Crystal phase switching between the zincblende and wurtzite structures in III-V nanowires is crucial from the fundamental viewpoint as well as for electronic and photonic applications of crystal phase heterostructures. Here, the results of in situ monitoring of self-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid growth of GaAs nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy inside a transmission electron microscope is presented. It is demonstrated that the occurrence of the zincblende or wurtzite phase in self-catalyzed nanowires is determined by the sole parameter, the droplet contact angle, which can be finely tuned

We demonstrate second-harmonic generation in a doubly resonant semiconductor microcavity. The monolithic cavity consists of an AlGaAs active medium sandwiched between two AlGaAs/AlAs dual-wavelength mirrors. The mirrors do not have any apparent periodicity because, unlike single- or dual-wavelength Bragg reflectors, they are engineered with dispersion taken into account. Quasi-phase matching is obtained by addition of the appropriate phases at reflection so as to compensate for the dephasing between the fundamental and the second-harmonic fields.