Colloidal nanocrystals, i.e. quantum dots synthesized trough wet-chemistry approaches, are promising nanoparticles for
photonic applications and, remarkably, their quantum nature makes them very promising for single photon emission at
room temperature. In this work we describe two approaches to engineer the emission properties of these nanoemitters in
terms of radiative lifetime and photon polarization, drawing a viable strategy for their exploitation as room-temperature
single photon sources for quantum information and quantum telecommunications.
We report on the growth and characterization of low threshold 1.32-μm quantum dots (QDs) laser diodes. The quantum dot active region was optimised to get the highest photoluminescence emission and the lowest Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM). From samples containing multilayer QDs and using the Limited-Area Photoluminescence (LAPL) technique we have shown that the gain of an N-layer structure is higher than N times that of a single layer. This enhancement is attributed to the increase of the quantum dot density in the upper layers and also to the use of the high growth temperature spacer layer. Broad area laser diodes were processed from the grown samples containing three layers of InAs QDs grown directly on GaAs and capped with 4-nm-thick InxGa1-xAs layer. Than measurements were performed at room temperature under pulsed excitation. The laser diodes operate at room temperature and emit between 1.29 and 1.32-μm which is beyond the strategic telecommunication wavelength. The characteristic temperature is around 80 K and very stable in the hole range of the operating temperature (from 0 to 90 °C). The internal quantum efficiency is 53% and the modal gain per QD layer was estimated to be ~ 6 cm-1. For an infinite cavity length a threshold current density of 8 A/cm2 per QD layer was obtained. From the calculation of the optical confinement of QDs, we have estimated a material gain of 1979 cm-1.
Colloidally synthesized CdSe/ZnS core/shell semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) show highly efficient, narrow-width and size-tunable luminescence. Moreover, they can be incorporated in polymer matrices and deposited on solid substrates by means of spin-coating techniques. When embedded between two mirrors a NCs/polymer blends microcavity is realised, thus allowing to tailor the photoluminescence spectrum of these emitters. By virtue of the quantized photonic and electronic density of states, colloidal quantum dots embedded in a single mode vertical microcavity are good candidates for the fabrication of high-efficiency emitting devices with high spectral purity and directionality.
In this paper, we have applied a new organic-inorganic hybrid technology for the fabrication by imprint lithography (IL) of vertical microcavities that embed colloidal quantum dots.
Two dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) are evaporated on two different substrates. The active organic layer (NCs/polymer blend) is spin coated on the first DBR, whereas a lithographic pattern is realized on the second DBR, used as the IL mold. The two parts are then assembled together in an IL process in order to create a vertical microcavity. The fine control of the thickness of the active material waveguide layer can be achieved through the mold patterning depth and the IL process parameters. All the fabrication steps have been engineered in order to decrease the thermal stress of the active layer.
The effectiveness of this technology is demonstrated by the room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra, recorded on the fabricated microcavity, which show a sharp emission peak with a line width of 4.15 nm.
In this paper we propose the design and the fabrication of 90° bend ridge waveguide (WG) assisted by a two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D-PC). 2D-PCs act as efficient mirrors along the boundaries of the bend ridge thus reducing the in-plane losses. The ridge waveguide consists of a 3 μm x 0.75 μm titanium dioxide core on a silica bottom cladding. The 2D-PC structure surrounding the bend waveguide is composed of a triangular array of circular dielectric pillars having a height of 0.75 μm. The titanium dioxide waveguiding core layer is covered with PMMA in order to create a quasi-symmetric structure. A photonic band gap centered around 1.3 μm is obtained by a PC radius r = 0.33a and lattice period a = 0.450 μm. The design of the whole structure is subsequently optimized by using a 3D Finite Difference Time Domain based computer code. The ridge waveguide assisted by a 2D-PC has been fabricated by using electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching. For the pattern transfer we have used about 50 nm thin layer Cr metal etch mask obtained by means of a lift-off technique based on the use of bi-layer resist (PMMA/MMA).
The presence of the 2D-PC around the bend waveguide leads to a sharp increase of the transmission efficiency around 1.3 μm for curvature radius of 2.5 μm. The bend transmission results to be in the range between 0.76 and 0.85 when the thickness of the ridge WG and of the 2D-PC pillars is between 0.75 and 1.3 μm. This value is more than twice with respect to the bend waveguide without 2D-PC.
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