Spectroscopy of molecular states in a few-electron double quantum dot

Semiconductor quantum dots, so-called artificial atoms, have attracted considerable interest as mesoscopic model systems and prospective building blocks of the “quantum computer”. Electrons are trapped locally in quantum dots, forming controllable and coherent mesoscopic atom- and moleculelike systems. Electrostatic definition of quantum dots by use of top gates on a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure allows wide variation of the potential in the underlying two-dimensional electron gas. By distorting the trapping potential of a single quantum dot, a strongly tunnel-coupled double quantum dot can be defined. Transport spectroscopy measurements on such a system charged with N=0,1,2,… electrons are presented. In particular, the tunnel splitting of the double well potential for up to one trapped electron is unambiguously identified. It becomes visible as a pronounced level anticrossing at finite source drain voltage. A magnetic field perpendicular to the two-dimensional electron gas also modulates the orbital excitation energies in each individual dot. By tuning the asymmetry of the double well potential at finite magnetic field the chemical potentials of an excited state of one of the quantum dots and the ground state of the other quantum dot can be aligned, resulting in a second level anticrossing with a larger tunnel splitting. In addition, data on the two-electron transport spectrum are presented.     

Manipulating the spin states in a double molecular magnets tunneling junction

We theoretically explore the spin transport through nano-structures consisting of two serially coupled single-molecular magnets (SMM) sandwiched between two nonmagnetic electrodes. We find that the magnetization of SMM can be controlled by the spin transfer torque with respect to the bias voltage direction, and the electron current can be switched on/off in different magnetic structures. Such a manipulation is performed by full electrical manner, and needs neither external magnetic field nor ferromagnetic electrodes in the tunneling junction. The proposal device scheme can be realized with the use of the present technology [6] and has potential applications in molecular spintronics or quantum information processing.     

经典光场相干控制金属纳米线表面等离子体传输

利用全量子力学的方法从理论上研究了利用经典光场相干控制半导体量子点-金属纳米线复合体系中表面等离子体传输特性. 计算中假设金属纳米线表面等离子体具有线性色散关系,半导体量子点具有梯形三能级结构. 分析表明:通过加或不加经典光场,可以控制表面等离子体被反射还是透射;加上光场后,反射峰、透射峰的位置以及两反射峰之间的距离都可以由经典光场控制. 关键词： 表面等离子体 量子点 散射     

Probing the effective nuclear-spin magnetic field in a single quantum dot via full counting statistics

We study theoretically the full counting statistics of electron transport through a quantum dot weakly coupled to two ferromagnetic leads, in which an effective nuclear-spin magnetic field originating from the configuration of nuclear spins is considered. We demonstrate that the quantum coherence between the two singly-occupied eigenstates and the spin polarization of two ferromagnetic leads play an important role in the formation of super-Poissonian noise. In particular, the orientation and magnitude of the effective field have a significant influence on the variations of the values of high-order cumulants, and the variations of the skewness and kurtosis values are more sensitive to the orientation and magnitude of the effective field than the shot noise. Thus, the high-order cumulants of transport current can be used to qualitatively extract information on the orientation and magnitude of the effective nuclear-spin magnetic field in a single quantum dot.     

Tunable quantum dot resonator embedded in a quantum wire

Combined quantum wire and quantum dot system is theoretically predicted to show unique conductance properties associated with Coulomb interactions. We use a split gate technique to fabricate a quantum wire containing a quantum dot with two tunable potential barriers in a two-dimensional electron gas. We observe the effects of the quantum dot cavity on the electron transport through the quantum wire, such as Coulomb oscillations near the pinch-off voltage and periodic conductance oscillations on the first conductance plateau.     

Spin-flip effects in a parallel-coupled double quantum dot molecule

We investigate theoretically the electronic transport through a parallel-coupled double quantum dot (DQD) molecule attached to metallic electrodes, in which the spin-flip scattering on each quantum dot is considered. Special attention is paid to the effects of the intradot spin-flip processes on the linear conductance by using the equation of motion approach for Green’s functions. When a weak spin-flip scattering on each quantum dot is present, the single Fano peak splits into two Fano peaks, and the Breit–Wigner resonance may be suppressed slightly. When the spin-flip scattering strength on each quantum dot becomes strong, the linear conductance spectrum consists of two Breit–Wigner peaks and two Fano peaks due to the quantum interference effects. The positions and shapes of these resonant peaks can be controlled by using the magnetic flux through the quantum device.     

抛物量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的相互作用能

研究了抛物量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质,采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换方法导出了束缚极化子的振动频率、有效质量和相互作用能。讨论了量子点的有效受限长度、电子LO声子耦合强度和库仑场对抛物量子点中弱耦合极化子的振动频率、有效质量和相互作用能的影响。数值计算结果表明:弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率和相互作用能随有效受限长度的减少而急剧增大,振动频率随库仑势以及电子LO声子耦合强度的增加而增加,而相互作用能随库仑势以及电子LO声子耦合强度的增加而减小。有效质量仅与电子LO声子耦合强度有关。     

Microwave control of transport through a chaotic mesoscopic dot

We establish analogy between a microwave ionization of Rydberg atoms and a charge transport through a chaotic quantum dot induced by a monochromatic field in a regime with a potential barrier between dot contacts. We show that the quantum coherence leads to dynamical localization of electron excitation in energy so that only a finite number of photons is absorbed inside the dot. The theory developed determines the dependence of localization length on dot and microwave parameters showing that the microwave power can switch the dot between metallic and insulating regimes. ultiphoton ionization and excitation to highly excited states (e.g., Rydberg states)     

Shape-dependence of magnetotransport through quantum dots

Magnetotransport through quantum dot structures is investigated numerically via a scattering matrix technique. The results for two typical structures show that the magnetoconductance is strongly dependent on the quantum dot geometry. For the symmetric quantum dot structure, it is found that the magnetoconductance profiles exhibit irregular structures and the magnetic field plays a similar role to that of disorder in the electron transport. For the T-shaped quantum dot structure, the oscillations in the conductance are found to be completely suppressed and the quantized conductance plateaus are recovered in a strong magnetic field, which is attributed to the asymmetry of the structure geometry with respect to the right- and left-moving edge states.     

磁场和库仑场对抛物量子点中弱耦合极化子激发态性质的影响

采用线性组合算符和幺正变换方法研究了磁场和库仑场对抛物量子点中极化子激发态性质的影响。导出了抛物量子点中弱耦合束缚磁极化子的振动频率、第一内部激发态能量、激发能量与量子点的有效受限长度、库仑束缚势和磁场的回旋频率之间的变化关系。通过数值计算,结果表明:抛物量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、第一内部激发态能量、激发能量均随量子点的有效受限长度减小而迅速增大。随库仑束缚势增大而增大。随磁场的回旋频率的增加而增大。     

环形碳纳米管-量子点耦合系统的介观输运

应用非平衡格林函数方法研究通过环形碳纳米管-量子点耦合系统的介观输运.相干隧穿与环形碳纳米管和量子点各自的能级结构有强烈的依赖关系,阿哈郎诺夫-玻姆效应使能级周期性变化,隧穿电流则随磁通量作周期性振荡.环形碳纳米管的具体纳米结构显示出金属-半导体相变特性,这种行为也在输出电流中体现出来.子系统量子能级的匹配与失配关系在介观输运过程中起重要作用.     

非对称量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质

采用线性组合算符和幺正变换方法研究了非对称量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质。导出了非对称量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率和基态能量随量子点的横向和纵向有效受限长度,库仑束缚势和电子-声子耦合强度的变化关系。通过数值计算,结果表明:非对称量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率和基态能量随量子点的横向和纵向有效受限长度的减小而迅速增大。     

量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的内部激发态性质

采用线性组合算符和幺正变换方法研究库仑束缚势对量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子激发态性质的影响。计算了束缚极化子的振动频率、第一内部激发态能量、激发能量和共振频率随量子点的有效受限长度,电子-声子耦合强度和库仑束缚势的变化关系。结果表明:量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、第一内部激发态能量、激发能量和共振频率随量子点的有效受限长度的减少而迅速增大,随库仑束缚势的增加而增大。     

Phase Interference in a Multi-level Quantum-Dot System

Considering phase interference, we investigate coherent transport in a quantum dot by using a thermopower. In the single process of the electronic transport through the quantum dot, it is shown that the phase interference between the levels of a quantum dot is like the Aharonov-Bohm effect. The result indicates that the thermopower is very sensitive to phase interference. It is also found that the phase-difference change of the different levels of the quantum dot can determine the shape of the thermopower.     

Single quantum dots as scanning tunneling microscope tips

We report the use of single quantum dot structures as tips on a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). A single quantum dot structure with a diameter of less than 200 nm and a height of 2 μm was fabricated by reactive ion etching. This dot was placed on a 40 μm-high mesa and mounted on the tip of a STM. The topography of large structures such as quantum wires or gold test substrates is clearly resolved with such a tip. To check the transport properties of the tip, quantum dot arrays were fabricated on resonant tunneling double barrier structures using the same process parameters. Conventional tunneling spectroscopy clearly resolved the 0D states in our samples. Using a metal substrate as second electrode such STM tips can be used to perform high resolution energy spectroscopy on single dots and free standing wire structures.     

Effect of elastic anisotropy on the strain fields and band edges in stacked InAs/GaAs quantum dot nanostructures

The effect of elastic anisotropy on the strain fields and confinement potentials in InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) nanostructures was investigated for an isolated dot and a stacked multi-layer dots using finite element analysis and model solid theory. The assumption of isotropy tends to underestimate especially hydrostatic strain that is known to modify confinement potentials in conduction band. Consideration of anisotropy results in a wider band gap and shallower potential well as compared with the isotropic model. Since the band gap and potential well depth would be related to opto-electronic properties of quantum dot systems via quantum mechanical effects, it is suggested that consideration of elastic anisotropy in the calculation of strains and band structures is necessary for the design of QD-based opto-electronic devices.     

Transport properties of surface acoustic wave based single electron transport device in the presence of an impurity potential

We report the transport properties of a surface acoustic wave based single electron transport device, which contains an unintentional quantum dot induced by background impurity potential fluctuations. It is found that the presence of the impurity potential can cause a deviation of the acoustoelectric current from its quantized value. Through the charging effect of the quantum dot induced by the impurity, we get an approximate relationship between the applied gate voltage and its corresponding electrostatic potential barrier height, together with the Coulomb charging energy needed to add a second electron into the dynamic quantum dot. Moreover, the amplitude of the surface acoustic wave is also estimated within a simple model.     

Luttinger-liquid behavior in tunneling through a quantum dot at zero magnetic field

Thermodynamic and transport properties of a two-dimensional circular quantum dot are studied theoretically at zero magnetic field. In the limit of a large confining potential, where the dot spectrum exhibits a shell structure, it is argued that both spectral and transport properties should exhibit Luttinger liquid behavior. These predictions are verified by direct numerical diagonalization. The experimental implications of such Luttinger liquid characteristics are discussed.     

含InAs自组装量子点肖特基二极管的关联放电效应

制作了含自组织量子点的金属半导体金属双肖特基势垒器件,研究了器件的电流输运特性.在量子点充放电造成的电流迟滞回路的基础上,观察到了电压扫描过程中的电流由低态到高态的跳跃现象.这种电流跳跃来源于充电量子点的关联放电效应.根据量子点系统的哈密顿量,分析了充电量子点关联放电的原因.这种关联放电效应起源于量子点与2DEG的相互作用,当一个量子点放电时通过量子点和2DEG电流的变化会影响其他的量子点,从而促使其放电,这种过程在整个系统中放大导致所有的量子点放电 关键词： 关联效应 自组装量子点