Semiconductor quantum dots in high magnetic fields: The composite-fermion view

We review and extend the composite fermion theory for semiconductor quantum dots in high magnetic fields. The mean-field model of composite fermions is unsatisfactory for the qualitative physics at high angular momenta. Extensive numerical calculations demonstrate that the microscopic CF theory, which incorporates interactions between composite fermions, provides an excellent qualitative and quantitative account of the quantum dot ground state down to the largest angular momenta studied, and allows systematic improvements by inclusion of mixing between composite fermion Landau levels (called $\Lambda$ levels).Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

A Two-Step Etching Method to Fabricate Nanopores in Silicon

A cost effectively method to fabricate nanopores in silicon by only using the conventional wet-etching technique is developed in this research. The main concept of the proposed method is a two-step etching process, including a premier double-sided wet etching and a succeeding track-etching. A special fixture is designed to hold the pre-etched silicon wafer inside it such that the track-etching can be effectively carried out. An electrochemical system is employed to detect and record the ion diffusion current once the pre-etched cavities are etched into a through nanopore. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can cost effectively fabricate nanopores in silicon.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Microwave-driven ferromagnet--topological-insulator heterostructures: The prospect for giant spin battery effect and quantized charge pump devices

We study heterostructures where a two-dimensional topological insulator (TI) is attached to two normal metal (NM) electrodes while an island of a ferromagnetic insulator (FI) with precessing magnetization covers a portion of its lateral edges to induce time-dependent exchange field underneath via the magnetic proximity effect. When the FI island covers both lateral edges, such device pumps pure spin current in the absence of any bias voltage, thereby acting as an efficient spin battery with giant output current even at very small microwave power input driving the precession. When only one lateral edge is covered by the FI island, both charge and spin current are pumped into the NM electrodes. We delineate conditions for the corresponding conductances (current-to-microwave-frequency ratio) to be quantized in a wide interval of precession cone angles, which is robust with respect to weak disorder and can be further extended by changes in device geometry.Comment: 7 pages, 7 color figures, PDFLaTe

Composite-fermionization of bosons in rapidly rotating atomic traps

The non-perturbative effect of interaction can sometimes make interacting bosons behave as though they were free fermions. The system of neutral bosons in a rapidly rotating atomic trap is equivalent to charged bosons coupled to a magnetic field, which has opened up the possibility of fractional quantum Hall effect for bosons interacting with a short range interaction. Motivated by the composite fermion theory of the fractional Hall effect of electrons, we test the idea that the interacting bosons map into non-interacting spinless fermions carrying one vortex each, by comparing wave functions incorporating this physics with exact wave functions available for systems containing up to 12 bosons. We study here the analogy between interacting bosons at filling factors $\nu=n/(n+1)$ with non-interacting fermions at $\nu^*=n$ for the ground state as well as the low-energy excited states and find that it provides a good account of the behavior for small $n$, but interactions between fermions become increasingly important with $n$. At $\nu=1$, which is obtained in the limit $n\rightarrow \infty$, the fermionization appears to overcompensate for the repulsive interaction between bosons, producing an {\em attractive} interactions between fermions, as evidenced by a pairing of fermions here.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Directional emission from asymmetric resonant cavities

Asymmetric resonant cavities (ARCs) with highly non-circular but convex cross-sections are predicted theoretically to have high-Q whispering gallery modes with very anisotropic emission. We develop a ray dynamics model for the emission pattern and present numerical and experimental confirmation of the theory.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX, 3 postscript figure