Evidence of magnetic field quenching of phosphorous-doped silicon quantum dots

We present data on the electrical transport properties of highly-doped silicon-on-insulator quantum dots under the effect of pulsed magnetic fields up to 48 T. At low field intensities, B < 7 T, we observe a strong modification of the conductance due to the destruction of weak localization whereas at higher fields, where the magnetic field length becomes comparable to the effective Bohr radius of phosphorous in silicon, a strong decrease in conductance is demonstrated. Data in the high and low electric field bias regimes are then compared to show that close to the Coulomb blockade edge magnetically-induced quenching to single donors in the quantum dot is achieved at about 40 T.     

Observation of the first-order transition in ultrafiltration of flexible linear polymer chains

Using a special double-layer membrane to avoid interaction among flow fields generated by different pores, we have, for the first time, observed the predicted discontinuous first-order transition in ultrafiltration of flexible linear polymer chains. Namely, the chain could pass through a pore much smaller than its unperturbed radius only when the flow rate is higher than a certain value. When only one chain and one pore are considered in theory, such a threshold is surprisingly independent of both the chain length and the pore size. Our results reveal that for a membrane with many pores and at a microscopic flow rate () lower than the threshold, the inevitable blocking of some pores by longer nonstretched coiled chains increases in those unblocked pores because the macroscopic flow rate () is a constant. Long chains have two populations, coiled and stretched, in a real ultrafiltration experiment when is lower than the threshold.     

Transport and Conductance in Fibonacci Graphene Superlattices with Electric and Magnetic Potentials

We investigate the electron transport and conductance properties in Fibonacci quasi-periodic graphene superlattices with electrostatic barriers and magnetic vector potentials.It is found that a new Dirac point appears in the band structure of graphene superlattice and the position of the Dirac point is exactly located at the energy corresponding to the zero-averaged wave number.The magnetic and electric potentials modify the energy band structure and transmission spectrum in entirely diverse ways.In addition,the angular-dependent transmission is blocked by the potential barriers at certain incident angles due to the appearance of the evanescent states.The effects of lattice constants and different potentials on angular-averaged conductance are also discussed.     

Manifestations of phase-coherent transport in graphene

The electronic transport properties of graphene exhibit pronounced differences from those of conventional two dimensional electron systems investigated in the past. As a consequence, well established phenomena such as the integer quantum Hall effect and weak localization manifest themselves differently in graphene. Here we present an overview of recent experiments that we have performed to probe phase coherent transport. In particular, we have investigated in great detail Josephson supercurrent and superconducting proximity effect in junctions consisting of a graphene layer in between superconducting electrodes. We have also used the same devices to measure aperiodic conductance fluctuations and weak localization. The experimental results clearly indicate that low-temperature transport in graphene is phase coherent on a ∼ 1μm length scale, irrespective of the position of the Fermi level. We discuss the different behavior of Josephson supercurrent and weak localization in terms of the unusual properties of the electronic states in graphene upon time reversal symmetry.     

Two types of extended states in random dimer barrier superlattices

We study numerically the effects of short-range correlated disorder on the electronic and transport properties of intentionally disordered GaAs–Al_xGa_1−xAs superlattices. We consider layers having identical thickness where the Al concentration x takes at random two different values with the constraint that one of them appears only in pairs, i.e. the random dimer barrier. Various physical quantities such as the conductance, the universal fluctuation conductance, the localization length, the resistance and its probability distribution are statistically computed by means of the transfer matrix formalism to discriminate the nature of the electronic states. In spite of the presence of disorder, the system exhibits two kinds of sets of propagating states lying below the barrier due to the characteristic structure of the superlattice. The states close to the resonance can be viewed as consisting of weakly localized states with very large localization length. In the band tails, i.e. for vanishing conductance, the states are strongly localized. The nature of the transition between these two regimes is quantitatively investigated through relevant physical quantities.     

Graphene-based modulation-doped superlattice structures

The electronic transport properties of graphene-based superlattice structures are investigated. A graphene-based modulation-doped superlattice structure geometry is proposed consisting of periodically arranged alternate layers: InAs/graphene/GaAs/graphene/GaSb. The undoped graphene/GaAs/graphene structure displays a relatively high conductance and enhanced mobilities at increased temperatures unlike the modulation-doped superlattice structure, which is more steady and less sensitive to temperature and the robust electrical tunable control on the screening length scale. The thermionic current density exhibits enhanced behavior due to the presence of metallic (graphene) monolayers in the superlattice structure. The proposed superlattice structure might be of great use for new types of wide-band energy gap quantum devices.     

Prediction of effective stagnant thermal conductivities of porous materials at high temperature by the generalized self-consistent method

The generalized self-consistent method is developed to deal with porous materials at high temperature, accounting for thermal radiation. An exact closed form formula of the local effective thermal conductivity is obtained by solving Laplace's equation, and a good approximate formula with uncoupled conductive and radiative effects is given. A comparison with available experimental data and theoretical predictions demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of the present formula. Numerical examples provide a better understanding of interesting interaction phenomena of pores in heat transfer. It is found that the local effective thermal conductivity divides into two parts. One, attributed to conduction, is independent of pore radius for a fixed porosity and, furthermore, is independent of temperature (actually, it is approximately independent of the temperature) if it is non-dimensionalized by the thermal conductivity of the matrix. The other is due to thermal radiation in pores and strongly depends on the temperature and pore radius. The radiation effect can not be neglected at high temperature and in the case of relatively large pores.     

Mathematical Study of the Water-Vapor Permeability of the Surface Layer of a Homogeneous Porous Material

Permeability in relation to gases and liquids is one of the most important characteristics of porous materials. A porous material can interact with gases and liquids flowing through it in different ways that depend on a material’s permeability. Studies of the interaction of water vapor with materials with uniformly distributed pores are of considerable practical interest, since many of these materials are used in building and construction. Interest is also due to the possibility of expanding the study results obtained for an individual pore to a porous medium if this medium can be represented as a structure with uniformly distributed pores with sufficient accuracy. The dependence of the permeability of an individual cylindrical pore on its radius, length, and characteristics of the process of water-molecule interaction with the pore walls is studied.     

Electronic spin precession in graphene-based superlattice with periodical gate and magnetic modulation

The spin precession in graphene superlattice with periodically modulated electrostatic field and efficient exchange field is investigated theoretically. It is found that the efficient exchange field can induce a spin precession, which is different from the case of the Rashba spin–orbit interaction. The spin precession is complete isoamplitude for normal incidence. For inclined incidence, the precession disappears when the effective exchange field is set into a certain range. It is also found periodical electrostatic field can revive the disappeared precession, but electronic transport is suppressed, which leads to some dips in the conductance spectrum.     

Phase transitions of fluids confined in porous silicon: A differential calorimetry investigation

The phase transitions of non-polar organic fluids and of water, confined in the pores of porous silicon samples, were investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Two types of PS samples (p^- and p⁺ type) with different pore size and morphology were used (with spherical pores with a radius of about 1.5 nm and cylindrical shape with a radius of about 4 nm respectively). The DSC results clearly show that the smaller the pores are, the larger is the decrease in the transition temperature. Moreover, a larger hysteresis between melting and freezing is observed for p⁺ type than for p^- type samples. A critical review of the thermodynamical properties of small particles and confined fluids is presented and used to interpret and discuss our DSC results. The effects of the chemical dissolution as well as the influence of anodization time are presented, showing that thick p⁺ type porous silicon layers are non-homogeneous. The DSC technique which was used for the first time to investigate fluids confined in porous silicon, enables us to deduce original information, such as the pore size distribution, the decrease in the freezing temperature of confined water, and the thickness of non-freezing liquid layer at the pore wall surface. Received: 11 May 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 29 July 1998     

嵌入线型缺陷的石墨纳米带的热输运性质

采用非平衡格林函数方法研究了嵌入有限长、半无限长、 无限长线型缺陷的锯齿型石墨纳米带 (ZGNR)的热输运性质.结果表明, 缺陷类型和缺陷长度对ZGNR的热导有重要影响. 当嵌入的线型缺陷长度相同时, 包含t5t7线型缺陷的石墨纳米带比包含Stone-Wales线型缺陷的条带热导低. 对于嵌入有限长、同种缺陷的ZGNR, 其热导随线型缺陷的长度增加而降低, 但是当线型缺陷很长时, 其热导对缺陷长度的变化不再敏感.通过比较嵌入有限长、半无限长、无限长线型缺陷的ZGNR, 我们发现嵌入无限长缺陷的条带比嵌入半无限长缺陷的条带热导高, 而后者比嵌入有限长线型缺陷的条带热导高. 这主要是因为在这几种结构中声子传输方向的散射界面数不同所导致的. 散射界面越多, 对应的热导就越低. 通过分析透射曲线和声子局域态密度图, 解释了这些热输运现象. 这些研究结果表明线型缺陷能够有效地调控石墨纳米带的热输运性质. 关键词： 石墨烯 线型缺陷 热导     

Mechanical resonance properties of porous graphene membrane; simulation study and proof of concept experiment

Mechanical resonance properties of porous graphene resonators were investigated by simulation studies. The finite element method was utilized to design the porous graphene membrane pattern and to calculate the mechanical resonance frequency and quality factor. The changes in the resonance frequency and quality factor were systematically studied by changing the size, number, and relative location of pores on the graphene membrane. Mass loss and carbon-carbon bond break were found to be the main competing parameters for determining its mechanical resonance properties. The correlation between the geometry and the damping effect on the mechanical resonance of graphene was considered by suggesting a model on the damping factor and by calculating the membrane deflections according to the pore location. Based on the simulation results, an optimal porosity and porous geometry were found that gives the maximum resonance frequency and quality factor. Suspended graphene with various number pore structures was experimentally realized, and their mechanical resonance behaviors were measured. The trend of changes in resonance frequency and quality factor according to the number of pores in the experiment was qualitatively agreed with simulation results.     

自旋轨道耦合作用下石墨烯pn结的电子输运性质

本文研究了自旋轨道耦合作用下石墨烯纳米带pn结的电子输运性质. 当粒子的入射能量处于pn结两端势能之间时, 粒子将会以隧穿的形式通过石墨烯pn结, 同时伴随着电子空穴转换. 电导随费米能的变化曲线呈不等高阶梯状, 并在费米能位于pn结两端能量中点时取得最大值. 随着石墨烯pn结长度的增加, 电导以指数形式衰减. 自旋轨道耦合作用导致的能隙会使电导显著减小, 而边缘态的粒子则可以几乎毫无阻碍地通过pn结. 本文用一个简单的子带隧穿模型解释了上述特征. 最后还研究了在pn转换区中掺入替位杂质的情况. 在弱杂质下, 电导随费米能变化的曲线将不再对称; 当杂质较强时, 仅边界态的形成的电导台阶能够保持.     

L型石墨纳米结的热输运

利用非平衡格林函数方法研究了由半无限长扶手椅型和锯齿型边界石墨纳米带连接而成的L型石墨纳米结的热输运性质.结果表明,L型石墨纳米结的热导依赖于L型石墨纳米结的夹角和石墨纳米带的宽度.在L型石墨纳米结的夹角从30°增加到90°再增加到150°过程中,其热导显著增大.夹角为90°的L型石墨纳米结的热导随着扶手椅型纳米带宽度增加时,在低温区热导随着宽度的增大而降低,在高温区热导随宽度的增大而升高.对于夹角为150°的L型石墨纳米结,其热导无论是在低温区还是在高温区都随着锯齿型纳米带宽度的增加而降低.利用声子透射谱对这些热输运现象进行了合理的解释.研究结果阐明了不同L型石墨纳米结中的热输运机理,为设计基于石墨纳米结的热输运器件提供了重要的物理模型和理论依据. 关键词： 石墨纳米结 热输运 热导     

Transport properties of graphene functionalized with molecular switches

We provide a theory of the electronic transport properties of a graphene layer functionalized with molecular switches. Our considerations are motivated by the spiropyran-merocyanine system which is non-polar in its ring-closed spiropyran form and zwitterionic in its ring-open merocyanine form. The reversible switching between these two isomers affects the carriers in graphene through the associated change in the molecular dipole moment, turning the graphene layer into a sensor of the molecular switching state. We present results for both the quasiclassical (Boltzmann) and the quantum coherent regimes of transport. Quite generally, we find a linear sensitivity of the conductance on the molecular dipole moment whenever quantum interference effects play an essential role which contrasts with a quadratic (and typically weaker) dependence when quantum interference is absent.     

Band structure and transport property of graphene/h-BN heterostructure under local potentials

We investigate band structure and transport property of lattice-matched graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructure using the tight-binding approach. It shows that local potentials can significantly modify the band structure and the transport property. A method to individually manipulate the edge states by local potentials is proposed, including shifts and other deformations of edge bands. The two-terminal conductance of each layer is quantized but the interlayer conductance is non-quantized due to band mixing. In addition, we explore the Landau level spectrum in graphene/h-BN nanoribbons under both magnetic field and local potentials. The plateaus-like behavior of the interlayer conductance is observed.     

Enhanced spin polarization in an asymmetric magnetic graphene superlattice

The authors investigate the spin-resolved transport through an asymmetrical magnetic graphene superlattice (MGS) consisting of the periodic barriers with abnormal one in height. To quantitatively depict the asymmetrical MGS, an asymmetry factor has been introduced to measure the height change of the abnormal barrier. It is shown that the spin filter effect is strongly enhanced by the barrier asymmetry both in the Klein and the classical tunneling regimes. In the presence of abnormal barrier, the conductance with certain spin direction is suppressed with respect to different tunneling regimes, and thus high spin polarization with opposite sign can be achieved.     

Electronic transport and quantum hall effect in bipolar graphene p-n-p junctions

We have developed a device fabrication process to pattern graphene into nanostructures of arbitrary shape and control their electronic properties using local electrostatic gates. Electronic transport measurements have been used to characterize locally gated bipolar graphene p-n-p junctions. We observe a series of fractional quantum Hall conductance plateaus at high magnetic fields as the local charge density is varied in the p and n regions. These fractional plateaus, originating from chiral edge states equilibration at the p-n interfaces, exhibit sensitivity to interedge backscattering which is found to be strong for some of the plateaus and much weaker for other plateaus. We use this effect to explore the role of backscattering and estimate disorder strength in our graphene devices.     

Dependence of Conductance of Corrugated Graphene Quantum Dot on Geometrical Features

Dependence of conductance of corrugated graphene quantum dot (CGQD) on geometrical features including length, width, connection and edge is investigated by the first principles calculations. The results demonstrate that the conductance of CGQD with different geometrical features is different from each other. The positions and amplitudes of discrete levels in densities of states and transmission coefficients are sensitive to geometrical features. The I-V characteristics of graphene are modified by size and edge, it is surprise the current does not change monotonously but oscillatory with length. And they are slight change for different connections.