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

Abstract The advent of electron- and photon-confined structures has led to a wealth of novel physical phenomena and device applications. While the 1980s were devoted to 2D electronic quantum wells (QWs), the past decade has seen a flourish of 1D quantum wire (QWR) and 0D quantum dot (QD) studies. While remarkably sharp features were observed at the single QD level, fabrication of fluctuation-free ensembles of QDs remains a stumbling block for applications. On the other hand, more recently emerged photon-confined structures in the form of planar cavities, micropillars, photonic crystals have seen many achievements such as the Purcell effect, modification of light extraction efficiency, strong light–matter coupling. Advanced effects such as thresholdless lasers, squeezed photon generation, quantum condensation remain to be demonstrated. Although it might appear as a side effect, the interplay of electronic and photonic dimensionalities yields a profound insight on light–matter interaction.

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