Dear colleagues,

Quantum-size confinement in semiconductors leads to an increase of optical transition energies, but also important changes in other physical properties (such as oscillator strength, density of states, and transport) and new optical properties (such as single photon emission, and entangled photons). If the confinement is produced in one, two, or three dimensions, the low-dimensional semiconductors are known as quantum wells (QWs), wires (QWRs), and dots (QDs), respectively.

The first, QWs, have been studied for more than 40 years now, with very important applications in lasers. In recent years, after the discovery of graphene, the investigation of single- (2D) and few-layer (quasi-2D or QW) semiconductors obtained by exfoliation, as in the case of transition metal dichalcogenides, but also obtained by chemical synthesis (2D and 2D/3D perovskites, and nanoplatelets) and CVD-based growth, have widened the physics and application fields for QWs.

Similarly, from self-assembled QDs obtained by molecular beam epitaxy obtained at 1990’s to colloidal quantum dots popularized in the first decade of 2000s, a lot of physics and applications have been developed during the last 25 years. It is important to mention here the studies on quantum light based on QDs as “artificial atoms” and their coupling to microcavities, and the development of solar cells and LEDs based on colloidal QDs (II-VI and IV-VI as CdSe and PbS, respectively), a research line followed currently by using other nanocrystals, such as those based on metal halide perovskites.

This Special Issue will be focused on basic research (optical transitions and single-photon emission in single nanocrystals), and current and prospective applications of QWs and QDs in the fields of optical sensing, photonics (stimulated emission and lasing), and optoelectronics (photodetectors and solar cells, and LEDs).  

Prof. Dr. Juan P. Martínez Pastor
Guest Editor

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