Superradiant emission from self-assembled light emitters: From molecules to quantum dots

Colloidal synthesis methods and ultrahigh-vacuum molecular beam epitaxy can tailor semiconductor-based nanoscale single emitters—quantum dots—as the building blocks for classical optoelectronic devices, such as lasers, light-emitting devices, and display technologies. These novel light sources have a basic resemblance of luminescent organic molecules, individually and in the aggregated forms. Highly ordered superstructures of quantum dots, obtained via scalable bottom-up self-assembly, exhibit diverse collective phenomena, such as band-like charge transport or superradiant emission. Superradiance emerges from coherent coupling of several emitters via a common radiation field resulting in a single giant dipole leading to short (sub-nanosecond) and intense (proportional to the squared number of coupled emitters) bursts of light. In this article, we review the basic principles and progress in the development of superradiant emitters with organic molecules and inorganic quantum dots, in view of their integration into classical and novel quantum light sources.