Formation of 10 nm-Scale Edge Quantum Wire Structures and Their Excitonic and Electronic Properties

After a brief historical review on edge quantum wire (QWR) structures, we report on our systematic study to prepare and investigate a series of GaAs/AlGaAs and GaAs/AlAs T-shaped edge QWRs. In particular, we examine various features of one-dimensional excitons, such as their binding energy, optical anisotropy, and shrinkage of wavefunctions, and discuss both potentials and challenges of this approach. We describe also our recent work on a novel resonant tunneling structure where electrostatically induced QWR states are involved. We compare this T-shaped QWR approach and its extension to quantum dot structures with other epitaxial growth techniques of nanostructures.