Generation of spin current by Coulomb drag

Coulomb drag between two quantum wires is exponentially sensitive to the mismatch of their electronic densities. The application of a magnetic field can compensate this mismatch for electrons of opposite spin directions in different wires. The resulting enhanced momentum transfer leads to the conversion of the charge current in the active wire to the spin current in the passive wire.     

Tunable quantum dot resonator embedded in a quantum wire

Combined quantum wire and quantum dot system is theoretically predicted to show unique conductance properties associated with Coulomb interactions. We use a split gate technique to fabricate a quantum wire containing a quantum dot with two tunable potential barriers in a two-dimensional electron gas. We observe the effects of the quantum dot cavity on the electron transport through the quantum wire, such as Coulomb oscillations near the pinch-off voltage and periodic conductance oscillations on the first conductance plateau.     

On the temperature dependence of ballistic Coulomb drag in nanowires

We have investigated within Fermi liquid theory the dependence of Coulomb drag current in a passive quantum wire on the applied voltage V across an active wire and on the temperature T for any values of eV/k(B)T. We assume that the bottoms of the 1D minibands in both wires almost coincide with the Fermi level. We conclude that: (1) within a certain temperature interval the drag current can be a descending function of the temperature T; (2) the experimentally observed temperature dependence T(-0.77) of the drag current can be interpreted within the framework of Fermi liquid theory; (3) at relatively high applied voltages the drag current saturates as a function of the applied voltage; and (4) the screening of the electron potential by metallic gate electrodes can be of importance.     

Temperature dependence of coulomb drag between finite-length quantum wires

We evaluate the Coulomb drag current in two finite-length Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid wires coupled by an electrostatic backscattering interaction. The drag current in one wire shows oscillations as a function of the bias voltage applied to the other wire, reflecting interferences of the plasmon standing waves in the interacting wires. In agreement with this picture, the amplitude of the current oscillations is reduced with increasing temperature. This is a clear signature of non-Fermi-liquid physics because for coupled Fermi liquids the drag resistance is always expected to increase as the temperature is raised.     

Coulomb drag by small momentum transfer between quantum wires

We demonstrate that in a wide range of temperatures Coulomb drag between two weakly coupled quantum wires is dominated by processes with a small interwire momentum transfer. Such processes, not accounted for in the conventional Luttinger liquid theory, cause drag only because the electron dispersion relation is not linear. The corresponding contribution to the drag resistance scales with temperature as T2 if the wires are identical, and as T5 if the wires are different.     

Transport through quantum dots in mesoscopic circuits

We study the transport through a quantum dot, in the Kondo Coulomb blockade valley, embedded in a mesoscopic device with finite wires. The quantization of states in the circuit that hosts the quantum dot gives rise to finite size effects. These effects make the conductance sensitive to the ratio of the Kondo screening length to the wires length and provide a way of measuring the Kondo cloud. We present results obtained with the numerical renormalization group for a wide range of physically accessible parameters.     

Single-electron tunneling in silicon nanostructures

We present a brief overview on different realizations of single-electron devices fabricated in silicon-on-insulator films. Lateral structuring of highly doped silicon films allows us to observe quasi-metallic Coulomb blockade oscillations in shrunken wires where no quantum dot structure is geometrically defined. Embedding quantum dot structures into the inversion channel of a silicon-on-insulator field-effect transistor Coulomb blockade up to 300 K is observed. In contrast to the quasi-metallic structures, in these devices the influence of the quantum mechanical level spacing inside the dot becomes visible. Suspending highly doped silicon nanostructures leads to a novel kind of Coulomb blockade devices allowing both high-power application as well as the study of electron–phonon interaction. Received: 14 April 2000 / Accepted: 17 April 2000 / Published online: 6 September 2000     

Ground state description of bound polarons in parabolic quantum wires

The Feynman-Haken variational path integral theory is, for the first time, generalized to calculate the ground-state energy of an electron coupled simultaneously to a Coulomb potential and to a longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon field in parabolic quantum wires. It is shown that the polaronic correction to the ground-state energy is more sensitive to the electron-phonon coupling constant than the Coulomb binding parameter and monotonically stronger as the effective wire radius decreases. We apply our calculations to several semiconductor quantum wires and find that the polaronic correction can be considerably large. Received 16 November 1998     

Temperature dependent time-resolved exciton luminescence in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires and dots

Transient photoluminescence of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires and quantum dots formed by strain confinement is studied as a function of temperature. At low temperature, luminescent decay times of the wires and dots correspond to the radiative decay times of localized excitons. The radiative decay time can be either longer or shorter than that of the host quantum well, depending on the size of the wires and dots. For small wires and dots (∼ 100 nm stressor), the exciton radiative recombination rate increases due to lateral confinement. Exciton localization due to the fluctuation of quantum well thickness plays an important role in the temperature dependence of luminescent decay time and exciton transfer in quantum wire and dot structures up to at least ∼ 80 K. Lateral exciton transfer in quantum wire and dot structures formed by laterally patterning quantum wells strongly affects the dynamics of wire and dot luminescence. The relaxation time of hot excitons increases with the depth of strain confinement, but we find no convincing evidence that it is significantly slower in quasi 1-D or 0-D systems than in quantum wells.     

Blockade of tunneling in a suspended single-electron transistor

The tunneling of electrons that is limited by the Coulomb blockade effect in a single-electron transistor with a quantum dot based on a narrow GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire suspended over a substrate is investigated. By means of a direct comparison experiment, the tunneling features associated with the separation of the quantum dot from the substrate are revealed. In addition to an increase in the charge energy (Coulomb gap), which reaches 170 K in temperature units, the dependence of this energy on the number of electrons in the quantum dot, which varies from zero to four, is observed. This dependence is explained by a change in the effective size of the dot due to the effect of the depleting gate voltage. Moreover, the additional blockade of tunneling that is different from the Coulomb blockade and is specific for suspended structures is observed. It is shown that this blockade is not associated with the dynamical effect of exciting local phonon modes and can be attributed to the change in the static elastic strains in the quantum wire that accompany the tunneling of an electron to/from the quantum dot.     

量子线,量子点和它们的激光器

介绍了半导体量子线、量子点的自组织生长法和掩膜表面选择局部生长法，讨论了量子线、量子点激光器的优点以及遇到的问题，指出了大小均匀性是实现量子线、量子点激光器的主要障碍．     

New method of creation of a rearrangeable local Coulomb potential profile and its application for investigations of local conductivity of InAs nanowires

We present a new technique to create a reconfigurable Coulomb potential profile. The potential profile on the sample surface covered with residual polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) layer as charge accumulation substance is performed with a low DC voltage applied to conductive probe tip of scanning microscope. To characterize the resulted Coulomb potential profile Kelvin probe technique is used. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by performing measurements of the local conductivity of InAs quantum wires. These investigations revealed an inhomogeneous conductivity of the wires and the formation of a potential barrier in the wire at the contact pad interface when the electronic system of the wire is depleted.     

Individual charge traps in silicon nanowires

We study anomalies in the Coulomb blockade spectrum of a quantum dot formed in a silicon nanowire. These anomalies are attributed to electrostatic interaction with charge traps in the device. A simple model reproduces these anomalies accurately and we show how the capacitance matrices of the traps can be obtained from the shape of the anomalies. From these capacitance matrices we deduce that the traps are located near or inside the wire. Based on the occurrence of the anomalies in wires with different doping levels we infer that most of the traps are arsenic dopant states. In some cases the anomalies are accompanied by a random telegraph signal which allows time resolved monitoring of the occupation of the trap. The spin of the trap states is determined via the Zeeman shift.     

VARIATIONAL CALCULATION ON GROUND-STATE ENERGY OF BOUND POLARONS IN PARABOLIC QUANTUM WIRES

Within the framework of Feynman path-integral variational theory, we calculate the ground-state energy of a polaron in parabolic quantum wires in the presence of a Coulomb potential. It is shown that the polaronic correction to the ground-state energy is more sensitive to the electron－phonon coupling constant than the Coulomb binding parameter, and it increases monotonically with decreasing effective wire radius. Moreover, compared to the results obtained by Feynman Haken variational path-integral theory, we obtain better results within the Feynman path-integral variational approach (FV approach). Applying our calculation to several polar semiconductor quantum wires, we find that the polaronic correction can be considerably large.     

一种新型的高频半导体量子点单电子泵

除了直流负电压外,还在浅法刻蚀出的GaAs/AlGaAs量子线上的两个金属指形门上分别叠加两个相位相差π的正弦信号,从而对形成量子点的两个势垒作不等幅调制.在无源漏偏压的情况下,通过周期形成的量子点实现了单电子的搬运.由于新的半导体量子点单电子泵不是依赖库仑阻塞效应通过隧穿进行单电子输运,因此,该器件就不会受到固定隧穿时间引起的低工作频率限制.在1.7K温度下,频率达到3GHz仍然可以观测到量子化电流平台,对应的电流值达到0.5nA量级.这种新器件提供了实现高速度、高精度搬运单电子的另一种可能途径. 关键词： 单电子输运 单电子旋转门 单电子泵 量子化电流平台     

Fabrication and optical properties of quantum dots and wires

We describe photoluminescence measurements made on mesa geometry quantum dots and wires with exposed side walls fabricated by laterally patterning undoped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells using electron beam lithography and dry etching. At low temperature the photoluminescence efficiency of many but not all of the GaAs quantum dot arrays scales with the volume of quantum well material down to lateral dimensions of 50nm. This behaviour contrasts with that found in wires produced at the same time where the intensity falls off rapidly with decreasing wire width for dimensions below 500nm but is recovered by overgrowth with indium tin oxide, possibly as a result of strain. Narrow overgrown wires exhibit anisotropy in polarized excitation spectra which is discussed in relation to strain and lateral confinement effects.     

Elementary excitations in multiple quantum wire structures

We calculate the plasmon dispersion of electrons in multiple quantum wire structures. Wave function overlapping effects between different wires are neglected. The Coulomb interaction potential is calculated for a model with circular wire area. Analytical results for the excitation spectrum of electron multiple quantum wire structures are obtained within an one-subband model. Landau damping of intrasubband plasmons is discussed. Results for an electron superlattice within a two-subband model are presented and the coupling of intersubband plasmons with intrasubband plasmons is calculated. We compare the theoretical results with recent Raman measurements of intrasubband plasmons in Al _x Ga_1–x As/GaAs wire superlattices. The plasmon dispersion for boson multiple quantum wire structures also is calculated.     

Single quantum dots as scanning tunneling microscope tips

We report the use of single quantum dot structures as tips on a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). A single quantum dot structure with a diameter of less than 200 nm and a height of 2 μm was fabricated by reactive ion etching. This dot was placed on a 40 μm-high mesa and mounted on the tip of a STM. The topography of large structures such as quantum wires or gold test substrates is clearly resolved with such a tip. To check the transport properties of the tip, quantum dot arrays were fabricated on resonant tunneling double barrier structures using the same process parameters. Conventional tunneling spectroscopy clearly resolved the 0D states in our samples. Using a metal substrate as second electrode such STM tips can be used to perform high resolution energy spectroscopy on single dots and free standing wire structures.     

Time-resolved cathodoluminescence of InGaAs/AlGaAs tetrahedral pyramidal quantum structures

An original time resolved cathodoluminescence set up has been used to investigate the optical properties and the carrier transport in quantum structures located in InGaAs/AlGaAs tetrahedral pyramids. An InGaAs quantum dot formed just below the top of the pyramid is connected to four types of low-dimensional barriers: InGaAs quantum wires on the edges of the pyramid, InGaAs quantum wells on the (111)A facets and segregated AlGaAs vertical quantum wire and AlGaAs vertical quantum wells formed at the centre and at the pyramid edges. Experiments were performed at a temperature of 92 K, an accelerating voltage of 10 kV and a beam probe current of 10 pA. The cathodoluminescence spectrum shows five luminescence peaks. Rise and decay times for the different emission wavelengths provide a clear confirmation of the peak attribution (previously done with other techniques) to the different nanostructures grown in a pyramid. Moreover, experimental results suggest a scenario where carriers diffuse from the lateral quantum structures towards the central structures (the InGaAs quantum dot and the segregated AlGaAs vertical quantum wire) via the InGaAs quantum wires on the edges of the pyramid. According to this hypothesis, we have modeled the carrier diffusion along these quantum wires. An ambipolar carrier mobility of 1400 cm²/V s allows to obtain a good fit to all temporal dependences. PACS 78.67.-n     

Spectrum of localized states in graphene quantum dots and wires

We developed semiclassical method and show that any smooth potential in graphene describing elongated a quantum dot or wire may behave as a barrier or as a trapping well or as a double barrier potential, Fabry–Perot structure, for 1D Schrödinger equation. The energy spectrum of quantum wires has been found and compared with numerical simulations. We found that there are two types of localized states, stable and metastable, having finite life time. These life times are calculated, as is the form of the localized wave functions which are exponentially decaying away from the wire in the perpendicular direction.