Peculiar spectra of dark and bright excitons in alloyed nanowire quantum dots

Abstract

Excitons in alloyed nanowire quantum dots have unique spectra as shown here using atomistic calculations. The bright exciton splitting is triggered solely by alloying and despite cylindrical quantum dot shape reaches over $15~\mu$eV, contrary to previous theoretical predictions, however, in line with experimental data. This splitting can however be tuned by electric field to go below $1$~$\mu$eV threshold. The dark exciton optical activity is also strongly affected by alloying reaching notable $1/3500$ fraction of the bright exciton and having large out-of-plane polarized component.