Intraband optical transitions in semiconductor quantum dots: Radiative electronic-excitation lifetime

Intraband optical transitions in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) in the forms of a parallelepiped, sphere, and cylinder have been considered. It is shown that the size dependence of the matrix elements of electron-photon interaction, which includes the intraband transitions, differs in the E · r and A · p representations of electron-photon coupling, which are widely used to describe various optical processes. The radiative intraband relaxation rates of QD electron excitations have been calculated, depending on the QD size and shape and the parameters of the QD material. It is shown that the radiative intraband transition rate may reach 10⁹ s⁻¹.     

Probing dopant incorporation in InAs/GaAs QDIPs by polarization-dependent Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

In order to improve spectral response tunability of quantum-dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs), it is critical to understand how dopants are incorporated into quantum dots (QDs). In this letter, polarization-dependent Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is used to measure intraband absorption in InAs/GaAs QDs. Through the investigation of device heterostructures with varying modulation-doped carrier concentrations, we have correlated the charge filling process of energy levels in high-density QD ensembles with IR absorbance spectra. In addition, we have observed the IR signature of a transition originating in deep-level defect centers arising from Si-doped GaAs.     

Electronic states in polypyrrole

Electron energy loss spectra of valence excitations in polypyrrole doped with boron tetrafluoride, undoped, and subsequently redoped with arsenic pentafluoride were measured. Energy loss peaks associated with intraband and interband excitations which show characteristically different momentum dependence were observed. Intraband peaks exhibit weak negative dispersion while interband excitations show strong positive dispersion. This suggests that interband excitations occur between wide energy bands (～5 eV) in long polymetric molecules while intraband excitations may be due to intrinsic or extrinsic intermolecular charge transfer transitions in a narrow band (～0.5 eV).     

Exciton optical transitions in quantum wells with spin-orbit coupling

The energy spectrum of light-hole and heavy-hole excitons and optical absorption in a quantum well have been analyzed taking into account Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Interband and intraband exciton transitions have been considered. It has been shown that, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, the probabilities of the interband and intraband photoelectric effects diverge in the vicinity of the threshold if the electron-hole interaction is neglected. The threshold probabilities of the interband and intraband photoelectric effects become finite when Coulomb interaction is taken into account.     

Electronic structure and optical properties of zinc-blende GaN quantum dots

The energy levels of zinc-blende GaN quantum dots (QDs) are studied within the framework of the effective-mass envelope-function approximation. The dependence of the energy of electron and hole states on the quantum dot (QD) size is presented. The selection rules for optical transitions are given and the oscillator strengths of the dipole-allowed transitions for various QD radii are calculated with the wavefunctions of quantized energy levels. The theoretical absorption spectrum of GaN QDs is in good agreement with the existing experimental result.     

Monopolar optical orientation of electron spins in bulk semiconductors and heterostructures

It is shown that intraband absorption of circularly polarized light leads to spin polarization of the electron gas. A theory of this monopolar optical spin orientation is developed for indirect intraband transitions in bulk semiconductors and for indirect intrasubband and direct intersubband transitions in quantum wells.     

Quantum-confined Stark effect and intraband transitions in a semiconductor spherical layer

The effect of an external homogeneous electric field on the states of charge carriers in a size-quantized spherical layer is considered. An explicit dependence of the energy shift on the external field strength and the geometric sizes of the sample is obtained, and the electro-optical absorption coefficient for intraband dipole transitions is calculated.     

Light absorption involving longitudinal optical phonons in semiconductor quantum dots

A theory of single-photon interband transitions involving optical phonons in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) has been developed. This theory assumes that the electron subsystem of QDs with infinite potential walls is in strong confinement, and its energy spectrum can be described according to the two-band semiconductor model. Longitudinal optical phonons are considered to be related to the QD electron subsystem via polar (Fröhlich) electronphonon interaction. It is shown that, in these approximations, only the off-diagonal part of electron-phonon interaction leads to the generation of electron-hole pairs with the participation of phonons; the selection rules for these transitions differ from those for zero-phonon transitions. Analytical expressions for the light-absorption coefficients of ensembles of identical and size-distributed QDs have been obtained.     

Optical spectroscopy of graphene: From the far infrared to the ultraviolet

The unique electronic structure of graphene leads to several distinctive optical properties. In this brief review, we outline the current understanding of two general aspects of optical response of graphene: optical absorption and light emission. We show that optical absorption in graphene is dominated by intraband transitions at low photon energies (in the far-infrared spectral range) and by interband transitions at higher energies (from mid-infrared to ultraviolet). We discuss how the intraband and interband transitions in graphene can be modified through electrostatic gating. We describe plasmonic resonances arising from the free-carrier (intraband) response and excitonic effects that are manifested in the interband absorption. Light emission, the reverse process of absorption, is weak in graphene due to the absence of a band gap. We show that photoluminescence from hot electrons can, however, become observable either through femtosecond laser excitation or strong electrostatic gating.     

Coherent delocalization of atomic wave packets in driven lattice potentials

Atomic wave packets loaded into a phase-modulated vertical optical-lattice potential exhibit a coherent delocalization dynamics arising from intraband transitions among Wannier-Stark levels. Wannier-Stark intraband transitions are here observed by monitoring the in situ wave-packet extent. By varying the modulation frequency, we find resonances at integer multiples of the Bloch frequency. The resonances show a Fourier-limited width for interrogation times up to 2 s. This can also be used to determine the gravity acceleration with ppm resolution.     

Acoustic phonon impact on the inter-Coulombic decay process in charged quantum dot pairs

ABSTRACT

Recently, highly accurate multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree electron dynamics calculations demonstrated the efficient long-range energy transfer inter-Coulombic decay (ICD) process to happen in charged semiconductor quantum dot (QD) pairs. ICD is initiated by intraband photoexcitation of one of the QDs and leads to electron emission from the other within a duration of about 150 ps. On the same time scale electronically excited states are reported to relax due to the coupling of electrons to acoustic phonons. Likewise, phonons promote ionisation. Here, the QDs' acoustic breathing mode is implemented in a frozen-phonon approach. A detailed comparison of the phonon effects on electron relaxation and emission as well as on the full ICD process is presented, which supports the previous empirical finding of ICD being the dominant decay channel in paired QDs. In addition the relative importance of phonon–phonon, phonon–electron and electron–electron interaction is analysed.     

Effect of magnetic field on electron spectrum and probabilities of intraband quantum transitions in spherical quantum-dot-quantum-well

The effect of magnetic field on electron energy spectrum, wave functions and probabilities of intraband quantum transitions in multilayered spherical quantum-dot-quantum-well (QDQW) CdSe/ZnS/CdSe/ZnS is studied. Computations are performed in the framework of the effective mass approximation and rectangular potential barriers model. The wave functions are expanded over the complete basis of functions obtained as exact solutions of the Schrodinger equation for the electron in QDQW without the magnetic field.It is shown that magnetic field takes off the spectrum degeneration with respect to the magnetic quantum number and changes the localization of electron in the nanostructure. The field stronger effects on the spherically-symmetric states, especially in the case of electron location in the outer potential well. The magnetic field changes more the radial distribution of probability of electron location in QDQW than the angular one. The oscillator strengths of intraband quantum transitions are calculated as functions of the magnetic field induction and their selection rules are established.     

Self-assembled quantum dots: five years later

Self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) have been grown with good reproducibility by molecular beam epitaxy with up to five well-resolved zero-dimensional interband transitions measured by state-filling spectroscopy. The intersublevel energy spacing is shown to be readily tunable by adjusting the temperature of the substrate during the growth of the QDs and/or of the cap layer, or with post-growth annealing. The uniformity of InAs/GaAs QDs is optimized by studying the growth parameters affecting the equilibrium shape such as the amount of strain material deposited and the annealing time following the InAs deposition allowing the QDs ensemble to evolve. Such uniform QDs are also obtained for samples with multiple stacked layers. This allows us to study the effects of charged carriers, of tunneling between coupled QDs, of electrical injection, and of lasing in QDs with well-resolved excited states having adjustable intersublevel energy spacing.     

Infrared absorption in parabolic multiquantum well structures

The absorption constant for intraband transitions in parabolic multiquantum well structures is calculated and compared with intraband absorption in a square well superlattice. The parabolic multiple quantum well structure may be used as an Infrared detector with the possibility of lower leakage current compared to one made of square wells.     

Size-dependent carrier dynamics in self-assembled CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots

We investigate size-dependent carrier dynamics in self-assembled CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots (QDs) grown using molecular beam epitaxy and atomic layer epitaxy. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra show that the excitonic peak corresponding to transitions from the ground electronic subband to ground heavy-hole band in CdTe/ZnTe QDs shifts to a lower energy with increasing ZnTe buffer thicknesses. This shift of the PL peak can be attributed to size variation of the CdTe QDs. In particular, carrier dynamics in CdTe QDs grown on various ZnTe buffer layer thicknesses is studied using time-resolved PL measurements. As a result, the decay time of CdTe QDs is shown to increase with increasing ZnTe buffer layer thicknesses due to the reduction of the exciton oscillator strength in the larger QDs.     

Intraband radioluminescence of LiF crystals

Spectra of high-energy electrons are calculated in the electron-hole ionization-passive region of lithium fluoride crystals for the conditions of intense irradiation by short pulses of accelerated electrons. The yield of intraband radioluminescence of these crystals is estimated in comparison with the yield of this kind of luminescence of more extensively studied NaCl crystals. The calculations demonstrate that the yield of radioluminescence determined by electron transitions in the conduction band of LiF crystals is two orders of magnitude weaker than the yield of analogous luminescence of NaCl crystals. This is explained, first, by special features of the energy band structure and, second, by the form of the energy dependence of the density of states in the conduction band of LiF crystals. The yield of hole-type intraband radioluminescence is estimated for various assumed relations between the widths of the valence and the forbidden bands.     

Dependence of the interband transition and the activation energy on the ZnTe spacer thickness in CdTe/ZnTe double quantum dots

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out to investigate the interband transition and the activation energy in CdTe/ZnTe double quantum dots (QDs). While the excitonic peaks corresponding to the interband transition from the ground electronic subband to the ground heavy-hole (E₁-HH₁) in the CdTe/ZnTe double QDs shifted to higher energy with decreasing ZnTe spacer thickness from 30 to 10 nm due to transformation from CdTe QDs to Cd_xZn_1−xTe QDs, the peaks of the (E₁-HH₁) transitions shifted to lower energy with decreasing spacer thickness from 10 to 3 nm due to the tunneling effects of the electrons between CdTe double QDs. The decrease in the activation energy with decreasing ZnTe spacer thickness might originate from an increase in the number of defects in the ZnTe spacer. The present results can help improve the understanding of the interband transition and the activation energy in CdTe/ZnTe double QDs.     

Modeling the effects of interband and intraband transitions on phase and gain stabilities of quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

In this paper, the effects of interband and intraband transitions on the gain and phase stabilities in quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA) are investigated both temporally and spectrally employing electrical and optical pumping schemes. For this purpose, the carrier rate equations in different energy states coupled to the traveling wave optical field equation have been numerically solved to derive the dynamical behavior of QD-SOA. Our results show that the gain and phase response can be stabled under optical pumping (OP) scheme because the role of the interband and intraband transitions on the dynamics of QD-SOA is reduced. This behavior leads to high-speed pattern effect-free cross-phase modulation (XPM) in QD-SOA. It is found that optically pumped QD-SOA can have high performance in phase based applications. Moreover, it is shown that under OP scheme although the QD-SOA has lower gain value and slower gain recovery time, the ultrafast cross-gain modulation (XGM) without pattern effect is possible and the phase is recovered within a shorter time compared to EP scheme. The behavior arises from the different capacity of the carrier reservoir for pumping schemes.     

Cyclotron resonance in bilayer graphene

We present the first measurements of cyclotron resonance of electrons and holes in bilayer graphene. In magnetic fields up to B=18 T, we observe four distinct intraband transitions in both the conduction and valence bands. The transition energies are roughly linear in B between the lowest Landau levels, whereas they follow square root[B] for the higher transitions. This highly unusual behavior represents a change from a parabolic to a linear energy dispersion. The density of states derived from our data generally agrees with the existing lowest order tight binding calculation for bilayer graphene. However, in comparing data to theory, a single set of fitting parameters fails to describe the experimental results.