FABRICATION AND OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF QUANTUM DOTS AND WIRES

We describe photoluminescence measurements made on mesa geometry quantum dots and wires with exposed side walls fabricated by laterally patterning undoped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells using electron beam lithography and dry etching. At low temperature the photoluminescence efficiency of many but not all of the GaAs quantum dot arrays scales with the volume of quantum well material down to lateral dimensions of 50nm. This behaviour contrasts with that found in wires produced at the same time where the intensity falls off rapidly with decreasing wire width for dimensions below 500nm but is recovered by overgrowth with indium tin oxide, possibly as a result of strain. Narrow overgrown wires exhibit anisotropy in polarized excitation spectra which is discussed in relation to strain and lateral confinement effects. © 1991.