G. Cassabois

Unconventional motional narrowing in the optical spectrum of a semiconductor quantum dot

Abstract‘Motional narrowing’ refers to the striking phenomenon where the resonance line of a system coupled to a reservoir becomes narrower on increasing the reservoir fluctuation. A textbook example is found in nuclear magnetic resonance, where the fluctuating local magnetic fields created by randomly oriented nuclear spins are averaged when the motion of the nuclei is thermally activated. The existence of a motional-narrowing effect in the optical response of semiconductor quantum dots remains so far unexplored. This effect may be important in this instance because the decoherence dynamics is a central issue for the implementation of quantum information processing based on quantum dots. Here we report on the experimental evidence of motional narrowing in the optical spectrum of a semiconductor quantum dot broadened by the spectral-diffusion phenomenon. Surprisingly, motional narrowing is achieved when decreasing incident power or temperature, in contrast with the standard phenomenology observed for nuclear magnetic resonance.

Temperature dependence of exciton recombination in semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes

We study the excitonic recombination dynamics in an ensemble of (9,4) semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes by high-sensitivity time-resolved photoluminescence experiments. Measurements from cryogenic to room temperature allow us to identify two main contributions to the recombination dynamics. The initial fast decay is temperature independent and is attributed to the presence of small residual bundles that create external nonradiative relaxation channels. The slow component shows a strong temperature dependence and is dominated by nonradiative processes down to 40 K. We propose a quantitative phenomenological modeling of the variations of the integrated photoluminescence intensity over the whole temperature range. We show that the luminescence properties of carbon nanotubes at room temperature are not affected by the dark/bright excitonic state coupling.

Interferometric correlation spectroscopy in single quantum dots

We report high-resolution spectroscopy by interferometric correlation measurements on the photoluminescence signal of a single quantum dot. We demonstrate that the insertion of a Michelson interferometer in the detection path gives a compact and flexible setup for linewidth measurements. We have used this technique to study self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots. We observe linewidth variations from one quantum dot to another, and we bring evidence of environment effects on the broadening processes.

Third-order optical nonlinearities of carbon nanotubes in the femtosecond regime

Femtosecond pump–probe experiments have been carried out on an ensemble of single-wall carbon nanotubes deposited on a glass substrate. Measurements of transient changes of transmission and reflection provide an estimate of the real and imaginary parts of the second-order hyperpolarizability of carbon nanotubes. These values are compared with previous measurements and are discussed in the light of a simple model of the optical nonlinearities near the optical band-gap.

Fast exciton spin relaxation in single quantum dots

Exciton spin relaxation is investigated in single epitaxially grown semiconductor quantum dots in order to test the expected spin relaxation quenching in this system. We study the polarization anisotropy of the photoluminescence signal emitted by isolated quantum dots under steady-state or pulsed nonresonant excitation. We find that the longitudinal exciton spin relaxation time is strikingly short (<= 100 ps) even at low temperature. This result breaks down the picture of a frozen exciton spin in quantum dots.

Giant optical anisotropy in a single InAs quantum dot in a very dilute quantum-dot ensemble

We present experimental evidence of giant optical anisotropy in single InAs quantum dots. Polarization-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a linear polarization ratio with huge fluctuations, from one quantum dot to another, in sign and in magnitude with absolute values up to 82%. Systematic measurements on hundreds of quantum dots coming from two different laboratories demonstrate that the giant optical anisotropy is an intrinsic feature of dilute quantum-dot arrays

Ultrafast pump–probe measurements in single wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract We present a time-resolved experimental study of carrier dynamics in single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). This study is performed by means of pump–probe experiments in either a degenerate or a two-color configuration with a resonant excitation of semi-conductor SWCNTs. Both pump and probe are in resonance with the interband transitions of the semiconductor nanotubes (at 0.8 and 1.47 eV ). We observe photobleaching with a typical recovery time of 1 ps . This non-linear response is governed by the carrier recombination at the band edge of semiconductor nanotubes.

Decoherence effects in the intraband and interband optical transitions in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

We present a review of coherence properties of interband and intraband optical transitions in self assembled InAs/GaAs quantun dots. Indeed, recent experimental and theoretical investigations of the optical transitions in both spectral domains have allowed a better understanding of the different phenomena that affects the interaction of confined carriers with light. These studies point out the many different ways the electron-phonon interactions play a role on the optical response of quantum dots. They also stress the primary role of the close environment on the coherence characteristics of quantum dots.

Homogeneous linewidth of the intraband transition at 1.55 μm in GaN/AlN quantum dots

We present homogeneous line width measurements of the intraband transition at 1.55 mu m in GaN/AlN quantum dots by means of nonlinear spectral hole-burning experiments. The square-root dependence of the differential transmission signal with the incident pump power reveals the importance of electron-electron scattering in the population relaxation dynamics. We find on the contrary that this scattering process plays a minor role in the coherence relaxation dynamics since the homogeneous linewidth of 15 meV at 5 K does not depend on the incident pump power. This suggests the predominance of other dephasing mechanisms such as spectral diffusion, and temperature-dependent measurements support this hypothesis.

Disorder-induced photoluminescence up-conversion in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot samples

Photoluminescence up-conversion under cw excitation in semiconductor quantum-dot structures is systematically studied in a sample exhibiting a crossover between two-dimensional and three-dimensional (3D) growth modes. We probe the existence of carrier up-conversion by using ultrathin quantum wells close to the quantum-dot layer. We show that the efficiency of the up-conversion is closely related to the disorder induced by the 3D-growth mode of the quantum dots.