Measurement of single electron spin with submicron Hall magnetometer

Submicron Hall magnetometry has been demonstrated as an efficient technique to probe extremely weak magnetic fields. In this letter, we analyze the possibility of employing it to detect single electron spin. Signal strength and readout time are estimated and discussed with respect to a number of practical issues. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

High-temperature electron-hole liquid and dynamics of Fermi excitons in a In0.65Al0.35As/Al0.4Ga0.6As quantum dot array

State-filling effects of the exciton in a In0.65Al0.35As/Al0.4Ga0.6As quantum dot array are observed by quantum dot array photolumineseence at a sample temperature of 77 K. The exciton emission at low excitation density is dominated by the radiative recombination of the states in the s shell and at high excitation density the emission mainly results from the radiative recombination of the exciton state in the p shell. The spectral interval between the states in the s and p shells is about 30-40 mcV. The time resolved photoluminescence shows that the decay time of exciton states in the p shell is longer than that of exciton states in the s shell, and the emission intensity of the exciton state in the p shell is superlinearly dependent on excitation density. Furthermore, electron-hole liquid in the quantum dot array is observed at 77 K, which is a much higher temperature than that in bulk. The emission peak of the. recombination, of electron-hole liquid has an about 200 meV redshift from the exciton fluorescence. Two excitation density-dependent emission peaks at 1.56 and 1.59 eV are observed, respectively, which result from quantum confinement effects in QDs. The emission intensity of electron-hole liquid is directly proportional to the cubic of excitation densities and its decay time decreases significantly at the high excitation density.

Electronic structure of self-assembled InAs quantum discs in a magnetic field with varying orientation and two-electron quantum-disc qubits

We have studied the electronic structure of vertically assembled quantum discs in a magnetic field with varying orientation using the effective mass approximation. We calculate the four energy levels of single-electron quantum discs and the two lowest energy levels of two-electron quantum discs in a magnetic field with varying orientation. The change of the magnetic field as an effective potential strongly modifies the electronic structure, leading to splittings of the levels and anticrossings between the levels. The calculated results also demonstrate the switching between the ground states with the total spin S = 0 and 1. The switching induces a qubit controlled by varying the orientation of the magnetic field.

Role of interactions in electronic structure of a two-electron quantum dot molecule

We have studied a two-electron quantum dot molecule in a magnetic field. The electron interaction is treated accurately by the direct diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix. We calculate two lowest energy levels of the two-electron quantum dot molecule in a magnetic field. Our results show that the electron interactions are significant, as they can change the total spin of the two-electron ground state of the system by adjusting the magnetic field between S = 0 and S = 1. The energy difference DeltaE between the lowest S = 0 and S = 1 states is shown as a function of the axial magnetic field. We found that the energy difference between the lowest S = 0 and S = 1 states in the strong-B S = 0 state varies linearly. Our results provide a possible realization for a qubit to be fabricated by current growth techniques.

A novel hybrid phase-locked-loop frequency synthesizer using single-electron devices and CMOS transistors

This paper proposes a novel phase-locked loop (PLL) frequency synthesizer using single-electron devices (SEDs) and metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistors. The PLL frequency synthesizer mainly consists of a single-electron transistor (SET)/MOS hybrid voltage-controlled oscillator circuit, a single-electron (SE) turnstile/MOS hybrid phase-frequency detector (PFD) circuit and a SE turnstile/MOS hybrid frequency divider. The phase-frequency detection and frequency-division functions are realized by manipulating the single electrons. We propose a SPICE model to describe the behavior of the MOSFET-based SE turnstile. The authors simulate the performance of the PILL block circuits and the whole PLL synthesizer. Simulation results indicated that the circuit can well perform the operation of the PLL frequency synthesizer at room temperature. The PILL synthesizer is very compact. The total number of the transistors is less than 50. The power dissipation of the proposed PLL circuit is less than 3 uW. The authors discuss the effect of fabrication tolerance, the effect of background charge and the SE transfer accuracy on the performance of the PLL circuit. A technique to compensate parameter dispersions of SEDs is proposed.

Electron mobility related to scattering caused by the strain variation of AlGaN barrier layer in strained AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

Using the measured capacitance- voltage curves of Ni Schottky contacts with different areas on strained AlGaN/ GaN heterostructures and the current- voltage characteristics for the AlGaN/ GaN heterostructure field- effect transistors at low drain- source voltage, we found that the two- dimensional electron gas (2DEG) electron mobility increased as the Ni Schottky contact area increased. When the gate bias increased from negative to positive, the 2DEG electron mobility for the samples increased monotonically except for the sample with the largest Ni Schottky contact area. A new scattering mechanism is proposed, which is based on the polarization Coulomb field scattering related to the strain variation of the AlGaN barrier layer. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Circular photogalvanic effect of the two-dimensional electron gas in AlXGa1-XN/GaN heterostructures under uniaxial strain

The circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN heterostructures induced by infrared radiation has been investigated under uniaxial strain. The observed photocurrent consists of the superposition of the CPGE and the linear photogalvanic effect currents, both of which are up to 10(-2) nA. The amplitude of the CPGE current increases linearly with additional strain and is enhanced by 18.6% with a strain of 2.2x10(-3). Based on the experimental results, the contribution of bulk-inversion asymmetry (BIA) and structure-inversion asymmetry (SIA) spin splitting of the 2DEG to the CPGE current in the heterostructures is separated, and the ratio of SIA and BIA terms is estimated to be about 13.2, indicating that the SIA is the dominant mechanism to induce the k-linear spin splitting of the subbands in the triangular quantum well at AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterointerfaces. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Subband electron properties of InGaAs/InAlAs high-electron-mobility transistors with different channel chickness

Magnetotransport properties of In-0.53 GaAs/In-0.52 AlAs high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures with different channel thickness of 10-35 nm have been investigated in magnetic fields up to 13 T at 1.4 K. Fast Fourier transform has been employed to obtain the subband density and mobility of the two-dimensional electron gas in these HEMT structures. We found that the thickness of channel does not significantly enhance the electron density of the two-dimensional electron gas, however, it has strong effect on the proportion of electrons inhabited in different subbands. When the size of channel is 20 nm, the number of electrons occupying the excited subband, which have higher mobility, reaches the maximum. The experimental values obtained in this work are useful for the design and optimization of InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT devices.

Effect of electron-hole spatial correlation on spin relaxation dynamics in InAs submonolayer

Using time-resolved photoluminescence and time-resolved Kerr rotation spectroscopy, we explore the unique electron spin behavior in an InAs submonolayer sandwiched in a GaAs matrix, which shows very different spin characteristics under resonant and non-resonant excitations. While a very long spin relaxation lifetime of a few nanoseconds at low temperature is observed under non-resonant excitation, it decreases dramatically under resonant excitation. These interesting results are attributed to the difference in electron-hole interactions caused by non-geminate or geminate capture of photo-generated electron-hole pairs in the two excitation cases, and provide a direct verification of the electron-hole spatial correlation effect on electron spin relaxation. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improved performance in organic light emitting diodes with a mixed electron donor-acceptor film involved in hole injection

Organic light emitting diodes using a mixed layer of electron acceptor 3, 4, 9, 10 perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride and electron donor copper phthalocyanine (PTCDA:CuPc) on indium tin oxide (ITO) anodes were fabricated. The device properties were found to be strongly dependent on the thickness of the PTCDA:CuPc film: both the power efficiency and the driving voltage of the device were optimized with a thickness of PTCDA:CuPc ranging from 10 to 20 nm. As compared to the conventional ITO/CuPc hole injection structure, the ITO/PTCDA:CuPc hole injection structure could remarkably enhance both the luminance and the power efficiencies of devices. A mechanism of static-induced, very efficient hole-electron pairs generation in mixed PTCDA:CuPc films was proposed to explain the experimental phenomena. The structural and optical properties of PTCDA:CuPc film were examined as well. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Weak anti-localization in InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs high mobility two-dimensional electron gas systems

Magneto-transport measurements have been carried out on three heavily Si delta-doped In-0.52 Al-0.48 As/In-0.53 Ga-0.47 As/In-0.52 A(10.48) As single quantum well samples in which two subbands were occupied by electrons. The weak anti-localization (WAL) has been found in such high electron mobility systems. The strong Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling is due to the high structure inversion asymmetry (SIA) of the quantum wells. Since the WAL theory model is so complicated in fitting our experimental results, we obtained the Rashba SO coupling constant alpha and the zero-field spin splitting Delta(0) by an approximate approach. The results are consistent with that obtained by the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation analysis. The WAL effect in high electron mobility system suggests that finding a useful approach for deducing alpha and Delta(0) is important in designing future spintronics devices that utilize the Rashba SO coupling.

Observations on subband electron properties in In0.65Ga0.35As/In0.52Al0.48As MM-HEMT with Si delta-doped on the barriers

Magneto-transport measurements have been carried out on a Si delta-doped In0.65Ga0.35As/In0.52Al0.48As metamorphic high-electron-mobility transistor with InP substrate in a temperature range between 1.5 and 60 K under magnetic field up to 13 T. We studied the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) effect and the Hall effect for the In0.65Ga0.35As/In0.52Al0.48As single quantum well occupied by two subbands and obtained the electron concentration and energy levels respectively. We solve the Schrodinger-Kohn-Sham equation in conjunction with the Poisson equation self-consistently and obtain the configuration of conduction band, the distribution of carriers concentration, the energy level of every subband and the Fermi energy. The calculational results are well consistent with the results of experiments. Both experimental and calculational results indicate that almost all of the delta-doped electrons transfer into the quantum well in the temperature range between 1.5 and 60 K.

Atomic configurations of dislocation core and twin boundaries in 3C-SiC studied by high-resolution electron microscopy

The defects in 3C-SiC film grown on (001) plane of Si substrate were studied using a 200 kV high-resolution electron microscope with point resolution of 0.2 nm. A posterior image processing technique, the image deconvolution, was utilized in combination with the image contrast analysis to distinguish atoms of Si from C distant from each other by 0.109 nm in the [110] projected image. The principle of the image processing technique utilized and the related image contrast theory is briefly presented. The procedures of transforming an experimental image that does not reflect the crystal structure intuitively into the structure map and of identifying Si and C atoms from the map are described. The atomic configurations for a 30 degrees partial dislocation and a microtwin have been derived at atomic level. It has been determined that the 30 degrees partial dislocation terminates in C atom and the segment of microtwin is sandwiched between two 180 degrees rotation twins. The corresponding stacking sequences are derived and atomic models are constructed according to the restored structure maps for both the 30 degrees partial dislocation and microtwin. Images were simulated based on the two models to affirm the above-mentioned results.

Influence of N doping on the Rashba coefficient, semiconductor-metal transition, and electron effective mass in InSb1-xNx nanowires: Ten-band k center dot p model

The electronic structures of InSb1-xNx nanowires are investigated using the ten-band k center dot p method. It is found that nitrogen increases the Rashba coefficient of the nanowires dramatically. For thick nanowires, the Rashba coefficient may increase by more than 20 times. The semiconductor-metal transition occurs more easily in InSb1-xNx nanowires than in InSb nanowires. The electronic structure of InSb1-xNx nanowires is very different from that of the bulk material. For fixed x the bulk material is a semimetal, while the nanowires are metal-like. In InSb1-xNx bulk material and thick nanowires, an interesting decrease of electron effective mass is observed near k=0 which is induced by the nitrogen, but this phenomenon disappears in thin nanowires.

An n-type SiGe/Ge QC structure utilizing the deep Ge quantum well for electron at the Gamma point

In this paper, an n-type Si1-xGex/Ge (x >= 0.85) quantum cascade (QC) structure utilizing a deep Ge quantum well for electrons at the Gamma point is proposed. Based on linear interpolation, a conduction band offset at the Gamma point in a Si1-xGex/Ge ( x >= 0.85) heterostructure is presented, which is suitable for designing a QC laser. This approach has the advantages of a large conduction band offset at the Gamma point, a low lattice mismatch between the Si1-xGex/Ge ( x >= 0.85) active layers and the Si1-yGey ( y > x) virtual substrate, a small electron effective mass in the Gamma band, simple conduction energy band structures and a simple phonon scattering mechanism in the Ge quantum well. The theory predicts that if high-energy electrons are continuously injected into the Gamma band, a quasi-equilibrium distribution of electrons between the Gamma and L bands can be reached and held, i.e., electrons with a certain density will be kept in the Gamma band. This result is supported by the intervalley scattering experiments. In n-type Si1-xGex/Ge ( x >= 0.85) QC structures, population inversion between the laser's upper and lower levels is demonstrated.