Low energy RBS and SIMS analysis of the SiGe quantum well

The Ge concentration in a MBE grown SiGe and the depth of the quantum well has been quantitatively analysed by means of low energy Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The concentrations of Si and Ge were supposed to be constant, except for the quantum well, where the nominal germanium concentration was at 5%. Quantitative information was deduced out of raw data by comparison to SIMNRA simulated spectra. With the knowledge of the response function of the SIMS instrument (germanium delta (δ) layer) and using the model of forward convolution (point to point convolution) it is possible to determine the germanium concentration and the thickness of the analysed quantum well out of raw SIMS data.     

On the possibility of designing interacting semiconductor quantum wells with zero perturbation coupling

The paper describes the possibility of designing matched interacting semiconductor quantum wells. It is shown that for a given eigenstate of a quantum well (QW), it is always possible to find another QW in such a way that the coupling leaves the original eigenstate of the host QW unperturbed irrespective of the strength of interaction. For rectangular QWs, the condition is met with whenever the second QW has appropriate width and depth so that phase travelled by an electron wave through it is an integral multiple of π.     

Effect of elastic anisotropy on the strain fields and band edges in stacked InAs/GaAs quantum dot nanostructures

The effect of elastic anisotropy on the strain fields and confinement potentials in InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) nanostructures was investigated for an isolated dot and a stacked multi-layer dots using finite element analysis and model solid theory. The assumption of isotropy tends to underestimate especially hydrostatic strain that is known to modify confinement potentials in conduction band. Consideration of anisotropy results in a wider band gap and shallower potential well as compared with the isotropic model. Since the band gap and potential well depth would be related to opto-electronic properties of quantum dot systems via quantum mechanical effects, it is suggested that consideration of elastic anisotropy in the calculation of strains and band structures is necessary for the design of QD-based opto-electronic devices.     

Effects of Electric Field on Electronic States in a GaAs/GaAlAs Quantum Dot with Different Confinements

Binding energies of shallow hydrogenic impurity in a GaAs/GaAlAs quantum dot with spherical confinement, parabolic confinement and rectangular confinement are calculated as a function of dot radius in the influence of electric field. The binding energy is calculated following a variational procedure within the effective mass approximation along with the spatial depended dielectric function. A finite confining potential well with depth is determined by the discontinuity of the band gap in the quantum dot and the cladding. It is found that the contribution of spatially dependent screening effects are small for a donor impurity and it is concluded that the rectangulax confinement is better than the parabolic and spherical confinements. These results are compared with the existing literature.     

Spin configuration transformation in laterally coupled few-electron artificial molecules

Artificial molecules, namely laterally coupled quantum dots with a three-dimensional spherical confinement potential well of radius R and depth V ₀, were studied by the unrestricted Hartree-Fock-Roothaan (UHFR) method. By varying the distance d between the centers of the two coupled quantum dots, the transition from the strong coupling situation to the weak one is realized. Hund's rule, suitable for a single quantum dot is destroyed in certain conditions in the artificial molecule. For example, in the few-electron system of the strongly coupled quantum-dot molecule, a transformation of spin configuration has been found. Received 8 March 2002 / Received in final form 29 May 2002 Published online 17 September 2002     

Micro-Photoluminescence Confocal Mapping of Single V-Grooved GaAs Quantum Wire

We perform the micro-photoluminescence measurement at low temperatures and a scanning optical mapping with high spatial resolution of a single V-grooved GaAs quantum wire modified by the selective ion-implantation and rapid thermally annealing. While the mapping shows the luminescences respectively from the quantum wires and from quantum well areas between quantum wires in general, the micro-photoluminescence at liquid He temperatures reveals a plenty of spectral structures of the PL band for a single quantum wire. The spectral structures are attributed to the inhomogeneity and non-uniformity of both the space structure and compositions of real wires as well as the defects nearby the interface between quantum wire and surrounding quantum well structures. All these make the excitons farther localized in quasi-zero-dimensional quantum potential boxes related to these non-uniformity and/or defects. The results also demonstrate the ability of micro-photoluminescence measurement and mapping for the characterization of both opto-electronic and structural properties of real quantum wires.     

Temperature Insensitivity of Optical Properties of InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots due to a Pregrown InGaAs Quantum Well

Both the peak position and linewidth in the photoluminescence spectrum of the InAs/GaAs quantum dots usually vary in an anomalous way with increasing temperature. Such anomalous optical behaviour is eliminated by inserting an In0.2Ga0.8As quantum well below the quantum dot layer in molecular beam epitaxy. The insensitivity of the photoluminescence spectra to temperature is explained in terms of the effective carrier redistribution between quantum dots through the In0.2Ga0.8As quantum well.     

Type 1.5 coupled quantum wells for electroabsorption modulation with low electric fields

A new quantum structure, the type 1.5 quantum well, is proposed and modelled. The type 1.5 quantum well has a greater absorption modulation depth with low applied fields (30 kV cm^–1) than standard type I quantum wells. In addition, the type 1.5 quantum well has better insertion loss and attenuation characteristics under negative alpha parameter (blue chirped) conditions than standard type I quantum well materials.     

Experimental study of the role of atomic interactions on quantum transport

We report an experimental study of quantum transport for atoms confined in a periodic potential and compare between thermal and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) initial conditions. We observe ballistic transport for all values of well depth and initial conditions, and the measured expansion velocity for thermal atoms is in excellent agreement with a single-particle model. For weak wells, the expansion of the BEC is also in excellent agreement with single-particle theory, using an effective temperature. We observe a crossover to a new regime for the BEC case as the well depth is increased, indicating the importance of interactions on quantum transport.     

Quantum confined carrier transition in a GaN/InGaN/GaN single quantum well bounded by AlGaN barriers

We investigated the carrier transition properties of the GaN/InGaN/GaN single quantum well bounded by AlGaN barriers. In order to confirm the carrier transition coming from the single quantum well, the single quantum well layer was etched by reactive ion etching method. The structural property of the samples was characterized by high resolution X-ray diffraction measurements. In micro-photoluminescence measurements, it is clearly shown that the donor bound exciton transition of the single quantum well sample was redshifted compared to the etched one due to strain. Moreover, a lot of peaks were observed below the GaN band gap energy due to carrier localization in the InGaN/GaN single quantum well, including carrier localization center and quantum confined states. The excitation power dependence and time resolved photoluminescence spectra were investigated to characterize the optical transition of the single quantum well.     

有限深势阱里量子盘中极化子的基态性质

采用平面波展开、幺正变换和变分相结合的方法推导出有限深势阱里量子盘中极化子的基态能量公式.采用极化子单位进行数值计算,结果表明极化子的基态能量随势垒高度和势垒宽度的增大而增大,原因是势垒愈高、愈宽,电子穿透势垒的可能性愈小,导致电子能量增大,进而导致极化子基态能量增大.数值计算结果还表明极化子的基态能量随量子盘有效受限长度和量子盘半径的增大而减小;声子效应导致极化子能量较电子能量低.     

Growth and optical characterization of single quantum well structure of submonolayer ZnS/ZnTe

Single quantum wells of submonolayer ZnS/ZnTe were grown between ZnTe layers using hot wall epitaxy method with fast-movable substrate configuration. As ZnS well widths decrease from 1 to 0.15 monolayer, the photoluminescence peaks shift to higher energies from 2.049 to 2.306 eV, and the photoluminescence intensities increase. As ZnS well width decrease, the PL spectra show the lower-energy tails and consequently the increased PL FWHMs. This is a result of a convolution of two PL peaks from two-dimensional and zero-dimensional quantum islands, supported by a still lived lower-energy peaks of zero-dimensional quantum islands above 50 K. The energy shift in the power dependence of photoluminescence spectra is proportional to the third root of the excitation density. These behaviors can be described by the formation of submonolayer type-II ZnS/ZnTe quantum well structure, and the coexistence of two-dimensional and one-dimensional islands in ZnS layers.     

Electro-absorption and refraction in Fabry-Perot quantum well modulators: a general discussion

Fabry-Perot resonators have long been advocated to improve the limited contrast ratio of multiple quantum well optical modulators used in photonic switches based on self electrooptic effect devices (SEEDs) and in other array based optical interconnection schemes. Using data on field dependent GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well absorption and refraction, we have modelled the reflectivity, modulation depth and contrast ratio of resonant modulators. Our results are generally valid for any quantum well modulator and demonstrate 23the important role played by electro-refraction even in regions of strong absorption. Resonators give large contrast ratios but there are trade-offs in the maximum reflectivity change achievable with Fabry-Perot resonators compared to simple modulators. The model gives the optimum number of quantum wells and reflectivity values required to make a resonator at any wavelength for a given quantum well structure. Understanding the limits of Fabry-Perot quantum well modulator performance is important for their application in symmetric self electrooptic effectiveness for photonic switching where modulation and detection properties are both used and for optical interconnection systems.     

Topological order and conformal quantum critical points

We discuss a certain class of two-dimensional quantum systems which exhibit conventional order and topological order, as well as quantum critical points separating these phases. All of the ground-state equal-time correlators of these theories are equal to correlation functions of a local two-dimensional classical model. The critical points therefore exhibit a time-independent form of conformal invariance. These theories characterize the universality classes of two-dimensional quantum dimer models and of quantum generalizations of the eight-vertex model, as well as and non-abelian gauge theories. The conformal quantum critical points are relatives of the Lifshitz points of three-dimensional anisotropic classical systems such as smectic liquid crystals. In particular, the ground-state wave functional of these quantum Lifshitz points is just the statistical (Gibbs) weight of the ordinary two-dimensional free boson, the two-dimensional Gaussian model. The full phase diagram for the quantum eight-vertex model exhibits quantum critical lines with continuously varying critical exponents separating phases with long-range order from a deconfined topologically ordered liquid phase. We show how similar ideas also apply to a well-known field theory with non-Abelian symmetry, the strong-coupling limit of 2+1-dimensional Yang–Mills gauge theory with a Chern–Simons term. The ground state of this theory is relevant for recent theories of topological quantum computation.     

Second-harmonic generation spectroscopy on quantum wells: Au on Si(111)

×):Au-structure prior to film growth leads to increased amplitude in the oscillations indicating improved growth characteristics compared to the 7×7 substrate. The position of the maxima shifts towards lower coverage and the oscillation period decreases with increasing pump frequency. This behaviour is an unambiguous signature of quantum well resonances and, hence, clearly demonstrates that Au deposition on Si(111)(×):Au leads to well-defined quantum well structures with atomically flat interfaces. Furthermore, the rotationally anisotropic contribution to SHG also shows coverage oscillations as a result of quantum well effects and demonstrates the presence of structural order. Received: 12 October 1998     

Resonant Tunnelling in Barrier-in-Well and Well-in-Well Structures

A Schrödinger equation is solved numerically for a barrier in a quantum well and a quantum well in another well structure by the transfer matrix technique. Effect of structure parameters on the transmission probabilities is investigated in detail. The results suggest that symmetry plays an important role in the coupling effect between the quantum wells. The relationship between the width of the inner well and the resonant energy levels in well-in-well structures is also studied. It is found that the ground state energy and the second resonant energy decrease with increasing width of the inner well, while the first resonant energy remains constant.     

Exciton tunnelling in ZnCdSe quantum well/CdSe quantum dots

Exciton tunnelling through a ZnSe barrier layer of various thicknesses is investigated in a Zn_0.72Cd_0.28Se/CdSe coupled quantum well/quantum dots (QW/QDs) structure using photoluminescence (PL) spectra and near resonant pump-probe technique. Fast exciton tunnelling from quantum well to quantum dots is observed by transient differential transmission. The tunnelling time is 1.8, 4.4 and 39 ps for barrier thickness of 10, 15 and 20 nm, respectively.     

Implementation of a Quantum Conditional Phase Gate for the Quantum Fourier Transform in Circuit QED

It is well known that multiple superconducting charge qubits coupled to a transmission line resonator can be controlled to achieve quantum logic gates between two arbitrary qubits. We propose a scheme to realize a quantum conditional phase gate with a geometric property by circuit electrodynamics, and it is applied naturally to reaJize the quantum Fourier transform with high fidelity. It is also demonstrated that the application is feasible and considerable under the present experimental technology.     

Self-consistent electronic structure of quantum wells by invariant embedding method

A new approach based on the invariant embedding method for the self-consistent calculation of electronic structure of quantum wells is presented and is applied to both neutral quantum well and parabolic quantum well. Numerical results obtained for these structures agree very well with those of previous theoretical and experiment studies. The present approach is expected to lead to a more efficient and stable scheme for the calculation of electronic band structure of quantum structures. Realistic boundary conditions are naturally taken into account in the present calculation which provides a convenient way for studying boundary effects. Received 21 September     

Effect of toroidal moment on a macroscopic self-organization of electrons in the quantum Hall regime

We have studied CR lineshape of terahertz-light-induced current in InAs quantum wells in tilted quantizing magnetic fields. We have observed dramatic modification of the lineshape with increasing of in-plane component of magnetic field as well as with increasing of transverse built-in electric field in the well. Scenario of the modification shows that the energy spectrum asymmetry is determined by so-called toroidal moment of the system and is a function of Landau quantum number. Macroscopic self-organization of electrons under the conditions of quantum Hall effect has also been directly demonstrated in both linear and saturation regimes of the light absorption.