Spin polarization of two-dimensional electron gas in hybrid ferromagnetic/semiconductor nanostructures

We present a theoretical study on the spin-dependent transport of electrons in hybrid ferromagnetic/semiconductor nanosystem under an applied bias voltage. Experimentally, this kind of nanosystem can be realized by depositing a magnetized ferromagnetic stripe with arbitrary magnetization direction on the surface of a semiconductor heterostructure. It is shown that large spin-polarized current can be achieved in such a nanosystem. It is also shown that the spin polarity of the electron transport can be switched by adjusting the applied bias voltage. These interesting properties may provide an alternative scheme to realize spin injection into semiconductors, and such a nanosystem may be used as a tunable spin-filter by bias voltage.     

Unidirectional transmission realized by two nonparallel gratings made of isotropic media

We realize a unidirectional transmission by cascading two nonparallel gratings (NPGs) made of isotropic, lossless, and linear media. For a pair of orthogonal linear polarizations, one of the gratings is designed as a polarizer, which is a reflector for one polarization and a transmitter for the other; another grating is designed as a polarization converter, which converts most of one polarized incident wave into another polarized transmitted wave. It is demonstrated by numerical calculation that more than 85% of the incident light energy can be transmitted with less than 1% transmission in the opposite direction for linearly polarized light at normal incidence, and the relative bandwidth of the unidirectional transmission is nearly 9%. The maximum transmission contrast ratio between the two directions is 62 dB. Unlike one-way diffraction grating, the transmitted light of the NPGs is collinear with the incident light, but their polarizations are orthogonal.     

基于异质结界面优化的光子晶体二极管单向传输特性研究

基于光子晶体异质结结构的全光二极管是目前的一个研究热点,使其具有更好的单向传输特性是研究的一个目标.本文中通过改变异质结界面处的光子晶体结构,提出了不同的优化设计方案,在宽频带内实现了高对比度全光二极管的高效率单向传输,并且该结构还具有分束特性.     

Real-time observation of liquid crystal molecular directions based on a snapshot polarimeter

The polarization state of transmitted light is linked to liquid crystal(LC) molecular distribution. The dynamic behavior of a twisted nematic LC molecule is measured with a home-built 10 k Hz snapshot polarimeter. Only the transient molecule rotations are observed when the external voltage changes, and the molecules return to their original orientations quickly even when high voltage is applied. Our observations cannot be attributed to the traditional electro-optic effect. The invalidation of the static external field indicates the shielding effect of redistributing impurity ions in an LC cell.     

Spin-flip effect on electrical transport in magnetic quantum wire systems

We investigate the spin-flip effect on electronic transport in a nanostructure composed of two nonmagnetic (NM) leads separated by a periodic spacer. The spacer is composed of one-dimensional heterostructure formed by a sequence of magnetic (A) and nonmagnetic (B) sites periodically juxtaposed (as in a typical periodic quantum dot (QD)). The calculations are based on the tight-binding model and transfer matrix method, which compute the current–voltage characteristic within the Landauer–Büttiker formalism. Our main goal is to assess the contribution of the spin-flip scattering to the transport properties of such systems. The spin-dependent transport behavior can be controlled via a gate magnetic field and an applied voltage in the ballistic regime. Our results show that the conductance strongly depends on the configurations of the magnetic QD. The application of the predicted results may be useful in designing spin-valve devices, such as spin-polarized molecular transistors.     

Temperature effect on threshold voltage and optical property of twisted nematic liquid crystal with applied different voltages

In this paper, temperature-dependent birefringence theory of liquid crystal is used to investigate the temperature effect on the threshold voltage. An expression for describing the non-linear relationship between the threshold voltage and temperature is deduced. In addition, we theoretically discuss the temperature effect on the transmitted ratio of the namatic twisted liquid crystal without the applied voltage and with the applied voltage. It is found that the transmitted ratio is decreased linearly as temperature is increased when the liquid crystal is not applied with voltage, but the transmitted ratio is increased linearly as temperature is increased when the liquid crystal is applied with voltage. The threshold voltages and the transmitted ratio are measured at different temperatures. The experimental data are consistent with the theoretical calculated results.     

Magnetoresistance anisotropy in Si /SiGe in tilted magnetic fields: experimental evidence for a stripe-phase formation

We observe pronounced transport anisotropies in magnetotransport experiments performed in the two-dimensional electron system of a Si/SiGe heterostructure. They occur when an in-plane field is used to tune two Landau levels with opposite spin to energetic coincidence. The observed anisotropies disappear drastically for temperatures above 1 K. We propose that our experimental findings may be caused by the formation of a unidirectional stripe phase oriented perpendicular to the in-plane field.     

Experimental evidence for a metal–insulator transition and geometric effect in a half-filled Landau level

We have measured the low-temperature transport properties of a high-mobility front-gated GaAs/Al Ga As heterostructure. By changing the applied gate voltage, we can vary the amount of disorder within the system. At a Landau level filling factor , where the system can be described by the composite fermion picture, we observe a crossover from metallic to insulating behaviour as the disorder is increased, in agreement with theory. We also report experimental evidence of geometric effect for composite fermions induced by an effective magnetic field.     

Giant magnetoresistance effect in nanostructures consisting of magnetic–electric barriers

The GMR effect in magnetic–electric barrier nanostructure, which can be realized experimentally by depositing two parallel metallic ferromagnetic strips with an applied voltage on the top of heterostructure, is investigated theoretically. It is shown that a considerable GMR effect can be achieved in such nanosystems due to the significant transmission difference for electrons tunneling through parallel and antiparallel magnetization configurations. It is also shown that the magnetoresistance ratio is strongly dependent upon the applied voltage to metallic ferromagnetic strips in nanosystems, thus may leading to voltage-tunable GMR devices.     

Unusual one-way edge state in acoustic gyroscopic continuum

Unusual one-way edge states have been observed in composite structures composed of periodic lattices loaded with gyroscopes.Here, we provide a continuum-mechanics understanding to the one-way edge state by formulating surface state equations of acoustic gyroscopic mediums with Hermite mass density tensor. We discover that the unidirectional edge effect arises from nontrivial off-diagonal components of Hermite densities, which causes the symmetric breaking of surface wave propagation towards forward and backward directions. Theoretical predictions on the velocity and decay length of surface waves coincide excellently with numerical simulations. The unidirectional edge state in a two-interface gyroscopic medium is also analyzed.Due to the rotational symmetry in geometry, the unidirectional edge state on one interface is able to prevent itself from the coupling to surface waves on the other interface regardless of the slab thickness. With these anomalous effects, surface waves residing on gyroscopic mediums can flow around the edge defects without back-scatterings, or can be split into two beams of equal energy magnitudes. Our findings may make a bridge that would help to reach the design of non-reciprocal composite materials via an effective medium approach.     

Control of the optical multistability in a three-level ladder-type quantum well system

We theoretically investigated a hybrid absorptive-dispersive optical multistability (OM) behavior in a three-level ladder-type quantum well system inside a unidirectional ring cavity. We find that the frequency detuning of the control field and the electronic cooperation parameter as well as the total decay rates can affect the optical multistability behavior dramatically, which can be used to manipulate efficiently the threshold intensity and the hysteresis loop. The effect of the intensity of the control field on the OM is also studied. Our study is much more practical than its atomic counterpart due to its flexible design and the wide adjustable parameters. Thus it may provide some new possibilities for technological applications in optoelectronics and solid-state quantum information science.     

Bifurcated overtones of one-way localized Fabry-Pérot resonances in parity-time symmetric optical lattices

Since the first observation of parity-time(PT) symmetry in optics, varied interesting phenomena have been discovered in both theories and experiments, such as PT phase transition and unidirectional invisibility, which turns PT-symmetric optics into a hotspot in research. Here, we report on the one-way localized Fabry-Pérot(FP) resonance, where a welldesigned PT optical resonator may operate at exceptional points with bidirectional transparency but unidirectional field localization. Overtones of such one-way localized FP resonance can be classified into a blue shifted branch and a red shifted branch. Therefore, the fundamental resonant frequency is not the lowest one. We find that the spatial field distributions of the overtones at the same absolute order are almost the same, even though their frequencies are quite different.     

Optimal design of a semiconductor heterostructure tunnel diode with linear current–voltage characteristic

Atomic layer precision in design of heterostructure tunnel diodes can be used to mimic an Ohmic (linear) current–voltage characteristic over a range of voltage bias. This is achieved by manipulating low energy electron transmission resonances. Calculations demonstrate how greater than 65 dB dynamic range can be obtained in an optimized heterostructure tunnel device that is only 17 nm thick.     

Voltage-tunable spin electron beam splitter based on antiparallel double δ-magnetic-barrier nanostructure

We report on a theoretical study of spin-dependent Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift of electrons in antiparallel double δ-magnetic-barrier (MB) nanostructure under an applied voltage, which can be experimentally realized by depositing two metallic ferromagnetic (FM) stripes on top and bottom of the semiconductor heterostructure. GH shifts for spin electron beams across this device, is exactly calculated, with the help of the stationary phase method. It is shown that a considerable spin polarization of GH shifts can be achieved in this device for two δ-MBs with unidentical magnetic strengths. It also is shown that both magnitude and sign of spin polarization of GH shifts can be controlled by adjusting the electric potential induced by the applied voltage. These interesting properties may provide an effective approach of spin injection for spintronics application, and this device can be used as a voltage-tunable spin beam splitter.     

Conductance oscillations and transport spectroscopy of a quantum dot

Results are reported for low temperature measurements of the conductance through small regions of a two-dimensional electron gas (2 DEG). An unconventional GaAs heterostructure is used to form a 2 DEG whose density can be tuned by the gate voltage applied to its conductive substrate. Electron beam lithography is used to pattern a narrow channel in the 2 DEG interrupted by two constrictions, defining a small 2 DEG island between them. The conductance is found to oscillate periodically with the gate voltage, namely with electron density. Calculations of the capacitance between the substrate and the island show that the period of oscillation corresponds to adding one electron to the island. The oscillatory behavior results primarily from the discreteness of charge and the Coulomb interaction between electrons. However, the observed temperature dependence of these oscillations requires a more sophisticated treatment which includes the quantized electron energy levels as well. The magnetic field dependence of the oscillations allows us to extract the discrete energy spectrum of the quantum dot in the quantum-Hall regime.     

Controllable switching behavior of optical Tamm state based on nematic liquid crystal

The controllable behavior of optical Tamm state (OTS) is investigated in a heterostructure with nematic liquid crystal (NLC). By changing the external fields (electric field and temperature), the orientation of NLC’s molecules can be modified. It offers us an effective way to control the optical properties of the optical Tamm state. We obtain the critical condition for the appearance of the optical Tamm state. Our theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show that through choosing appropriate parameters we can not only change the frequency position of the optical Tamm state, but also realize the disappearance of the OTS.     

Dirac fermions and conductance oscillations in s- and d-wave superconductor-graphene junctions

We investigate quantum transport in a normal-superconductor graphene heterostructure, including the possibility of an anisotropic pairing potential in the superconducting region. We find that under certain circumstances, the conductance displays an undamped, oscillatory behavior as a function of applied bias voltage. Also, we investigate how the conductance spectra are affected by a d-wave pairing symmetry. These results combine unusual features of the electronic structure of graphene with the unconventional pairing symmetry found for instance in high-Tc superconductors.     

White electroluminescence of n-ZnO：Al/p-diamond heterostructure devices

An n-ZnO：A1/p-boron-doped diamond heterostructure electroluminescent device is produced, and a rectifying be- havior can be observed. The electroluminescence spectrum at room temperature exhibits two visible bands centred at 450 nm-485 nm （blue emission） and 570 nm-640 nm （yellow emission）. Light emission with a luminance of 15 cd/m2 is observed from the electroluminescent device at a forward applied voltage of 85 V, which is distinguished from white light by the naked eye.     

Separating spins by dwell time of electrons across parallel double δ-magnetic-barrier nanostructure applied by bias

The dwell time and spin polarization(SP)of electrons tunneling through a parallel doubleδ-magnetic-barrier nanostructure in the presence of a bias voltage is studied theoretically in this work.This nanostructure can be constructed by patterning two asymmetric ferromagnetic stripes on the top and bottom of InAs/AlxIn1-xAs heterostructure,respectively.An evident SP effect remains after a bias voltage is applied to the nanostructure.Moreover,both magnitude and sign of spin-polarized dwell time can be manipulated by properly changing the bias voltage,which may result in an electrically-tunable temporal spin splitter for spintronics device applications.     

Spin-dependent Breit-Wigner and Fano resonances in photon-assisted electron transport through a semiconductor heterostructure

We theoretically investigate the electron transmission through a seven-layer semiconductor heterostructure with the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling under two applied oscillating fields. Numerical results show that both of the spin-dependent symmetric Breit-Wigner and the asymmetric Fano resonances appear and that the properties of these two types of resonance peaks are dependent on the amplitude and the relative phases of the two applied oscillating fields. The modulation of the spin-polarization efficiency of transmitted electrons by the relative phase is also discussed.