Quantum Dot Research: Current State and Future Prospects

This article reviews the current state of research involving semiconductor quantum dots, provides a brief review of the theory behind their unique properties, and an introduction explaining the importance of quantum dot research. The characteristic shifting of the band gap energy with quantum dot size, as predicted from the density of states for low-dimensional structures, allows experimental measurements to determine the extent to which quantum confinement effects play a role in the resulting properties. A few of the current techniques used to measure the presence and physical characteristics of quantum dots and their energy levels is reviewed, including transmission electron microscopy, optical transmission, and Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Finally, some of the more exciting applications for quantum dots currently being researched for use in the field of optoelectronics are reviewed, including quantum dot infrared photodetectors, quantum dot lasers, and quantum dot solar cells. Comments are made on the current progress and the future prospects of quantum dot research and device applications.     

Unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis:The importance of “preoperative” voice therapy

This preliminary retrospective study of 19 female patients and 22male patients with unilateral recurrent nerve lesions demonstrated the promise of objective measurements in predicting the need for surgery, the efficacy of voice therapy in ameliorating vocal symptoms, and the effects of therapy in conjunction with surgery. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the female patients and 64% of the male patients did not elect to have surgery. Outcome satisfaction of nonsurgical and surgical patients appeared to be similar. The data from this study support the importance of preoperative therapy for patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis.     

On the enhancement of the figure of merit in bulk nanocomposites

In this paper we make a detailed comparison of the thermoelectric properties of quantum dot superlattices with those of equivalently doped bulk material and show that a major contribution to the enhancement of the figure of merit comes from the increase of the thermoelectric power over that of bulk, in addition to the lattice thermal conductivity reduction in quantum dot superlattices. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Finite separable metacyclic 2-groups

A finite separable metacyclic 2-group G can be written as the semidirect product of a cyclic group with another cyclic group. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for when all other split decompositions of G result in, up to isomorphism, this same semidirect product representation for G.     

A new phase-conjugate one-way scheme for phase-distortion correction

In this paper we describe a phase-conjugate scheme in which the pump waves are derived from a distorted optical beam by a spatial filtering technique. Experimental demonstration of this scheme is given for phase-distortion correction. To avoid the problem of back reflection a quasi-real-time reconstruction scheme is adopted. The read out is done with a direct beam from the laser.     

The propagation of bright and dark solitons in lossy optical fibers

An analytic perturbation solution to the nonlinear Schrodinger equation with loss Γ for both normal and anomalous dispersion is developed. Explicit results are obtained through second order in the perturbation Γ. The results show that the dark pulse spreads less rapidly than the bright one and that total spreading as well as the difference in spreading rate for the two types of pulses decreases with loss. Comparisons are made with a zeroth-order perturbation theory and with numerical simulations, which are found to bracket the second-order results