Engineering directed excitonic energy transfer

We provide an intuitive platform for engineering exciton transfer dynamics. We show that careful consideration of the spectral density, which describes the system-bath interaction, leads to opportunities to engineer the transfer of an exciton. Since excitons in nanostructures are proposed for use in quantum information processing and artificial photosynthetic designs, our approach paves the way for engineering a wide range of desired exciton dynamics. We carefully describe the validity of the model and use experimentally relevant material parameters to show counter-intuitive examples of a directed exciton transfer in a linear chain of quantum dots

Spin current injection by intersubband transitions in quantum wells

We show that a pure spin current can be injected in quantum wells by the absorption of linearly polarized infrared radiation, leading to transitions between subbands. The magnitude and the direction of the spin current depend on the Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit coupling constants and light frequency and, therefore, can be manipulated by changing the light frequency and/or applying an external bias across the quantum well. The injected spin current should be observable either as a voltage generated via the anomalous spin-Hall effect, or by spatially resolved pump-probe optical spectroscopy.Comment: minor changes, short version publishe

Quantum states and linear response in dc and electromagnetic fields for charge current and spin polarization of electrons at Bi/Si interface with giant spin-orbit coupling

An expansion of the nearly free-electron model constructed by Frantzeskakis, Pons and Grioni [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 82}, 085440 (2010)] describing quantum states at Bi/Si(111) interface with giant spin-orbit coupling is developed and applied for the band structure and spin polarization calculation, as well as for the linear response analysis for charge current and induced spin caused by dc field and by electromagnetic radiation. It is found that the large spin-orbit coupling in this system may allow resolving the spin-dependent properties even at room temperature and at realistic collision rate. The geometry of the atomic lattice combined with spin-orbit coupling leads to an anisotropic response both for current and spin components related to the orientation of the external field. The in-plane dc electric field produces only the in-plane components of spin in the sample while both the in-plane and out-of-plane spin components can be excited by normally propagating electromagnetic wave with different polarizations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Coherent control of electron propagation and capture in semiconductor heterostructures

We theoretically study the use of quantum interference to coherently control the transverse direction in which carriers are optically injected in a semiconductor heterostructure, and the subsequent transport and capture of these carriers. We consider a structure consisting of three quantum wells, where carriers can be ejected from the middle one in a given direction by coherently controlled optical pulse excitations. After traveling through the barrier, electrons are slowed down by space-charge effects, and can be captured in the side wells by emitting a phonon. If the side wells are different, the coherent control of the injection can be monitored optically. We propose a design of a AlGaAs heterostructure for a possible experimental realization of the effects considered in this paper