Strong and robust polarization anisotropy of site- and size-controlled single InGaN/GaN quantum wires.

Optical polarization is an indispensable component in photonic applications, the orthogonality of which extends the degree of freedom of information, and strongly polarized and highly efficient small-size emitters are essential for compact polarization-based devices. We propose a group III-nitride quantum wire for a highly-efficient, strongly-polarized emitter, the polarization anisotropy of which stems solely from its one-dimensionality. We fabricated a site-selective and size-controlled single quantum wire using the geometrical shape of a three-dimensional structure under a self-limited growth mechanism. We present a strong and robust optical polarization anisotropy at room temperature emerging from a group III-nitride single quantum wire. Based on polarization-resolved spectroscopy and strain-included 6-band k·p calculations, the strong anisotropy is mainly attributed to the anisotropic strain distribution caused by the one-dimensionality, and its robustness to temperature is associated with an asymmetric quantum confinement effect.