We present a study of the emission of $\mathrm{GaN}∕\mathrm{AlN}$ self-assembled quantum dots grown on $a$ -plane 6H-SiC showing evidence of the suppression of the internal electric field. The strain in dots and barriers is determined by means of Raman scattering and the induced piezoelectric polarizations are estimated. These reveal a compensation of the spontaneous polarization and justify the lack of a quantum confined Stark effect found in the photoluminescence spectra. Strain effects and strong confinement are responsible for the partial depolarization of the emission and its energy dependence.

At the core of attosecond science lies the ability to generate laser pulses of subfemtosecond duration. In tabletop devices the process relies on high-harmonic generation, where a major challenge is to obtain high yields and high cutoff energies required for the generation of attosecond pulses. We develop a computational method that can simultaneously resolve these issues by optimizing the driving pulses using quantum optimal control theory. Our target functional, an integral over the harmonic yield over a desired energy range, leads to a remarkable cutoff extension and yield enhancement for a one-dimensional model H atom. The physical enhancement process is shown to be twofold: the cutoff extension is of classical origin, whereas the yield enhancement arises from increased tunneling probability. The scheme is directly applicable to more realistic models and, within straightforward refinements, also to experimental verification.

The polarization of the emission from a set of highly strained $a$-plane GaN/AlN multiple quantum wells of varying well widths has been studied. A single photoluminescence peak is observed that shifts to higher energies as the quantum well thickness decreases due to quantum confinement. The emitted light is linearly polarized. For the thinnest samples the preferential polarization direction is perpendicular to the wurtzite $c$ axis with a degree of polarization that decreases with increasing well width. However, for the thickest well the preferred polarization direction is parallel to the $c$ axis. Raman scattering, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy studies have been performed to determine the three components of the strain tensor in the active region. Moreover, the experimental results have been compared with the strain values computed by means of a model based on the elastic continuum theory. A high anisotropic compressive in-plane strain has been found, namely, $-0.6\mathrm{\%}$ and $-2.8\mathrm{\%}$ along the in-plane directions $\left[1\overline{1}00\right]$ and [0001], respectively, for the thickest quantum well. The oscillator strength of the lowest optical transition has been calculated within the framework of a multiband envelope function model for various quantum well widths and strain values. The influence of confinement and strain on the degree of polarization is discussed and compared with experiment considering various sets of material parameters.