Electron transport through coupled quantum dots

The transmission through coupled quantum dots (CQDs) is calculated using the coupled-channel recursion method. Our results reveal that the conductance peaks move to high energy as the CQDs radius decreases or the period increases. If we increase the transverse momentum the conductance peaks move to high energy. Applying this characteristic, we can design a switch device using CQDs by applying a static electric field perpendicular to transmission direction. The theoretical results qualitatively agree with the available experimental data. Our calculated results may be useful for the application of CQDs to photoelectric devices. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Transport properties through quantum dot in a vertical electric field

The transport properties through a quantum dot are calculated using the recursion method. The results show that the electric fields can move the conductive peaks along the high- and low-energies. The electric field changes the intensity of conductance slightly. Our theoretical results should be useful for researching and making low-dimensional semiconductor optoelectronic devices. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of transverse interdot coupling on transport properties of an Aharonov-Bohm structure composed by two dots and two reservoirs

We derive the modified rate equations for an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring with two transversely coupled quantum dots (QD's) embedded in two arms in the presence of a magnetic field. We find that the interdot coupling between the two QD's can cause a temporal oscillation in electron occupation at the initial stage of the quantum dynamics, while the source-drain current decays monotonically to a stationary value. On the other hand, the interdot coupling equivalently divides the AB ring into two coupled subrings. That also destroys the normal AB oscillations with a period of 2pi, and generates new and complex periodic oscillations with their periods varying in a linear manner as the ratio between two magnetic fluxes (each penetrates one AB subring) increases. Furthermore, the interference between two subrings is also evident from the observation of the perturbed fundamental AB oscillation.

Electron and hole transport through quantum dots

The transmission through quantum dots (QDs) is calculated using the recursion method. In our calculation, the effect of finite offset is taken into account. The results show that the shapes of the QDs determine the number of resonant tunneling peaks and the distances between the peaks decrease as the radii of the QDs increase. The intensities of the conductance are strongly dependent on the barrier widths. The conductance peaks are split when transmitting through two QDs. The theoretical results qualitatively agree with the available experimental data. Our calculated results should be useful for the application of QDs to photoelectric devices. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Coherent transport through a quantum dot embedded in a double-slit-like Aharonov-Bohm ring

Coherent transport through a quantum dot embedded in one arm of a double-slit-like Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring is studied using the Green's function approach. We obtain experimental observations such as continuous phase shift along a single resonance peak and sharp inter-resonance phase drop. The AB oscillations of the differential conductance of the whole device are calculated by using the nonequilibrium Keldysh formalism. It is shown that the oscillating conductance has a continuous bias-voltage-dependent phase shift and is asymmetric in both linear and nonlinear response regimes.

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.

Interplay between partial incoherence, partial inelasticity, resonance, and heterogeneity in long-range electron transfer and transport

A generalized scattering matrix formalism is constructed to elucidate the interplay of electron resonance, coherence, dephasing, inelastic scattering, and heterogeneity, which play important roles in the physics of long-range electron transfer/transport. The theory consists of an extension of the standard Buttiker phase-breaking model and an analytical expression of the electron transmission coefficient for donor-bridge-acceptor systems with arbitrary length and sequence. The theory incorporates the following features: Dephasing-assisted off-resonance enhancement, inelasticity-induced turnover, resonance enhancement and its dephasing-induced suppression, dephasing-induced smooth superexchange-hopping transition, and heterogeneity effects. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Longitudinal spin transport in diluted magnetic semiconductor superlattices: The effect of the giant Zeeman splitting

Longitudinal spin transport in diluted magnetic semiconductor superlattices is investigated theoretically. The longitudinal magnetoconductivity (MC) in such systems exhibits an oscillating behavior as function of an external magnetic field. In the weak magnetic-field region the giant Zeeman splitting plays a dominant role that leads to a large negative magnetoconductivity. In the strong magnetic-field region the MC exhibits deep dips with increasing magnetic field. The oscillating behavior is attributed to the interplay between the discrete Landau levels and the Fermi surface. The decrease of the MC at low magnetic field is caused by the s-d exchange interaction between the electron in the conduction band and the magnetic ions. The spin polarization increases rapidly with increasing magnetic field and the longitudinal current becomes spin polarized in strong magnetic field. The effect of spin-disorder scattering on MC is estimated numerically for low magnetic fields and found to be neglectible for our system.