional quantum well and a three-dimensional bulk semiconductor,and the binding energy than those in a two-dimensional quantum well and a three-dimensional bulk semiconductor,and the binding energy increases with the decrease of the dot radius.At dot radius R→∞,we compare our calculated result with the previous results.     

The Electron－Hole Pair in a Single Quantum Dot and That in a Vertically Coupled Quantum Dot

The energy spectra of low-lying states of an exciton in a single and a vertically coupled quantum dots are studied under the influence of a perpendicularly applied magnetic field. Calculations are made by using the method of numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian within the effective-mass approximation. We also calculated the binding energy of the ground and the excited states of an exciton in a single quantum dot and that in a vertically coupled quantum dot as a function of the dot radius for different vaJues of the distance and the magnetic field strength.     

Exciton emission dynamics in single InAs/GaAs quantum dots due to the existence of plasmon-field-induced metastable states in the wetting layer

A very long lifetime exciton emission with non-single exponential decay characteristics has been reported for single InA-s/GaAs quantum dot(QD) samples,in which there exists a long-lived metastable state in the wetting layer(WL)through radiative field coupling between the exciton emissions in the WL and the dipole field of metal islands.In this article we have proposed a new three-level model to simulate the exciton emission decay curve.In this model,assuming that the excitons in a metastable state will diffuse and be trapped by QDs,and then emit fluorescence in QDs,a stretchedlike exponential decay formula is derived as I(t)=At~(β-1)e~(-(rt)β),which can describe well the long lifetime decay curve with an analytical expression of average lifetime     

Symmetry and size effects on energy and entanglement of an exciton in coupled quantum dots

We study theoretically the essential properties of an exciton in vertically coupled Gaussian quantum dots in the presence of an external magnetic field. The ground state energy of a heavy-hole exciton is split into four energy levels due to the Zeeman effect. For the symmetrical system, the entanglement entropy of the exciton state can reach a value of 1. However, for a system with broken symmetry, it is close to zero. Our results are in good agreement with previous studies.     

Surface plasmon coupled fluorescence in deep-ultraviolet excitation by Kretschmann configuration

We report the experimental demonstration of fluorescence of CdSe quantum dots with surface plasmon excitation in deep-ultraviolet （deep-UV） region. Surface plasmon resonance in deep-UV is excited by aluminum thin film in the Kretschmann-Raether geometry. Considering the oxidation thickness of aluminum, the experimental results of incident angle dependence of reflectance show good agreement with Fresnel theory. Surface plasmon resonance with 19 nm-thick aluminum and 5 nm-thick almnina was excited at the incident angle of 48 degrees for 266 nm excitation. Fluorescence of CdSe quantum dots coated on this aluminum film was observed by the surface plasmon excitation.     

CdSe/CdTe II型胶态量子阱中长寿命的单激子、带电激子和双激子

Light-harvesters with long-lived excited states are desired for efficient solar energy conversion systems. Many solar-to-fuel conversion reactions, such as H₂ evolution and CO₂ reduction, require multiple sequential electron transfer processes, which leads to a complicated situation that excited states involves not only excitons (electron-hole pairs) but also multi-excitons and charged excitons. While long-lived excitons can be obtained in various systems (e.g., semiconductor nanocrystals), multi-excitons and charged excitons are typically shorted-lived due to nonradiative Auger recombination pathways whereby the recombination energy of an exciton is quickly transferred to the third carrier on a few to hundreds of picoseconds timescale. In this work, we report a study of excitons, trions (an exciton plus an additional charge), and biexcitons in CdSe/CdTe colloidal quantum wells or nanoplatelets. The typeⅡ band alignment effectively separates electrons and holes in space, leading to a single exciton lifetime of 340 ns which is ~2 order of magnitudes longer than that in plane CdSe nanoplatelets. More importantly, the electron-hole separation also dramatically slows down Auger decay, giving rise to a trion lifetime of 70 ns and a biexciton lifetime of 11 ns, among the longest values ever reported for colloidal nanocrystals. The long-lived exciton, trion, and biexciton states, combined with the intrinsically strong light-absorption capability of two-dimensional systems, enable the CdSe/CdTe type-Ⅱ nanoplatelets as promising light harvesters for efficient solar-to-fuel conversion reactions.     

Universal Quantum Gates Based on Both Geometric and Dynamic Phases in Quantum Dots

A large-scalable quantum computer model,whose qubits are represented by the subspace subtended by the ground state and he single exciton state on semiconductor quantum dots,is proposed.A universal set of quantum gates in this system may be achieved by a mixed approach,composed of dynamic evolution and nonadiabatic geometric phase.     

Exciton and Biexciton Binding Energies in Rectangular Quantum Dots

In the effective mass approximation, using the variational technology and a method of expanding the wavefunctions of exciton in terms of the eigenfunctions of the noninteracting electron-hole system, we calculate the exciton and biexciton ground state binding energies for rectangular quantum dots （QDs）. In the calculation, a three-dimensional Fourier expansion of Coulomb potential is used to remove the numerical difficulty with the 1/r singularity, and it considerably reduces the computational effort. Our results agree fairly well with the previous results. It is found that the binding energies are highly correlated to the size of QDs. The quantum confinement effect of spherical QDs about biexciton is obviously larger than that of rectangular QDs when the well width is narrower than 2.0αB.     

Purcell effect of GaAs quantum dots by photonic crystal microcavities

We fabricate photonic crystal slab microcavities embedded with GaAs quantum dots by electron beam lithography and droplet epitaxy. The Purcell effect of exciton emission of the quantum dots is confirmed by the micro photoluminescence measurement. The resonance wavelengths, widths, and polarization are consistent with numerical simulation results.     

Temperature Insensitivity of Optical Properties of InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots due to a Pregrown InGaAs Quantum Well

Both the peak position and linewidth in the photoluminescence spectrum of the InAs/GaAs quantum dots usually vary in an anomalous way with increasing temperature. Such anomalous optical behaviour is eliminated by inserting an In0.2Ga0.8As quantum well below the quantum dot layer in molecular beam epitaxy. The insensitivity of the photoluminescence spectra to temperature is explained in terms of the effective carrier redistribution between quantum dots through the In0.2Ga0.8As quantum well.     

Performance of CdS/CdSe/ZnS quantum dot-sensitized TiO2 mesopores for solar cells

We prepare CdS/CdSe/ZnS thin films by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. Results show a wider photoresponse range of TiO2 mesopores from the ultraviolet region to the visible light region. Sequentially assembled CdS/CdSe/ZnS quantum and photocurrent efficiency. A high efficiency of dots exhibit significantly improved light-harvesting ability 1.059354% is obtained.