Highly enhanced second-order nonlinear susceptibilities in tailored GaN-AlGaN-AlN quantum well structures

A tailoring proposal for design of the strained quantum well structures, optimized with respect to the intersubband resonant second-order nonlinear properties, is presented in this article. A genetic-algorithm-based method is used in order to obtain the optimal potential shape, doping concentration and location in strained GaN-AlGaN-AlN quantum wells, and the structures are analyzed by a numerical solution of the Schrödinger-Poisson self-consistent method. In general form two types of asymmetric structures with remarkable results are obtained with different resonant frequencies, and in both cases results show a considerably high enhancement in the magnitude of the second-order nonlinear susceptibilities in higher resonant frequencies in comparison with a single quantum well structure with the same well width (5.02×10⁻⁸ m/V at to 2.9×10⁻⁵ m/V at and 2.43×10⁻⁵ m/V at ). The optimized structures exhibit considerable absorption coefficient and electroabsorption properties due to high dipole transition matrix element, high dopant concentration and reasonable Fermi level.     

Study of Be δ-doped GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells by the surface photovoltage spectroscopy

We report a surface photovoltage and differential surface photovoltage (DSPV) study of Be δ-doped GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells (QWs) with widths ranging from 3 to 20 nm and sheet doping densities from 2 × 10¹⁰ to 2.5 × 10¹² cm⁻² per well aiming to characterize their electronic properties and structural quality. From a line shape analysis of room temperature DSPV spectra the interband excitonic transition energies and broadening parameters for a large number of QW-related subbands have been established. A study of well-width and quantum number dependencies of the excitonic linewidths allowed us to evaluate the various broadening contributions to the spectral line shapes in QWs of different design. It was found that an average half monolayer well-width fluctuations are the dominant broadening mechanism of the excitonic line for QWs thinner than 10 nm. In QWs thicker than 10 nm, the spectral line broadening originates mainly from thermal broadening as well as Stark broadening due to random electric fields of ionized impurities and exciton scattering by free holes.     

Electron-phonon effects on Stark shifts of excitons in parabolic quantum wells: Fractional-dimension variational approach

Electron-phonon effects on Stark shifts of excitons in parabolic quantum wells are studied theoretically by using a fractional dimension method in combination with a Lee-Low-Pines-like transformation and a perturbation theory. The numerical results for the exciton binding energies and electron-phonon contributions to the binding energies as functions of the well width and the electric field in the Al_0.3Ga_0.7As parabolic quantum well structure are obtained. It is shown that both exciton binding energy and electron-phonon contributions have a maximum with increasing the well width. The binding energy and electron-phonon contribution decrease significantly with increasing the electric-field strength, in special in the wide-well case.     

Hydrogenic impurity ground state in quantum well: the envelope function revisited

We present a new variationnal method for calculating the ground state energy of an electron bound to an impurity located in a quantum well. This method relies on an envelope function which is determined exactly from a formal minimization procedure. The obtained energies are lower by as much as 10% than the ones found by the widely used free electron envelope function. Their large width limits are reached with exponentially small corrections as they should. We also find that, except for narrow wells, the shape of these exact envelope functions strongly depends on the impurity position, being consequently quite different from the usual free electron ones. In order to discuss the improvements brought by our new procedure in the most striking way, we have used a model semiconductor quantum well with infinite barrier height and simplified band structure. Extensions can be made to finite barrier and more realistic band structures, following the same technique. Received 11 December 2000     

Detecting spatially localized excitons in InGaN quantum well structures with a micro-photoluminescence technique

Spatially localized excitons are observed in InGaN quantum well structures at 4 K by using a micro-photoluminescence (PL) technique. By combining PL and nano-lithographic techniques, we are able to detect PL signals with a 0.2 μm spatial resolution. A sharp PL line (linewidth of <0.4 meV) is clearly obtained, which originates from a single localized exciton induced by a quantum dot like a local potential minimum position. Sharp PL spectra detected in three QWs with different indium compositions confirm that there are exciton localization effects in quantum wells in the blue-green (about 2.60 eV, 477 nm) to purple (about 3.05 eV, 406 nm) regions.     

On the propagation characteristics of metal clad waveguides with a quantum well

The electromagnetic modes of planar metal clad dielectric waveguides containing an n-doped quantum well (QW) are studied theoretically. Special attention is paid on the coupling between metal surface plasmons and intersubband plasmons and the manifestation of this coupling in the propagation characteristics of metal/QW/dielectric and multimode metal/QW/dielectric/metal waveguide structures. The results obtained indicate that the modification of the propagation characteristic induced by the above-mentioned coupling is substantial only in the case of metal/QW/dielectric waveguide structures.     

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.     

Influence of nonparabolicity on boundary conditions in semiconductor quantum wells

In this Letter we present precise derivation of the second boundary condition for the wavefunctions (the first boundary condition is the continuity of the wavefunctions) at the interface of two III-V compound semiconductors, starting from an accurate expression for the bulk conduction-band structure expanded up to fourth order in wavevector. The obtained boundary condition is valid for all states (both bound and continuous) of the quantum well, and follows directly from constantness of the probability current along the quantum well and does not conflict with the double integrating of the Schrödinger equation around the interface.     

Instability of dipole magnetoexcitons in quantum wells' and graphene superlattices

We propose the Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity of quasi-two-dimensional spatially indirect magnetobiexcitons in a slab of superlattice with alternating electron and hole layers consisting from the semiconducting quantum wells (QWs) and graphene superlattice in high magnetic field. For this system the instability of the ground state of interacting two-dimensional indirect magnetoexcitons in a slab of superlattice with alternating electron and hole layers in high magnetic field is found. The density of superfluid component ns(T) and the temperature of the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition to the superfluid state in the system of two-dimensional indirect magnetobiexcitons, interacting as electrical quadrupoles, are obtained for both QW and graphene realizations.     

Bevel fabrication for depth resolved studies of multiple quantum well structures

Beveled cross-sections of semiconductors with inclination angles down to 0.25 min of arc have been produced with a special ion beam etching process. We applied this technique to the depth resolved characterization of GaAs/GaAlAs multiple quantum well structures by photoluminescence spectroscopy. The depth dependent incorporation of impurities during the growth of the first quantum well layers is clearly revealed.     

Characterisation of the influence of multi-quantum barrier reflectors within GaInP/AlGaInP quantum well lasers using near-field imaging techniques

Using a near-field scanning optical microscope, near-field photocurrent and topographic imaging has measured the effect on intrinsic electric fields and photocurrent propagation resulting from inserting multi-quantum barrier (MQB) super-lattices into quantum well lasers. Measurements on devices at two different excitation wavelengths have highlighted the sensitivity of the near-field optical technique. Strong correlations were seen in the photocurrent response of the multi-quantum barrier regions when compared with simulations made on the electric field generated within the structure. As a result, photocurrent attenuation was attributed to carrier confinement in these barrier regions when compared to a control sample. The measurements illustrate the effectiveness of the MQB, in addition to the sensitivity and power of the near-field photocurrent technique.     

The dependence of the intersubband transitions in square and graded QWs on intense laser fields

The intersubband absorption in square and graded quantum wells under a laser field is calculated within the framework of the effective mass approximation. We conclude that, for quantum wells with different shapes, the laser field amplitude induces an important effect on the electronic and optical properties of the semiconductor structure. This gives a new degree of freedom in various device applications based on the intersubband transition of electrons.     

On the photogalvanic effect in asymmetric quantum wells of different shapes

In this work we studied the charge carriers' behaviour in quantum structures where the symmetry with respect to space coordinates and time-reversal symmetry are broken simultaneously. As the models of such structures we considered finite triangular as well as finite semi-parabolic quantum wells placed in external magnetic field. We have shown by numerical analysis that the energy spectra of charge carriers in such structures are anisotropic with respect to in-plane (transverse) motion ?n(+kx)≠?n(−kx). This leads to the anisotropy of charge carrier's in-plane momentum transfer which can be very naturally explained by introducing the concept of charge carriers ‘renormalized’ effective masses. The anisotropy of momentum transfer leads to interesting photo-galvanic effect, the anisotropy of photo-conductivity σ(+kx)≠σ(−kx) and as it follows from our calculations, the effect though not very great, could be measurable for the magnetic field of about few T.     

A negatively charged exciton in a quantum disc

The properties of the bound states of the negatively charged exciton X⁻ in a quantum disc with a confined parabolic potential are studied using exact diagonalization techniques. The binding energy spectra of the ground state and the first excited state are calculated as a function of the confinement strength and the effective electron-to-hole mass ratio. The results we have obtained show that the binding energies are closely correlated to the strength of the confinement potential and the effective electron-to-hole mass ratio.     

Effects of electronic state modulation on the high-frequency response characteristics of GaAs quantum wells

The effect of electronic-state modulation on the high frequency response of GaAs quantum well with thin inserted barrier layer is studied. The carrier scattering by polar optic phonons, acoustic deformation potential and background ionized impurities are incorporated in the present calculations considering the carrier distribution to be heated drifted Fermi-Dirac distribution. Modified phonon spectra and modulated electron wave function give different values of form factor compared to bulk mode phonon. Mobility is found to be enhanced on insertion of thin layer inside the quantum well. The ac mobility and the phase lag increases with the increase in both the channel width and the 2D carrier concentration. Cutoff frequency, where ac mobility drops down to 0.707 of its low frequency value, is observed to be enhanced reflecting better high frequency response.     

Lateral carrier tunnelling in stacked In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum rings

Exciton recombination dynamics in vertical stacks of InGaAs quantum rings have been studied by means of continuous wave and time resolved photoluminescence under low excitation density conditions. We have paid special attention to the effect of the carrier coupling on the exciton radiative lifetime: weak (14 nm spacer sample), intermediate (4.5 nm spacer sample), where the size filtering effects (towards small rings) compensate partially that arising from carrier coupling (towards lower energies), and strong electron and hole coupling (1.5 nm spacer sample) between layers. Experimental decay times in the latter two cases have been compared to the times simulated with a multi-quantum well based model, which accounts for the observed change of carrier coupling regime. The most important effect is observed when the hole wave function overlap along the growth direction becomes important (1.5 nm spacer sample). This situation makes important the lateral tunneling of excitons between rings, given their large lateral size, which is characterized by times around 5 ns at the emission peak energy (rings with the most probable size of the distribution).     

Evidence for spontaneous interlayer phase coherence in a bilayer quantum Hall exciton condensate

Recent experimental work on the quantized Hall state at total filling factor ν_T=1 in bilayer 2D electron systems has revealed a number of striking phenomena, including a giant and sharply resonant enhancement of the interlayer tunneling conductance at zero bias. The tunneling enhancement is a compelling indicator of spontaneous interlayer phase coherence among the electrons in the system. Such phase coherence is perhaps the single most important attribute of the excitonic Bose condensate which describes this remarkable quantum Hall state.     

Nonlinear optical rectification in cubical quantum dots

The optical rectification (OR) coefficient for cubical quantum dots (CQDs), with an applied electric field is theoretically investigated in the framework of the compact-density-matrix approach and an iterative method. The confined wave functions and energies of electrons in the CQDs are calculated in the effective-mass approximation. Numerical calculations are presented for typical GaAs/AlAs CQDs. The results show that the calculation for OR coefficient in the CQDs system can reach a magnitude of , two orders higher than that in the spherical quantum dots system. The OR coefficient strongly depends on the length of CQDs and the magnitude of electric field. And the peak shifts to the aspect of high energy when considering the electric field.     

Strong correlation effects in 2D Bose-Einstein condensed dipolar excitons

By doing quantum Monte Carlo ab initio simulations we show that dipolar excitons, which are now under experimental study, actually are strongly correlated systems. Strong correlations manifest in significant deviations of excitation spectra from the Bogoliubov one, large Bose condensate depletion, short-range order in the pair correlation function, and peak(s) in the structure factor.     

Microphotoluminescence study of local temperature fluctuations in n-type (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well

Microphotoluminescence mapping measurements were performed in a magnetic field on a (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well, modulation n-doped with iodine at about 10¹⁰ cm⁻². Photoluminescence spectra contain neutral (X⁰) and negatively charged (X⁻) exciton lines. The Zeeman effect shows a significant role of heating of the Mn system even under lowest excitation densities. The effective temperature of the magnetic system exhibits strong fluctuations anticorrelated with the total intensity of PL signal. An interpretation of these fluctuations in terms of the influence of non-radiative recombination centers is proposed (in two alternative versions). Maps of the local X⁰/X⁻ intensity ratio indicate a minor role of electrostatic potential fluctuations.