Luminescence properties of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire (QWR) heterostructures grown by organometallic chemical vapor deposition on V-grooved substrates are reported. A model of the crescent-shaped wires yields parabolic QWR potential wells with subbands separated by 21.7, 3.9, and 16.7 meV for electrons, heavy holes, and light holes and effective width of 16 nm for the ground electron state. Spectrally and spatially resolved cathodoluminescence images reveal highly uniform emission from the QWR regions. Photoluminescence excitation spectra exhibit enhanced absorption at the QWR subbands, with subband separations in good agreement with the model.

Low-temperature cathodoluminescence spectroscopy was used to investigate the luminescence efficiency of reactive ion etched quantum dots, varying in diameter from 200 μm down to 60 nm. The luminescence efficiency was found to be degraded both with decreasing nanostructure size and with increasing etch depth. A solution to the standard model for diffusion and recombination was applied to the data to determine the surface recombination velocity S. We found that for dots smaller than the diffusion length, the standard diffusion model becomes insensitive to the value of S and fails to predict that there is a size of dot in which the luminescence is completely extinguished. To understand qualitatively the luminescence degradation in etched nanostructures we describe a damage layer thickness ξ. The value of ξ determines the smallest quantum structure that will still emit light. We show that ξ increases with increasing etch depth and is therefore dependent on etching conditions.

A planarity preserving method for the definition of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VC-SEL) is described. A strained-layer InGaAs quantum well VC-SEL structure was grown and lasers were laterally defined using a tailored deep proton implantation process. In these lasers we obtained low threshold current densities of 1000 A/cm2 and efficient cw operation. This method facilitates large-scale integration of VC-SEL devices.

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Many forms of low temperature alumina have been identified [1]. These are collectively referred to as transitional forms. The particular form depends strongly on the starting material (e.g., hydrated, thermally oxidized, alkoxide, etc.), the impurities present, and on thermal history. Although different forms of transition alumina are sometimes referred to as phases, none can be considered a true polymorph of corundum, i.e., α-alumina. Transformations from one form to another which occur upon heating are not reversible, although they are quite reproducible [2]. These different transitional structures are therefore considered to comprise different states of reordering. Figure 1 is a compendium of powder x-ray diffraction patterns from all known transitional aluminas and several aluminum hydroxides [3]. It i.s obvious that there are several crystallographic spacings which are nearly common to all forms.