Thursday July 7, 2005
9 AM - 10:30 AM
ENG Z-50 Auditorium

Office Hours:
Thursday July 7, 2005
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
ENG B-16

"Optics of quantum dots"
Prof. Khaled Karrai
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat

Molecular beam epitaxy self assembled quantum dots are quantum systems that display sharp optical spectral lines very much like emission or absorption lines of atoms. Unlike atoms however, they have the advantage of being highly tunable. Their charge, their spin and their interaction with the embedding environment can be precisely adjusted. We exploit the semiconductor nature of such quantum devices so that fine-tuning is obtained electrostatically with the help of appropriate contacts and gates. This presentation will concentrates on the rich physics that we learned from the optical spectroscopy of such highly tunable single quantum dots. Note also that this talk serves as a general introduction for the following one by A. Imamoglu.