495 research outputs found
Effect of deconfinement on resonant transport in quantum wires
The effect of deconfinement due to finite band offsets on transport through
quantum wires with two constrictions is investigated. It is shown that the
increase in resonance linewidth becomes increasingly important as the size is
reduced and ultimately places an upper limit on the energy (temperature) scale
for which resonances may be observed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 postscript files with figures; uses REVTe
Tight-Binding model for semiconductor nanostructures
An empirical tight-binding (TB) model is applied to the
investigation of electronic states in semiconductor quantum dots. A basis set
of three -orbitals at the anions and one -orbital at the cations is
chosen. Matrix elements up to the second nearest neighbors and the spin-orbit
coupling are included in our TB-model. The parametrization is chosen so that
the effective masses, the spin-orbit-splitting and the gap energy of the bulk
CdSe and ZnSe are reproduced. Within this reduced TB-basis the
valence (p-) bands are excellently reproduced and the conduction (s-) band is
well reproduced close to the -point, i.e. near to the band gap. In
terms of this model much larger systems can be described than within a (more
realistic) -basis. The quantum dot is modelled by using the (bulk)
TB-parameters for the particular material at those sites occupied by atoms of
this material. Within this TB-model we study pyramidal-shaped CdSe quantum dots
embedded in a ZnSe matrix and free spherical CdSe quantum dots (nanocrystals).
Strain-effects are included by using an appropriate model strain field. Within
the TB-model, the strain-effects can be artifically switched off to investigate
the infuence of strain on the bound electronic states and, in particular, their
spatial orientation. The theoretical results for spherical nanocrystals are
compared with data from tunneling spectroscopy and optical experiments.
Furthermore the influence of the spin-orbit coupling is investigated
Multi-Exciton Spectroscopy of a Single Self Assembled Quantum Dot
We apply low temperature confocal optical microscopy to spatially resolve,
and spectroscopically study a single self assembled quantum dot. By comparing
the emission spectra obtained at various excitation levels to a theoretical
many body model, we show that: Single exciton radiative recombination is very
weak. Sharp spectral lines are due to optical transitions between confined
multiexcitonic states among which excitons thermalize within their lifetime.
Once these few states are fully occupied, broad bands appear due to transitions
between states which contain continuum electrons.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication on Jan,28 199
A pseudopotential study of electron-hole excitations in colloidal, free-standing InAs quantum dots
Excitonic spectra are calculated for free-standing, surface passivated InAs
quantum dots using atomic pseudopotentials for the single-particle states and
screened Coulomb interactions for the two-body terms. We present an analysis of
the single particle states involved in each excitation in terms of their
angular momenta and Bloch-wave parentage. We find that (i) in agreement with
other pseudopotential studies of CdSe and InP quantum dots, but in contrast to
k.p calculations, dot states wavefunction exhibit strong odd-even angular
momentum envelope function mixing (e.g. with ) and large
valence-conduction coupling. (ii) While the pseudopotential approach produced
very good agreement with experiment for free-standing, colloidal CdSe and InP
dots, and for self-assembled (GaAs-embedded) InAs dots, here the predicted
spectrum does {\em not} agree well with the measured (ensemble average over dot
sizes) spectra. (1) Our calculated excitonic gap is larger than the PL measure
one, and (2) while the spacing between the lowest excitons is reproduced, the
spacings between higher excitons is not fit well. Discrepancy (1) could result
from surface states emission. As for (2), agreement is improved when account is
taken of the finite size distribution in the experimental data. (iii) We find
that the single particle gap scales as (not ), that the
screened (unscreened) electron-hole Coulomb interaction scales as
(), and that the eccitonic gap sclaes as . These scaling
laws are different from those expected from simple models.Comment: 12 postscript figure
Coulomb Blockade Resonances in Quantum Wires
The conductance through a quantum wire of cylindrical cross section and a
weak bulge is solved exactly for two electrons within the Landauer-Buettiker
formalism. We show that this 'open' quantum dot exhibits spin-dependent Coulomb
blockade resonances resulting in two anomalous structure on the rising edge to
the first conductance plateau, one near 0.25(2e^2/h), related to a singlet
resonance, and one near 0.7(2e^2/h), related to a triplet resonance. These
resonances are generic and robust, occurring for other types of quantum wire
and surviving to temperatures of a few degrees.Comment: 5 pages, 3 postscript files with figures; uses REVTe
Effect of quantum confinement on exciton-phonon interactions
We investigate the homogeneous linewidth of localized type-I excitons in
type-II GaAs/AlAs superlattices. These localizing centers represent the
intermediate case between quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) and
quasi-zero-dimensional localizations. The temperature dependence of the
homogeneous linewidth is obtained with high precision from
micro-photoluminescence spectra. We confirm the reduced interaction of the
excitons with their environment with decreasing dimensionality except for the
coupling to LO-phonons. The low-temperature limit for the linewidth of these
localized excitons is five times smaller than that of Q2D excitons. The
coefficient of exciton-acoustic-phonon interaction is 5 ~ 6 times smaller than
that of Q2D excitons. An enhancement of the average exciton-LO-phonon
interaction by localization is found in our sample. But this interaction is
very sensitive to the detailed structure of the localizing centers.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Patient Referral Patterns and the Spread of Hospital-Acquired Infections through National Health Care Networks
Rates of hospital-acquired infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are increasingly used as quality indicators for hospital hygiene. Alternatively, these rates may vary between hospitals, because hospitals differ in admission and referral of potentially colonized patients. We assessed if different referral patterns between hospitals in health care networks can influence rates of hospital-acquired infections like MRSA. We used the Dutch medical registration of 2004 to measure the connectedness between hospitals. This allowed us to reconstruct the network of hospitals in the Netherlands. We used mathematical models to assess the effect of different patient referral patterns on the potential spread of hospital-acquired infections between hospitals, and between categories of hospitals (University medical centers, top clinical hospitals and general hospitals). University hospitals have a higher number of shared patients than teaching or general hospitals, and are therefore more likely to be among the first to receive colonized patients. Moreover, as the network is directional towards university hospitals, they have a higher prevalence, even when infection control measures are equally effective in all hospitals. Patient referral patterns have a profound effect on the spread of health care-associated infections like hospital-acquired MRSA. The MRSA prevalence therefore differs between hospitals with the position of each hospital within the health care network. Any comparison of MRSA rates between hospitals, as a benchmark for hospital hygiene, should therefore take the position of a hospital within the network into account
Ferromagnetic transition metal implanted ZnO: a diluted magnetic semiconductor?
Recently theoretical works predict that some semiconductors (e.g. ZnO) doped
with magnetic ions are diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS). In DMS magnetic
ions substitute cation sites of the host semiconductor and are coupled by free
carriers resulting in ferromagnetism. One of the main obstacles in creating DMS
materials is the formation of secondary phases because of the solid-solubility
limit of magnetic ions in semiconductor host. In our study transition metal
ions were implanted into ZnO single crystals with the peak concentrations of
0.5-10 at.%. We established a correlation between structural and magnetic
properties. By synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (XRD) secondary phases
(Fe, Ni, Co and ferrite nanocrystals) were observed and have been identified as
the source for ferromagnetism. Due to their different crystallographic
orientation with respect to the host crystal these nanocrystals in some cases
are very difficult to be detected by a simple Bragg-Brentano scan. This results
in the pitfall of using XRD to exclude secondary phase formation in DMS
materials. For comparison, the solubility of Co diluted in ZnO films ranges
between 10 and 40 at.% using different growth conditions pulsed laser
deposition. Such diluted, Co-doped ZnO films show paramagnetic behaviour.
However, only the magnetoresistance of Co-doped ZnO films reveals possible s-d
exchange interaction as compared to Co-implanted ZnO single crystals.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure
Equilibrium shapes and energies of coherent strained InP islands
The equilibrium shapes and energies of coherent strained InP islands grown on
GaP have been investigated with a hybrid approach that has been previously
applied to InAs islands on GaAs. This combines calculations of the surface
energies by density functional theory and the bulk deformation energies by
continuum elasticity theory. The calculated equilibrium shapes for different
chemical environments exhibit the {101}, {111}, {\=1\=1\=1} facets and a (001)
top surface. They compare quite well with recent atomic-force microscopy data.
Thus in the InP/GaInP-system a considerable equilibration of the individual
islands with respect to their shapes can be achieved. We discuss the
implications of our results for the Ostwald ripening of the coherent InP
islands. In addition we compare strain fields in uncapped and capped islands.Comment: 10 pages including 6 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B. Related
publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm
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