166 research outputs found
Thermopower of Interacting GaAs Bilayer Hole Systems in the Reentrant Insulating Phase near
We report thermopower measurements of interacting GaAs bilayer hole systems.
When the carrier densities in the two layers are equal, these systems exhibit a
reentrant insulating phase near the quantum Hall state at total filling factor
. Our data show that as the temperature is decreased, the thermopower
diverges in the insulating phase. This behavior indicates the opening of an
energy gap at low temperature, consistent with the formation of a pinned Wigner
solid. We extract an energy gap and a Wigner solid melting phase diagram.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. Let
Structural and electrical characterization of hybrid metal-polypyrrole nanowires
We present here the synthesis and structural characterization of hybrid
Au-polypyrrole-Au and Pt- polypyrrole-Au nanowires together with a study of
their electrical properties from room-temperature down to very low temperature.
A careful characterization of the metal-polymer interfaces by trans- mission
electron microscopy revealed that the structure and mechanical strength of
bottom and upper interfaces are very different. Variable temperature electrical
transport measurements were performed on both multiple nanowires - contained
within the polycarbonate template - and single nanowires. Our data show that
the three-dimensional Mott variable-range-hopping model provides a complete
framework for the understanding of transport in PPy nanowires, including
non-linear current-voltage characteristics and magnetotransport at low
temperatures.Comment: Phys. Rev. B Vol. 76 Issue 11 (2007
Heat Capacity Evidence for the Suppression of Skyrmions at Large Zeeman Energy
Measurements on a multilayer two-dimensional electron system (2DES) near
Landau level filling =1 reveal the disappearance of the nuclear spin
contribution to the heat capacity as the ratio between the Zeeman
and Coulomb energies exceeds a critical value 0.04. This
disappearance suggests the vanishing of the Skyrmion-mediated coupling between
the lattice and the nuclear spins as the spin excitations of the 2DES make a
transition from Skyrmions to single spin-flips above . Our
experimental is smaller than the calculated =0.054
for an ideal 2DES; we discuss possible origins of this discrepancy.Comment: Experimental paper, 6 figure
2D Rutherford-Like Scattering in Ballistic Nanodevices
Ballistic injection in a nanodevice is a complex process where electrons can
either be transmitted or reflected, thereby introducing deviations from the
otherwise quantized conductance. In this context, quantum rings (QRs) appear as
model geometries: in a semiclassical view, most electrons bounce against the
central QR antidot, which strongly reduces injection efficiency. Thanks to an
analogy with Rutherford scattering, we show that a local partial depletion of
the QR close to the edge of the antidot can counter-intuitively ease ballistic
electron injection. On the contrary, local charge accumulation can focus the
semi-classical trajectories on the hard-wall potential and strongly enhance
reflection back to the lead. Scanning gate experiments on a ballistic QR, and
simulations of the conductance of the same device are consistent, and agree to
show that the effect is directly proportional to the ratio between the strength
of the perturbation and the Fermi energy. Our observation surprisingly fits the
simple Rutherford formalism in two-dimensions in the classical limit
Formation of quantum dots in the potential fluctuations of InGaAs heterostructures probed by scanning gate microscopy
The disordered potential landscape in an InGaAs/InAlAs two-dimensional
electron gas patterned into narrow wires is investigated by means of scanning
gate microscopy. It is found that scanning a negatively charged tip above
particular sites of the wires produces conductance oscillations that are
periodic in the tip voltage. These oscillations take the shape of concentric
circles whose number and diameter increase for more negative tip voltages until
full depletion occurs in the probed region. These observations cannot be
explained by charging events in material traps, but are consistent with Coulomb
blockade in quantum dots forming when the potential fluctuations are raised
locally at the Fermi level by the gating action of the tip. This interpretation
is supported by simple electrostatic simulations in the case of a disorder
potential induced by ionized dopants. This work represents a local
investigation of the mechanisms responsible for the disorder-induced
metal-to-insulator transition observed in macroscopic two-dimensional electron
systems at low enough density
Coherent-State Approach to Two-dimensional Electron Magnetism
We study in this paper the possible occurrence of orbital magnetim for
two-dimensional electrons confined by a harmonic potential in various regimes
of temperature and magnetic field. Standard coherent state families are used
for calculating symbols of various involved observables like thermodynamical
potential, magnetic moment, or spatialdistribution of current. Their
expressions are given in a closed form and the resulting Berezin-Lieb
inequalities provide a straightforward way to study magnetism in various limit
regimes. In particular, we predict a paramagnetic behaviour in the
thermodynamical limit as well as in the quasiclassical limit under a weak
field. Eventually, we obtain an exact expression for the magnetic moment which
yields a full description of the phase diagram of the magnetization.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR
Scanning Gate Spectroscopy of transport across a Quantum Hall Nano-Island
We explore transport across an ultra-small Quantum Hall Island (QHI) formed
by closed quan- tum Hall edge states and connected to propagating edge channels
through tunnel barriers. Scanning gate microscopy and scanning gate
spectroscopy are used to first localize and then study a single QHI near a
quantum point contact. The presence of Coulomb diamonds in the spectroscopy
con- firms that Coulomb blockade governs transport across the QHI. Varying the
microscope tip bias as well as current bias across the device, we uncover the
QHI discrete energy spectrum arising from electronic confinement and we extract
estimates of the gradient of the confining potential and of the edge state
velocity.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Scanning-gate microscopy of semiconductor nanostructures: an overview
This paper presents an overview of scanning-gate microscopy applied to the
imaging of electron transport through buried semiconductor nanostructures.
After a brief description of the technique and of its possible artifacts, we
give a summary of some of its most instructive achievements found in the
literature and we present an updated review of our own research. It focuses on
the imaging of GaInAs-based quantum rings both in the low magnetic field
Aharonov-Bohm regime and in the high-field quantum Hall regime. In all of the
given examples, we emphasize how a local-probe approach is able to shed new, or
complementary, light on transport phenomena which are usually studied by means
of macroscopic conductance measurements.Comment: Invited talk by SH at 39th "Jaszowiec" International School and
Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, Krynica-Zdroj, Poland, June 201
Imaging Electron Wave Functions Inside Open Quantum Rings
Combining Scanning Gate Microscopy (SGM) experiments and simulations, we
demonstrate low temperature imaging of electron probability density
in embedded mesoscopic quantum rings (QRs). The tip-induced
conductance modulations share the same temperature dependence as the
Aharonov-Bohm effect, indicating that they originate from electron wavefunction
interferences. Simulations of both and SGM conductance maps
reproduce the main experimental observations and link fringes in SGM images to
.Comment: new titl
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