99 research outputs found
Localization and field-periodic conductance fluctuations in trilayer graphene
This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication/published in Semiconductor Science and Technology. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at DOI 10.1088/0268-1242/29/11/115010.We have systematically studied quantum transport in a short trilayer-graphene field-effect transistor. Close to the charge neutrality point, our magnetoconductance data are well described by the theory of weak localization in monolayer graphene. However, as the carrier density is increased we find a complex evolution of the low field magnetoconductance that originates from a combination of the monolayer-like and bilayer-like band structures. The increased phase coherence length at high hole densities takes our shortest devices into the mesoscopic regime with the appearance of significant conductance fluctuations on top of the localization effects. Although these are aperiodic in gate voltage, they exhibit a quasi-periodic behaviour as a function of magnetic field. We show that this is consistent with the interference of discrete trajectories in open quantum dots and discuss the possible origin of these in our devices.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci
Integrated piezoresistive sensors for atomic force-guided scanning Hall probe microscopy
We report the development of an advanced sensor for atomic force-guided scanning Hall probe microscopy whereby both a high mobility heterostructure Hall effect magnetic sensor and an n-Al0.4Ga0.6As piezoresistive displacement sensor have been integrated in a single III-V semiconductor cantilever. This allows simple operation in high-vacuum/variable-temperature environments and enables very high magnetic and topographic resolution to be achieved simultaneously. Scans of magnetic induction and topography of a number of samples are presented to illustrate the sensor performance at 300 and 77 K. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics
High resolution magnetic microscopy based on semi-encapsulated graphene Hall sensors
The realization of quantitative, noninvasive sensors for ambient magnetic imaging with high spatial and magnetic field resolution remains a major challenge. To address this, we have developed a relatively simple process to fabricate semi-encapsulated graphene/hBN Hall sensors assembled by dry transfer onto pre-patterned gold contacts. 1 lm-sized Hall cross sensors at a drive current of 0.5 lA exhibit excellent room temperature sensitivity, SI 700 V/AT, and good minimum detectable fields, Bmin ¼ 0.54 G/Hz0.5 at a measurement frequency of 1 kHz, with considerable scope for further optimization of these parameters. We illustrate their application in an imaging study of labyrinth magnetic domains in a ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet film
Continuously Tuneable Critical Current in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Multilayers
We demonstrate that the critical current of superconducting Nb/Ni multilayers can be continuously tuned by up to a factor of three during magnetization reversal of the Ni films under an applied in-plane magnetic field. Our observations are in reasonably good agreement with a model of vortex pinning by Bloch domain walls that proliferate in the samples during magnetization reversal, whereby each vortex interacts with at most one wall in any of the Ni layers. Our model suggests ways in which the controllable pinning effect could be significantly enhanced, with important potential applications in tuneable superconducting devices
Single donor ionization energies in a nanoscale CMOS channel
One consequence of the continued downwards scaling of transistors is the
reliance on only a few discrete atoms to dope the channel, and random
fluctuations of the number of these dopants is already a major issue in the
microelectonics industry. While single-dopant signatures have been observed at
low temperature, studying the impact of only one dopant up to room temperature
requires extremely small lengths. Here, we show that a single arsenic dopant
dramatically affects the off-state behavior of an advanced microelectronics
field effect transistor (FET) at room temperature. Furthermore, the ionization
energy of this dopant should be profoundly modified by the close proximity of
materials with a different dielectric constant than the host semiconductor. We
measure a strong enhancement, from 54meV to 108meV, of the ionization energy of
an arsenic atom located near the buried oxide. This enhancement is responsible
for the large current below threshold at room temperature and therefore
explains the large variability in these ultra-scaled transistors. The results
also suggest a path to incorporating quantum functionalities into silicon CMOS
devices through manipulation of single donor orbitals
Anyons in a weakly interacting system
We describe a theoretical proposal for a system whose excitations are anyons
with the exchange phase pi/4 and charge -e/2, but, remarkably, can be built by
filling a set of single-particle states of essentially noninteracting
electrons. The system consists of an artificially structured type-II
superconducting film adjacent to a 2D electron gas in the integer quantum Hall
regime with unit filling fraction. The proposal rests on the observation that a
vacancy in an otherwise periodic vortex lattice in the superconductor creates a
bound state in the 2DEG with total charge -e/2. A composite of this
fractionally charged hole and the missing flux due to the vacancy behaves as an
anyon. The proposed setup allows for manipulation of these anyons and could
prove useful in various schemes for fault-tolerant topological quantum
computation.Comment: 7 pages with 3 figures. For related work and info visit
http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~fran
Quantitative nanoscale vortex-imaging using a cryogenic quantum magnetometer
Microscopic studies of superconductors and their vortices play a pivotal role
in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying superconductivity. Local
measurements of penetration depths or magnetic stray-fields enable access to
fundamental aspects of superconductors such as nanoscale variations of
superfluid densities or the symmetry of their order parameter. However,
experimental tools, which offer quantitative, nanoscale magnetometry and
operate over the large range of temperature and magnetic fields relevant to
address many outstanding questions in superconductivity, are still missing.
Here, we demonstrate quantitative, nanoscale magnetic imaging of Pearl vortices
in the cuprate superconductor YBCO, using a scanning quantum sensor in form of
a single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) electronic spin in diamond. The sensor-to-sample
distance of ~10nm we achieve allows us to observe striking deviations from the
prevalent monopole approximation in our vortex stray-field images, while we
find excellent quantitative agreement with Pearl's analytic model. Our
experiments yield a non-invasive and unambiguous determination of the system's
local London penetration depth, and are readily extended to higher temperatures
and magnetic fields. These results demonstrate the potential of quantitative
quantum sensors in benchmarking microscopic models of complex electronic
systems and open the door for further exploration of strongly correlated
electron physics using scanning NV magnetometry.Comment: Main text (5 pages, 4 figures) plus supplementary material (5 pages,
6 figures). Comments welcome. Further information under
http://www.quantum-sensing.c
High-sensitivity diamond magnetometer with nanoscale resolution
We present a novel approach to the detection of weak magnetic fields that
takes advantage of recently developed techniques for the coherent control of
solid-state electron spin quantum bits. Specifically, we investigate a magnetic
sensor based on Nitrogen-Vacancy centers in room-temperature diamond. We
discuss two important applications of this technique: a nanoscale magnetometer
that could potentially detect precession of single nuclear spins and an optical
magnetic field imager combining spatial resolution ranging from micrometers to
millimeters with a sensitivity approaching few femtotesla/Hz.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figure
Reconfigurable superconducting vortex pinning potential for magnetic disks in hybrid structures
High resolution scanning Hall probe microscopy has been used to directly visualise the superconducting vortex behavior in hybrid structures consisting of a square array of micrometer-sized Py ferromagnetic disks covered by a superconducting Nb thin film. At remanence the disks exist in almost fully flux-closed magnetic vortex states, but the observed cloverleaf-like stray fields indicate the presence of weak in-plane anisotropy. Micromagnetic simulations suggest that the most likely origin is an unintentional shape anisotropy. We have studied the pinning of added free superconducting vortices as a function of the magnetisation state of the disks, and identified a range of different phenomena arising from competing energy contributions. We have also observed clear differences in the pinning landscape when the superconductor and the ferromagnet are electron ically coupled or insulated by a thin dielectric layer, with an indication of non-trivial vortex-vortex interactions. We demonstrate a complete reconfiguration of the vortex pinning potential when the magnetisation of the disks evolves from the vortex-like state to an onion-like one under an in-plane magnetic field. Our results are in good qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions and could form the basis of novel superconducting devices based on reconfigurable vortex pinning sites
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