Time-dependent electron transport in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells

Based on the Floquet theory and Keldysh's nonequilibrium Green's function methods, we study the electron transport through the HgTe/CdTe quantum wells (QWs) irradiated by a monochromatic laser field. We find that when the laser field is applied, the edge states are split into a series of sidebands. When the Fermi level lies among these sidebands, the quantized plateau of the conductance is destroyed. Instead, the conductance versus the radiation frequency exhibits the successive oscillation peaks corresponding to the resonant tunneling through the sidebands of the edge states. The resonant interaction between the quasiparticles and the radiation field opens the gaps in the crossing region of the sidebands, which can be tuned by the radiation strength and frequency. This leads to the shift of the oscillation peaks in the conductance. We also show that the amplitudes of the oscillation peaks in the conductance are governed by the radiation strength and frequency.     

Many body effects and internal transitions of confined excitons in GaAs and CdTe quantum wells

Many body effects contribute significantly to the energy states of electron-hole pairs confined in quantum wells in the presence of excess electrons. We present results of optically detected resonance spectroscopy of the internal transitions of photo-excited electron-hole pairs in the presence of excess electrons for GaAs QWs and CdTe QWs. Compared to the case of isolated negatively charged excitons, excess electrons produce a large blue shift of the internal transitions in modulation-doped GaAs quantum wells (QWs) for filling factor <2, and similar effects are found in CdTe QWs. For filling factor >2 no internal transitions are observed. These measurements demonstrate the strong effects of electron-electron correlations on the internal transitions of charged excitons in these quasi-2D systems and the importance of magnetic translation invariance. In the presence of excess electrons, the observed internal transitions are those of a magnetoplasmon bound to a mobile valence band hole.     

A diffusion anomaly in dipole-oriented two-dimensional excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells

Il Nuovo Cimento D - We have observed an anomaly in the low-temperature photoluminescence of dipole-oriented long-lived excitons in a coupled quantum well under an electrical bias. A discrepancy...     

Negative effective mass induced by in-plane magnetic fields in n-doped wide quantum wells

By solving the coupled Schrödinger and Poisson's equations self-consistently, we have theoretically investigated the in-plane magnetic-field-induced negative effective mass (NEM) in n-doped wide quantum wells. The NEM originates from the interaction of Hartree potential and magnetic-field-introduced potential. Without n-type doping, no NEM section arises at any magnetic field densities. The value of NEM and the width of NEM section can be effectively adjusted by magnetic field, electrical field, and doping concentration, which make it possible to utilize the above system to realize the tunable terahertz source.     

Magnetoelectronic transport of the two-dimensional electron gas in CdSe single quantum wells

Hall mobility and magnetoresistance coefficient for the two-dimensional (2D) electron transport parallel to the heterojunction interfaces in a single quantum well of CdSe are calculated with a numerical iterative technique in the framework of Fermi-Dirac statistics. Lattice scatterings due to polar-mode longitudinal optic (LO) phonons, and acoustic phonons via deformation potential and piezoelectric couplings, are considered together with background and remote ionized impurity interactions. The parallel mode of piezoelectric scattering is found to contribute more than the perpendicular mode. We observe that the Hall mobility decreases with increasing temperature but increases with increasing channel width. The magnetoresistance coefficient is found to decrease with increasing temperature and increase with increasing magnetic field in the classical region.      

Diffusion thermopower of the two-dimensional electron gas in GaN single quantum wells

Diffusion thermopower ($S_d$) of the two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in GaN single quantum wells is calculated in the temperature range 1 K–12 K using the Fermi–Dirac distribution function. Scattering of carriers through acoustic phonons via deformation potential and piezoelectric couplings, and through background and remote ionized impurities is included. $S_d$ is found to decrease with temperature and the 2D electron concentration, and is primarily controlled by deformation potential acoustic scattering. The dependence of $S_d$ on the well width and the ionized impurity concentration is found to be quite weak.     

Mott transition of excitons in coupled quantum wells

In this work we study the phase diagram of indirect excitons in coupled quantum wells and show that the system undergoes a phase transition to an unbound electron-hole plasma. This transition is manifested as an abrupt change in the photoluminescence linewidth and peak energy at some critical power density and temperature. By measuring the exciton diamagnetism, we show that the transition is associated with an abrupt increase in the exciton radius. We find that the transition is stimulated by the presence of direct excitons in one of the wells and show that they serve as a catalyst of the transition.     

Scattering and relaxation of low-energy excitons in quantum wells

Il Nuovo Cimento D - We consider in this work the scattering of low-energy excitons in single quantum wells. In the first part we consider the elastic scattering by a static centre (charged...     

Maxwell relaxation of excitons in double quantum wells

The spreading of dipolar excitons in double quantum wells is described by a nonlinear continuity equation. It has been shown that the law of corresponding states holds, which allows one to find the dependence of the characteristic process parameters on the amplitude and width of the initial distribution. In contrast to usual (linear) diffusion, the spreading occurs much faster in the one-dimensional case than in the two-dimensional case.     

Stress effects on the photoluminescence energies and binding energies of excitons in ultra-thin ZnTe/CdTe/ZnTe quantum wells

Using the variational method and the effective mass and parabolic band approximations, electron and heavy-hole ground-state energies and exciton and photoluminescence energies are calculated in ultra-thin quantum wells of CdTe/ZnTe heterostructures. The results indicate dependencies on the well width, the barrier height, and stress-related effects and occur because the wave functions of both free carriers and those bound in exciton form determine the system energy and are shaped by the geometry of the well. Critical system thicknesses were estimated for the point at which stress effects become negligible: a value of five monolayers was obtained based on the exciton binding energy, and a value of seven monolayers was obtained based on the free-carrier ground-state energy.