Effect of mechanical strain on the optical properties of quantum dots: controlling exciton shape, orientation, and phase with a mechanical strain.

We show how a nanomechanical strain can be used to dynamically reengineer the optics of quantum dots, giving a tool to manipulate mechanoexciton shape, orientation, fine structure splitting, and optical transitions, transfer carriers between dots, and interact qubits for quantum processing. Most importantly, a nanomechanical strain reengineers both the magnitude and phase of the exciton exchange coupling to tune exchange splittings, change the phase of spin mixing, and rotate the polarization of mechanoexcitons, providing phase and energy control of excitons.