Density-functional theory of inhomogeneous electron systems in thin quantum wires

Motivated by current interest in strongly correlated quasi-one-dimensional (1D) Luttinger liquids subject to axial confinement, we present a novel density-functional study of few-electron systems confined by power-low external potentials inside a short portion of a thin quantum wire. The theory employs the 1D homogeneous Coulomb liquid as the reference system for a Kohn-Sham treatment and transfers the Luttinger ground-state correlations to the inhomogeneous electron system by means of a suitable local-density approximation (LDA) to the exchange-correlation energy functional. We show that such 1D-adapted LDA is appropriate for fluid-like states at weak coupling, but fails to account for the transition to a “Wigner molecules” regime of electron localization as observed in thin quantum wires at very strong coupling. A detailed analyzes is given for the two-electron problem under axial harmonic confinement.     

Elementary excitations in multiple quantum wire structures

We calculate the plasmon dispersion of electrons in multiple quantum wire structures. Wave function overlapping effects between different wires are neglected. The Coulomb interaction potential is calculated for a model with circular wire area. Analytical results for the excitation spectrum of electron multiple quantum wire structures are obtained within an one-subband model. Landau damping of intrasubband plasmons is discussed. Results for an electron superlattice within a two-subband model are presented and the coupling of intersubband plasmons with intrasubband plasmons is calculated. We compare the theoretical results with recent Raman measurements of intrasubband plasmons in Al _x Ga_1–x As/GaAs wire superlattices. The plasmon dispersion for boson multiple quantum wire structures also is calculated.     

Purely quadratic dispersion of surface plasmon in Ag/Ni(111): the influence of electron confinement

Surface plasmon dispersion in nanoscale thin Ag films deposited onto the Ni(111) surface was investigated by angle‐resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy. We found that the dispersion curve contains only the quadratic term. The vanishing of the linear term was ascribed to the presence in the film of Ag 5sp‐related quantum well states. Screening effects enhanced by electron confinement in Ag quantum well states push the position of the centroid of the induced charge of the surface plasmon less inside the interface compared to other Ag systems, rendering null the linear coefficient of the dispersion curve. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Plasmons in the modulated and confined 2DEG: A Raman scattering study

Lateral wire arrays have been fabricated from a single modulation-doped GaAs quantum well employing reactive ion etching. Depending on the etch depth, the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the well acquires different degrees of modulation up to complete confinement. The different regimes are identified by their unique photoluminescence and Raman spectra. Deep-etched wires show plasmon resonances down to a width of 100nm.     

Longitudinal dielectric behavior of a harmonically bound two-dimensional electron gas in a uniform magnetic field

We have employed random-phase approximation to determine the inverse dielectric function for a harmonically confined two-dimensional electron gas in a magnetic field. We examine the plasmon dispersion relation and show the results for the variation of plasmon frequency with the magnetic field strength and confinement energy.     

Spin polarization effect in 2D and Q2D electron gas

We use the constructed spin-dependent static local field functions to calculate the plasmon dispersion of two dimensional spin polarized electron gas (2D SPEG) over a range of electron densities at arbitrarily spin polarization. We also investigate how the finite width of electron layer will affect the plasmon frequency and inverse static dielectric function of 2D SPEG. Our results show that the effect of finite thickness on plasmon dispersion and inverse dielectric function becomes considerable even at high densities in 2D SPEG.     

Effect of confinement on the weak antilocalization in InGaAs/InP quasi-1D structures

Magnetotransport properties of quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) quantum wires based on InGaAs/InP heterojunctions were studied. The influence of the wire width as well as of the temperature on the weak antilocalization was investigated. A crossover from the weak antilocalization to the weak localization regime was observed in the very narrow wires. The analysis of the characteristic scattering lengths suggests a strong effect of the electron confinement and diffusive boundary scattering on the suppression of the weak antilocalization.     

Interplay of structural and temperature effects on plasmonic excitations at noble-metal interfaces

The interplay of structural and electronic properties on plasmon modes was investigated for a thin Ag film grown at room temperature on Cu(111). Surface plasmons are confined within Ag grains, as indicated by the analysis of their dispersion relationship, which is dispersionless up to a critical wave-vector. Surface plasmon confinement is removed upon annealing at 400?K. The thermal treatment induces a flattening of the Ag adlayer with a merging of Ag islands, and, moreover, a strong enhancement of surface conductivity.     

Low-frequency spin fluctuations in Skyrmions confined by wires: measurements of local nuclear spin relaxation

We investigate low-frequency electron spin dynamics in a quantum Hall system with wire confinement by nuclear spin relaxation measurements. We developed a technique to measure the local nuclear spin relaxation rate T(1)(-1). T(1)(-1) is enhanced on both sides of the local filling factor ν(wire)=1, reflecting low-frequency fluctuations of electron spins associated with Skyrmions inside the wire. As the wire width is decreased, the fast nuclear spin relaxation is suppressed in a certain range of Skyrmion density. This suggests that the multi-Skyrmion state is modified and the low-frequency spin fluctuations are suppressed by the wire confinement.     

Quantum confinement in monatomic Cu chains on Cu(111)

The existence of one-dimensional (1D) electronic states in Cu/Cu(111) chains assembled by atomic manipulation is revealed by low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Our experimental analysis of the chain-localized electron dynamics shows that the dispersion is fully described within a 1D tight-binding approach. DFT calculations confirm the confinement of unoccupied states to the chain in the relevant energy range, along with a significant extension of these states into the vacuum region.     

Minigap plasmons in a two-dimensional electron gas subjected to a one-dimensional periodic potential

We investigate the plasmon excitations in a two-dimensional electron gas subjected to a one-dimensional weak periodic potential. We derive and discuss the dispersion relations for both intrasubband and intersubband excitations within the framework of Bohm-Pines' random-phase approximation. For such an anisotropic system with spatially modulated charge density, we observe a splitting of the 2D plasmon dispersion. The splitting is caused by the superlattice effect of the charge-density modulation on the collective excitation spectrum. We also discuss how the tunneling and the potential amplitude affect the plasmon excitations.     

The energy-loss rate via polar-optical phonon scattering in quantum wires

The hot-electron energy-loss rate (ELR) conditioned by confined and interface polar-optical (PO) phonons for a quasi-one-dimensional cylindrical quantum wire embedded in a dielectric medium is investigated analytically. It is shown that the inclusion of the PO-phonon confinement effects is crucial for accurate calculation of the ELR in quantum wire. Taking into account the nonequilibrium phonon populations, the hot-electron ELR is derived by a model, which includes the lowest subband occupation and the phonon confinement effects. The contribution of intersubband transitions to electron ELR for the GaAs quantum wire embedded in Al_xGa_1−xAs is estimated. The extrema on the ELR dependences on electron density are obtained.     

Short-wavelength plasmons in low-dimensional systems

The dispersion of plasma waves in systems of various dimensions is investigated up to the end point of the spectrum. In 2D and 3D systems, the plasmon spectrum still ends (due to Landau damping) within the applicability range of the quasi-classical approximation, i.e., for ?k ? p _F (?k is the plasmon momentum and p _F is the electron Fermi momentum). In 1D systems, the results are qualitatively different, since the Landau damping is concentrated in a region where the quantum effects cannot be ignored. This peculiarity of 1D systems gives rise to undamped branches of acoustic plasmons with a phase velocity lower than the electron Fermi velocity in multicomponent 1D plasmas.     

Coherent "metallic" resistance and medium localization in a disordered one-dimensional insulator

It is believed that a disordered one-dimensional (1D) wire with coherent electronic conduction is an insulator with the mean resistance approximately equal e(2L/xi) and resistance dispersion Delta(rho) approximately equal e(L/xi), where L is the wire length and xi is the electron localization length. Here we show that this 1D insulator undergoes at full coherence the crossover to a 1D "metal," caused by thermal smearing and resonant tunneling. As a result, Delta(rho) is smaller than unity and tends to be L/xi independent, while grows with L/xi first nearly linearly and then polynomially, manifesting the so-called medium localization.     

Why would anyone want to build a narrow channel (quantum wire) transistor?

We show that while narrow channel (quantum wire) transistors may not exhibit higher unity gain frequency or switching speed than wide channel (quantum well) transistors, they may none the less possess vastly improved noise characteristics. Thus, they are desirable if the application calls for maximal signal-to-noise ratio. The reduced noise temperature in quasi-one-dimensional channels is mostly an aftermath of acoustic phonon confinement (which modifies the phonon dispersion relations), rather than carrier confinement. This is very counter-intuitive since acoustic phonon confinement (and the resultant modification of the phonon dispersion relations) also increases carrier scattering rates by several orders of magnitude.     

Surface plasmon polaritons frequency-blue shift in low confinement factor excitation region

Surface plasmon polaritons' (SPPs') frequency blue shift is observed in finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation of parallel electron excitation Au bulk structure. Comparing with cold dispersion of SPPs, an obvious frequency blue shift is obtained in low confinement region excitation simulation results. Then, according to SPPs' transverse attenuation characteristics, the excited frequency mode instead of cold dispersion corresponding frequency mode matches it. Thence, this excited mode is confirmed to be SPPs' mode. As is well known the lower the frequency, the smaller the confinement factor is and the lower the excitation efficiency, the wider the bandwidth of excited SPPs is. And considering the attenuation in whole structure, the excited surface field contains attenuation signal. In a low confinement factor region, the higher the SPPs' frequency, the higher the excitation efficiency is, while broadband frequency information obtained in attenuation signal provides high frequency information in stimulation signal. Thence, in the beam-wave interaction, as the signal oscillation time increases, the frequency of the oscillation field gradually increases. Thus, compared with cold dispersion, the frequency of excited SPP is blueshifted This hypothesis is verified by monitoring the time domain signal of excited field in low and high confinement factor regions and comparing them. Then, this frequency-blue shift is confirmed to have commonality of SPPs, which is independent of SPPs' material and structure. Finally, this frequency-blue shift is confirmed in an attenuated total reflection (ATR) experiment. Owing to frequency dependence of most of SPPs' devices, such as coherent enhancement radiation and enhancement transmission devices, the frequency-blue shift presented here is of great influence in the SPPs applications.     

Electric field driven plasmon dispersion in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

We present a theoretical study on the electric field driven plasmon dispersion of the two-dimensional electron gas(2DEG)in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors(HEMTs).By introducing a drifted Fermi–Dirac distribution,we calculate the transport properties of the 2DEG in the AlGaN/GaN interface by employing the balance-equation approach based on the Boltzmann equation.Then,the nonequilibrium Fermi–Dirac function is obtained by applying the calculated electron drift velocity and electron temperature.Under random phase approximation(RPA),the electric field driven plasmon dispersion is investigated.The calculated results indicate that the plasmon frequency is dominated by both the electric field and the angle between wavevector and electric field.Importantly,the plasmon frequency could be tuned by the applied source–drain bias voltage besides the gate voltage(change of the electron density).     

Effect of finite-temperature local field corrections on many-body properties of quantum wires

The effect of low temperature on the many-body properties of an n-type GaAs-based quasi one-dimensional electron gas (quantum wire) has been investigated in the RPA, Hubbard and STLS approximations. Numerical results for the finite-temperature static structure factors, local field corrections, pair correlation functions, plasmon dispersion relations and inverse static dielectric functions of the system have been obtained and compared with the zero-temperature values. As a general result, the behavior of the system at finite-temperature does not change significantly at small values of wave vectors. Also, it has been found out that while applying the temperature dependent Hubbard and STLS to the quantum wire yields different results for local field corrections and pair correlation functions, the increase in temperature within all approximations causes the plasmon modes to shift upward in energy and the sharp peaks in the inverse static dielectric curve to become less pronounced.     

Exchange and correlation effects in a semiconductor quantum-well wire

The exchange and correlation effects of a quasi-one-dimensional electron gas are investigated by using the self-consistent-field approximation theory proposed by Singwi, Tosi, Land and Sjölander for the response function of the electron system. The present results are applied to GaAs-GaAlAs rectangular quantum-well-wires with the appropriate form factors that take into account the influence of the finite width of the electron layer. The plasmon dispersion relation and structure factor are calculated as a function of electron density and thickness of the wire. Results for the total energy per electron including kinetic, exchange and correlation energies and electron effective mass are presented. The Hartree-Fock and the random-phase approximation (RPA) results are also presented for comparison. We have found that exchange and correlation effects are more evident in wires of reduced dimensions.     

Spatial dispersion in metamaterials with negative dielectric permittivity and its effect on surface waves

The effect of spatial dispersion on the electromagnetic properties of a metamaterial consisting of a three-dimensional mesh of crossing metallic wires is reported. The effective dielectric permittivity tensor epsilon(ij)(omega, k) of the wire mesh is calculated in the limit of small wavenumbers. The procedure for extracting the spatial dispersion from the omega versus k dependence for electromagnetic waves propagating in the bulk of the metamaterial is developed. These propagating modes are identified as similar to the longitudinal (plasmon) and transverse (photon) waves in a plasma. Spatial dispersion is found to have the most dramatic effect on the surface waves that exist at the wire mesh-vacuum interface.