Investigation of electronic property modulation driven by strain in monolayer tellurium

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been employed to systematically investigate the strain-modulated electronic properties of monolayer tellurium. The results demonstrate that at zero strain γ-phase monolayer tellurium is found to be more energetically favorable than either the α-phase or β-phase which were fabricated through molecular-beam epitaxy. All studied phases are found to exhibit semiconductor characteristics, of which α- and γ-phases possess indirect band gaps whereas β phase is a direct band gap semiconductor. It is also found that the resulting band gap values approach zero at a large strain regime for all systems and the effective mass of electron and hole can be effectively modified by biaxial strain as well. These findings extend the knowledge on two-dimensional tellurium and provide potential applications in electronic devices.     

Exploring electromagnetic response of tellurium dielectric resonator metamaterial at the infrared wavelengths

We numerically investigate the electromagnetic properties of tellurium dielectric resonator metamaterial at the infrared wavelengths. The transmission spectra, effective permittivity and permeability of the periodic tellurium metamaterial structure are investigated in detail. The linewidth of the structure in the direction of magnetic field W x has effects on the position and strength of the electric resonance and magnetic resonance modes. With appropriately optimizing the geometric dimensions of the designed structure, the proposed tellurium metamaterial structure can provide electric resonance mode and high order magnetic resonance mode in the same frequency band. This would be helpful to analyze and design low-loss negative refraction index metamaterials at the infrared wavelengths.     

The effects of hydrostatic pressure on the nonlinear intersubband transitions and refractive index changes of different QW shapes

In this study, the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the linear and nonlinear intersubband transitions and the refractive index changes in the conduction band of different quantum well shapes are theoretically calculated within framework of the effective mass approximation. Results obtained show that intersubband properties and the energy levels in different QWs can be modified and controlled by the hydrostatic pressure. The modulation of the absorption coefficients and the refractive index changes which can be suitable for good performance optical modulators and various infrared optical device applications can be easily obtained by tuning the hydrostatic pressure strength.     

Magneto-transport properties of thin flakes of Weyl semiconductor tellurium

As an elemental semiconductor, tellurium has recently attracted intense interest due to its non-trivial band topology, and the resulted intriguing topological transport phenomena. In this study we report systematic electronic transport studies on tellurium flakes grown via a simple vapor deposition process. The sample is self-hole-doped, and exhibits typical weak localization behavior at low temperatures. Substantial negative longitudinal magnetoresistance under parallel magnetic field is observed over a wide temperature region, which is considered to share the same origin with that in tellurium bulk crystals, i.e., the Weyl points near the top of valence band. However, with lowering temperature the longitudinal magnetoconductivity experiences a transition from parabolic to linear field dependency, differing distinctly from the bulk counterparts. Further analysis reveals that such a modulation of Weyl behaviors in this low-dimensional tellurium structure can be attributed to the enhanced inter-valley scattering at low temperatures. Our results further extend Weyl physics into a low-dimensional semiconductor system, which may find its potential application in designing topological semiconductor devices.     

Electrical and thermoelectrical properties of selenium-tellurium liquid alloys

A study has been made of the electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power of liquid alloys Te_1-x Se _x with 0≤-x≤-0.5. The temperature range extends from undercooling to about 900°C for electrical conductivity and 750°C for thermoelectric power. A partial conservation after melting of covalent bonds between the atoms of the chains leads to a liquid model in which Gubanov's theory predicts an energy band gap. The experimental results in the intrinsic semiconductor range give the band gap and the mobility ratio values. The thermal gap changes from 1.2 to 3 ev between pure tellurium and the alloy with 70 at. % selenium. There is a large increase in hole mobility with atomic % selenium. For x≥0.2 the low temperature results of the electrical conductivity can be explained by the existence of localized states in the band gap. The high temperature measurements show a trend to the metallic state, but this state cannot be reached at one atmosphere pressure even for tellurium.     

Engineering absolute band gap in anisotropic hexagonal photonic crystals

We analyze the band gap spectra of two-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystals created by a hexagonal lattice of rods covered by an interfacial layer (e.g. tellurium tubes). Using the plane-wave numerical expansion method, we study the modification of the band gap spectrum when the rods are infiltrated with other material, and discuss the optimization strategies leading to the maximum value of the absolute band gap.     

Surface quantum oscillations in accumulation and inversion layers on tellurium

Surface quantum oscillations of the Shubnikov—de Haas type have been recorded in (1$\text{1}$00) planes of p-type accumulation and n-type inversion layers of tellurium. Two electric subbands are found in accumulation, which can be explained rather well on the basis of an exponential potential well. In strong inversion layers three subbands are observed. It is not yet clear, whether they must be attributed to the H₆ conduction band minimum of tellurium or whether another band minimum is involved.     

Subnanosecond pulse measurements of 10.6 μm radiation with tellurium

Subnanosecond infrared pulses have been measured by noncollinear secondharmonic generation in tellurium. The method is very practical because due to the high refractive index the fine tuning of the phase matching is easily obtained by rotating the crystal around the optic axis.     

Green luminescence in diffusion-doped layers of zinc selenide

Diffusion-doped layers with a green emission band dominating in the room-temperature luminescence spectrum are obtained by annealing single-crystal zinc selenide substrates in tellurium and zinc vapors.     

Evidence of magnetic ordering in tellurium substituted FeSb2

We report on a⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer study of tellurium substituted FeSb₂, FeSb_2?x Tc _x (x=0.2, 0.4, 0.6), at temperatures between 4.2 K and 300 K. For all three alloys, the Mössbauer spectra at 4.2 K are characteristic of a magnetically ordered state. The hyperfine field at Fe site increases with increasing tellurium concentration. The magnetic character may be attributed to the existence of a very narrow band gap leading to fairly strong Coulomb and exchange interactions between holes in the valence band and electrons in the conduction band.     

Solution of polarization eigenvalue problems taking depolarization into account

The shape of the transmission band of an active interferometer, a resonator with amplification and absorption cells excited by an external signal, is studied. Upon tuning the external signal frequency, the narrow saturated absorption resonances can be observed in the transmission band of the interferometer. It is shown that, by varying the gain, the resonance absorption amplitude can be compensated for one order of smallness in pressure. The effect of amplitude and frequency noises of the external signal on the results obtained is studied.     

Surface quantum oscillations in tellurium inversion layers

We report results and the analysis of properties of the two-dimensional inversion layer in the [0001] plane at the surface of tellurium, showing special features associated with the dispersion relation of the conduction band of tellurium.     

Acousto-optic control of light beams in the infrared range

The control over the parameters of the far-infrared and terahertz radiation by the acoustooptic method is discussed. The operation of a tunable acousto-optic filter based on the tellurium crystal is investigated. The crystal used in the filter was transparent for the optic radiation in the wavelength range of 4.0 to 23 µm. The device allows electronic tuning and processing of optic images in the spectral interval of 8.0 to 14 µm.     

Weak localization with a specific role of t symmetry (2D and 3D holes in tellurium)

The anomalous magnetoresistance in crystalline tellurium is analyzed for different p-type carrier dimensions: a bulk sample, size-quantized accumulation layers on different tellurium crystallographic surfaces, and tellurium clusters (tellurium embedded in a dielectric opal matrix). It is shown that the effect can be interpreted in all cases in terms of the theory of weak localization of noninteracting particles with inclusion of the specific features of the tellurium band spectrum, namely, fully lifted spin degeneracy, trigonal spectrum distortion, and a specific role played by the t symmetry in inter-valley scattering. The differences observed among the various manifestations of the weak localization effect are determined by the hole wave function phase-relaxation channel which is dominant in a particular case. A case is discussed where the time characterizing the inter-valley transition probability becomes comparable to the momentum relaxation time. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 879–881 (May 1999)     

Tunable out-of-plane band gap of two-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystals infiltrated with liquid crystals

We analyze the tunability of out-of-plane band gap in two-dimensional photonic crystals created by square and triangular lattices of air holes in anisotropic tellurium background, considering that the rods are infiltrated with liquid crystal. Using the plane wave expansion method, we study the variation of out-of-plane band gap by changing the optical axis orientation of liquid crystal.     

The two-dimensional square and triangular photonic lattice under the effects of magnetic field, hydrostatic pressure, and temperature

A standard plane-wave expansion method is used to investigate the photonic band structure of two-dimensional square and triangular lattices composed by cylindricalshell rods (GaAs rods surrounded by air shells) embedded in a semiconducting GaAs background. An analysis of the influence of geometry of the lattice basis is performed by changing inner and outer radii. The effect of dispersive dielectric responses as well as the influence of temperature and applied hydrostatic pressure to obtain efficient tunable bandgaps has also been considered. The presence of applied magnetic field is discussed as an efficient tool for tuning of the photonic band gaps in this kind of systems. The results suggest that a combination of a doped semiconductor constituent with an anisotropic geometry provides an efficient realization of photonic systems with tunable bandgaps.     

Pressure induced phase transformations and band structure of different high pressure phases in tellurium

We report here high-pressure x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies on tellurium (Te) at room temperature up to 40 GPa in the diamond anvil cell (DAC). The XRD measurements clearly indicate a sequence of pressure-induced phase transitions with increasing pressure. The data obtained in the pressure range 1 bar to 40 GPa fit five different crystalline phases out of Te: hexagonal Te (I) → monoclinic Te(II) → orthorhombic Te (III) → Β-Po-type Te(IV) → body-centered-cubic Te(V) at 4, 6.2, 11 and 27 GPa, respectively. The volume changes across these transitions are 10%, 1.5%, 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. Self consistent electronic band structure calculations both for ambient and high pressure phases have been carried out using the tight binding linear muffin tin orbital (TB-LMTO) method within the atomic-sphere approximation (ASA). Reported here apart from the energy band calculations are the density of states (DOS), Fermi energy (E _f) at various high-pressure phases. Our calculations show that the ambient pressure hexagonal phase has a band gap of 0.42 eV whereas high-pressure phases are found to be metallic. We also found that the pressure induced semiconducting to metallic transition occurs at about 4 GPa which corresponds to the hexagonal phase to monoclinic phase transition. Equation of state and bulk modulus of different high-pressure phases have also been discussed.     

The Design of the 394.6 Ghz Continuously Tunable Coaxial Gyrotron for DNP Spectroscopy

Results of the numerical investigations of the coaxial-cavity gyrotron with smooth frequency tuning are presented. The tuning is achieved by moving an internal cone-shaped rod along the device axis, which ensures smooth variations in eigenfrequencies of the cavity. The application of an inner conductor with an impedance surface reduces the thermal load on the internal road. The calculation results demonstrate the possibility of tuning the oscillator frequency by 8 GHz for the 394.6 GHz central frequency (within a frequency band of about 2%) with an output power of about several hundreds watts in the CW regime.     

Acoustoelectric domain induced transparency of tellurium near 11 micron

In the presence of acoustoelectric domains a drastic decrease of the intervalence band absorption (p-band) was observed in tellurium. This behaviour is contrary to the increase measured at the long wavelength tail of the fundamental absorption in various semiconductors. The new results are explained by a carrier heating up to 2000 K and an increase of damping in the field of acoustoelectric domains.     

Tunable full band gap in two-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystals infiltrated with liquid crystals

We analyze the tunability of full band gap in two-dimensional photonic crystals created by square and triangular lattices of anisotropic tellurium rods in air background, considering that the rods are infiltrated with liquid crystal. Using the plane-wave expansion method, we study the variation of full band gap by changing the optical axis orientation of liquid crystal.