310 research outputs found
Coulomb-Blockade directional coupler
A tunable directional coupler based on Coulomb Blockade effect is presented.
Two electron waveguides are coupled by a quantum dot to an injector waveguide.
Electron confinement is obtained by surface Schottky gates on single
GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction. Magneto-electrical measurements down to 350 mK are
presented and large transconductance oscillations are reported on both outputs
up to 4.2 K. Experimental results are interpreted in terms of Coulomb Blockade
effect and the relevance of the present design strategy for the implementation
of an electronic multiplexer is underlined.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Applied Physics Letter
Coherent transport in Nb/delta-doped-GaAs hybrid microstructures
Coherent transport in Nb/GaAs superconductor-semiconductor microstructures is
presented. The structures fabrication procedure is based on delta-doped layers
grown by molecular-beam-epitaxy near the GaAs surface, followed by an As cap
layer to protect the active semiconductor layers during ex situ transfer. The
superconductor is then sputter deposited in situ after thermal desorption of
the protective layer. Two types of structures in particular will be discussed,
i.e., a reference junction and the engineered one that contains an additional
insulating AlGaAs barrier inserted during the growth in the semiconductor. This
latter configuration may give rise to controlled interference effects and
realizes the model introduced by de Gennes and Saint-James in 1963. While both
structures show reflectionless tunneling-dominated transport, only the
engineered junction shows additionally a low-temperature single marked
resonance peaks superimposed to the characteristic Andreev-dominated subgap
conductance. The analysis of coherent magnetotransport in both microstructures
is successfully performed within the random matrix theory of Andreev transport
and ballistic effects are included by directly solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes
equations. The impact of junction morphology on reflectionless tunneling and
the application of the employed fabrication technique to the realization of
complex semiconductor-superconductor systems are furthermore discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, invited review paper, to be published in Mod.
Phys. Lett.
Demonstration of an electrostatic-shielded cantilever
The fabrication and performances of cantilevered probes with reduced
parasitic capacitance starting from a commercial Si3N4 cantilever chip is
presented. Nanomachining and metal deposition induced by focused ion beam
techniques were employed in order to modify the original insulating pyramidal
tip and insert a conducting metallic tip. Two parallel metallic electrodes
deposited on the original cantilever arms are employed for tip biasing and as
ground plane in order to minimize the electrostatic force due to the capacitive
interaction between cantilever and sample surface. Excitation spectra and
force-to-distance characterization are shown with different electrode
configurations. Applications of this scheme in electrostatic force microscopy,
Kelvin probe microscopy and local anodic oxidation is discussed.Comment: 4 pages and 3 figures. Submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Evidence of diffusive fractal aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles by femtosecond laser ablation at ambient conditions
The specific mechanisms which leads to the formation of fractal
nanostructures by pulsed laser deposition remain elusive despite intense
research efforts, motivated mainly by the technological interest in obtaining
tailored nanostructures with simple and scalable production methods. Here we
focus on fractal nanostructures of titanium dioxide, , a strategic
material for many applications, obtained by femtosecond laser ablation at
ambient conditions. We model the fractal formation through extensive Monte
Carlo simulations based on a set of minimal assumptions: irreversible sticking
and size independent diffusion. Our model is able to reproduce the fractal
dimensions and the area distributions of the nanostructures obtained in the
experiments for different densities of the ablated material. The comparison of
theory and experiment show that such fractal aggregates are formed after
landing of the ablated material on the substrate surface by a diffusive
mechanism. Finally we discuss the role of the thermal conductivity of the
substrate and the laser fluence on the properties of the fractal
nanostructures. Our results represent an advancement towards controlling the
production of fractal nanostructures by pulsed laser deposition.Comment: 21 page
Resonant Transport in Nb/GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs Microstructures
Resonant transport in a hybrid semiconductor-superconductor microstructure
grown by MBE on GaAs is presented. This structure experimentally realizes the
prototype system originally proposed by de Gennes and Saint-James in 1963 in
\emph{all}-metal structures. A low temperature single peak superimposed to the
characteristic Andreev-dominated subgap conductance represents the mark of such
resonant behavior. Random matrix theory of quantum transport was employed in
order to analyze the observed magnetotransport properties and ballistic effects
were included by directly solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations.Comment: 7 pages REVTeX, 4 figures, to be published by World Scientific in
Proceedings of International Symposium on Mesoscopic Superconductivity and
Spintronics (NTT R&D Center Atsugi, Japan, March 2002
Self-assembly and electron-beam-induced direct etching of suspended graphene nanostructures
We report on suspended single-layer graphene deposition by a
transfer-printing approach based on polydimethylsiloxane stamps. The transfer
printing method allows the exfoliation of graphite flakes from a bulk graphite
sample and their residue-free deposition on a silicon dioxide substrate. This
deposition system creates a blistered graphene surface due to strain induced by
the transfer process itself. Single-layer-graphene deposition and its
"blistering" on the substrate are demonstrated by a combination of Raman
spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic-force microscopy
measurements. Finally, we demonstrate that blister-like suspended graphene are
self-supporting single-layer structures and can be flattened by employing a
spatially-resolved direct-lithography technique based on electron-beam induced
etching.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Stretching graphene using polymeric micro-muscles
The control of strain in two-dimensional materials opens exciting
perspectives for the engineering of their electronic properties. While this
expectation has been validated by artificial-lattice studies, it remains
elusive in the case of atomic lattices. Remarkable results were obtained on
nanobubbles and nano-wrinkles, or using scanning probes; microscale strain
devices were implemented exploiting deformable substrates or external loads.
These devices lack, however, the flexibility required to fully control and
investigate arbitrary strain profiles. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach
making it possible to induce strain in graphene using polymeric micrometric
artificial muscles (MAMs) that contract in a controllable and reversible way
under an electronic stimulus. Our method exploits the mechanical response of
poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) to electron-beam irradiation. Inhomogeneous
anisotropic strain and out-of-plane deformation are demonstrated and studied by
Raman, scanning-electron and atomic-force microscopy. These can all be easily
combined with the present device architecture. The flexibility of the present
method opens new opportunities for the investigation of strain and
nanomechanics in two-dimensional materials
Reflectionless tunneling in planar Nb/GaAs hybrid junctions
Reflectionless-tunneling was observed in Nb/GaAs superconductor/semiconductor
junctions fabricated through a two-step procedure. First, periodic
-doped layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy near the GaAs
surface, followed by an As cap layer to protect the surface during {\it
ex-situ} transfer. Second, Nb was deposited by dc-magnetron sputtering onto the
GaAs(001) 2 4 surface {\it in-situ} after thermal desorption of the
cap layer. The magnetotransport behavior of the resulting hybrid junctions was
successfully analyzed within the random matrix theory of phase-coherent Andreev
transport. The impact of junction morphology on reflectionless tunneling and
the applicability of the fabrication technique to the realization of complex
superconductor/semiconductor mesoscopic systems are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Appl. Phys. Let
- …