Quantum waveguide theory for hole transport in mesoscopic structures

A quantum waveguide theory is proposed for hole transport in the mesoscopic structures, including the band mixing effect. We found that due to the interference between the 'light' hole and 'heavy' wave, the transmission and reflection coefficients oscillate more irregularly as a function of incident wave vector geometry parameters. Furthermore conversion between the heavy hole and light hole states occurs at the intersection. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selectively excited photoluminescence of GaAs1-xNx single quantum wells

GaAsN bulk and GaAsN/GaAs single quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy are studied by selectively excited photoluminescence (PL) measurements. A significant difference is observed in the PL spectra when the excitation energy is set below or above the band gap of GaAs for the GaAsN/GaAs quantum well samples, while the spectral features of GaAsN bulk are not sensitive to the excitation energy. The observed difference in PL of the GaAsN/GaAs quantum well samples is attributed to the exciton localization effect at the GaAsN/GaAs interfaces, which is directly correlated with the transfer and trap processes of the photogenerated carriers from GaAs into GaAsN through the heterointerfaces. This interface-related exciton localization effect can be greatly reduced by a rapid thermal annealing process, making the PL be dominated by the intrinsic delocalized transition in GaAsN/GaAs. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Size evolution and optical properties of self-assembled InAs quantum dots on different matrix

InAs quantum dots have been grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy on different matrix to investigate the effect on the structure and optical properties. High density of 1.02 x 10(11) cm(-2) of InAs islands on In0.15Ga0.85As and In0.15Al0.85As underlying layer has been achieved. Atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence spectra show the size evolution of InAs islands on In0.15Ga0.85As underlying layer. A strong 1.3 mum photoluminescence from InAs islands on In0.15Ga0.85As underlying layer and with InGaAs strain-reduced layer has been obtained. Single-mirror light emitting diode structures with InAs quantum dots capped by InGaAs grown on InGaAs layer as active layer were fabricated and the corresponding radiative efficiency was deduced to be as high as 20.5%. Our results provide important information for optimizing the epitaxial structures of 1.3 mum wavelength quantum dots devices. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantum information processing with superconducting qubits in a microwave field

We investigate the quantum dynamics of a Cooper-pair box with a superconducting loop in the presence of a nonclassical microwave field. We demonstrate the existence of Rabi oscillations for both single- and multiphoton processes and, moreover, we propose a new quantum computing scheme (including one-bit and conditional two-bit gates) based on Josephson qubits coupled through microwaves.

Resonant tunneling theory of planar quantum dot structures

The ballistic transport in the semiconductor, planar, circular quantum dot structures is studied theoretically. The transmission probabilities show apparent resonant tunneling peaks, which correspond to energies of bound states in the dot. By use of structures with different angles between the inject and exit channels, the resonant peaks can be identified very effectively. The perpendicular magnetic field has obvious effect on the energies of bound states in the quantum dot, and thus the resonant peaks. The treatment of the boundary conditions simplifies the problem to the solution of a set of linear algebraic equations. The theoretical results in this paper can be used to design planar resonant tunneling devices, whose resonant peaks are adjustable by the angle between the inject and exit channels and the applied magnetic field. The resonant tunneling in the circular dot structures can also be used to study the bound states in the absence and presence of magnetic field.

Capacitance-voltage spectroscopy of In0.5Ga0.5As self-assembled quantum dots in double quantum wells under selective photo-excitation

Selectively photo-excited C-V spectroscopy has been measured in an In0.5Ga0.5As quantum dots (QDs)-embedded, three barrier-two well heterostructure. By comparing with a theoretical capacitance model, the pure capacitive contribution from In0.5Ga0.5As QDs, due to tunnelling coupling between In0.5Ga0.5As QDs and In0.18Ga0.82As quantum well, has been used to obtain the density of charges from photo-excited In0.5Ga0.5As QDs in a very straightforward manner.

Theoretical analysis of characteristics of GaxIn1-xNyAs1-y/GaAs quantum well lasers with different intermediate layers

Based on the band anticrossing model, the effects of the strain-compensated layer and the strain-mediated layer on the band structure, gain and differential gain of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well lasers have been investigated. The results show that the GaNAs barrier has a disadvantage in increasing the density of states in the conduction band. Meanwhile, the multilayer quantum wells need higher transparency carrier density than the GaInNAs/GaAs single quantum well with the same wavelength. However, they help to suppress the degradation of the differential gain. The calculation also shows that from the viewpoint of band structure, the strain-compensated structure and the strain-mediated structure have similar features.

Detector-induced dephasing in quantum-dot cellular automata qubit

We investigate the quantum dynamics of the quantum-dot cellular automata qubit in the presence of a quantum point contact detector by modified rate equations. It is demonstrated that the qubit information can be resolved by measuring the detector current variation. Furthermore, we show that this oscillating current and the electron occupation probabilities in states \b> and \c> decay drastically as the dephasing rate increases, clearly revealing the influence of the dephasing induced by the detector. Moreover, it is shown that the operation speed of the quantum-dot cellular automata qubit may be adjusted by varying the interdot coupling strength. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Abnormal temperature dependence of photoluminescence from self-assembled InAs quantum dots covered by an InAlAs/InGaAs combination layer

In this report we have investigated the temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) from self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) covered by an InAlAs/InGaAs combination layer. The ground state experiences an abnormal variation of PL linewidth from 15 K up to room temperature. Meanwhile, the PL integrated intensity ratio of the first excited state to the ground state for InAs QDs unexpectedly decreases with increasing temperature, which we attribute to the phonon bottleneck effect. We believe that these experimental results are closely related to the partially coupled quantum dots system and the large energy separation between the ground and the first excited states. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structure and photoluminescence study of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown via cycled (InAs)(n)/(GaAs)(n) monolayer deposition

We report the morphology of an InGaAs nanostructure grown by molecular beam epitaxy via cycled (InAs)(n)/(GaAs)(n) monolayer deposition. Atomic force microscopy images clearly show that varying monolayer deposition per cycle has significant influence on the size, density and shape of the InGaAs nanostructure. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra show the effect of n on the optical quality, and 1.35mum photoluminescence with a linewidth of only 19.2meV at room temperature has been achieved in the (InAs)(1)/(GaAs)(1) structure.

The effect of inserting strain-compensated GaNAs layers on the luminescence properties of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well

Photoluminescence (PL) properties of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) with strain-compensated GaNAs layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy are investigated. The temperature-dependent PL spectra of GaInNAs/GaAs QW with and without GaNAs layers are compared and carefully studied. It is shown that the introduction of GaNAs layers between well and barrier can effectively extend the emission wavelength, mainly due to the reduction of the barrier potential. The PL peak position up to 1.41 mum is observed at the room temperature. After adding the GaNAs layers into QW structures, there is no essential deterioration of luminescence efficiency. N-induced localization states are also not remarkably influenced. It implies that with optimized growth condition, high-quality GaInNAs/GaAs QWs with strain-compensated GaNAs layers can be achieved. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Electronic structure and optical properties of quantum rods with wurtzite structure

The Hamiltonian of the wurtzite quantum rods with an ellipsoidal boundary is given after a coordinate transformation. The energies, wave functions, and transition possibilities are obtained as functions of the aspect ratio e with the same method we used on spherical dots. With an overall consideration of both the transition matrix element and the Boltzmann distribution we explained why the polarization factor increases with increasing e and approaches a saturation value, which tallies quite well with the experimental result. When e increases more and more S-z states are mixed into the ground, second, and third states of J(z)=1/2, resulting in an increase of the emission of z polarization. It is just the linear terms of the momentum operator in the hole Hamiltonian that cause the mixing of S and P states in the hole ground state. The effects of the crystal field splitting energy, temperature, and transverse radius to the polarization are also considered. We also calculated the band gap variation with the size and shape of the quantum rods.

Anomalous temperature dependence of photoluminescence in GaInNAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of GaInNAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells grown on a GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy are measured in a range of temperatures and excitation power densities. The energy position of the dominant PL peak shows an anomalous S-shape temperature dependence instead of the Varshni relation. By careful inspection, especially for the PL under lower excitation power density, two near bandedge peaks are well identified. These are assigned to carriers localized in nitrogen-induced bound states and interband excitonic recombinations, respectively. It is suggested that the temperature-induced switch of such two luminescence peaks in relative intensity causes a significant mechanism responsible for the S-shape shift observed in GaInNAs. A quantitative model based on the thermal depopulation of carriers is used to explain the temperature dependence of the PL peak related to N-induced bound states.

Photovoltage and luminescence study of stacked InAs/GaAs self-organized quantum dots

The ground and excited state excitonic transitions of stacked InAs self-organized quantum dots (QDs) in a laser diode structure are studied. The interband absorption transitions of QDs are investigated by non-destructive PV spectra, indicating that the strongest absorption is related to the excited states with a high density and coincides with the photon energy of lasing emission. The temperature and excitation (electric injection) intensity dependences of photoluminescence and electroluminescence indicate the influence of state filling effect on the luminescence of threefold stacked QDs. The results indicate that different coupling channels exist between electronic states in both vertical and lateral directions.

Electronic structure and transport properties of quantum rings in a magnetic field

The electronic structure of quantum rings is studied in the framework of the effective-mass theory and the two dimensional hard wall approximation. In cases of both the absence and presence of a magnetic field the electron momenta of confined states and the Coulomb energies of two electrons are given as functions of the angular momentum, inner radius, and magnetic-field strength. By comparing with experiments it is found that the width of the real confinement potential is 14 nm, much smaller than the phenomenal width. The Coulomb energy of two electrons is calculated as 11.1 meV. The quantum waveguide transport properties of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) rings are studied complementarily, and it is found that the correspondence of the positions of resonant peaks in AB rings and the momentum of confined states in closed rings is good for thin rings, representing a type of resonant tunneling.