Overview of fundamentals and applications of electrons, excitons and photons in confined structures

The advent of electron- and photon-confined structures has led to a wealth of novel physical phenomena and device applications. While the 1980s were d evoted to 2D electronic quantum wells (QWs), the past decade has seen a flo urish of 1D quantum wire (QWR) and OD quantum dot (QD) studies. While remar kably sharp features were observed at the single QD level: fabrication of f luctuation-free ensembles of QDs remains a stumbling block for applications . On the other hand, more recently emerged photon-confined structures in th e form of planar cavities, micropillars, photonic crystals have seen many a chievements such as the Purcell effect, modification of light extraction ef ficiency, strong light-matter coupling. Advanced effects such as thresholdl ess lasers, squeezed photon generation, quantum condensation remain to be d emonstrated. Although it might appear as a side effect, the interplay of el ectronic and photonic dimensionalities yields a profound insight on light-m atter interaction. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.