Influence of excited Landau levels on a two-dimensional electron-hole system in a strong perpendicular magnetic field

The study of the quantum states of a two-dimensional electron-hole system in a strong perpendicular magnetic field is carried out with special attention to the influence of virtual quantum transitions of interacting particles between the Landau levels. These virtual quantum transitions from the lowest Landau levels to excited Landau levels with arbitrary quantum numbers n and m and their reversion to the lowest Landau levels in second order perturbation theory result in an indirect attraction between the particles. The influence of the indirect interaction on the magnetoexciton ground state, on the chemical potential of the Bose-Einstein condensed magnetoexcitons, and on the ground state energy of the metallic-type electron-hole liquid is investigated in the Hartree-Fock approximation. The coexistence of different phases is suggested.     

Charge neutral counterflow transport at filling factor 1 in GaAs hole bilayers

Interacting bilayers placed in perpendicular magnetic field exhibit a peculiar quantum Hall state (QHS) at total filling factor ν=1, owing to the carrier-carrier interaction in the two layers. The physics of the ν=1 QHS is similar to that of the many-particle ground state of a superconductor. Unlike conventional superconductors, however, in the ν=1 QHS carriers in one layer pair with vacancies in the opposite layer forming charge neutral particles which flow without dissipation at the lowest temperatures. Here we review the experimental evidence supporting this picture, with an emphasis on magnetotransport in interacting GaAs hole bilayers in a configuration where equal and opposite currents are passed in the two layers.     

Charged excitons at high magnetic fields: the effect of the surrounding electron gas

We study the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of a two-dimensional electron system at the high magnetic field limit, where all electrons reside at the lowest Landau level (ν<2). Using a gated structure we tune the electron density from the dilute limit to a dense electron gas, and follow the changes in the emission spectrum. We find that the spectrum at the dilute limit consists of two bound triplets, whose behavior is consistent with that of the dark and bright triplets. We show that the spectrum undergoes critical changes at ν=1/3, from an isolated charged exciton-like spectrum at ν<1/3, to a spectrum that reflects the interactions with the surrounding electrons above this filling factor. This behavior is found to be robust, independent of the electron density and magnetic field. We compare our observations with other recent low temperature PL measurements of a two-dimensional electron gas at high magnetic field and find good agreement and consistency.     

Excitons and magnetoexcitons in coupled quantum nanostructures: the role of a dirty environment

The effect of a random field caused by impurities, interface roughness and so on, on the optical properties and superfluidity of a quasi-two-dimensional system of excitons is studied. The influence of a random field on the density of the superfluid component of excitonic systems at low temperatures is investigated. For quasi-two-dimensional excitonic systems in a random field the Kosterlitz–Thouless temperature in the superfluid state is calculated. The superfluidity and Bose–Einstein condensation of indirect excitons in coupled quantum dots are studied. Magnetoexciton light absorption in the disordered quantum wells is considered. The two-particle problem of the magnetoexciton motion in the external field depending on the external magnetic field is reduced to the one-particle motion with effective magnetic mass in some effective field. The energy and optical absorption of the magnetoexciton in a single and coupled quantum dots are studied using the effective-magnetic-mass Hamiltonian. In the coherent potential approximation the coefficient of magnetoexciton optical absorption in single and coupled quantum wells is calculated. In the strong magnetic fields the exciton peak decreases with magnetic field increasing in accordance with the experimental data. The localization of direct and indirect magnetoexcitons is investigated. Received: 14 April 2000 / Accepted: 17 April 2000 / Published online: 6 September 2000     

Barrier D centers in a quantum disc

The bound states of the barrier D⁻ center, which consists of a positive ion located on the z-axis at a distance λ from the two-dimensional quantum disc plane with a confined parabolic potential and two electrons in the disc plane bound by the ion, are studied under a perpendicular homogeneous magnetic field. The binding energies of the three lowest bound states are calculated as a function of the applied magnetic field strength γ. Discontinuous ground state transitions induced by an external magnetic field have been obtained. We have investigated the effect of the impurity position and found that the transition of the ground-state occurs for finite λ with increasing γ.     

Superfluidity of indirect biexcitons in superlattices

Instability in a system of interacting quasi-two-dimensional excitons in a type II superlattice of a finite thickness due to attraction between oppositely-directed excitonic dipoles in neighboring layers has been discovered. A stable system is that of indirect quasi-two-dimensional biexcitons formed by indirect excitons with dipole moments oriented in opposite directions. The radius and binding energy of indirect biexcitons has been calculated. A collective spectrum of a system of such biexcitons with a weak quadrupole interaction between them has been studied. Feasibility of Bose condensation, the density n _s(T) of the superfluid component, and a phase transition to the superfliud state in a low-density system of indirect biexcitons have been analyzed. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 1786–1798 (May 1999)     

Measurement of the miniband width in a superlattice with interband absorption in a magnetic field parallel to the layers

Interband magnetoabsorption measurements of a superlattice with GaAs/ GaAlAs layers, thin compared to the cyclotron radius, in a magnetic field parallel to the layers show interband Landau level transitions exclusively for radiation energies falling within the hole and the electron subband width. The data are quantitatively explained with energy levels of a Kronig-Penney model in a parallel magnetic field, and permit a direct observation of the superlattice bandwidth.     

Excitonic effects of bilayer graphene: A simple approach

The present work investigates the excitonic effects on the bilayer graphene with layers of different thickness under the influence of external electric field through a simple numerical approach. The band structure and energy gap have been calculated using a tight-binding model including parameters like the second-nearest-neighbor-hopping energies t′ (in-plane) and γ (intra-layer) and the on-site energy Δ, in details. The binding energy of exciton for bilayer graphene has been calculated by Wannier model and Hartree–Fock approximation through the Bethe–Salpeter equation. Finally the optical conductivity spectrum of bilayer graphene has been calculated by using the effective mass approximation in two band model.     

Coulomb effects in spatially separated electron and hole layers in coupled quantum wells

We report on the (magneto-) optical study of many-body effects in spatially separated electron and hole layers in GaAs/Al_xGa_1?x As coupled quantum wells (CQWs) at low temperatures (T = 1.4 K) for a broad range of electron-hole (e-h) densities. Coulomb effects were found to result in an enhancement of the indirect (interwell) photoluminescence (PL) energy with increasing the e-h density both for a zero magnetic field and at high fields for all Landau level transitions; this is in contrast to the electron-hole systems in single QWs where the main features are explained by the band-gap renormalization resulting in a reduction of the PL energy. The observed enhancement of the ground state energy of the system of the spatially separated electron and hole layers with increasing the e-h density indicates that the real space condensation to droplets is energetically unfavorable. At high densities of separated electrons and holes, a new direct (intrawell) PL line has been observed: its relative intensity increased both in PL and in absorption (measured by indirect PL excitation) with increasing density; its energy separation from the direct exciton line fits well to the X ^? and X ⁺ binding energies previously measured in single QWs. The line is therefore attributed to direct multiparticle complexes.     

Compressibility of a two-dimensional electron gas in a parallel magnetic field

The thermodynamic compressibility of a two-dimensional electron system in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field is calculated. We use accurate correlation energy results from quantum Monte Carlo simulations to construct the ground state energy and obtain the critical magnetic field B_c required to fully spin polarize the system. Inverse compressibility as a function of density shows a kink-like behavior in the presence of an applied magnetic field, which can be identified as B_c. Our calculations suggest an alternative approach to transport measurements of determining full spin polarization.     

Hofstadter spectrum in electric and magnetic fields

The problem of Bloch electrons in two dimensions subjected to magnetic and intense electric fields is investigated. Magnetic translations, electric evolution, and energy translation operators are used to specify the solutions of the Schrödinger equation. For rational values of the magnetic flux quanta per unit cell and commensurate orientations of the electric field relative to the original lattice, an extended superlattice can be defined and a complete set of mutually commuting space-time symmetry operators is obtained. Dynamics of the system is governed by a finite difference equation that exactly includes the effects of: an arbitrary periodic potential, an electric field orientated in a commensurable direction of the lattice, and coupling between Landau levels. A weak periodic potential broadens each Landau level in a series of minibands, separated by the corresponding minigaps. The addition of the electric field induces a series of avoided and exact crossing of the quasienergies, for sufficiently strong electric field the spectrum evolves into equally spaced discreet levels, in this “magnetic Stark ladder” the energy separation is an integer multiple of hE/aB, with a the lattice parameter.     

Shot noise in magnetic field modulated graphene superlattice

We investigate the shot noise properties in a monolayer graphene superlattice modulated by N parallel ferromagnets deposited on a dielectric layer. It is found that for the antiparallel magnetization configuration or when magnetic field is zero the new Dirac-like point appears in graphene superlattice. The transport is almost forbidden at this new Dirac-like point, and the Fano factor reaches its maximum value 1/3. In the parallel magnetization configuration as the number of magnetic barriers increases, the shot noise increases. In this case, the transmission can be blocked by the magnetic–electric barrier and the Fano factor approaches 1, which is dramatically distinguishable from that in antiparallel alignment. The results may be helpful to control the electron transport in graphene-based electronic devices.     

The enigma of the quantum Hall effect in graphene

We apply Laughlin’s gauge argument to analyze the ν=0 quantum Hall effect observed in graphene when the Fermi energy lies near the Dirac point, and conclude that this necessarily leads to divergent bulk longitudinal resistivity in the zero temperature thermodynamic limit. We further predict that in a Corbino geometry measurement, where edge transport and other mesoscopic effects are unimportant, one should find the longitudinal conductivity vanishing in all graphene samples which have an underlying ν=0 quantized Hall effect. We argue that this ν=0 graphene quantum Hall state is qualitatively similar to the high field insulating phase (also known as the Hall insulator) in the lowest Landau level of ordinary semiconductor two-dimensional electron systems. We establish the necessity of having a high magnetic field and high mobility samples for the observation of the divergent resistivity as arising from the existence of disorder-induced density inhomogeneity at the graphene Dirac point.     

Dynamic dielectric response of a quantum wire superlattice in interaction with a nonlocal host medium

We study nonlocality effects of a bulk plasmalike dielectric medium on the plasmon spectrum of a one-dimensional (1D) quantum wire superlattice in interaction with the 3D nonlocal host bulk plasma, by carrying out a closed-form analytic determination of the inverse dielectric function κ for the joint nanostructure system within the random phase approximation (RPA), in which we treat nonlocality of the 1D superlattice in the RPA and that of the bulk medium in the hydrodynamic model. By examining the frequency poles of κ (i.e., the dispersions relations), we show analytically that coupled plasmon modes of the interacting 1D superlattice-3D nonlocal host are damped in high frequencies (damping is pronounced near resonance region) and that nonlocality of the host medium introduces nonlocal low frequency (real) modes into the spectrum, which have cutoff frequencies for finite wave vector values. In order to describe the impact of nonlocality effects more clearly, we also examine the spectrum numerically.     

Efficient spin filtering in a disordered semiconductor superlattice in the presence of Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

The influence of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling on spin polarization by tunneling through a disordered semiconductor superlattice was investigated. The Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling causes the spin polarization of the electron due to transmission possibilities difference between spin up and spin down electrons. The electron tunneling through a zinc-blende semiconductor superlattice with InAs and GaAs layers and two variable distance In_xGa_(1−x)As impurity layers was studied. One hundred percent spin polarization was obtained by optimizing the distance between two impurity layers and impurity percent in disordered layers in the presence of Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling. In addition, the electron transmission probability through the mentioned superlattice is too much near to one and an efficient spin filtering was recommended.     

Stability of ferrimagnetic multilayers

We study the field induced instability of the ground state of ferrimagnetic multilayers consisting of a stacking alternating two different uniaxial ferromagnetic layers. For multilayers with even number of layers N, we obtain analytical expressions for the critical fields in terms of the magnetic parameters (anisotropies, and interlayer exchange coupling), for any value of N. The critical fields are calculated from the energy fluctuations for small variations in the equilibrium magnetic profile. The form of the hysteresis curves is discussed, using the expressions of the critical fields.     

Magnetooptical properties of a ferromagnetic superlattice

Transmission and reflection of a normally incident wave from a magnetic superlattice consisting of 2N ferromagnetic layers with alternating orientation of the magnetization vector are considered. The characteristic matrix of a superlattice relating wave amplitudes at the entrance to the system and at the exit from it is calculated in the closed form and Jones matrices determining all the basic magnetooptical characteristics of the structure (transmission and reflection coefficients, the degree of polarization of transmitted and reflected waves, and so on) are constructed. A significant dependence of these characteristics on the number of layers is demonstrated.     

Particular nanowire superlattice as a spin filter

A nanowire superlattice of InAs and GaAs layers with In_0.47Ga_0.53As as the impure layers is proposed. The oft-neglected k³ Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling causes the spin polarization of the electron but often can produce a limited spin polarization. In this nanowire superlattice, Dresselhaus term produce complete spin filtering by optimizing the distance between the In_0.47Ga_0.53As layers and the Indium (In) in the impure layers. The proposed structure is an optimized nanowire superlattice that can efficiently filter any component of electron spins according to its energy. In fact, this nanowire superlattice is an energy dependent spin filter structure.     

Relaxation time for a charge carrier due to its scattering from other charge carriers in superlattices

A calculation of relaxation time for (i) electron–electron scattering in a modulation-doped superlattice of type-I and (ii) electron–electron, hole–hole and electron–hole scattering processes in a compositional superlattice of type-II has been performed, using Fermi's golden rule. As compared to a two-dimensional electron gas system, both intralayer and interlayer interactions, between charge carriers in a superlattice, contribute to relaxation time. It is found that scattering processes at all possible value of momentum transfer contribute to relaxation time, for a given value of temperature and carrier density. We further find interlayer interactions in a superlattice make a significant contribution to relaxation time. Relaxation time is found to decrease on increasing temperature, carrier density and single particle energy, in a superlattice. The computed relaxation time for an electron (hole) in a superlattice enhances on increasing the width of layer consisting of electrons (holes). The electron–hole (hole–electron) scattering process in a type-II superlattice yields maximum contribution to the relaxation time when a hole layer lies exactly in between two consecutive electron layers.     

Quantum transport in ferromagnetic graphene super lattice in the presence of Rashba spin–orbit coupling

Using the transfer matrix method, we study the electron transport through a single-layer graphene superlattice with alternating layers of ferromagnetic and normal regions with Rashba spin–orbit coupling. We show that the transport properties of the system depend strongly on the superlattice parameters. As another result, Rashba spin–orbit coupling manifests to be of crucial importance in controlling the transmission probabilities and Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR).