Phonon-mediated vs. Coulombic Back-Action in Quantum Dot circuits

Quantum point contacts (QPCs) are commonly employed to capacitively detect the charge state of coupled quantum dots (QD). An indirect back-action of a biased QPC onto a double QD laterally defined in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure is observed. Energy is emitted by non-equilibrium charge carriers in the leads of the biased QPC. Part of this energy is absorbed by the double QD where it causes charge fluctuations that can be observed under certain conditions in its stability diagram. By investigating the spectrum of the absorbed energy, we identify both acoustic phonons and Coulomb interaction being involved in the back-action, depending on the geometry and coupling constants

An electron jet pump: The Venturi effect of a Fermi liquid

A three-terminal device based on a two-dimensional electron system is investigated in the regime of non-equilibrium transport. Excited electrons scatter with the cold Fermi sea and transfer energy and momentum to other electrons. A geometry analogous to a water jet pump is used to create a jet pump for electrons. Because of its phenomenological similarity we name the observed behavior "electronic Venturi effect".Comment: Journal of Applied Physics Special Topic: Plenary and Invited Papers from the 30th International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, Seoul, Korea, 2010; http://link.aip.org/link/?JAP/109/10241

Relaxation of hot electrons in a degenerate two-dimensional electron system: transition to one-dimensional scattering

The energy relaxation channels of hot electrons far from thermal equilibrium in a degenerate two-dimensional electron system are investigated in transport experiments in a mesoscopic three-terminal device. We observe a transition from two dimensions at zero magnetic field to quasi--one-dimensional scattering of the hot electrons in a strong magnetic field. In the two-dimensional case electron-electron scattering is the dominant relaxation mechanism, while the emission of optical phonons becomes more and more important as the magnetic field is increased. The observation of up to 11 optical phonons emitted per hot electron allows us to determine the onset energy of LO phonons in GaAs at cryogenic temperatures with a high precision, \eph=36.0\pm0.1\,meV. Numerical calculations of electron-electron scattering and the emission of optical phonons underline our interpretation in terms of a transition to one-dimensional dynamics.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Differences in decision-making behavior between elite and amateur team-handball players in a near-game test situation

Athletic features distinguishing experts from non-experts in team sports are relevant for performance analyses, talent identification and successful training. In this respect, perceptual-cognitive factors like decision making have been proposed to be important predictor of talent but, however, assessing decision making in team sports remains a challenging endeavor. In particular, it is now known that decisions expressed by verbal reports or micro-movements in the laboratory differ from those actually made in on-field situations in play. To address this point, our study compared elite and amateur players' decision-making behavior in a near-game test environment including sport-specific sensorimotor responses. Team-handball players (N = 44) were asked to respond as quickly as possible to representative, temporally occluded attack sequences in a team-handball specific defense environment on a contact plate system. Specifically, participants had to choose and perform the most appropriate out of four prespecified, defense response actions. The frequency of responses and decision time were used as dependent variables representing decision-making behavior. We found that elite players responded significantly more often with offensive responses (p < 0.05, odds ratios: 2.76-3.00) in left-handed attack sequences. Decision time decreased with increasing visual information, but no expertise effect was found. We suppose that expertise-related knowledge and processing of kinematic information led to distinct decision-making behavior between elite and amateur players, evoked in a domain-specific and near-game test setting. Results also indicate that the quality of a decision might be of higher relevance than the required time to decide. Findings illustrate application opportunities in the context of performance analyses and talent identification processes