Effective quasiparticle lifetime in superconducting Sn

The effective quasiparticle lifetime in superconducting Sn has been determined from measurements on conventional oxide-barrier tunnel junctions biased at the energy gap and exposed to optical radiation. The result is in agreement with the value obtained by Sai-Halasz et al. from microwave surface impedance measurements.     

Anomalous quasiparticle lifetime and strong electron-phonon coupling in graphite

We have performed ultrahigh-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on high-quality single crystals of graphite to elucidate the character of low-energy excitations. We found evidence for a well-defined quasiparticle (QP) peak in the close vicinity of the Fermi level comparable to the nodal QP in high-T(c) cuprates, together with the mass renormalization of the band at an extremely narrow momentum region around the K(H) point. Analysis of the QP lifetime demonstrates the presence of strong electron-phonon coupling and linear energy dependence of the QP scattering rate indicative of a marked deviation from the conventional Fermi-liquid theory.     

Unconventional integer quantum Hall effect in graphene

Monolayer graphite films, or graphene, have quasiparticle excitations that can be described by (2+1)-dimensional Dirac theory. We demonstrate that this produces an unconventional form of the quantized Hall conductivity sigma(xy) = -(2e2/h)(2n+1) with n = 0, 1, ..., which notably distinguishes graphene from other materials where the integer quantum Hall effect was observed. This unconventional quantization is caused by the quantum anomaly of the n=0 Landau level and was discovered in recent experiments on ultrathin graphite films.     

Energy dependence of the quasiparticle lifetime in a 2DES

We present a novel technique for measuring the lifetime of quasiparticle excitations of a 2DES by investigating the tunnelling into a quantum dot from a 2DES over an extended range of energy from the Fermi energy to the sub-band edge. We find that the lifetime τ_qp, of a quasihole excitation, caused by removing an electron from a 2DES state with energy below the Fermi energy E_F, has the form τ_qp=α/, where α is a constant of order unity.     

Femtosecond energy relaxation in suspended graphene: phonon-assisted spreading of quasiparticle distribution

Ultra-fast optical measurements of few-layer suspended graphene films grown by chemical vapor deposition were performed with femtosecond pump–probe spectroscopy. The relaxation processes were monitored in transient differential transmission (ΔT/T) after excitation at two different wavelengths of 350 and 680 nm. Intraband electron–electron scattering, electron–phonon scattering, interband Auger recombination and impact ionization were considered to contribute to ΔT/T. All these processes may play important roles in spreading the quasiparticle distribution in time scales up to 100 fs. Optical phonon emission and absorption by highly excited non-equilibrium electrons were identified from ΔT/T peaks in the wide spectral range. When the probe energy region was far from the pump energy, the energy dependence of the quasiparticle decay rate was found to be linear. Longer lifetimes were observed when the quasiparticle population was localized due to optical phonon emission or absorption.     

Dirac quasiparticle tunneling in a NG/ferromagnetic barrier/SG graphene junction

We study the tunneling conductance in a spin dependent barrier NG/F_B/SG graphene junction, where NG, F_B and SG are normal graphene, gate ferromagnetic graphene barrier with thickness d and the graphene s-wave superconductor, respectively. In our work, the quasiparticle scattering process at the interfaces is based on quasi particles governed by the Dirac Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation with effective speed of light v_F ∼ 10⁶ m/s. The conductance of the junction is calculated based on Blonder–Tinkham–Klapwijk (BTK) formalism. The oscillatory conductance under varying gate potential and exchange energy in F_B and the conductance induced by specular Andreev reflection are studied. By taking into account both effects of barrier strengths due to the gate potential χ_G∼V_Gd/?v_F${\chi }_{\text{G}}\sim V_{\text{G}}d/?v_{\text{F}}$ and the exchange energy χ_ex∼E_exd/?v_F${\chi }_{\text{ex}}\sim E_{\text{ex}}d/?v_{\text{F}}$ in the F_B region, we find that the zero bias conductance of junction depends only on the ferromagnetic barrier strength χ_ex in F_B, when the Fermi energy in SG is very much larger than that the Fermi energy in NG (E_FS ? E_FN). The oscillatory conductance peaks can be controlled by either varying χ_ex or χ_G. In the limiting case, by setting E_ex = 0, the conductance in a NG/N_B/SG graphene junction, where SG is the s-wave superconductor, is also studied in order to compare with two earlier contradicted data. Our result agrees with what was obtained by Linder and Sudbo [J. Linder, A. Sudbo, Phys. Rev. B 77 (2008) 64507], which confirms the contradiction to what was given by Bhattacharjee and Sengupta [S. Bhattacharjee, K. Sengupta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 (2006) 217001].     

Effect of gap opening on the quasiparticle properties of doped graphene sheets

We present numerical calculations of the effect of gap opening on the quasiparticle properties of a doped graphene sheet within G₀W-RPA approximation. We present results of the renormalized Fermi velocity suppression and the renormalization constant over a broad range of the energy gap values. We find that the renormalized velocity is density independent at large density values which is in agreement with recent experimental observations. We also show that the inelastic quasiparticle lifetime decreases by increasing the gap value. Finally, we show that the inelastic mean free path reduces by increasing the gap values but in the range of the typical gap values it is large enough and transport remains in the semi-ballistic regime.     

准粒子谱函数对单层石墨片最小电导率的影响

在有效质量近似下,利用久保(Kubo)公式计算了单层石墨片的最小电导率.结果发现最小电导率的大小依赖于准粒子谱函数的函数形式：如果准粒子谱函数取洛伦兹分布,得到最小电导率为4e²/πh;如果准粒子谱函数满足高斯分布,则最小电导率为2e²/h. 关键词： 单层石墨片 最小电导率 久保公式     

Velocity renormalization and carrier lifetime in graphene from the electron-phonon interaction

We present a first-principles investigation of the phonon-induced electron self-energy in graphene. The energy dependence of the self-energy reflects the peculiar linear band structure of graphene and deviates substantially from the usual metallic behavior. The effective band velocity of the Dirac fermions is found to be reduced by 4%-8%, depending on doping, by the interaction with lattice vibrations. Our results are consistent with the observed linear dependence of the electronic linewidth on the binding energy in photoemission spectra.     

Tunable Fano resonances in the ballistic transmission and tunneling lifetime in a biased bilayer graphene nanostructure

Dynamics of the Dirac fermions, in particular the transmission coefficient and the resonant tunneling lifetime are studied across a bilayer graphene electrostatic double barrier structure modulated by an in plane homogeneous electric field. Asymmetric Fano type resonances are noted for the first time in the transmission spectrum of the bilayer graphene nanostructures and are found to be highly sensitive to the direction of incidence of the charge carriers and the applied homogeneous electric field. The effect of the external field on the extended and the evanescent modes is also analysed. Resonant tunneling lifetime is found to be highly anisotropic in nature. The chiral carriers are either accelerated or decelerated by the electric field depending on the energy of the quasi-bound states, the angle of incidence and the magnitude of the applied field. Effects of the external field on the localization of the chiral carriers are also discussed.     

Role of spin in quasiparticle interference

Quasiparticle interference patterns measured by scanning tunneling microscopy can be used to study the local electronic structure of metal surfaces and high-temperature superconductors. Here, we show that even in nonmagnetic systems the spin of the quasiparticles can have a profound effect on the interference patterns. On Bi(110), where the surface state bands are not spin degenerate, the patterns are not related to the dispersion of the electronic states in a simple way. In fact, the features which are expected for the spin-independent situation are absent and the observed interference patterns can be interpreted only by taking spin-conserving scattering events into account.     

Spin-dependent quasiparticle transport in aluminum single-electron transistors

We investigate the effect of Zeeman splitting on quasiparticle transport in normal-superconducting-normal (NSN) aluminum single-electron transistors (SETs). In the above-gap transport, the interplay of Coulomb blockade and Zeeman splitting leads to spin-dependence of the sequential tunneling. This creates regimes where either one or both spin species can tunnel onto or off the island. At lower biases, spin-dependence of the single quasiparticle state is studied, and operation of the device as a bipolar spin filter is suggested.     

Excitonic and quasiparticle gaps in Si nanocrystals

We present calculations of the one- and two-particle excitations in silicon nanocrystals. The one-particle properties are handled in the GW approximation, and the excitonic gap is obtained from the Bethe-Salpeter equation. We develop a tight binding version of these methods to treat clusters up to 275 atoms. The self-energy and Coulomb corrections almost exactly cancel each other for crystallites with radius larger than 0.6 nm. The result of this cancellation is that one-particle calculations give quite accurate values for the excitonic gap of crystallites in the most studied range of sizes.     

Aharonov-Bohm superperiod in a Laughlin quasiparticle interferometer

We report an Aharonov-Bohm superperiod of five magnetic flux quanta (5h/e) observed in a Laughlin quasiparticle interferometer, where an edge channel of the 1/3 fractional quantum Hall fluid encircles an island of the 2/5 fluid. This result does not violate the gauge invariance argument of the Byers-Yang theorem because the magnetic flux, in addition to affecting the Aharonov-Bohm phase of the encircling 1/3 quasiparticles, creates the 2/5 quasiparticles in the island. The superperiod is accordingly understood as imposed by the anyonic statistical interaction of Laughlin quasiparticles.     

Magnetic-field-dependent quasiparticle energy relaxation in mesoscopic wires

In order to find out if magnetic impurities can mediate interactions between quasiparticles in metals, we have measured the effect of a magnetic field B on the energy distribution function f(E) of quasiparticles in two silver wires driven out of equilibrium by a bias voltage U. In a sample showing sharp distributions at B=0, no magnetic field effect is found, whereas, in the other sample, rounded distributions at low magnetic field get sharper as B is increased, with a characteristic field proportional to U. Comparison is made with recent calculations of the effect of magnetic-impurities-mediated interactions taking into account Kondo physics.