Pascal Gallo

Scanning local‐acceleration microscopy

By adapting a scanning force microscope to operate at frequencies above the highest tip–sample resonance, the sensitivity of the microscope to materials’ properties is greatly enhanced. The cantilever’s behavior in response to high‐frequency excitation from a transducer underneath the sample is fundamentally different than to its low‐frequency response. In this article, the motivations, instrumentation, theory, and first results for this technique are described.

Materials' properties measurements: Choosing the optimal scanning probe microscope configuration

Rheological models are used to represent different scanning probe microscope configurations. The solutions for their static and dynamic behavior are found and used to analyze which scanning probe microscope configuration is best for a given application. We find that modulating the sample at high frequencies results in the best microscope behavior for measuring the stiffness of rigid materials, and that by modulating the tip at low frequencies and detecting the motion of the tip itself (not its position relative to the tip holder) should be best for studying compliant materials in liquids.

Bound-to-continuum terahertz quantum cascade laser with a single-quantum-well phonon extraction/injection stage

A terahertz quantum cascade laser design that combines a wide gain bandwidth, large photon-driven transport and good high-temperature characteristics is presented. It relies on a diagonal transition between a bound state and doublet of states tunnel coupled to the upper state of a phonon extraction stage. The high optical efficiency of this design enables the observation of photon-driven transport over a wide current density range. The relative tolerance of the design to small variations in the barrier thicknesses made it suitable for testing different growth techniques and materials. In particular, we compared the performances of devices grown using molecular-beam epitaxy with those achieved using organometallic chemical vapor deposition. The low-threshold current density and the high slope efficiency makes this device an attractive active region for the development of single-mode quantum cascade lasers based on third-order-distributed feedback structures. Single-mode, high power was achieved with good continuous and pulsed wave operation.

Integration of site-controlled pyramidal quantum dots and photonic crystal membrane cavities

Deterministic integration of site-controlled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) with photonic crystal cavities is demonstrated. Fine adjustment of QD position (within ~10 nm) and emission energy (few meV) allows construction of coupled QD systems.

Site-Controlled InGaAs Quantum Dots with Tunable Emission Energy

Semiconductor quantum-dot (QD) systems offering perfect site control and tunable emission energy are essential for numerous nanophotonic device applications involving spatial and spectral matching of dots with optical cavities. Herein, the properties of ordered InGaAs/GaAs QDs grown by organometallic chemical vapor deposition on substrates patterned with pyramidal recesses are reported. The seeded growth of a single QD inside each pyramid results in near-perfect (<10 nm) control of the QD position. Moreover, efficient and uniform photoluminescence (inhomogeneous broadening <10 meV) is observed from ordered arrays of such dots. The QD emission energy can be finely tuned by varying 1) the pyramid size and 2) its position within specific patterns. This tunability is brought about by the patterning of both the chemical properties and the surface curvature features of the substrate, which allows local control of the adatom fluxes that determine the QD thickness and composition.

Record-Low Inhomogeneous Broadening of Site-Controlled Quantum Dots for Nanophotonics†

Keywords: epitaxy ; nanotechnology ; photonics ; quantum dots ; self-assembly ; Pyramids ; Arrays ; Energy Reference EPFL-ARTICLE-150247doi:10.1002/smll.201000341View record in Web of Science Record created on 2010-08-04, modified on 2017-05-12

Photonic-crystal microcavity laser with site-controlled quantum-wire active medium

Site-controlled quantum-wire photonic-crystal microcavity laser is experimentally demonstrated using optical pumping. The single-mode lasing and threshold are established based on the transient laser response, linewidth narrowing, and the details of the non-linear power input-output characteristics. Average-power threshold as low as approximately 240 nW (absorbed power) and spontaneous emission coupling coefficient beta approximately 0.3 are derived.

Dense arrays of ordered pyramidal quantum dots with narrow linewidth photoluminescence spectra

Arrays of site-controlled, pyramidal InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by organo-metallic chemical vapour deposition with densities comparable to those of self-assembled QDs (5 x 10(9) cm(-2)) are demonstrated. The QDs exhibit high quality photoluminescence spectra with inhomogeneous broadening of only 6.5 meV. The QD dipole moment was estimated through the analysis of time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. Such ordered QD arrays should be useful for applications in active nanophotonic systems such as QD lasers, modulators and switches requiring high overlap of the optical modes with the QD active region.

Double-diamond high-contrast-gratings vertical external cavity surface emitting laser

A new design of vertical external cavity surface emitting laser (VECSEL) with diamond-based high contrast gratings is proposed. The self-consistent model of laser operation has been calibrated based on experimental results and used to optimize the new proposed device and to perform comparative thermal and optical analysis of conventional and double-diamond high-contrast-grating VECSELs. The proposed design considerably reduces the dimensions and complexity of the device and provides up to 80% increase of the maximum emitted power as compared with the conventional design.

Bound and anti-bound biexciton in site-controlled pyramidal GaInAs/GaAs quantum dots

We present a detailed study of biexciton complexes formed in single, site-controlled pyramidal GaInAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs). By using power dependent measurements and photon correlation spectroscopy, we identify the excitonic transitions of a large number of pyramidal QDs, exhibiting both positive and negative biexciton binding energies. Separation of charges within the QD, caused by piezoelectric fields, is believed to be responsible for the positive to negative crossover of the biexciton binding energy with increasing QD size. In particular, QDs exhibiting vanishing biexciton binding energies are evidenced, with potential applications in quantum information processing.