OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF ETCHED GAAS GAALAS QUANTUM WIRES AND DOTS/

We show that very narrow wires and dots, exhibiting reduced dimensiona lity features, can be obtained through etching from a single quantum w ell structure. The importance of surface cleaning and passivation is e mphasized. The low temperature optical data obtained on arrays of wire s and dots allow us to estimate quantitatively the size regularity. Th e peculiar behaviour of the photoluminescence intensity is attributed to huge electrodynamic effects while the predicted intrinsic limitatio ns imposed by slowed-down energy relaxation are not evidenced. We fina lly present experimental photoluminescence and photoluminescence excit ation spectra obtained on single wires, as small as 6 x 25 x 135 nm3.