393 research outputs found
Comment on ``Periodic wave functions and number of extended states in random dimer systems'
There are no periodic wave-functions in the RDM but close to the critical
energies there exist periodic envelopes. These envelopes are given by the
non-disordered properties of the system.Comment: RevTex file, 1 page, Comment X. Huang, X. Wu and C. Gong, Phys. Rev.
B 55, 11018 (1997
Nanowires: A route to efficient thermoelectric devices
Miniaturization of electronic devices aims at manufacturing ever smaller
products, from mesoscopic to nanoscopic sizes. This trend is challenging
because the increased levels of dissipated power demands a better understanding
of heat transport in small volumes. A significant amount of the consumed energy
is transformed into heat and dissipated to the environment. Thermoelectric
materials offer the possibility to harness dissipated energy and make devices
less energy-demanding. Heat-to-electricity conversion requires materials with a
strongly suppressed thermal conductivity but still high electronic conduction.
Nanowires can meet nicely these two requirements because enhanced phonon
scattering at the surface and defects reduces the lattice thermal conductivity
while electric conductivity is not deteriorated, leading to an overall
remarkable thermoelectric efficiency. Therefore, nanowires are regarded as a
promising route to achieving valuable thermoelectric materials at the
nanoscale. In this paper, we present an overview of key experimental and
theoretical results concerning the thermoelectric properties of nanowires. The
focus of this review is put on the physical mechanisms by which the efficiency
of nanowires can be improved. Phonon scattering at surfaces and interfaces,
enhancement of the power factor by quantum effects and topological protection
of electron states to prevent the degradation of electrical conductivity in
nanowires are thoroughly discussed
Localisation and finite-size effects in graphene flakes
We show that electron states in disordered graphene, with an onsite potential that induces inter-valley scattering, are localised for all energies at disorder as small as of the band width of clean graphene. We clarify that, in order for this Anderson-type localisation to be manifested, graphene flakes of size or larger are needed. For smaller samples, due to the surprisingly large extent of the electronic wave functions, a regime of apparently extended (or even critical) states is identified. Our results complement earlier studies of macroscopically large samples and can explain the divergence of results for finite-size graphene flakes
Interactions and thermoelectric effects in a parallel-coupled double quantum dot
We investigate the nonequilibrium transport properties of a double quantum
dot system connected in parallel to two leads, including intradot
electron-electron interaction. In the absence of interactions the system
supports a bound state in the continuum. This state is revealed as a Fano
antiresonance in the transmission when the energy levels of the dots are
detuned. Using the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we find
that the occurrence of the Fano antiresonance survives in the presence of
Coulomb repulsion. We give precise predictions for the experimental detection
of bound states in the continuum. First, we calculate the differential
conductance as a function of the applied voltage and the dot level detuning and
find that crossing points in the diamond structure are revealed as minima due
to the transmission antiresonances. Second, we determine the thermoelectric
current in response to an applied temperature bias. In the linear regime,
quantum interference gives rise to sharp peaks in the thermoelectric
conductance. Remarkably, we find interaction induced strong current
nonlinearities for large thermal gradients that may lead to several nontrivial
zeros in the thermocurrent. The latter property is especially attractive for
thermoelectric applications.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
FIBONACCI SUPERLATTICES OF NARROW-GAP III-V SEMICONDUCTORS
We report theoretical electronic structure of Fibonacci superlattices of
narrow-gap III-V semiconductors. Electron dynamics is accurately described
within the envelope-function approximation in a two-band model.
Quasiperiodicity is introduced by considering two different III-V semiconductor
layers and arranging them according to the Fibonacci series along the growth
direction. The resulting energy spectrum is then found by solving exactly the
corresponding effective-mass (Dirac-like) wave equation using tranfer-matrix
techniques. We find that a self-similar electronic spectrum can be seen in the
band structure. Electronic transport properties of samples are also studied and
related to the degree of spatial localization of electronic envelope-functions
via Landauer resistance and Lyapunov coefficient. As a working example, we
consider type II InAs/GaSb superlattices and discuss in detail our results in
this system.Comment: REVTeX 3.0, 16 pages, 8 figures available upon request. To appear in
Semiconductor Science and Technolog
Enhancing thermoelectric properties of graphene quantum rings
We study the thermoelectric properties of rectangular graphene rings
connected symmetrically or asymmetrically to the leads. A side-gate voltage
applied across the ring allows for the precise control of the electric current
flowing through the system. The transmission coefficient of the rings manifests
Breit-Wigner line-shapes and/or Fano line-shapes, depending on the connection
configuration, the width of nanoribbons forming the ring and the side-gate
voltage. We find that the thermopower and the figure of merit are greatly
enhanced when the chemical potential is tuned close to resonances. Such
enhancement is even more pronounced in the vicinity of Fano like
anti-resonances which can be induced by a side-gate voltage independently of
the geometry. This opens a possibility to use the proposed device as a tunable
thermoelectric generator.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Numerical study of the localization length critical index in a network model of plateau-plateau transitions in the quantum Hall effect
We calculate numerically the localization length critical index within the
Chalker-Coddington (CC) model for plateau-plateau transitions in the quantum
Hall effect. Lyapunov exponents have been calculated with relative errors on
the order . Such high precision was obtained by considering the
distribution of Lyapunov exponents for large ensembles of relatively short
chains and calculating the ensemble average values. We analyze thoroughly
finite size effects and find the localization length critical index .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Dynamical phenomena in Fibonacci Semiconductor Superlattices
We present a detailed study of the dynamics of electronic wavepackets in
Fibonacci semiconductor superlattices, both in flat band conditions and subject
to homogeneous electric fields perpendicular to the layers. Coherent
propagation of electrons is described by means of a scalar Hamiltonian using
the effective-mass approximation. We have found that an initial Gaussian
wavepacket is filtered selectively when passing through the superlattice. This
means that only those components of the wavepacket whose wavenumber belong to
allowed subminibands of the fractal-like energy spectrum can propagate over the
entire superlattice. The Fourier pattern of the transmitted part of the
wavepacket presents clear evidences of fractality reproducing those of the
underlying energy spectrum. This phenomenon persists even in the presence of
unintentional disorder due to growth imperfections. Finally, we have
demonstrated that periodic coherent-field induced oscillations (Bloch
oscillations), which we are able to observe in our simulations of periodic
superlattices, are replaced in Fibonacci superlattices by more complex
oscillations displaying quasiperiodic signatures, thus sheding more light onto
the very peculiar nature of the electronic states in these systems.Comment: 7 pagex, RevTex, 5 Postscript figures. Physical Review B (in press
Transmission resonances and supercritical states in a one dimensional cusp potential
We solve the two-component Dirac equation in the presence of a spatially one
dimensional symmetric cusp potential. We compute the scattering and bound
states solutions and we derive the conditions for transmission resonances as
well as for supercriticality.Comment: 10 pages. Revtex 4. To appear in Phys Rev.
Fluorescence decay in aperiodic Frenkel lattices
We study motion and capture of excitons in self-similar linear systems in
which interstitial traps are arranged according to an aperiodic sequence,
focusing our attention on Fibonacci and Thue-Morse systems as canonical
examples. The decay of the fluorescence intensity following a broadband pulse
excitation is evaluated by solving the microscopic equations of motion of the
Frenkel exciton problem. We find that the average decay is exponential and
depends only on the concentration of traps and the trapping rate. In addition,
we observe small-amplitude oscillations coming from the coupling between the
low-lying mode and a few high-lying modes through the topology of the lattice.
These oscillations are characteristic of each particular arrangement of traps
and they are directly related to the Fourier transform of the underlying
lattice. Our predictions can be then used to determine experimentally the
ordering of traps.Comment: REVTeX 3.0 + 3PostScript Figures + epsf.sty (uuencoded). To appear in
Physical Review
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