Selective manipulation of self-assembled quantum dot electronic states via use of a lateral potential confinement layer

Manipulation and control of the electronic structure of quantum dots (QDs) is of central importance to their applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Such tuning is typically carried out by varying the QD average size and shape, or the capping layer, or annealing QDs thermally. Most these approaches do not allow selective tuning some QD states but not others. In this report, we introduce and demonstrate a mean of achieving selective tuning of energy levels through the use of a thin layer, called here the lateral potential confinement layer (LPCL), positioned at the bottom, upper, or top regions of the QDs.