We report measurements of diamagnetic shifts for different exciton complexes confined in small InAs quantum dots. The measured diamagnetic responses are sensitive to the number of carriers in the exciton complexes, with systematic differences between neutral excitons, biexcitons, and trions. Theoretical calculations suggest that such systematic differences arise from very different extents of electron and hole wave functions confined in small quantum dots. The measured magnetic response of Coulomb energies is found to vary with the cube of the wave function extent, and can be a sensitive probe to the electron-hole wave function asymmetry.

Strong couplings between cavity modes in photonic molecules formed by two preselected nearly identical microdisk microcavities with embedded quantum dots are investigated. By continuously tuning the refractive index of one microdisk, clear anticrossings in the resonant peak energies associated with crossings in the peak linewidths can be observed. The coupling strengths are extracted by the coupled mode theory and analyzed by the model considering the effective potential confining the electromagnetic waves in the microcavities.

We have studied the structure and physical properties of an aluminum thin film grown on a (100) GaAs substrate. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) data shows that the Al film grown in situ by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is single crystalline. Compared with the polycrystalline film ex situ evaporated using an electron-gun (E-gun), the MBE-grown Al film has a high optical reflectivity in the visible and ultraviolet (UV) regime. In addition, the MBE-grown film has a 2-order-lower residue resistance, a 1-order-higher temperature coefficient of resistance, and a 2-order-larger magnetoresistance (MR) than the polycrystalline film. Owing to the long mean free time, the bulk-like electron-to-hole transition of Hall resistivity is observed for the first time in a nanoscale metal thin film. Our results suggest that MBE-grown Al thin films have great potential applications in metal-based nanoelectronics and nanophotonics.

Atomic-scale metal films exhibit intriguing size-dependent film stability, electrical conductivity, superconductivity, and chemical reactivity. With advancing methods for preparing ultra-thin and atomically smooth metal films, clear evidences of the quantum size effect have been experimentally collected in the past two decades. However, with the problems of small-area fabrication, film oxidation in air, and highly-sensitive interfaces between the metal, substrate, and capping layer, the uses of the quantized metallic films for further ex-situ investigations and applications have been seriously limited. To this end, we develop a large-area fabrication method for continuous atomic-scale aluminum film. The self-limited oxidation of aluminum protects and quantizes the metallic film and enables ex-situ characterizations and device processing in air. Structure analysis and electrical measurements on the prepared films imply the quantum size effect in the atomic-scale aluminum film. Our work opens the way for further physics studies and device applications using the quantized electronic states in metals.

Wetting layer states of In As ∕ Ga As self-assembled quantum dot structures: Effect of intermixing and capping layer Experimental and theoretical study of strain-induced AlGaAs/GaAs quantum dots using a self-organized GaSb island as a stressor