Observation of dressed excitonic states in a single quantum dot

We report the observation of dressed states of a quantum dot. The optically excited exciton and biexciton states of the quantum dot are coupled by a strong laser field and the resulting spectral signatures are measured using differential transmission of a probe field. We demonstrate that the anisotropic electron-hole exchange interaction induced splitting between the x- and y-polarized excitonic states can be completely erased by using the ac-Stark effect induced by the coupling field, without causing any appreciable broadening of the spectral lines. We also show that by varying the polarization and strength of a resonant coupling field, we can effectively change the polarization axis of the quantum dot.     

On the decay of the superdeformed band in194Pb

We report on new results for the decay of the superdeformed (SD) band in¹⁹⁴Pb. No transitions linking the SD structure with the known level scheme of¹⁹⁴Pb could be found, but the feeding intensities into the normal-deformed states are determined and limits on the one-step decay of the SD band are given.     

Photon antibunching in the photoluminescence spectra of a single carbon nanotube

We report the first observation of photon antibunching in the photoluminescence from single carbon nanotubes. The emergence of a fast luminescence decay component under strong optical excitation indicates that Auger processes are partially responsible for inhibiting two-photon generation. Additionally, the presence of exciton localization at low temperatures ensures that nanotubes emit photons predominantly one by one. The fact that multiphoton emission probability can be smaller than 5% suggests that carbon nanotubes could be used as a source of single photons for applications in quantum cryptography.