181 research outputs found
Shock Waves in Nanomechanical Resonators
The dream of every surfer is an extremely steep wave propagating at the
highest speed possible. The best waves for this would be shock waves, but are
very hard to surf. In the nanoscopic world the same is true: the surfers in
this case are electrons riding through nanomechanical devices on acoustic waves
[1]. Naturally, this has a broad range of applications in sensor technology and
for communication electronics for which the combination of an electronic and a
mechanical degree of freedom is essential. But this is also of interest for
fundamental aspects of nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS), when it comes to
quantum limited displacement detection [2] and the control of phonon number
states [3]. Here, we study the formation of shock waves in a NEMS resonator
with an embedded two-dimensional electron gas using surface acoustic waves. The
mechanical displacement of the nano-resonator is read out via the induced
acoustoelectric current. Applying acoustical standing waves we are able to
determine the anomalous acoustocurrent. This current is only found in the
regime of shock wave formation. We ontain very good agreement with model
calculations.Comment: 14 Pages including 4 figure
Cascaded exciton emission of an individual strain-induced quantum dot
Single strain-induced quantum dots are isolated for optical experiments by
selective removal of the inducing InP islands from the sample surface.
Unpolarized emission of single, bi- and triexciton transitions are identified
by power-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy. Employing time-resolved
experiments performed at different excitation powers we find a pronounced shift
of the rise and decay times of these different transitions as expected from
cascaded emission. Good agreement is found for a rate equation model for a
three step cascade
Optical Response of Grating-Coupler-Induced Intersubband Resonances: The Role of Wood's Anomalies
Grating-coupler-induced collective intersubband transitions in a
quasi-two-dimensional electron system are investigated both experimentally and
theoretically. Far-infrared transmission experiments are performed on samples
containing a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas quantum-confined in a parabolic
quantum well. For rectangular shaped grating couplers of different periods we
observe a strong dependence of the transmission line shape and peak height on
the period of the grating, i.e. on the wave vector transfer from the diffracted
beams to the collective intersubband resonance. It is shown that the line shape
transforms with increasing grating period from a Lorentzian into a strongly
asymmetric line shape. Theoretically, we treat the problem by using the
transfer-matrix method of local optics and apply the modal-expansion method to
calculate the influence of the grating. The optically uniaxial
quasi-two-dimensional electron gas is described in the long-wavelength limit of
the random-phase approximation by a local dielectric tensor, which includes
size quantization effects. Our theory reproduces excellently the experimental
line shapes. The deformation of the transmission line shapes we explain by the
occurrence of both types of Wood's anomalies.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. Physical Review B , in pres
Direct observation of dynamic surface acoustic wave controlled carrier injection into single quantum posts using phase-resolved optical spectroscopy
A versatile stroboscopic technique based on active phase-locking of a surface
acoustic wave to picosecond laser pulses is used to monitor dynamic
acoustoelectric effects. Time-integrated multi-channel detection is applied to
probe the modulation of the emission of a quantum well for different
frequencies of the surface acoustic wave. For quantum posts we resolve
dynamically controlled generation of neutral and charged excitons and
preferential injection of holes into localized states within the nanostructure.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Spin-lattice coupling in the ferrimagnetic semiconductor FeCr2S4 probed by surface acoustic waves
Using surface acoustic waves, the elastomagnetic coupling could be studied in
thin single crystalline plates of the ferrimagnetic semiconductor FeCr2S4 by
measuring the attenuation and the frequency tracking in the temperature range
4.2 K to 200 K. The data clearly display the anomalies found in low-field
magnetization measurements.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. To appear in J. Appl. Phys., 99 (2006
Acoustically driven storage of light in a quantum well
The strong piezoelectric fields accompanying a surface acoustic wave on a
semiconductor quantum well structure are employed to dissociate optically
generated excitons and efficiently trap the created electron hole pairs in the
moving lateral potential superlattice of the sound wave. The resulting spatial
separation of the photogenerated ambipolar charges leads to an increase of the
radiative lifetime by orders of magnitude as compared to the unperturbed
excitons. External and deliberate screening of the lateral piezoelectric fields
triggers radiative recombination after very long storage times at a remote
location on the sample.Comment: 4 PostScript figures included, Physical Review Letters, in pres
Dynamic Rabi Oscillations in a Quantum Dot Embedded in a Nanobridge in the Presence of Surface Acoustic Waves
A quantum dot is created within a suspended nanobridge containing a two-dimensional electron gas. The electron current through this dot exhibits well-pronounced Coulomb blockade oscillations. When surface acoustic waves (SAW) are driven through the nanobridge, Coulomb blockade peaks are shifted. To explain this feature, we derive the expressions for the quantum dot level populations and electron currents through these levels and show that SAW-induced Rabi oscillations lead to the observed phenomenology
Thermo-mechanic-electrical coupling in phospholipid monolayers near the critical point
Lipid monolayers have been shown to represent a powerful tool in studying
mechanical and thermodynamic properties of lipid membranes as well as their
interaction with proteins. Using Einstein's theory of fluctuations we here
demonstrate, that an experimentally derived linear relationship both between
transition entropy S and area A as well as between transition entropy and
charge q implies a linear relationships between compressibility \kappa_T, heat
capacity c_\pi, thermal expansion coefficient \alpha_T and electric capacity
CT. We demonstrate that these couplings have strong predictive power as they
allow calculating electrical and thermal properties from mechanical
measurements. The precision of the prediction increases as the critical point
TC is approached
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