Directional and Dynamic Modulation of the Optical Emission of an Individual GaAs Nanowire Using Surface Acoustic Waves

Abstract

We report on optical experiments performed on individual GaAs nanowires and the manipulation of their temporal emission characteristics using a surface acoustic wave. We find a pronounced, characteristic suppression of the emission intensity for the surface acoustic wave propagation aligned with the axis of the nanowire. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this quenching is dynamical as it shows a pronounced modulation as the local phase of the surface acoustic wave is tuned. These effects are strongly reduced for a SAW applied in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the nanowire due to their inherent one-dimensional geometry. We

Dynamic control of the optical emission from GaN/InGaN nanowire quantum dots by surface acoustic waves

“…The use of a highly piezoelectric LiNbO 3 crystal provides strong strain and electric fields of the propagating SAW, which extend to the optically active nanowire heterostructures deposited on the surface. 5,6,23,24 The micro-photoluminescence (µ-PL) experiments were performed at 10 K on a sample mounted in a cold-finger liquid helium flow cryostat equipped with rf connections for the excitation of the IDTs. A continuous wave helium-cadmium laser operating at λ exc = 442 nm was used for PL excitation.…”

“…Surface acoustic waves induce periodic strain and piezoelectric fields near a semiconductor surface which can dynamically modify their basic properties. The use of SAWs is an expanding research field, which has been widely applied to semiconductor quantum wells (QWs), 1-3 wires [4][5][6] and dots (QDs). [7][8][9][10][11] By controlling the excitonic emission in III-V semiconductor QDs by SAWs, high repetition rate single photon sources (SPSs) [7][8][9] and periodic laser mode feeding 12 have been reported.…”

Radio frequency occupancy state control of a single nanowire quantum dot

“…After transfer, we identified NWs with their (111) growth axis aligned along the SAW's propagation direction. [26]. A schematic of our sample structure is presented as an inset of Fig.…”

“…Radio frequency surface acoustic waves (SAWs) represent a particularly attractive and powerful tool to probe and dynamically control charge excitations in semiconductor heterostructure including Quantum Hall systems [12,13,14], charge transport in oneand two-dimensional electron channels [15,16], transport of charges [17,18,19], spins [20] or dipolar excitons [21] and precisely timed carrier injection into QDs for low-jitter single photon emission [22,23,24,25]. Recently, these concepts have been transferred to intrinsic nanowires (NWs) [26] and nanotubes [27] and NWs containing complex radial and axial heterostructures [28,29,30].…”

Tuning the spontaneous light emission in phoxonic cavities

“…Moreover, Brüggemann et al [19] studied the influence of strain pulses on the photoluminescence spectra of InGaAs quantum dots in a λ-cavity of a GaAs layer sandwiched between two GaAs/AlAs Bragg mirrors and found that a strain pulse can enhance the light emission intensity from a random distribution of quantum dots, since shaking brings nominally off resonant quantum dots into the frequency window appropriate for coupling to the cavity mode. Similarly, there are attempts to control light emission with elastic and surface acoustic waves [20][21][22][23] by taking advantage of the influence of an elastic field on the dynamics of excitons in multilayer semiconductor cavities or quantum dots through the effect of strain on the electronic band structure.…”