STUDY OF QUANTUM-WELL WIRES OF DIFFERENT WIDTHS PRODUCED BY REACTIVE ION ETCHING AND ANODIC-OXIDATION

We have fabricated AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well wires (QWW) with various l ateral widths down to 20 nm by anodic oxidation of a 100 nm QWW initia lly produced by low-energy reactive ion etching. The wires were studie d by photoluminescence spectroscopy at 77 K. The expected blue shift o f the PL energy was observed as the QWW width was reduced, reaching 16 meV for 20 nm wires. The decrease of the PL signal from the QWW was o nly a factor of two for a five times reduction in the QWW width.