135 research outputs found
Disorder suppression and precise conductance quantization in constrictions of PbTe quantum wells
Conductance quantization was measured in submicron constrictions of PbTe,
patterned into narrow,12 nm wide quantum wells deposited between
PbEuTe barriers. Because the quantum confinement imposed by
the barriers is much stronger than the lateral one, the one-dimensional
electron energy level structure is very similar to that usually met in
constrictions of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures. However, in contrast to any
other system studied so far, we observe precise conductance quantization in
units, {\it despite of significant amount of charged defects in the
vicinity of the constriction}. We show that such extraordinary results is a
consequence of the paraelectric properties of PbTe, namely, the suppression of
long-range tails of the Coulomb potentials due to the huge dielectric constant.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Heat Capacity of PbS: Isotope Effects
In recent years, the availability of highly pure stable isotopes has made
possible the investigation of the dependence of the physical properties of
crystals, in particular semiconductors, on their isotopic composition.
Following the investigation of the specific heat (, ) of monatomic
crystals such as diamond, silicon, and germanium, similar investigations have
been undertaken for the tetrahedral diatomic systems ZnO and GaN (wurtzite
structure), for which the effect of the mass of the cation differs from that of
the anion. In this article we present measurements for a semiconductor with
rock salt structure, namely lead sulfide. Because of the large difference in
the atomic mass of both constituents (= 207.21 and (=32.06 a.m.u., for the natural isotopic abundance) the effects of varying
the cation and that of the anion mass are very different for this canonical
semiconductor. We compare the measured temperature dependence of , and the corresponding derivatives with respect to ( and
), with \textit{\textit{ab initio}} calculations based on the
lattice dynamics obtained from the local density approximation (LDA) electronic
band structure. Quantitative deviations between theory and experiment are
attributed to the absence of spin-orbit interaction in the ABINIT program used
for the electronic band structure calculations.Comment: 17 pages including 10 Fig
Microscopic mechanism of low thermal conductivity in lead-telluride
The microscopic physics behind low lattice thermal conductivity of single
crystal rocksalt lead telluride (PbTe) is investigated. Mode-dependent phonon
(normal and umklapp) scattering rates and their impact on thermal conductivity
were quantified by the first-principles-based anharmonic lattice dynamics
calculations that accurately reproduce thermal conductivity in a wide
temperature range. The low thermal conductivity of PbTe is attributed to the
scattering of longitudinal acoustic phonons by transverse optical phonons with
large anharmonicity, and small group velocity of the soft transverse acoustic
phonons. This results in enhancing the relative contribution of optical
phonons, which are usually minor heat carrier in bulk materials.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
K2SO4-KCl-H2O phase diagram in the area of heterogenization of homogeneous supercritical fluids
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