Zener tunneling between Landau levels in a double quantum well at high filling factors

Differential resistance r _xx in a double GaAs quantum well with two occupied size-quantization subbands has been studied at a temperature of 4.2 K in magnetic fields B < 2 T. The oscillations of r _xx with a period in the inverse magnetic field determined by the value of a dc bias current I _dc have been discovered in the electron system under investigation at high filling factors in the presence of I _dc. The amplitude of magneto-intersubband oscillations has been shown to increase in the r _xx oscillation maxima, while the oscillation reversal has been observed in the minima. The discovered oscillations have been shown to be due to Zener tunneling of electrons between Landau levels tilted by a Hall electric field. The experimental data are qualitatively explained by the effect of intersubband transitions on the I _dc-dependent component of the electron distribution function.     

Spatial inhomogeneity of the microwave-induced electronic states with zero conductivity in Corbino disks at high filling factors

The fluctuations of the microwave electromotive force in the magnetic field state with an extremely low conductivity have been revealed in 2D electronic Corbino disks prepared based on GaAs/AlAs heterostructures. The experimental data are attributed to the spatial inhomogeneity and time instability of the electronic states that have zero conductivity and are induced by microwave radiation in the 2D Corbino disks at high filling factors.     

Zener tunneling between landau orbits in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas

Magnetotransport in a laterally confined two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) can exhibit modified scattering channels owing to a tilted Hall potential. Transitions of electrons between Landau levels with shifted guiding centers can be accomplished through a Zener tunneling mechanism, and make a significant contribution to the magnetoresistance. A remarkable oscillation effect in weak field magnetoresistance has been observed in high-mobility 2DEGs in GaAs -Al Ga 0.3As (0.7) heterostructures, and can be well explained by the Zener mechanism.     

Microwave-induced magnetic field oscillations of the electromotive force in a two-dimensional Corbino disk at large filling factors

Microwave-induced magnetic field oscillations of the electromotive force are observed at large filling factors in two-dimensional Corbino disks fabricated on the basis of GaAs/AlAs heterostructures. It is shown that these oscillations of the electromotive force are periodic in the inverse magnetic field and are in antiphase with oscillations of microwave photoconductivity. The experimental data are explained by the inhomogeneous distribution of the microwave field between the coaxial metal contacts to the two-dimensional electron system.     

Acoustic analogue of electronic BLOCH oscillations and resonant Zener tunneling in ultrasonic superlattices

We demonstrate the existence of Bloch oscillations of acoustic fields in sound propagation through a superlattice of water cavities and layers of methyl methacrylate. To obtain the acoustic equivalent of a Wannier-Stark ladder, we employ a set of cavities with different thicknesses. Bloch oscillations are observed as time-resolved oscillations of transmission in a direct analogy to electronic Bloch oscillations in biased semiconductor superlattices. Moreover, for a particular gradient of cavity thicknesses, an overlap of two acoustic minibands occurs, which results in resonant Zener-like transmission enhancement.     

Magneto-intersubband zener tunneling in a wide GaAs quantum well at high filling factors

The dependence of the differential resistance r _xx on the dc current density J _dc in a wide GaAs quantum well with two occupied size quantization subbands has been investigated at the temperature T = 4.2 K in the magnetic fields B < 1 T. A peak, whose position is given by the relation 2R _c eE _H = ħω_c/2, where R _c is the cyclotron radius, E _H is the Hall electric field, and ω_c is the cyclotron frequency, has been observed in the r _xx (J _dc) curves at high filling factors. The experimental results are attributed to Zener tunneling of electrons between the Landau levels of different subbands.     

Resonance microwave photoresistance of a two-subband electron system at large filling factors

The microwave photoresistance of a double GaAs quantum well with two occupied size-quantization sub-bands E ₁ and E ₂ has been studied at the temperatures T = 1.6–4.2 K in the magnetic fields B < 0.5 T. The microwave photoresistance of such a system has been found to have a maximum amplitude when the maximum of the magneto-intersubband oscillations with the number k = (E ₂ − E ₁)ℏω_c coincides with the maximum or minimum of the ω/ω_c oscillations, where ω is the microwave frequency and ω_c is the cyclotron frequency. It has been shown that the resonance photoresistance that appears in the kth maximum of the magneto-intersubband oscillations is determined by the condition ℏω/(E ₂ − E ₁) = (j ± 0.2)/k, where k and j are positive integers.     

Thermodynamic properties of the superconductivity in quasi-two-dimensional Dirac electronic systems

The thermodynamic properties of superconducting Dirac electronic systems is analyzed in the vicinity of quantum critical point. The system is characterized by a quantum critical point at zero doping, such that the critical temperature vanishes below some finite value of interaction strength. It is found that the specific heat jump of the system largely deviates from the conventional BCS theory value in the vicinity of quantum critical point. We investigated the region of applicability of the mean-field theory using the Ginzburg-Landau functional.     

Reflectionless tunneling at the interface between nanoparticles and superconductors

Interfaces between disordered normal (DN) materials and superconductors (S) are known to generate conductance peaks at zero-bias voltage (V) and magnetic field (B). Using molecularly linked Au nanoparticle films as the DN component, we find that superimposed on conductance peaks are oscillations that depend simultaneously on both V and B. Such correlated conductance oscillations are predicted by a "reflectionless tunneling" phenomenon but have not been observed in other DN-S systems. Length scales extracted from periods of conductance oscillation correlate well with film nanostructure.     

Real-space imaging of alternate localization and extension of quasi-two-dimensional electronic States at graphite surfaces in magnetic fields

We measured the local density of states (LDOS) of a quasi-two-dimensional (2D) electron system near point defects on a surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Differential tunnel conductance images taken at very low temperatures and in high magnetic fields show a clear contrast between localized and extended spatial distributions of the LDOS at the valley and peak energies of the Landau level spectrum, respectively. The localized electronic state has a single circular distribution around the defects with a radius comparable to the magnetic length. The localized LDOS is in good agreement with a spatial distribution of a calculated wave function for a single electron in 2D in a Coulomb potential in magnetic fields.     

Detecting electronic states at stacking faults in magnetic thin films by tunneling spectroscopy

Co islands grown on Cu(111) with a stacking fault at the interface present a conductance in the empty electronic states larger than the Co islands that follow the stacking sequence of the Cu substrate. Electrons can be more easily injected into these faulted interfaces, providing a way to enhance transmission in future spintronic devices. The electronic states associated with the stacking fault are visualized by tunneling spectroscopy, and its origin is identified by band structure calculations.     

Experimental investigation of the edge states structure at fractional filling factors

We experimentally study the electron transport between edge states in the fractional quantum Hall effect regime. We find an anomalous increase of the transport across the 2/3 incompressible fractional stripe in comparison with the theoretical predictions for the smooth edge potential profile. We interpret our results as a first experimental demonstration of the intrinsic structure of the incompressible stripes arising at the sample edge in the fractional quantum Hall effect regime.     

Discretization of electronic states in large InAsP/InP multilevel quantum dots probed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

The topography and the electronic structure of InAsP/InP quantum dots are probed by cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The study of the local density of states in such large quantum dots confirms the discrete nature of the electronic levels whose wave functions are measured by differential conductivity mapping. Because of their large dimensions, the energy separation between the discrete electronic levels is low, allowing for quantization in both the lateral and growth directions as well as the observation of the harmonicity of the dot lateral potential.     

Visualizations of the transitional flow patterns at the mid-span between shrouded co-rotating disks

Transitional air flow patterns at the mid-plane of gap between co-rotating disks in a stationary cylindrical enclosure are visualized under the acceleration condition of disks. The flow visualization is performed using olive oil particles with a laser sheet and CCD camera. On disk spinning-up, the transition flow patterns are clearly observed. The affect of magnitude of acceleration on the onset of transition and the relations of the number of vortex cells in fully turbulent regime of the flow in an outer region of the flow field to the rotating speed are also investigated. The centrifugal effect of particle is evaluated from the comparison with visualization results using hollow glass spheres.     

Low-energy electronic spin excitations between filling factors ν=1 and studied by optically detected nuclear magnetic resonance

We report measurements of the spin relaxation time (T_1n) for nuclei in the potential well confining a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system at a single GaAs–GaAlAs heterojunction. At low temperatures nuclear spin relaxation is dominated by electron–nuclear spin scattering: we find that T_1n displays sharp maxima at incompressible states throughout the hierarchy of the fractional quantum Hall effect. This behaviour is consistent with the existence of low-energy spin excitations only where the electron system is compressible. Our measurements also provide evidence for a gap in the spin excitation spectrum at .     

Zero differential resistance in a double quantum well at high filling factors

The differential resistance r _xx in a GaAs double quantum well with two occupied size-quantization subbands have been studied at temperatures T = 1.6–4.2 K in magnetic fields B < 0.5 T. It has been found that differential resistance r _xx vanishes at the maxima of magneto-intersubband oscillations with an increase in the direct current I _dc. It has been shown that the discovered r _xx ≈ 0 state appears under the condition 2R _c E _H/ħω_c < 1/2, where R _c is the cyclotron radius of electrons at the Fermi level, E _H is the Hall electric field induced by the current I _dc, and ω_c is the cyclotron frequency.