The equilibrium composition in strained quantum dot is the result of both elastic relaxation and chemical mixing effects,which have a direct relationship to the optical and electronic properties of the quantum-dot-based device.Using the method of moving asymptotes and finite element tools,an efficient technique has been developed to compute the composition profile by minimising the Gibbs free energy in self-assembled alloy quantum dot.In this paper,the composition of dome-shaped Ge_xSi_(1-x)/Si quantum dot is optimized,and the contribution of the different energy to equilibrium composition is discussed.The effect of composition on the critical size for shape transition of pyramid-shaped GeSi quantum dot is also studied.
We investigate the effect of disorder and mechanical deformation on a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide. The dispersion characteristics and transmittance of the waveguide are studied using the finite element method. Results show that the geometric change of the dielectric material perpendicular to the light propagation direction has a larger influence on the waveguide characteristics than that parallel to the light propagation direction. Mechanical deformation has an obvious influence on the performance of the waveguide. In particular, longitudinal deformed structure exhibits distinct optical characteristics from the ideal one. Studies on this work will provide useful guideline to the fabrication and practical applications based on photonic crystal waveguides.
We investigate theoretically two photon entanglement processes in a photonic-crystal cavity embedding a quantum dot in the strong-coupling regime. The model proposed by Johne et al. (Johne R, Gippius N A, Pavlovic G, Solnyshkov D D, Shelykh I A and Malpuech G 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 240404), and by Robert et al. (Robert J, Gippius N A and Malpuech G 2009 Phys. Rev. B 79 155317) is modified by considering irreversible dissipation and incoherent continuous pumping for the quantum dot, which is necessary to connect the realistic experiment. The dynamics of the system is analysed by employing the Born–Markov master equation, through which the spectra for the system are computed as a function of various parameters. By means of this analysis the photon-reabsorption process in the strong-coupling regime is first observed and analysed from the perspective of radiation spectrum and the optimal parameters for observing energy-entangled photon pairs are identified.
Hybrid plasmon waveguides, respectively, with metamaterial substrate and dielectric substrate are investigated and analyzed contrastively with a numerical finite element method. Basic properties, including propagation length Lp, effective mode area Aeff, and energy distribution, are obtained and compared with waveguide geometric parameters at 1.55 μm. For the waveguide with metamaterial substrate, propagation length Lp increases to several tens of microns and effective mode area Aeffis reduced by more than 3 times. Moreover, the near field region is expanded, leading to potential applications in nanophotonics. Therefore, it could be very helpful for improving the integration density in optical chips and developing functional components on a nanometer scale for all optical integrated circuits.
We show nanomechanical force is useful to dynamically control the optical response of self-assembled quantum dots, giving a method to shift electron and heavy hole levels, interval of electron and heavy hole energy levels, and the emission wavelength of quantum dots (QDs). The strain, the electron energy levels, and heavy hole energy levels of InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots with vertical nanomechanical force are investigated. Both the lattice mismatch and nanomechanical force are considered at the same time. The results show that the hydrostatic and the biaxial strains inside the QDs subjected to nanomechanical force vary with nanomechanical force. That gives the control for tailoring band gaps and optical response. Moreover, due to strain-modified energy, the band edge is also influenced by nanomechanical force. The nanomechanical force is shown to influence the band edge. As is well known, the band offset affects the electronic structure, which shows that the nanomechanical force is proven to be useful to tailor the emission wavelength of QDs. Our research helps to better understand how the nanomechanical force can be used to dynamically control the optics of quantum dots.
By three-dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, the effects of the temperature, the flux rate, the total coverage and the interruption time on the distribution and the number of self-assembled InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dot(QD) islands are studied, which shows that a higher temperature, a lower flux rate and a longer growth time correspond to a better island distribution. The relations between the number of islands and the temperature and the flux rate are also successfully simulated. It is observed that for the total coverage lower than 0.5 ML, the number of islands decreases with the temperature increasing and other growth parameters fixed and the number of islands increases with the flux rate increasing when the deposition is lower than 0.6 ML and the other parameters are fixed.
The strain and electron energy levels of InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots (QDs) with a GaNAs strain compensation layer (SCL) are investigated. The results show that both the hydrostatic and biaxial strain inside the QDs with a GaNAs SCL are reduced compared with those with GaAs capping layers. Moreover, most of the compressive strain in the growth surface is compensated by the tensile strain of the GaNAs SCL, which implies that the influence of the strain environment of underlying QDs upon the next-layer QDs' growth surface is weak and suggests that the homogeneity and density of QDs can be improved. Our results are consistent with the published experimental literature. A GaNAs SCL is shown to influence the strain and band edge. As is known, the strain and the band offset affect the electronic structure, which shows that the SCL is proved to be useful to tailor the emission wavelength of QDs. Our research helps to better understand how the strain compensation technology can be applied to the growth of stacked QDs, which are useful in solar cells and laser devices.