Orbital photogalvanic effects in quantum-confined structures

We report on the circular and linear photogalvanic effects caused by free-carrier absorption of terahertz radiation in electron channels on (001)-oriented and miscut silicon surfaces. The photocurrent behavior upon variation of the radiation polarization state, wavelength, gate voltage and temperature is studied. We present the microscopical and phenomenological theory of the photogalvanic effects, which describes well the experimental results. In particular, it is demonstrated that the circular (photon-helicity sensitive) photocurrent in silicon-based structures is of pure orbital nature originating from the quantum interference of different pathways contributing to the absorption of monochromatic radiation.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, two culumne

Photon helicity driven electric currents in graphene

We report on the observation of photon helicity driven currents in graphene. The directed net electric current is generated in single layer graphene by circularly polarized terahertz laser radiation at normal as well as at oblique incidence and changes its sign upon reversing the radiation helicity. The phenomenological and microscopic theories of the observed photocurrents are developed. We demonstrate that under oblique incidence the current is caused by the circular photon drag effect in the interior of graphene sheet. By contrast, the effect at normal incidence stems from the sample edges, which reduce the symmetry and result in an asymmetric scattering of carriers driven by the radiation field. Besides a photon helicity dependent current we also observe photocurrents in response to linearly polarized radiation. The microscopic mechanisms governing this effect are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Chaos or Noise - Difficulties of a Distinction

In experiments, the dynamical behavior of systems is reflected in time series. Due to the finiteness of the observational data set it is not possible to reconstruct the invariant measure up to arbitrary fine resolution and arbitrary high embedding dimension. These restrictions limit our ability to distinguish between signals generated by different systems, such as regular, chaotic or stochastic ones, when analyzed from a time series point of view. We propose to classify the signal behavior, without referring to any specific model, as stochastic or deterministic on a certain scale of the resolution $\epsilon$, according to the dependence of the $(\epsilon,\tau)$-entropy, $h(\epsilon, \tau)$, and of the finite size Lyapunov exponent, $\lambda(\epsilon)$, on $\epsilon$.Comment: 24 pages RevTeX, 9 eps figures included, two references added, minor corrections, one section has been split in two (submitted to PRE

Spin polarized electric currents in semiconductor heterostructures induced by microwave radiation

We report on microwave (mw) radiation induced electric currents in (Cd,Mn)Te/(Cd,Mg)Te and InAs/(In,Ga)As quantum wells subjected to an external in-plane magnetic field. The current generation is attributed to the spin-dependent energy relaxation of electrons heated by mw radiation. The relaxation produces equal and oppositely directed electron flows in the spin-up and spin-down subbands yielding a pure spin current. The Zeeman splitting of the subbands in the magnetic field leads to the conversion of the spin flow into a spin-polarized electric current.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Lab::Measurement - A portable and extensible framework for controlling lab equipment and conducting measurements

Lab::Measurement is a framework for test and measurement automatization using Perl 5. While primarily developed with applications in mesoscopic physics in mind, it is widely adaptable. Internally, a layer model is implemented. Communication protocols such as IEEE 488, USB Test & Measurement, or, e.g., VXI-11 are addressed by the connection layer. The wide range of supported connection backends enables unique cross-platform portability. At the instrument layer, objects correspond to equipment connected to the measurement PC (e.g., voltage sources, magnet power supplies, multimeters, etc.). The high-level sweep layer automates the creation of measurement loops, with simultaneous plotting and data logging. An extensive unit testing framework is used to verify functionality even without connected equipment. Lab::Measurement is distributed as free and open source software.Comment: Published version (open access, CC BY 4.0). 7 pages; refers to Lab::Measurement 3.660, see https://www.labmeasurement.de