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Using four-wave mixing microscopy, we measure the coherent response and ultrafast dynamics of excitons and trions in MoSe$_2$ monolayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on thin films of hexagonal boron nitride. We assess inhomogeneous and homogeneous broadenings in the transition spectral lineshape. The impact of phonons on the homogeneous dephasing is inferred via the temperature dependence of the dephasing. Four-wave mixing mapping, combined with the atomic force microscopy, reveals spatial correlations between exciton oscillator strength, inhomogeneous broadening and the sample morphology. The quality of coherent optical response of the epitaxially grown transition metal dichalcogenides becomes now comparable with the samples produced by mechanical exfoliation, enabling coherent nonlinear spectroscopy of innovative materials, like magnetic layers or Janus semiconductors.

We demonstrate a novel electro-luminescence device in which GaN-based $\mu$-LEDs are used to trigger the emission spectra of monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides, which are deposited directly on the $\mu$-LED surface. A special $\mu$-LED design enables the operation of our structures even in the limit of low temperatures. A device equipped with a selected WSe$_2$ monolayer flake is shown to act as a stand-alone, electrically-driven single-photon source., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Quantifying and controlling the coherent dynamics and couplings of optically active excitations in solids is of paramount importance in fundamental research in condensed matter optics and for their prospective optoelectronic applications in quantum technologies. Here, we perform ultrafast coherent nonlinear spectroscopy of a charge-tunable MoSe2 monolayer. The experiments show that the homogeneous and inhomogeneous line width and the population decay of exciton complexes hosted by this material can be directly tuned by an applied gate bias, which governs the Fermi level and therefore the free carrier density. By performing two-dimensional spectroscopy, we also show that the same bias-tuning approach permits us to control the coherent coupling strength between charged and neutral exciton complexes.

We investigate the origin of emission lines apparent in the low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of $n$-doped WS$_2$ monolayer embedded in hexagonal BN layers using external magnetic fields and first-principles calculations. Apart from the neutral A exciton line, all observed emission lines are related to the negatively charged excitons. Consequently, we identify emissions due to both the bright (singlet and triplet) and dark (spin- and momentum-forbidden) negative trions as well as the phonon replicas of the latter optically-inactive complexes. The semi-dark trions and negative biexcitons are distinguished. Based on their experimentally extracted and theoretically calculated $g$-factors, we identify three distinct families of emissions due to exciton complexes in WS$_2$: bright, intravalley and intervalley dark. The $g$-factors of the spin-split subbands in both the conduction and valence bands are also determined., Manuscript: 7 pages, 5 figures; SI: 5 pages, 3 figures

Atomically thin materials, like semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (S-TMDs), are highly sensitive to the environment. This opens up an opportunity to externally control their properties by changing their surroundings. We investigate the effect of several metallic substrates on the optical properties of MoSe$_2$ monolayer (ML) deposited on top of them with photoluminescence and reflectance contrast techniques. The optical spectra of MoSe$_{2}$ MLs deposited on Pt, Au, Mo and Zr have distinctive metal-related lineshapes. In particular, a substantial variation in the intensity ratio and the energy separation between a negative trion and a neutral exciton is observed. It is shown that using metals as substrates affects the doping of S-TMD MLs. The explanation of the effect involves the Schottky barrier formation at the interface between the MoSe$_{2}$ ML and the metallic substrates. The alignment of energy levels at the metal/semiconductor junction allows for the transfer of charge carriers between them. We argue that a proper selection of metallic substrates can be a way to inject appropriate types of carriers into the respective bands of S-TMDs., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

Low temperature and polarization resolved magneto-photoluminescence experiments are used to investigate the properties of dark excitons and dark trions in a monolayer of WS$_2$ encapsulated in hexagonal BN (hBN). We find that this system is an $n$-type doped semiconductor and that dark trions dominate the emission spectrum. In line with previous studies on WSe$_2$, we identify the Coulomb exchange interaction coupled neutral dark and grey excitons through their polarization properties, while an analogous effect is not observed for dark trions. Applying the magnetic field in both perpendicular and parallel configurations with respect to the monolayer plane, we determine the g-factor of dark trions to be $g\sim$-8.6. Their decay rate is close to 0.5 ns, more than 2 orders of magnitude longer than that of bright excitons., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, supplemental material

Atomically thin materials, like semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, are highly sensitive to the environment. This opens up an opportunity to externally control their properties by changing their surroundings. In this work, high-quality van der Waals heterostructures assembled from hBN-encapsulated monolayer MoS

Copper-doped self-assembled CdSe/ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) and (Zn,Cd)Se/ZnSe quantum wells (QWs) are grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Low-temperature luminescence properties of these structures are ...

Using ultrafast resonant pump-probe spectroscopy in an unconventional experimental setup we investigate the spectral shape and dynamics of absorption features related to the A exciton in an hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)/MoSe2/hBN van der Waals heterostructure. While in a pure two-level system a pump-probe experiment measures the occupation or the polarization dynamics, depending on the time ordering of the pulse pair, in the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) system both quantities get thoroughly mixed by strong exciton–exciton interaction. We find that for short positive delays the spectral lines experience pronounced changes in their shape and energy and they relax to the original situation on a picosecond time scale. For negative delays, distinctive spectral oscillations appear indicating the first-time observation of perturbed free induction decay for a TMD system. The comparison between co-circular and cross-circular excitation schemes further allows us to investigate the rapid inter-valley scattering. By considering a three-level system as a minimal model including the local field effect, excitation-induced dephasing (EID), and scattering between the excited states we explain all phenomena observed in the experiment with excellent consistency. Our handy model can be even further reduced to two levels in the case of a co-circular excitation, for which we derive analytic expressions to describe the detected signals. This allows us to trace back the spectral shapes and shifts to the impact of local field effect and EID thus fully reproducing the complex behavior of the observed effects.

Two-dimensional layered materials offer the possibility to create artificial vertically stacked structures possessing an additional degree of freedom - $the$ $interlayer$ $twist$. We present a comprehensive optical study of artificially stacked bilayers (BLs) MoS$_2$ encapsulated in hexagonal BN with interlayer twist angle ranging from 0 to 60 degrees using Raman scattering and photoluminescence spectroscopies. It is found that the strength of the interlayer coupling in the studied BLs can be estimated using the energy dependence of indirect emission versus the A$_\textrm{1g}$-E$_\textrm{2g}^1$ energy separation. Due to the hybridization of electronic states in the valence band, the emission line related to the interlayer exciton is apparent in both the natural (2H) and artificial (62$^\circ$) MoS$_2$ BLs, while it is absent in the structures with other twist angles. The interlayer coupling energy is estimated to be of about 50 meV. The effect of temperature on energies and intensities of the direct and indirect emission lines in MoS$_2$ bilayers is also quantified., Comment: 15 pages including Appendices

In this paper, we apply the angle-resolved Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR) technique to study series of strained (Cd, Mn)Te/(Cd, Mg)Te quantum wells (QWs) produced by molecular beam epitaxy. By analyzing characteristic features of ODMR angular scans, we determine strain-induced axial-symmetry spin Hamiltonian parameter D with neV precision. Furthermore, we use low-temperature optical reflectivity measurements and X-ray diffraction scans to evaluate the local strain present in QW material. In our analysis, we take into account different thermal expansion coefficients of GaAs substrate and CdTe buffer. The additional deformation due to the thermal expansion effects has the same magnitude as deformation origination from the different compositions of the samples. Based on the evaluated deformations and values of strain-induced axial-symmetry spin Hamiltonian parameter D, we find strain spin-lattice coefficient G11 = (72.2 +- 1.9) neV for Mn2+ in CdTe and shear deformation potential b = (-0.94 +- 0.11) eV for CdTe.

The dielectric environment of atomically-thin monolayer (ML) of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides affects both the electronic band gap and the excitonic binding energy in the ML. We investigate the effect of the environment on the in-plane magnetic field brightening of neutral and charged dark exciton emissions in the WSe$_2$ ML. The monolayers placed in three dielectric environments are studied, in particular, the ML encapsulated in hexagonal BN (hBN) flakes, the ML deposited on a hBN layer, and the ML embedded between the hBN flake and SiO$_2$/Si substrate. We observe that the brightening rates of the neutral and charged dark excitons depend on the dielectric environment, which may be related to the variation of the level of carrier concentration in the ML. Moreover, the surrounding media, characterized by different dielectric constants, influences weakly the relative energies of the neutral and charged dark excitons in reference to the bright ones., 5 pages, 4 figures

High-quality van der Waals heterostructures assembled from hBN-encapsulated monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides enable observations of subtle optical and spin-valley properties whose identification was beyond the reach of structures exfoliated directly on standard SiO2/Si substrates. Here, we describe different van der Waals heterostructures based on uncapped single-layer MoS2 stacked onto hBN layers of different thicknesses and hBN-encapsulated monolayers. Depending on the doping level, they reveal the fine structure of excitonic complexes, i.e. neutral and charged excitons. In the emission spectra of a particular MoS2/hBN heterostructure without an hBN cap we resolve two trion peaks, T1 and T2, energetically split by about 10 meV, resembling the pair of singlet and triplet trion peaks (T S and T T ) in tungsten-based materials. The existence of these trion features suggests that monolayer MoS2 has a dark excitonic ground state, despite having a 'bright' single-particle arrangement of spin-polarized conduction bands. In addition, we show that the effective excitonic g-factor significantly depends on the electron concentration and reaches the lowest value of -2.47 for hBN-encapsulated structures, which reveals a nearly neutral doping regime. In the uncapped MoS2 structures, the excitonic g-factor varies from -1.15 to -1.39 depending on the thickness of the bottom hBN layer and decreases as a function of rising temperature.

Atomically thin materials, like semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, are highly sensitive to the environment. This opens up an opportunity to externally control their properties by changing their surroundings. In this work, high-quality van der Waals heterostructures assembled from hBN-encapsulated monolayer MoS$_2$ are studied with the aid of photoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation, and reflectance contrast experiments. We demonstrate that carrier concentration in MoS$_2$ monolayers, arising from charge transfer from impurities in the substrate, can be significantly tuned within one order of magnitude by the modification of the bottom hBN flake thickness. The studied structures, characterized by spectral lines approaching the narrow homogeneously broadened limit enabled observations of subtle optical and spin-valley properties of excitonic complexes. Our results allowed us to resolve three optically-active negatively charged excitons in MoS$_2$ monolayers, which are assigned to the intravalley singlet, intervalley singlet, and intervalley triplet states., 9 pages, 4 figures

We present a detailed study of the time-resolved photoluminescence of narrow-line emission centers in $\mathrm{W}{\mathrm{Se}}_{2}$ monolayers and bilayers. Our experiments reveal noninstantaneous photoluminescence intensity rise after the laser pulse. This shows that the simplest excitation model in which the localized states are directly populated by free excitons is not sufficient to fully reproduce experimental results. We, therefore, analyze a more complex phenomenological model where the relaxation of the carriers is mediated by long-lived intermediate states. Strong suppression of the lifetime of those intermediate states at elevated temperatures reveals their unique character, not matching any relaxed excitonic state in $\mathrm{W}{\mathrm{Se}}_{2}$ monolayer.

We perform absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy of trions in hBN-encapsulated WSe$_2$, WS$_2$, MoSe$_2$, and MoS$_2$ monolayers, depending on temperature. The different trends for W- and Mo-based materials are excellently reproduced considering a Fermi-Dirac distribution of bright and dark trions. We find a dark trion, $\rm{X_D^-}$ 19 meV $\textit{below}$ the lowest bright trion, $\rm{X}_1^-$ in WSe$_2$ and WS$_2$. In MoSe$_2$, $\rm{X_D^-}$ lies 6 meV $\textit{above}$ $\rm{X}_1^-$, while $\rm{X_D^-}$ and $\rm{X}_1^-$ almost coincide in MoS$_2$. Our results agree with GW-BSE $\textit{ab-initio}$ calculations and quantitatively explain the optical response of doped monolayers with temperature., Comment: 16 pages including supporting information, 4 figures in the main text, 10 figures in the supporting information

We report experimental and theoretical studies on the magnetoelastic interactions in MnPS$_3$. Raman scattering response measured as a function of temperature shows a blue shift of the Raman active modes at 120.2 and 155.1 cm$^{-1}$, when the temperature is raised across the antiferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed to estimate the effective exchange interactions and calculate the Raman active phonon modes. The calculations lead to the conclusion that the peculiar behavior with temperature of the two low energy phonon modes can be explained by the symmetry of their corresponding normal coordinates which involve the virtual modification of the super-exchange angles associated with the leading antiferromagnetic (AFM) interactions., Comment: Main: 9 pages, 7 figures. Supplementary : 5 pages, 4 figures

At cryogenic temperatures, the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of monolayer WSe2 features a number of lines related to the recombination of so-called localized excitons (LEs). The intensity of these lines strongly decreases with increasing temperature. In order to understand the mechanism behind this phenomenon we carried out a time-resolved experiment, which revealed a similar trend in the PL decay time. Our results identify the opening of additional non-radiative relaxation channels as a primary cause of the observed temperature quenching of the LEs' PL.

Magnetoresistance, ac and dc magnetization, and photoluminescence (PL) experiments have been performed on the $p$-type ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{0.99}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{0.01}\mathrm{Te}$ and ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{0.97}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{0.03}\mathrm{Te}$ alloys strongly doped with phosphorus (P). The investigated samples exhibit spin glass behavior with ferromagnetic regions near the freezing temperature ${T}_{f}=1.9$ K and colossal negative magnetoresistance (negMR) of $2.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$ times at 4.2 K for $0\ensuremath{\le}B\ensuremath{\le}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}6$ T. The negMR curves contain occurrences of hysteresis providing evidence for the memory effect. Looking for possible ferromagnetic interactions responsible for the spin glass behavior at low hole densities, we observe in PL spectra that the P doping quenches internal recombination in ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ ions. This strongly indicates a charge transfer between ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ and ${\mathrm{P}}^{2\ensuremath{-}}$ ions leading to the creation of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{3+}$ and ${\mathrm{P}}^{3\ensuremath{-}}$ ions. The creation of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{3+}$ is confirmed by an observation of strong PL enhancement at excitation energies lower than the band gap and PL study at various temperatures. The resulting simultaneous existence of the mixed valence ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ and ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{3+}$ ions can lead to double exchange mechanism of ferromagnetic interaction. Also, ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{3+}$ ions can exhibit a superexchange interaction leading to local ferromagnetic phases.

Wurtzite CdTe and (Cd,Mn)Te nanowires embedded in (Cd,Mg)Te shells are grown by employing vapour-liquid-solid growth mechanism in a system for molecular beam epitaxy. A combined study involving cathodoluminescence, transmission electron microscopy and micro-photoluminescence is used to correlate optical and structural properties in these structures. Typical features of excitonic emission from individual wurtzite nanowires are highlighted including the emission energy of 1.65 eV, polarization properties and the appearance B-exciton related emission at high excitation densities. Angle dependent magneto-optical study performed on individual (Cd,Mn)Te nanowires reveals heavy-hole-like character of A-excitons typical for wurtzite structure and allows to determine the crystal field splitting, ΔCR. The impact of the strain originating from the lattice mismatched shell is discussed and supported by theoretical calculations.

In light science and applications, equally important roles are played by efficient light emitters/detectors and by the optical elements responsible for light extraction and delivery. The latter should be simple, cost effective, broadband, versatile and compatible with other components of widely desired micro-optical systems. Ideally, they should also operate without high-numerical-aperture optics. Here, we demonstrate that all these requirements can be met with elliptical microlenses 3D printed on top of light emitters. Importantly, the microlenses we propose readily form the collected light into an ultra-low divergence beam (half-angle divergence below 1°) perfectly suited for ultra-long-working-distance optical measurements (600 mm with a 1-inch collection lens), which are not accessible to date with other spectroscopic techniques. Our microlenses can be fabricated on a wide variety of samples, including semiconductor quantum dots and fragile van der Waals heterostructures made of novel two-dimensional materials, such as monolayer and few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides., Ultra-long-working-distance spectroscopy of nanostructures with elliptical 3D-printed microlenses Tiny elliptical microlenses efficiently focus light onto and extract it from nano-sized light emitters, enabling an ultra-long-working-distance measurements. Aleksander Bogucki from the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw and colleagues tested their microlenses by 3D printing them on top of light-emitting quantum dots and a more fragile layered structure made of novel 2D materials. They demonstrated the microlenses can be deterministically placed onto specific parts of a sample, or can be printed as a large-scale array of hundreds of lenses on samples containing a large number of light emitters. It can also be printed onto fragile materials without affecting their properties. The findings could pave the way for their use in a wide range of applications, including single-nanowire lasers, photoconductive antennas, optical setups in high magnetic fields, and in integrated photonic circuits.

Zeeman effect induced by the magnetic field introduces a splitting between the two valleys at K + and K − points of the Brillouin zone in monolayer semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides. In consequence, the photoluminescence signal exhibits a field dependent degree of circular polarization. We present a comprehensive study of this effect in the case of a trion in monolayer MoTe2, showing that although time integrated data allows us to deduce a g-factor of the trion state, such an analysis cannot be substantiated by the timescales revealed in the time-resolved experiments.

We investigate the origin of emission lines apparent in the low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of n-doped WS

Monolayers of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides are two-dimensional direct-gap systems which host tightly-bound excitons with an internal degree of freedom corresponding to the valley of the constituting carriers. Strong spin-orbit interaction and the resulting ordering of the spin-split subbands in the valence and conduction bands makes the lowest-lying excitons in WX$_2$ (X~being S or Se) spin-forbidden and optically dark. With polarization-resolved photoluminescence experiments performed on a WSe$_2$ monolayer encapsulated in a hexagonal boron nitride, we show how the intrinsic exchange interaction in combination with the applied in-plane and/or out-of-plane magnetic fields enables one to probe and manipulate the valley degree of freedom of the dark excitons., Manuscript: 6 pages, 3 figures; SM: 6 pages, 5 figures

Unlike monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2, which possess high in-plane symmetry, layered ReS2 exhibits reduced in-plane crystal symmetry with a distorted 1 T structure. This unique symmetry leads to anisotropic optical properties, very promising for light polarization devices. Here, we report on low temperature polarization-resolved emission and absorption measurements of excitons in ReS2 from bulk to monolayer. In photoluminescence and reflectivity contrast spectra we distinguish two strongly polarized excitons X1 and X2 with dipole vectors along different crystal directions, which persist from bulk down to monolayer. Basing on the PL and RC spectra of bulk crystals we determine the energy of the ground and first four excited states of both excitons, which follow the usual hydrogenic Rydberg series of energy levels of 3D excitonic states (En = Ry*/n2). From the numerical fit we estimate that the energy gap is direct and equal to 1671.7 meV and binding energy of X1 and X2 is equal to 117.5 and 86.6 meV, respectively. In magneto-PL spectra of bulk ReS2 up to B = 10 T, the energy shift of all the states is below 2 meV. On reducing the crystal thickness from bulk to monolayer the ground state experience a strong blue shift.

We study the relaxation dynamics of the electron system in graphene flakes under Landau quantization regime using a novel approach of time-resolved Raman scattering. The non-resonant character of the experiment allows us to analyze the field dependence of the relaxation rate. Our results clearly evidence sharp increase in the relaxation rate upon the resonance between the energy of the Landau transition and the G-band and shed new light on relaxation mechanism of the Landau-quantized electrons in graphene beyond the previously studied Auger scattering.

Owing to exchange interaction between the exciton and magnetic ion, a quantum dot embedding a single magnetic ion is a great platform for optical control of individual spin. In particular, a quantum dot provides strong and sharp optical transitions, which give experimental access to spin states of an individual magnetic ion. We show, however, that physics of quantum dot excitons also complicate spin readout and optical spin manipulation in such a system. This is due to electron-hole exchange interaction in anisotropic quantum dots, which affects the polarization of the emission lines. One of the consequences is that the intensity of spectral lines in a single spectrum are not simply proportional to the population of various spin states of magnetic ion. In order to provide a solution of the above problem, we present a method of extracting both the spin polarisation degree of a neutral exciton and magnetic dopant inside a semiconductor quantum dot in an external magnetic field. Our approach is experimentally verified on a system of CdSe/ZnSe quantum dot containing a single Fe$^{2+}$ ion. Both the resonant and non-resonant excitation regimes are explored resulting in a record high optical orientation efficiency of dopant spin in the former case. The proposed solutions can be easily expanded to any other system of quantum dots containing magnetic dopants., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Single impurities with nonzero spin and multiple ground states offer a degree of freedom that can be utilized to store the quantum information. However, Fe2+ dopant is known for having a single nondegenerate ground state in the bulk host semiconductors and thus is of little use for spintronic applications. Here we show that the well-established picture of Fe2+ spin configuration can be modified by subjecting the Fe2+ ion to high strain, for example, produced by lattice mismatched epitaxial nanostructures. Our analysis reveals that high strain induces qualitative change in the ion energy spectrum and results in nearly doubly degenerate ground state with spin projection Sz=±2. We provide an experimental proof of this concept using a new system: a strained epitaxial quantum dot containing individual Fe2+ ion. Magnetic character of the Fe2+ ground state in a CdSe/ZnSe dot is revealed in photoluminescence experiments by exploiting a coupling between a confined exciton and the single-iron impurity. We also demonstrate that the Fe2+ spin can be oriented by spin-polarized excitons, which opens a possibility of using it as an optically controllable two-level system free of nuclear spin fluctuations., Iron Fe2+ ions embedded in semiconductor matrix usually have zero magnetic moment in the ground state. Here, the authors show theoretically and experimentally that a nearly doubly degenerate magnetic ground state is produced when iron ions are subjected to strain in epitaxial quantum dots, suggesting they could be used in spintronics and solotronics.

6th Congress and Exhibition on International Advances in Applied Physics and Materials Science (APMAS) -- JUN 01-03, 2016 -- Istanbul, TURKEY, WOS: 000400905500014, Geopolymer structures are a relatively new family of un-fired ceramics that are produced by alkaline slurry of mixed alumina silicate-based materials. One of the most abundant geopolymer-forming powders is the fly ash. Fly ash is a waste product of thermic coal plants, which produce electricity by coal burning. Fly ashes contain mostly Ca, Al, Si and Fe oxide mixtures and compounds formed during the burning process, followed by sedimentation. The standardization is made by SiO2 content. Class C ash has low silica content (50 wt.%). The fly ash, studied in this work, was obtained from Kangal Coal Plant. The NaOH was used as the geopolymer binder and curing was performed at 80% relative humidity, at 40 degrees C in sealed plastic molds. The obtained cylinders were aged for one week before releasing from molds. pH dependent degradation was used to determine the ionic exchange of geopolymers into the solution. Afterwards, XRD and SEM were done to detect the structural changes of geopolymers.

Self-assembled Cd(Se,Te) quantum dots with various Se compositions embedded in the ZnTe matrix are grown by molecular beam epitaxy. A huge redshift of the near band edge emission, from 2.1 eV to 1.5 eV, with an increasing Se content in the dots is observed. It is accompanied by an increase in the excitonic lifetime by the factor of 10. We associate these effects with a gradual change from the direct type I confinement character in CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots to the staggered type II band alignment in the case of Cd(Se,Te)/ZnTe dots. This interpretation is consistent with the micro-photoluminescence study of several individual quantum dots, which reveals a gradual decrease in the biexciton–exciton energy difference with the increasing content of Se in the dots, which leads ultimately to the change from the binding to antibinding character of biexcitons. The latter effect originates, most likely, from the increasing Coulomb repulsion between excitons forming dipoles at the dot/barrier interface.

Prototyping of fiber-coupled integrated photonic devices requires robust and reliable way of docking optical fibers to other structures, often with sub-micron accuracy. We have developed an optical fiber micro-connector 3D-printed with Direct Laser Writing on a planar substrate. The connector provides fiber core precision positioning better than 120 nm and sustains cryogenic cycling without any signs of degradation. It can be fabricated and used on glass and non-transparent substrates, including photonic integrated circuits, semiconductor samples, and microfluidic systems.

A detailed magneto-photoluminescence study of individual (Cd, Mn)Te/(Cd, Mg)Te core/shell nanowires grown by molecular beam epitaxy is performed. First of all, an enhancement of the Zeeman splitting due to sp-d exchange interaction between band carriers and Mn-spins is evidenced in these nanostructures. Then, it is found that the value of this splitting depends strongly on the magnetic field direction with respect to the nanowire axis. The largest splitting is observed when the magnetic field is applied perpendicular and the smallest when it is applied parallel to the nanowire axis. This effect is explained in terms of magnetic field induced valence band mixing and evidences the light hole character of the excitonic emission. The values of the light and heavy hole splitting are determined for several individual nanowires based on the comparison of experimental results to theoretical calculations.

Single photon emitters can form at the interfaces between layers of WSe2. Crystal structure imperfections in solids often act as efficient carrier trapping centres, which, when suitably isolated, act as sources of single photon emission. The best known examples of such attractive imperfections are well-width or composition fluctuations in semiconductor heterostructures1,2 (resulting in the formation of quantum dots) and coloured centres in wide-bandgap materials such as diamond3,4,5. In the recently investigated thin films of layered compounds, the crystal imperfections may logically be expected to appear at the edges of commonly investigated few-layer flakes of these materials exfoliated on alien substrates. Here, we report comprehensive optical micro-spectroscopy studies of thin layers of tungsten diselenide (WSe2), a representative semiconducting dichalcogenide with a bandgap in the visible spectral range. At the edges of WSe2 flakes (transferred onto Si/SiO2 substrates) we discover centres that, at low temperatures, give rise to sharp emission lines (100 μeV linewidth). These narrow emission lines reveal the effect of photon antibunching, the unambiguous attribute of single photon emitters. The optical response of these emitters is inherently linked to the two-dimensional properties of the WSe2 monolayer, as they both give rise to luminescence in the same energy range, have nearly identical excitation spectra and have very similar, characteristically large Zeeman effects. With advances in the structural control of edge imperfections, thin films of WSe2 may provide added functionalities that are relevant for the domain of quantum optoelectronics.

We present a polarization-resolved photoluminescence study of the exchange interaction effects in a prototype system consisting of an individual ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{2+}$ ion and a single neutral exciton confined in a CdSe/ZnSe quantum dot. A maximal possible number of eight fully linearly polarized lines in the bright exciton emission spectrum is observed, evidencing complete degeneracy lifting in the investigated system. We discuss the conditions required for such a scenario to take place: anisotropy of the electron-hole interaction and the zero-field splitting of the ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{2+}$ ion spin states. Neglecting either of these components is shown to restore partial degeneracy of the transitions, making the excitonic spectrum similar to those previously reported for all other systems of quantum dots with single magnetic dopants.

We provide a theoretical description of the optical orientation of a single Mn$^{2+}$ ion spin under quasi-resonant excitation demonstrated experimentally by Goryca et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 087401 (2009)]. We build and analyze a hierarchy of models by starting with the simplest assumptions (transfer of perfectly spin-polarized excitons from Mn-free dot to the other dot containing a single Mn$^{2+}$ spin, followed by radiative recombination) and subsequently adding more features, such as spin relaxation of electrons and holes. Particular attention is paid to the role of the influx of the dark excitons and the process of biexciton formation, which are shown to contribute significantly to the orientation process in the quasi-resonant excitation case. Analyzed scenarios show how multiple features of the excitonic complexes in magnetically-doped quantum dots, such as the values of exchange integrals, spin relaxation times, etc., lead to a plethora of optical orientation processes, characterized by distinct dependencies on light polarization and laser intensity, and occurring on distinct timescales. Comparison with experimental data shows that the correct description of the optical orientation mechanism requires taking into account Mn$^{2+}$ spin-flip processes occurring not only when the exciton is already in the orbital ground state of the light-emitting dot, but also those that happen during the exciton transfer from high-energy states to the ground state. Inspired by the experimental results on energy relaxation of electrons and holes in nonmagnetic dots, we focus on the process of biexciton creation allowed by mutual spin-flip of an electron and the Mn$^{2+}$ spin, and we show that by including it in the model, we obtain good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental data on quasi-resonantly driven Mn$^{2+}$ spin orientation.

We present a detailed spectroscopic study of photoluminescence quenching in epitaxial structures containing CdSe/ZnSe quantum dots doped with low concentration of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ ions. Our time-resolved and time-integrated experiments reveal the origin of the quenching observed in macro-photoluminescence studies of ensembles of such dots. We show that incorporation of even a few ions to an individual dot does not quench its luminescence effectively, although some fingerprints of expected spin-dependent quenching are visible. At the same time, the presence of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ ions in the sample significantly affects the luminescence intensity of the wetting layer, resulting in a quenching of the global luminescence from studied structure. On the other hand, the luminescence decay dynamics are found to be independent of the presence of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ ions, which suggests that the observed quenching occurs for the excited excitonic states.

In this work we present the band gap engineering, epitaxial growth and optical characterization of CdSe/Cd0.9Mg0.1Se and Cd0.9Mg0.1Se/Cd0.85Mg0.15Se quantum wells with a thickness ranging from 1 to 15 nm. These structures exhibit strong near-band-gap photoluminescence from helium up to room temperature. The emission energy is tuned in the range from 1.74 to 2.1 eV at 7 K, depending on the thickness and well composition. The most intense photoluminescence (both at 7 and 300 K) was observed for 10 nm thick CdSe/Cd0.9Mg0.1Se wells. Such a structure gives also a sharp emission line (FWHM = 20 meV) at low temperature. The presented quantum wells are well suited for being embedded in lattice matched ZnTe based microcavities.

We report on the technological and optical investigations of quantum dots (QDs) formation with magnetic ions, in particular QDs with single manganese ions. Motivation of our study was to control the ion–exciton interaction by controlling the position of a magnetic ion in a QD. We used molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) of CdTe/ZnTe QDs (zinc blend structure) and we studied the impact of the position of Mn δ -doping in the CdTe layer on their optical properties. The position of Mn δ -doping affects emission spectra of individual QDs with single magnetic ions and properties of QDs ensemble such as QDs density or photoluminescence energy.

This work is devoted to epitaxy and magnetooptical study of (Zn,Co)Te and (Cd,Co)Te dilute magnetic semiconductors. Giant Zeeman effect is observed in both reflectivity and photoluminescence measurements. Magnetoreflectivity is used to determine cobalt composition. Magnetophotoluminescence reveals quenching due to intra-ionic cobalt transitions. The quenching is more effective at zero magnetic field than at high magnetic field, and in (Cd,Co)Te comparing to (Zn,Co)Te.

We report on the method of fabrication of a photonic microstructure that contains a single magnetic ion. Exactly one manganese ion was introduced into a self-assembled CdTe quantum dot, which was located in a ZnTe based micropillar cavity. The multistep fabrication procedure includes molecular beam epitaxy growth, optical characterization, and focused ion beam etching. Realization of the structure was confirmed by the observation of spectroscopic exciton lines split by six due to the exchange interaction with a manganese ion. The cavity mode was tuned to the quantum dot emission energy by a variation of the temperature. The presented technology is developed to be applied in optoelectronics based on solitary dopants.

Statistical properties of neutral excitons, biexcitons and trions confined to natural quantum dots formed in the InAs/GaAs wetting layer are reported. The correlation of the trion binding energy and the biexciton binding energy was found. Magnetospectroscopic measurements of the excitons revealed also the correlation of excitonic effective g* factor of an exciton with the biexciton binding energy. The qualitative picture of the effect of quantum Confinement on the observed correlations is presented.

This work presents methods of controlling the density of self-assembled CdTe quantum dots (QDs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Two approaches are discussed: increasing the deposition temperature of CdTe and the reduction of CdTe layer thickness. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements at low temperature confirms that both methods can be used for significant reduction of QDs density from 10$^{10}$QD/cm$^2$ to 10$^7$-10$^8$QD/cm$^2$. For very low QDs density, identification of all QDs lines observed in the spectrum is possible., Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure

We present the results of a comprehensive magneto-optical characterization of single CdTe quantum dots containing a few ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ ions. We find that some quantum dots exhibit an unexpected evolution of excitonic photoluminescence spectrum with the magnetic field. At a certain value of the magnetic field, specific for each quantum dot, each of the broad spectral lines related to the recombination of various excitonic complexes confined inside the dot transforms into a pair of narrow lines split by several meV. We interpret this abrupt change in the character of excitonic emission spectrum as a consequence of a transition from a nonpolarized state of the ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ spins in a low field regime to a highly (almost fully) polarized state above the critical magnetic field. Various optical experiments, including polarization-resolved studies, investigation of different excitation regimes and time-resolved measurements corroborate this scenario. However, these measurements indicate also that the observed effect is not related or influenced by the photocreated charge carriers, but it is rather originating from unusual spin configuration in the cluster of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{2+}$ ions.

The family of organic-inorganic tri-halide perovskites including MA (MethylAmmonium)PbI$_{3}$, MAPbI$_{3-x}$Cl$_{x}$, FA (FormAmidinium)PbI$_{3}$ and FAPbBr$_{3}$ are having a tremendous impact on the field of photovoltaic cells due to their ease of deposition and efficiencies, but device performance can be significanly affected by inhomogeneities. Here we report a study of temperature dependent micro-photoluminescence which shows a strong spatial inhomogeneity related to the presence of microcrystalline grains, which can be both light and dark. In all of the tri-iodide based materials there is evidence that the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition observed around 160K does not occur uniformly across the sample with domain formation related to the underlying microcrystallite grains, some of which remain in the high temperature, tetragonal, phase even at very low temperatures. At low temperature the tetragonal domains can be significantly influenced by local defects in the layers. In FAPbBr$_{3}$ a more macroscopic domain structure is observed with large numbers of grains forming phase correlated regions., Main text + supplementary information

A recently discovered class of two-dimensional semiconductors exhibits a novel degree of freedom known as valley pseudospin. New results show that a weak magnetic field can significantly extend the depolarization time of this pseudospin.

We present a polarization-resolved photoluminescence excitation study of the absorption spectrum of a $p$-shell neutral exciton in a single CdTe/ZnTe quantum dot. We find that the fine structure of the $p$-shell exciton is completely analogous to the fine structure of the $s$-shell exciton, including the selection rules and the effects of a magnetic field applied in Faraday and Voigt configurations. The energy spectrum of the $p$-shell exciton is found to be well described by introducing respective isotropic and anisotropic constants of the exchange interaction between a $p$-shell electron and a $p$-shell hole. The typical values of these exchange constants averaged over several randomly selected quantum dots yield ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}^{pp}=(0.92\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.16)$ meV and ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{1}^{pp}=(0.58\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.25)$ meV. Additionally, we demonstrate that the nonresonant relaxation of the $p$-shell exciton conserves the exciton spin to a very high degree for both bright and dark exciton configurations.

Cd(Se,Te) quantum dots (QDs) in a ZnSe barrier typically exhibit a very high spectral density, which precludes investigation of single dot photoluminescence. We design, grow, and study individual Cd(Se,Te)/ZnSe QDs of low spectral density of emission lines achieved by the implementation of Mn-assisted epitaxial growth. We find an unusually large variation of exciton-biexciton energy difference ($3\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\text{meV}\ensuremath{\le}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{E}_{X\ensuremath{-}XX}\ensuremath{\le}26$ meV) and of exciton radiative recombination rate in the statistics of QDs. We observe a strong correlation between the exciton-biexciton energy difference, exciton recombination rate, splitting between dark and bright excitons, and additionally the exciton fine-structure splitting ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{1}$ and the Land\'e factor. The above results indicate that the values of the ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{1}$ and of the Land\'e factor in the studied QDs are dictated primarily by the electron and hole respective spatial shift and wave functions overlap, which vary from dot to dot due to a different degree of localization of electrons and holes in, respectively, CdSe- and CdTe-rich QD regions.