Photoelectron spectroscopy of C(84) dianions

We report the laser photoelectron spectra of doubly negatively charged C84 (D2 and D(2d)) using 532 nm and 355 nm radiation. From these spectra, values for the second electron affinity and vertical detachment energy, as well as upper and lower limits for the repulsive Coulomb barrier, are obtained. These values are discussed in the context of classical electrostatic models. The experimental spectra are compared with the accessible excited states of the C-84 product ion calculated in the framework of time dependent density functional theory.     

The influence of tunneling matrix element modification due to on-site Coulomb interaction on local tunneling conductivity

Interplay between changes of energy levels and tunneling amplitudes caused by localized electrons’ on-site Coulomb interaction depending on non-equilibrium electron filling numbers is analyzed. Specific features of local tunneling conductivity spectra for different positions of localized states’ energy relative to the Fermi level have been investigated by means of self-consistent mean field approximation in the presence of non-equilibrium effects. The conditions when modifications of tunneling transfer amplitude due to changes of electron filling numbers in the presence of on-site Coulomb interaction should be taken into account in tunneling conductivity spectra have been revealed.     

Multiple wavelength electroluminescence and laser generation in p-i-n resonant tunneling heterostructures

We report a design and electroluminescence (EL) investigation of a p-i-n resonant tunneling device based on an Al_0.4Ga_0.6As/GaAs graded-index waveguide heterostructure. The intrinsic region of the structure consists of a quantum well (QW) surrounded by multiple barrier energy filters providing simultaneous resonant occupation of electron and heavy-hole second excited subbands in the QW. Several peaks are observed in the EL spectra, confirming occupation of the excited subbands. The EL efficiency displays a resonant behavior accompanied by an S-shaped negative differential resistance region in the voltage–current characteristic. Current bistability is demonstrated, leading to bistability in the EL and laser generation spectra.     

有限深抛物势量子盘中极化子的激发态性质

量子点作为一种重要的低维纳米结构, 近年来在单光子光源和新型量子点单光子探测器的研究引起了人们的广泛关注, 对各种势阱中量子点性质的研究已取得了重要成果. 但是大多理论研究都局限于无限深势阱, 而有限深势阱更具有实际意义. 利用平面波展开、幺正变换和变分相结合的方法研究了有限深势阱中极化子激发态能量及激发能随势阱形状和量子盘大小的变化规律. 数值计算结果表明: 极化子的激发态能量、激发能随势垒高度或宽度的增大而增大, 原因是势垒愈高、愈宽, 电子穿透势垒的可能性愈小, 电子在阱内运动的可能性愈大, 进而导致极化子的激发态能量和激发能均随势垒高度和宽度的增大而增大; 极化子的激发态能量和激发能随量子盘半径的增大而减小, 表明量子盘具有显著的量子尺寸效应; 极化子的激发态能量随有效受限长度的增加而减小, 原因是有效受限长度愈大, 有效受限强度愈小, 电子受到的束缚愈弱、振动愈慢、势能愈小, 进而导致基态能量、激发态能量减小; 同时由于激发态能量较基态能量减小慢, 使得激发能随之增加. 研究结果对量子点的应用具有一定的理论指导意义.     

Temperature properties of exciton luminescence from CdTe quantum wells with different thicknesses in the CdTe/CdMnTe structure

The optical spectra of the CdTe/Cd_0.7Mn_0.3Te structure containing three CdTe quantum wells with nominal thicknesses of 16, 8, and 4 monolayers have been investigated. The temperature dependences of parameters of the exciton luminescence spectra (integrated intensity, full-width at half-maximum, position of the maximum, Stokes shift) for quantum wells with different thicknesses differ substantially. These differences are explained by a strong thickness dependence of the energy of Coulomb coupling in the exciton, the energy of localization of the exciton on bulges of the quantum well, and the degree of penetration of the exciton wave function into the barrier. At high excitation power densities, the emission contours of the quantum wells with thicknesses of 8 and 16 monolayers contain short-wavelength tails that correspond to optical transitions between excited quantum-well levels.     

Breakdown of the giant spin model in the magnetic relaxation of the Mn6 nanomagnets

We study the spin dynamics in two variants of the high-anisotropy Mn6 nanomagnet by inelastic neutron scattering, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and magnetometry. We show that a giant-spin picture is completely inadequate for these systems and that excited S multiplets play a key role in determining the effective energy barrier for the magnetization reversal. Moreover, we demonstrate the occurrence of tunneling processes involving pair of states having different total spin.     

Single-electron-phonon interaction in a suspended quantum dot phonon cavity

An electron-phonon cavity consisting of a quantum dot embedded in a freestanding GaAs/AlGaAs membrane is characterized using Coulomb blockade measurements at low temperatures. We find a complete suppression of single electron tunneling around zero bias leading to the formation of an energy gap in the transport spectrum. The observed effect is induced by the excitation of a localized phonon mode confined in the cavity. This phonon blockade of transport is lifted at discrete magnetic fields where higher electronic states with nonzero angular momentum are brought into resonance with the phonon energy.     

高电荷态离子引起的富勒烯离子的碎裂

离子在与富勒烯的相互作用过程中会导致C60分子的激发。处于低激发态的C60r+离子通过发射中性C2分子或带电的轻团簇碎片Cn+等非对称碎裂方式来耗散激发能,但如果激发能很高,笼形的C60r+离子可能会彻底崩溃,而发生多重碎裂。C60r+离子的碎裂过程与其电荷态r及分裂势垒密切相关。低电荷态的C60r+(r≤3)离子蒸发一个C2分子需要克服10.3 eV左右的势垒。随着电荷态的升高,发射带电的Cn+会变得越来越容易,并逐渐过渡到多重碎裂过程。另一方面,C60r+离子的碎裂机制还与激发方式有关,在直接正碰过程中,将C60分子当作固体薄靶来处理,通过分析不同价态的C60r+离子的碎片谱,发现母核的初始电荷态决定碎裂方式,由此获得一个可以表征激发能大小的可观测量——发射电子个数。     

核力和重子相互作用

本文评述了核力和重子相互作用研究的历程,取得的成就和存在的问题。     

Nonequilibrium transport through a vertical quantum dot in the absence of spin-flip energy relaxation

We investigate nonequilibrium transport in the absence of spin-flip energy relaxation in a few-electron quantum dot artificial atom. Novel nonequilibrium tunneling processes involving high-spin states, which cannot be excited from the ground state because of spin blockade, and other processes involving more than two charge states are observed. These processes cannot be explained by orthodox Coulomb blockade theory. The absence of effective spin relaxation induces considerable fluctuation of the spin, charge, and total energy of the quantum dot. Although these features are revealed clearly by pulse excitation measurements, they are also observed in conventional dc current characteristics of quantum dots.     

高电荷态离子引起的富勒烯离子的碎裂

离子在与富勒烯的相互作用过程中会导致C60分子的激发。处于低激发态的C60r 离子通过发射中性C2分子或带电的轻团簇碎片Cn 等非对称碎裂方式来耗散激发能,但如果激发能很高,笼形的C60r 离子可能会彻底崩溃,而发生多重碎裂。C60r 离子的碎裂过程与其电荷态r及分裂势垒密切相关。低电荷态的C60r (r≤3)离子蒸发一个C2分子需要克服10.3 eV左右的势垒。随着电荷态的升高,发射带电的Cn 会变得越来越容易,并逐渐过渡到多重碎裂过程。另一方面,C60r 离子的碎裂机制还与激发方式有关,在直接正碰过程中,将C60分子当作固体薄靶来处理,通过分析不同价态的C60r 离子的碎片谱,发现母核的初始电荷态决定碎裂方式,由此获得一个可以表征激发能大小的可观测量——发射电子个数。     

Co-tunneling of the charge through a 2-D electron island

A double barrier Single Electron Transistor is realized in two dimensions by confining the 2-D electron gas of a GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunction to a small island by means of Schottky gates. Two gates provide adjustable tunnel barriers and a central gate controls the electron number in the island. The island has small single-particle energy level spacing and forms a metallic island. Periodic conductance oscillations characteristic of Coulomb blockade are observed when the central gate voltage is varied. The ability to vary the tunnel conductance allows us to study the basic physics of the Coulomb blockade: our results show that the quantum charge fluctuation mechanism which limits the tunneling blockade at low temperature is of second order in tunnel barrier transparencies in agreement with the charge Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling (q-MQT) or co-tunneling model.     

Electron spin pumping of Rb atoms on He nanodroplets via nondestructive optical excitation

We measured laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) and beam-depletion (BD) spectra of rubidium atoms (5S-5P transition) on the surface of superfluid helium nanodroplets (M-He_{N} with M=Rb). It is known that when M is a lighter alkali atom electronic excitation always leads to detachment of the excited atom (M;{*}). The dissociation energy, few tens cm;{-1}, comes either as photon excess energy or from the barrierless formation of a M;{*}-He exciplex. We observe that this picture does not hold when M=Rb and the photon excess energy is small: we are able to excite atoms without detaching them from the droplet, thanks to a barrier preventing formation of the exciplex. This system is ideally suited for optical spin pumping in a He nanodroplet, whose achievement we explicitly demonstrate in a pump-probe magnetic circular dichroism experiment.     

Low energy dynamics of two-dimensional lateral tunnel junctions

We report on the low temperature tunneling characteristics of two-dimensional lateral tunnel junctions (2DLTJs) consisting of two coplanar two-dimensional electron systems separated by an in-plane tunnel barrier. The tunneling conductance of the 2DLTJ exhibits a characteristic dip at small voltages—consistent with the phenomenon of zero-bias anomaly in low-dimensional tunnel junctions—and a broad conductance peak at the Coulombic energy scale. The conductance peak remains robust under magnetic fields well into the quantum Hall regime. We identify the broad conductance maxima as the signature of the pseudogap in the tunneling density of states below the characteristic Coulomb interaction energy of the 2DLTJ.     

Excitation spectrum of two correlated electrons in a lateral quantum dot with negligible Zeeman splitting

The excitation spectrum of a two-electron quantum dot is investigated by tunneling spectroscopy in conjunction with theoretical calculations. The dot made from a material with negligible Zeeman splitting has a moderate spatial anisotropy leading to a splitting of the two lowest triplet states at zero magnetic field. In addition to the well-known triplet excitation at zero magnetic field, two additional excited states are found at finite magnetic field. The lower one is identified as the second excited singlet state on the basis of an avoided crossing with the first excited singlet state at finite fields. The measured spectra are in remarkable agreement with exact-diagonalization calculations. The results prove the significance of electron correlations and suggest the formation of a state with Wigner-molecular properties at low magnetic fields.     

Energy-dependent tunneling from few-electron dynamic quantum dots

We measure the electron escape rate from surface-acoustic-wave dynamic quantum dots (QDs) through a tunnel barrier. Rate equations are used to extract the tunneling rates, which change by an order of magnitude with tunnel-barrier-gate voltage. We find that the tunneling rates depend on the number of electrons in each dynamic QD because of Coulomb energy. By comparing this dependence to a saddle-point-potential model, the addition energies of the second and third electron in each dynamic QD are estimated. The scale ( approximately a few meV) is comparable to those in static QDs as expected.     

Light emission from Ag cluster films excited by conduction current

The light emission spectra obtained for a silver cluster film, excited by the passage of electrical current through it, were measured by the charge‐coupled device (CCD) combined with a monochromator in the spectral range 200 ≑ 1050 nm (6.2 ≑ 1.18 eV). This film is a two‐dimensional ensemble of Ag clusters linked by tunneling on a dielectric substrate. It was shown that the light emission spectra had a number of features, and the shape of spectrum depends on a voltage applied to the film. With increasing the voltage the spectrum starts to extend to high energies. The light emission in the visible spectral region was observed already at 1 V applied to the film, i.e., the photon energy can exceed the excitation energy. It means that this phenomenon is not trivial. In order to explain these results, an assumption about the electron gas heating in metal clusters may be used.     

Vibrationally resolved fluorescence from organic molecules near metal surfaces in a scanning tunneling microscope

Intrinsic molecular fluorescence from porphyrin molecules on Au(100) has been realized by using a nanoscale multimonolayer decoupling approach with nanoprobe excitation in the tunneling regime. The molecular origin of luminescence is established by the observed well-defined vibrationally resolved fluorescence spectra. The molecules fluoresce at low "turn-on" voltages for both bias polarities, suggesting an excitation mechanism via hot electron injection from either tip or substrate. The excited molecules decay radiatively through Franck-Condon pi(*)-pi transitions.     

介质阻挡放电六边形斑图稳定过程的光谱研究

采用发射光谱法,首次研究了等离子体参数及激发状态对介质阻挡放电六边形斑图稳定性的影响。在氩气/空气混合气体的介质阻挡放电中,随着电压的升高,放电丝直径增大,六边形斑图逐渐稳定,同时放电颜色由紫色逐渐变为灰白色,说明其等离子体状态及参数可能发生了变化。测量了六边形斑图放电过程中氮分子谱线和氩原子谱线相对于氩原子763.51 nm的相对强度、分子振动温度和电子激发温度随外加电压的变化。结果发现：氮分子谱线相对强度随电压增加而降低,氩原子谱线相对强度却升高;分子振动温度与电子激发温度均随电压增加而增大。这些现象表明：随着电压增大,电子能量增加。由此,氩原子激发增多,放电丝直径增大,介质表面上沉积的壁电荷面积增大,放电丝之间的相互作用增强,六边形斑图趋于稳定。     

Single-electron tunneling and Coulomb blockade in carbon-based quantum dots

Single-electron tunneling (SET) and Coulomb blockade (CB) phenomena have been widely observed in nanoscaled electronics and have received intense attention around the world. In the past few years, we have studied SET in carbon nanotube fragments and fullerenes by applying the so-called “Orthodox” theory [28]. As outlined in this review article, we investigated the single-electron charging and discharging process via current-voltage characteristics, gate effect, and electronic structure-related factors. Because the investigated geometric structures are three-dimensionally confined, resulting in a discrete spectrum of energy levels resembling the property of quantum dots, we evidenced the CB and Coulomb staircases in these structures. These nanostructures are sufficiently small that introducing even a single electron is sufficient to dramatically change the transport properties as a result of the charging energy associated with this extra electron. We found that the Coulomb staircases occur in the I–V characteristics only when the width of the left barrier junction is smaller than that of the right barrier junction. In this case, the transmission coefficient of the emitter junction is larger than that of the collector junction; also, occupied levels enter the bias window, thereby enhancing the tunneling extensively.