235 research outputs found
Mesoscopic oscillations of the conductance of disordered metallic samples as a function of temperature
We show theoretically and experimentally that the conductance of small
disordered samples exhibits random oscillations as a function of temperature.
The amplitude of the oscillations decays as a power law of temperature, and
their characteristic period is of the order of the temperature itself
Signature of the electron-electron interaction in the magnetic field dependence of nonlinear I-V characteristics in mesoscopic systems
We show that the nonlinear I-V characteristics of mesoscopic samples with
metallic conductivity should contain parts which are linear in the magnetic
field and quadratic in the electric field. These contributions to the current
are entirely due to the electron-electron interaction and consequently they are
proportional to the electron-electron interaction constant. We also note that
both the amplitude and the sign of the current exhibit random oscillations as a
function of temperature
Ordering of magnetic impurities and tunable electronic properties of topological insulators
We study collective behavior of magnetic adatoms randomly distributed on the
surface of a topological insulator. As a consequence of the spin-momentum
locking on the surface, the RKKY-type interactions of two adatom spins depend
on the direction of the vector connecting them, thus interactions of an
ensemble of adatoms are frustrated. We show that at low temperatures the
frustrated RKKY interactions give rise to two phases: an ordered ferromagnetic
phase with spins pointing perpendicular to the surface, and a disordered
spin-glass-like phase. The two phases are separated by a quantum phase
transition driven by the magnetic exchange anisotropy. Ferromagnetic ordering
occurs via a finite-temperature phase transition. The ordered phase breaks
time-reversal symmetry spontaneously, driving the surface states into a gapped
state, which exhibits an anomalous quantum Hall effect and provides a
realization of the parity anomaly. We find that the magnetic ordering is
suppressed by potential scattering. Our work indicates that controlled
deposition of magnetic impurities provides a way to modify the electronic
properties of topological insulators.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figure
Surface states, Friedel oscillations, and spin accumulation in p-doped semiconductors
We consider a hole-doped semiconductor with a sharp boundary and study the
boundary spin accumulation in response to a charge current. First, we solve
exactly a single-particle quantum mechanics problem described by the isotropic
Luttinger model in half-space and construct an orthonormal basis for the
corresponding Hamiltonian. It is shown that the complete basis includes two
types of eigenstates. The first class of states contains conventional incident
and reflected waves, while the other class includes localized surface states.
Second, we consider a many-body system in the presence of a charge current
flowing parallel to the boundary. It is shown that the localized states
contribute to spin accumulation near the surface. We also show that the spin
density exhibits current-induced Friedel oscillations with three different
periods determined by the Fermi momenta of the light and heavy holes. We find
an exact asymptotic expression for the Friedel oscillations far from the
boundary. We also calculate numerically the spin density profile and compute
the total spin accumulation, which is defined as the integral of the spin
density in the direction perpendicular to the boundary. The total spin
accumulation is shown to fit very well the simple formula S ~(1 - m_L/m_H)^2,
where m_L and m_H are the light- and heavy-hole masses. The effects of disorder
are discussed. We estimate the spin relaxation time in the Luttinger model and
argue that spin physics cannot be described within the diffusion approximation.Comment: 22 pages, 8 color figure
Correlations in Transmission of Light through a Disordered Amplifying Medium
The angular and frequency correlation functions of the transmission
coefficient for light propagation through a strongly scattering amplifying
medium are considered. It is found that just as in the case of an elastic
scattering medium the correlation function consists of three terms. However,
the structure of the terms is rather different. Angular correlation has a
power-law decay and exhibits oscillations. There is no "memory effect" as in
the case of an elastic medium. Interaction between diffusion modes is strongly
enhanced near the lasing threshold. Frequency correlation scale decreases close
to the lasing threshold.
We also consider time correlations of the transmission in the case of
nonstationary inhomogeneities. We find short- and long-range time correlations.
The scale of the short-range correlation decreases, while the long-range
correlation scale becomes infinite near the threshold.Comment: 16 pages, 7 postscript figure
Enhancing in ferromagnetic semiconductors
We theoretically investigate disorder effects on the ferromagnetic transition
('Curie') temperature in dilute IIIMnV magnetic
semiconductors (e.g. GaMnAs) where a small fraction () of the cation atoms (e.g. Ga) are randomly replaced by the magnetic
dopants (e.g. Mn), leading to long-range ferromagnetic ordering for . We
find that is a complicated function of at least eight different
parameters including carrier density, magnetic dopant density, and carrier mean
free path; nominally macroscopically similar samples could have substantially
different Curie temperatures. We provide simple physically appealing
prescriptions for enhancing in diluted magnetic semiconductors, and
discuss the magnetic phase diagram in the system parameter space.Comment: 5 pages with 4 figure
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