半导体中的自旋弛豫--从体材料到量子阱、量子线、量子点

本文对半导体中的自旋弛豫过程给出一个简要的回顾,介绍了半导体材料从体材料到量子阱、量子线、量子点不同维数的结构中各种自旋弛豫过程,主要关注了自旋去相位和相干控制。对于不同材料中的各种弛豫机制,关注的重点在于如何能够在实验上以一种可以控制的方式来改变可调参数从而达到控制自旋弛豫过程。这些参数主要有电场、磁场、温度、应变、有效g因子等等。本文的组织上,首先介绍研究前景,第1部分简要介绍了自旋弛豫的四种机制。第2部分按照维数的不同将半导体中自旋弛豫分为3个部分:体材料、量子阱、量子线、量子点,在每一部分中又基本上按照电子、空穴、激子的顺序进行了简要的总结:对于不同的载流子,考虑了自旋弛豫对可调参数的依赖关系。这些结果要么试图解释了已有的实验结果,要么从理论上给出预言从而给实验指明了方向,为室温下可以使用的自旋电子学器件设计提供了依据,为固态量子计算和量子信息处理铺平了道路。最后简单地给出展望。     

Singlet-Triplet Transition in Quantum Dots Confined by Triangular and Bowl-Like Potentials： the Effect of Electric Fields

We theoretically investigate the energy spectra of two-electron two-dimensional （2e 2D） quantum dots （QDs） confined by triangular potentials and bowl-like potentials in a magnetic field by exact diagonalization in the framework of effective mass theory. An in-plane electric field is found to contribute to the singlet-triplet transition of the ground state of the 2e 2D QDs confined by triangular or bowl-like potentials in a perpendicular magnetic field. The stronger the in-plane electric field, the smaller the magnetic field for the total spin of the ground states in the dot systems to change from S = 0 to S = 1. However, the influence of an in-plane electric field on the singlettriplet transition of the ground state of two electrons in a triangular QD modulated by a perpendicular magnetic field is quite small because the triangular potential just deviates from the harmonic potential well slightly. We find that the strength of the perpendicular magnetic field needed for the spin singlet-triplet transition of the ground state of the QD confined by a bowl-like potential is reduced drastically by applying an in-plane electric field.     

Maximal Heat Generation in Nanoscale Systems

We investigate the heat generation in a nanoscale system coupled to normal leads and find that it is maximal when the average occupation of the electrons in the nanoscale system is 0.5, no matter what mechanism induces the heat generation.     

有限深抛物势量子环类氢杂质能级

在有效质量近似下,用微扰法研究InAs量子环内类氢杂质基态及低激发态的能级.受限势采用有限深抛物型势,在二维平面极坐标下,用薛定谔方程的解析解计算.数值结果显示:在抛物势平台区,类氢杂质能级不随电子径向坐标改变,并具有二维氢原子能级的特征;在有限深抛物势区,电子能级敏感地依赖于量子环半径,能级存在极小值,这是由于限制势采用抛物势的结果.如果减小环的半径,可以增加能级间距;简并能级发生分裂并且间距随半径增大而增大,第一激发态的简并没有消除,第二激发态的简并被部分地消除.本文结果对研究量子环的光跃迁及光谱结构有指导意义.     

Atomic-Ordering-Induced Quantum Phase Transition between Topological Crystalline Insulator and Z_2 Topological Insulator

Topological phase transition in a single material usually refers to transitions between a trivial band insulator and a topological Dirac phase, and the transition may also occur between different classes of topological Dirac phases.It is a fundamental challenge to realize quantum transition between Z_2 nontrivial topological insulator(TI) and topological crystalline insulator(TCI) in one material because Z_2 TI and TCI have different requirements on the number of band inversions. The Z_2 TIs must have an odd number of band inversions over all the time-reversal invariant momenta, whereas the newly discovered TCIs, as a distinct class of the topological Dirac materials protected by the underlying crystalline symmetry, owns an even number of band inversions. Taking PbSnTe_2 alloy as an example, here we demonstrate that the atomic-ordering is an effective way to tune the symmetry of the alloy so that we can electrically switch between TCI phase and Z_2 TI phase in a single material. Our results suggest that the atomic-ordering provides a new platform towards the realization of reversibly switching between different topological phases to explore novel applications.     

Quantum confinement effects and source-to-drain tunneling in ultra-scaled double-gate silicon n-MOSFETs

By using the linear combination of bulk band (LCBB) method incorporated with the top of the barrier splitting (TBS) model, we present a comprehensive study on the quantum confinement effects and the source-to-drain tunneling in the ultra-scaled double-gate (DG) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). A critical body thickness value of 5 nm is found, below which severe valley splittings among different X valleys for the occupied charge density and the current contributions occur in ultra-thin silicon body structures. It is also found that the tunneling current could be nearly 100% with an ultra-scaled channel length. Different from the previous simulation results, it is found that the source-to-drain tunneling could be effectively suppressed in the ultra-thin body thickness (2.0 nm and below) by the quantum confinement and the tunneling could be suppressed down to below 5% when the channel length approaches 16 nm regardless of the body thickness.     

Quantum-Confined Stark Effects in a Single GaN Quantum Dot

Using analytical expressions for the polarization field in GaN quantum dot, and an approximation by separating the potential into a radial and an axial, we investigate theoretically the quantum-confined Stark effects. The electron and hole energy levels and optical transition energies are calculated in the presence of an electric field in different directions. The results show that the electron and hole energy levels and the optical transition energies can cause redshifts for the lateral electric field and blueshifts for the vertical field. The rotational direction of electric field can also change the energy shift.     

EFFECTIVE-MASS THEORY FOR InAs/GaAs STRAINED SUPERLATTICES

By using the recently developed exact effective-mass envelope function theory, the electronic structures of InAs/GaAs strained superlattices grown on GaAs (100) oriented substrates are studied. The electron and hole subband structures, distribution of electrons and holes along the growth direction, optical transition matrix elements, exciton states, and absorption spectra are calculated. In our calculations, the effects due to the different effective masses of electrons and holes in different materials and the strain are included. Our theoretical results are in agreement with the available experimental data.