Transmission resonance via quantum bound states in confined arrays of antidots

We have studied the transmission resonances for a confined array of antidots, using the lattice Green's function method. Two kinds of resonant peaks via quasibound states are found. One kind of resonant peak corresponds to the split quasibound states. The split states originate from the superposition of quasibound states respectively localized in different (T or crossed) junctions, while the number of quasibound states in each junction is associated with the arm-width of the junction. Electrons in these split states are mainly localized in the junctions. The other kind of resonant peaks correspond to the high quasibound states which exist in (transverse and longitude) multi-period confined arrays of antidots. It is interesting to note that electrons in some of the high quasibound states are mainly localized in the intersection of the junctions rather than in the junctions themselves.     

Fano resonance in graphene anti-dot and periodic graphene anti-dot arrays

We study the electron transport properties of graphene anti-dot and periodic graphene anti-dot arrays using the nonequilibrium Green?s function method and Landauer–Büttiker formula. Fano resonant peaks are observed in the vicinity of Fermi energy, because discrete states coexist with continuum energy states. These peaks move closer to Fermi energy with increasing the width of anti-dots, but move away from the Fermi energy with increasing the length of anti-dots. When N periodic anti-dots exist in the longitude direction, a rapid fluctuation appears in the conductance with varying resonance peaks, which is mainly from the local resonances created by quasibound state. When P periodic anti-dots exist in the transverse direction, P-fold resonant splitting peaks are observed around the Fermi energy, owing to the symmetric and antisymmetric superposition of quasibound states.     

Quasibound states in the continuum in a two channel quantum wire with an adatom

We report the prediction of quasibound states (resonant states with very long lifetimes) that occur in the eigenvalue continuum of propagating states for certain systems in which the continuum is formed by two overlapping energy bands. We illustrate this effect using a quantum wire system with two channels and an attached adatom. When the energy bands of the two channels overlap, a would-be bound state that lays just below the upper energy band is slightly destabilized by the lower energy band and thereby becomes a resonant state with a very long lifetime (a second such state lays above the lower energy band). Unlike the bound states in continuum predicted by von Neumann and Wigner, these states occur for a wide region of parameter space.     

Effect of triangle vacancy on thermal transport in boron nitride nanoribbons

Recently, triangle vacancy in hexagonal boron nitride is observed experimentally. Using nonequilibrium Green’s function method, we investigate thermal transport properties of boron nitride nanoribbons (BNNRs) with a triangle vacancy. The effect of triangle vacancy on the phonon transmission of zigzag-edged BNNRs (Z-BNNRs) is different from that of armchair-edged BNNRs (A-BNNRs). The triangle vacancy induces antiresonant dips in the spectrum of Z-BNNRs. Moreover, the boron-terminated triangle vacancy causes antiresonant zero-transmission dip and the number of the zero-transmission dip increases with the geometrical size of triangle vacancy. For the A-BNNRs with triangle vacancy, except some antiresonant dips, a resonant peak is found in the transmission. The antiresonant and resonant phenomena are explained by analyzing local density of states and local thermal currents. Although the antiresonant dip and the resonant peak are both originated from quasibound states, their distributions of local thermal currents are distinct, which leads to the transport discrepancy. In addition, the thermal conductance of BNNRs decreases linearly with increasing the vacancy size.     

Electronic properties of Z-shaped graphene nanoribbon under uniaxial strain

Based on tight-binding approximation and a generalized Green's function method, the effect of uniaxial strain on the electron transport properties of Z-shaped graphene nanoribbon (GNR) composed of an armchair GNR sandwiched between two semi-infinite metallic armchair GNR electrodes is numerically investigated. Our results show that the increase of uniaxial strain enhances the band gap and leads to a metal-to-semiconductor transition for Z-shaped GNR. Furthermore, in the Landauer–Büttiker formalism, the current–voltage characteristics, the noise power resulting from the current fluctuations and Fano factor of strained Z-shaped GNR are explored. It is found the threshold voltage for the current and the noise power increased so that with reinforcement of the uniaxial strain parameter strength, the noise power goes from the Poisson limit to sub-Poisson region at higher bias voltages.     

Velocity fluctuations of a column of water streaming down a wire: the possibility of one-dimensional turbulence

In this paper we study the influence of the magneto-coupling effect between the longitudinal motion component and the transverse Landau orbits of an electron on transmission features in single barrier structures. Within the parabolic conduction-band approach, a modified one-dimensional effective-mass Schr?dinger equation, including the magneto-coupling effect generated from the position-dependent effective mass of the electron, is strictly derived. Numerical calculations for single barrier structures show that the magneto-coupling effect brings about a series of the important changes for the transmission probability, the above-barrier quasi-bound states, and the tunneling time. Through examining the variation of the above-barrier resonant-transmission spectrum with the barrier width and observing the well-defined Lorentzian line-shape of the above-barrier resonant peaks, we convincingly show that the above-barrier resonant transmission in single barrier structures is delivered by the above-barrier quasibound states in the barrier region, just as the below-barrier resonant tunneling in double barrier structures is mediated by the below-barrier quasi-bound states in the well. Furthermore, we come to the conclusion that the magneto-coupling effect brings about not only the splitting of the above-barrier quasi-bound levels but also the striking reduction of the level-width of the quasi-bound states, correspondingly, the substantial increase of the density of the quasi-bound states. We suggest that magneto-coupling effects may be observed by the measurements of the optical absorption spectrum associated with the above-barrier quasi-bound states in the single barrier structures. Received: 26 September 1997 / Revised: 26 November 1997 / Accepted: 15 December 1997     

Quasibound states in semiconductor quantum well structures

We present a study on quasibound states in multiple quantum well structures using a finite element model (FEM). The FEM is implemented for solving the effective mass Schrödinger equation in arbitrary layered semiconductor nanostructures with an arbitrary applied potential. The model also includes nonparabolicity effects by using an energy dependent effective mass, where the resulting nonlinear eigenvalue problem was solved using an iterative approach. We focus on quasibound/continuum states above the barrier potential and show that such states can be determined using cyclic boundary conditions. This new method enables the determination of both bound and quasibound states simultaneously, making it more efficient than other methods where different boundary conditions have to be used in extracting the relevant states. Furthermore, the new method lifted the problem of quasibound state divergence commonly seen with many other methods of calculation. Hence enabling accurate determination of dipole matrix elements involving both bound and quasibound states. Such calculations are vital in the design of intersubband optoelectronic devices and reveal the interesting properties of quasibound states above the potential barriers.     

Magnetic Manipulation of Massless Dirac Fermions in Graphene Quantum Dot

We have theoretically analyzed the quasibound states in a graphene quantum dot (GQD) with a magnetic flux Φ in the centre. It is shown that the two-fold time reversal degeneracy is broken and the quasibound states of GQD with positive/negative angular momentum shifted upwards /downwards with increasing the magnetic flux. The variation of the quasibound energy depends linearly on the magnetic flux, which is quite different from theparabolic relationship for Schrödinger electrons. The GQD's quasibound states spectrum shows an obvious Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations with the magnetic flux. It is also shown that the quasibound state with energy equal to the barrier height becomes a bound state completely confined in GQD.     

Inter-Well Coupling and Resonant Tunneling Modes of MultipleGraphene Quantum Wells

We investigate the inter-well coupling of multiple graphene quantum well structures consisting of graphene superlattices with different periodic potentials. The general form of the eigenlevel equation for the bound states of the quantum well is expressed in terms of the transfer matrix elements. It is found that the electronic transmission exhibits resonant tunneling peaks at the eigenlevels of the bound states and shifts to the higher energy with increasing the incident angle. If there are N coupled quantum wells, the resonant modes have N-fold splitting. The peaks of resonant tunneling can be controlled by modulating the graphene barriers.     

基于Z型石墨纳米条带的量子点：第一性原理研究

本文采用全自洽的格林函数和电子密度泛函理论方法对Z型石墨纳米条带的电子结构和输运性质进行了理论研究。理论计算结果表明Z型石墨纳米条带可以用来设计量子点。由于分子结的特殊几何结构，一些分立电子态可以被囚禁在中间纳米条带内，表现出明显量子限域效应。我们还发现这些被囚禁电子态的数目和它们的空间分布特征是可以调制的，然而这种基于Z型石墨纳米条带的量子点总是可以实现，而不受掺杂、边界化学修饰以及分子结长度的影响     

Lifetime analysis of quasibound states in coupled quantum wells

A simple time-dependent model is presented to investigate lifetimes of the quasibound states in coupled quantum wells (CQWs). The transfer matrix approach is employed to discretize the conduction-band profile of the heterostructure and form a dispersion equation whose zeros correspond to the complex eigenenergies. Both the bound and quasibound states are extracted numerically in the complex plane by Newton's method. The lower and higher well subbands are found to have negative and positive energy shift, respectively, as following the no level crossing theorem. Besides, the decay rate of the quasibound state is approximately proportional to the absolute energy shift. The quasibound states, which have larger energy shift, have shorter lifetime and decay more quickly. Furthermore, the differences in lifetime between the quasibound states in CQWs can be easily realized as all the wave functions are specially adjusted to form the relative probability density distributions.     

Electron Conductance and Lifetimes in a Ballistic Electron Waveguide

Ballistic electron waveguides are open quantum systems that can be formed at very low temperatures at a GaAs/AlGaAs interface. Dissipation due to electron–phonon and electron–electron interactions in these systems is negligible. Although the electrons only interact with the walls of the waveguide, they can have a complicated spectrum including both positive energy bound states and quasibound states which appear as complex energy poles of the scattering S-matrix or energy Green's function. The quasibound states can give rise to zeros in the waveguide conductance as the energy of the electrons is varied. The width of the conduction zeros is determined by the lifetimes of the quasibound states. The complex energy spectrum associated with the quasibound states also governs the survival probability of electrons placed in the waveguide cavities.     

A Small Signal Equivalent Circuit Model for Resonant Tunnelling Diode

We report a resonant tunnelling diode （RTD） small signal equivalent circuit model consisting of quantum capacitance and quantum inductance. The model is verified through the actual InAs/In0.53Ga0.47As/AlAs RTD fabricated on an InP substrate. Model parameters are extracted by fitting the equivalent circuit model with ac measurement data in three different regions of RTD current-voltage （I-V） characteristics. The electron lifetime, representing the average time that the carriers remain in the quasibound states during the tunnelling process, is also calculated to be 2.09ps.     

Interface roughness: a reason of inaccessibility of the negative resistance region in resonant-tunneling devices

Interface roughness in double-barrier resonant-tunneling devices affects the lateral electron motion in the quantum well and can give rise to subsidiary subbands or quasibound states in the well. We demonstrate that a shoulder frequently appearing beyond the principal resonance peak in the current–voltage characteristic can result from the resonant tunneling via those states.     

Defects, quasibound states, and quantum conductance in metallic carbon nanotubes

The effects of impurities and local structural defects on the conductance of metallic carbon nanotubes are calculated using an ab initio pseudopotential method within the Landauer formalism. Substitutionally doped boron or nitrogen produces quasibound impurity states of a definite parity and reduces the conductance by a quantum unit (2e(2)/h) via resonant backscattering. These resonant states show strong similarity to acceptor or donor states in semiconductors. The Stone-Wales defect also produces quasibound states and exhibits quantized conductance reduction. In the case of a vacancy, the conductance shows a much more complex behavior than the prediction from the widely used pi-electron tight-binding model.     

Resonance-enhanced group delay times in an asymmetric single quantum barrier

It is shown that transmission and reflection group delay times in an asymmetric single quantum barrier are greatly enhanced by the transmission resonance when the energy of incident particles is larger than the height of the barrier. The resonant transmission group delay is of the order of the quasibound state lifetime in the barrier region. The reflection group delay can be either positive or negative, depending on the relative height of the potential energies on the two sides of the barrier. Its magnitude is much larger than the quasibound state lifetime. These predictions have been observed in microwave experiments.     

Resonant transmission in three-terminal triangle graphene nanojunctions with zigzag edges

Three-terminal nanojunctions based on triangle zigzag edged graphene flakes are proposed and their transport properties are studied. In the solid and hollow triangle graphene junctions, there exist different resonant transmissions due to the different electronic states in the two structures. The quasi-bound states in the solid junction are confined in the inner of the triangle flake, while those in the hollow junction are confined at the zigzag edges. In addition, these states are tightly associated with the size of the triangle flake, thus the resonant transmissions in the triangle graphene junctions can be tuned by the structural size and geometry.     

RESONANT TUNNELING THROUGH COUPLED DOUBLE-QUANTUM-WELL

A double-well resonant tunneling structure has been investigated carefully using the nonequilibrium Green's function method. We find that in the transmission probability two maxima appear even when the two levels have the same energy. This characteristic is at-tributed to the resonant tunneliug through mixed quasibound states. The tunneling current formula through this system under a dc voltage has been derived exactly. Three different cases are considered and several novel properties are found, which manifest coherent charac-teristics of the tunneling process.     

The quasibound state model for self-consistent characteristics of semiconductor intersubband devices

The quasibound state model (QBSM) for determining the self-consistent conduction band profile and space charge density of semiconductor intersubband devices is presented. This new method is based on the quasibound (QB) state resonances of quantum structures. For heterostructures, the traditional self-consistent energy continuum model (ECM) calculates space charge by integration over the entire energy continuum, weighted by Fermi–Dirac statistics. In the present approach, the continuum of energy states of the heterostructure is accurately represented by a small number of QB states, and the space charge calculations are performed only at these eigen-energies. This approach significantly reduces the computational burden associated with all self-consistent algorithms. Theoretical formulation of QBSM is compared with the traditional ECM approach. The bound (B) and QB eigenenergies of the structure are obtained by solving the single-band effective-mass Schrödinger equation using the argument principle method. The performance and the accuracy of the QBSM are evaluated for a double-barrier resonant structure and an asymmetric Fabry–Perot electron-wave interference filter. The self-consistent electron density and potential profiles calculated by the present method are shown to be in excellent agreement with the results obtained from the traditional ECM model. In addition to requiring less computational time, the present method is easily implemented and may be applied equally well to biased/unbiased, symmetric/asymmetric heterostructures.     

Quasibound states in graphene quantum-dot nanostructures generated by concentric potential barrier rings

We study the quasibound states in a graphene quantum-dot structure generated by the single-, double-, and triple-barrier electrostatic potentials. It is shown that the strongest quasibound states are mainly determined by the innermost barrier. Specifically, the positions of the quasibound states are determined by the barrier height, the number of the quasibound states is determined by the quantum-dot radius and the angular momentum, and the localization degree of the quasibound states is influenced by the width of the innermost barrier, as well as the outside barriers. Furthermore, according to the study on the double- and triple-barrier quantum dots, we find that an effective way to generate more quasibound states with even larger energy level spacings is to design a quantum dot defined by many concentric barriers with larger barrier-height differences. Last, we extend our results into the quantum dot of many barriers, which gives a complete picture about the formation of the quasibound states in the kind of graphene quantum dot created by many concentric potential barrier rings.