Current Oscillation and dc-Voltage-Controlled Chaotic Dynamics in Semiconductor Superlattices

We report a detailed theoretical study of current oscillation and dc-voltage-controlled chaotic dynamics in doped GaAs/AlAs resonant tunneling superlattices under crossed electric and magnetic fields. When the superlattice is biased at the negative differential velocity region, current self-oscillation is observed with proper doping concentration. The current oscillation mode and oscillation frequency can be affected by the dc voltage bias, doping density, and magnetic field. When an ac electric field with fixed amplitude and frequency is also applied to the system, different nonlinear properties show up in the external circuit with the change of dc voltage bias. We carefully study these nonlinear properties with different chaos-detecting methods.     

First-principle study on the effect of high Li-2N co-doping on the conductivity of ZnO

Based on the density functional theory (DFT), using first-principles plane-wave ultrasoft pseudopotential method, the models of the unit cell of pure ZnO and two highly Li-2N co-doped supercells of Zn_0.9375Li_0.0625O_0.875N_0.125 and Zn_0.9167Li_0.0833O_0.8333N_0.1667 were constructed, and the geometry optimization for the three models was carried out. The total density of states (TDOS) and the band structures (BS) were also calculated. The calculation results showed that in the range of high doping concentration, when the co-doping concentration is more than a certain value, the conductivity decreased with the increase of co-doping concentration of Li-2N in ZnO, which agrees with the change trend of the experimental results.     

Ab initio calculations of magnetic structure and lattice dynamics of Fe/Pt multilayers

The magnetization distribution, its energetic characterization by the interlayer coupling constants and lattice dynamics of (001)-oriented Fe/Pt multilayers are investigated using density functional theory combined with the direct method to determine phonon frequencies. It is found that ferromagnetic order between consecutive Fe layers is favoured, with the enhanced magnetic moments at the interface. The bilinear and biquadratic coupling coefficients between Fe layers are shown to saturate fast with increasing thickness of nonmagnetic Pt layers which separate them. The phonon calculations demonstrate a rather strong dependence of partial iron phonon densities of states on the actual position of Fe monolayer in the multilayer structure.     

Mesoscopic and macroscopic dipole clusters: Structure and phase transitions

A two dimensional (2D) classical system of dipole particles confined by a quadratic potential is studied. This system can be used as a model for rare electrons in semiconductor structures near a metal electrode, indirect excitons in coupled quantum dots etc. For clusters of N ≤ 80 particles ground state configurations and appropriate eigenfrequencies and eigenvectors for the normal modes are found. Monte-Carlo and molecular dynamic methods are used to study the order-disorder transition (the “melting” of clusters). In mesoscopic clusters (N < 37) there is a hierarchy of transitions: at lower temperatures an intershell orientational disordering of pairs of shells takes place; at higher temperatures the intershell diffusion sets in and the shell structure disappears. In “macroscopic” clusters (N > 37) an orientational “melting” of only the outer shell is possible. The most stable clusters (having both maximal lowest nonzero eigenfrequencies and maximal temperatures of total melting) are those of completed crystal shells which are concentric groups of nodes of 2D hexagonal lattice with a number of nodes placed in the center of them. The picture of disordering in clusters is compared with that in an infinite 2D dipole system. The study of the radial diffusion constant, the structure factor, the local minima distribution and other quantities shows that the melting temperature is a nonmonotonic function of the number of particles in the system. The dynamical equilibrium between “solid-like” and “orientationally disordered” forms of clusters is considered.     

A Dielectric Chirped Layered Mirror for Optical Telecommunication Wavelengths

We describe in this paper a design procedure for omnidirectional high reflectors with wide bandwidths for optical telecommunication bands. From the numerical results achieved by the transfer matrix method, it is found that a partial omnidirectional high-reflector covering the optical telecommunication wavelengths 1.3 and 1.55 μm is obtained for a partially deformed quarter-wave stack air/H(LH)¹⁵/glass by using the tellurium as a material of high refractive index (n _H = 4.6). The partially deformed stack is a periodic system deformed by a power law y = x ^1+k. Here y is the coordinates of the deformed object, x is the coordinates of the periodic stack and k is the coefficient defining the deformation degree. The study of this system leads to an omnidirectional high reflector band covering the optical telecommunication wavelengths 1.3 and 1.55 μm for k = 0.2.     

Simple theoretical analysis of the thermoelectric power in quantum dot superlattices of non-parabolic heavily doped semiconductors with graded interfaces under strong magnetic field

We study theoretically the thermoelectric power in the presence of a large magnetic field (TPM) in heavily doped III–V, II–VI, PbTe/PbSnTe, strained layer and HgTe/CdTe quantum dot superlattices (QDSLs) with graded structures on the basis of newly formulated electron energy spectra and compare the same with that of the constituent materials. It has been found, taking heavily doped GaAs/Ga_1−xAl_xAs, CdS/CdTe, PbTe/PbSnTe, InAs/GaSb and HgTe/CdTe QDSLs as examples, that the TPM increases with increasing inverse electron concentration and film thickness, respectively, in different oscillatory manners and the nature of oscillations is totally band structure dependent. We have also suggested the experimental methods of determining the Einstein relation for the diffusivity–mobility ratio, the Debye screening length and the electronic contribution to the elastic constants for materials having arbitrary dispersion laws.     

Magnetic superlattices and multilayers

We briefly review the active areas of current research in magnetic superlattices, emphasizing later years. With recent widening use of advanced technologies, more emphasis has been made on quantitative atomic level chemical and structural characterization. Examples where the multilayer structure has been controlled, characterized and correlated with the physical properties are discussed. The physical properties are categorized according to the complexity of a structure needed to observe a particular effect. We outline a number of general important unsolved problems, which could considerably benefit from theoretical and experimental input. An extensive list of magnetic multilayer materials is provided, with references to recent publications.     

Kinetics of dark excitons and excitonic trions in InGaAs single quantum well

Magnetooptical studies performed on a wide InGaAs/GaAs single quantum well indicate that optically non-active (dark) excitons with total angular momentum play the role of a reservoir for the creation of free multiparticle excitonic complexes. After analyzing the magnetic field evolution of the circularly polarized components of the low energy structure appearing in the main excitonic luminescence line we assign this feature to the excitonic trion formation. The binding energy of the excitonic trions was estimated to be of the order of 1 meV. Received: 29 October 1997 / Received in final form: 20 February 1998 / Accepted: 21 February 1998     

Multistable current–voltage characteristics a fingerprints of growth-related imperfections in semiconductor superlattices

The influence of imperfections and growth-related disorder on the current–voltage characteristics of doped superlattices is investigated theoretically. It is demonstrated that the location of a defect can be directly identified from the current measurements. Such measurements can also be used as an estimate for the degree of microscopic disorder.