223 research outputs found
Analysis of the resistance in p-SiGe over a wide temperature range
The temperature dependence of a system exhibiting a `metal-insulator
transition in two dimensions at zero magnetic field' (MIT) is studied up to
90K. Using a classical scattering model we are able to simulate the
non-monotonic temperature dependence of the resistivity in the metallic high
density regime. We show that the temperature dependence arises from a complex
interplay of metallic and insulating contributions contained in the calculation
of the scattering rate 1/\td(E,T), each dominating in a limited temperature
range.Comment: 4 pages with 5 figure
Analysis of the temperature-dependent quantum point contact conductance in view of the metal-insulator transition in two dimensions
The temperature dependence of the conductance of a quantum point contact has
been measured. The conductance as a function of the Fermi energy shows
temperature-independent fixed points, located at roughly multiple integers of
. Around the first fixed point at e/h, the experimental data for
different temperatures can been scaled onto a single curve. For pure thermal
smearing of the conductance steps, a scaling parameter of one is expected. The
measured scaling parameter, however, is significantly larger than 1. The
deviations are interpreted as a signature of the potential landscape of the
quantum point contact, and of the source-drain bias voltage. We relate our
results phenomenologically to the metal-insulator transition in two dimensions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Mobility-Dependence of the Critical Density in Two-Dimensional Systems: An Empirical Relation
For five different electron and hole systems in two dimensions (Si MOSFET's,
p-GaAs, p-SiGe, n-GaAs and n-AlAs), the critical density, that marks the
onset of strong localization is shown to be a single power-law function of the
scattering rate deduced from the maximum mobility. The resulting curve
defines the boundary separating a localized phase from a phase that exhibits
metallic behavior. The critical density in the limit of infinite
mobility.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figur
Constraining deflagration models of Type Ia supernovae through intermediate-mass elements
The physical structure of a nuclear flame is a basic ingredient of the theory
of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa). Assuming an exponential density reduction with
several characteristic times we have followed the evolution of a planar nuclear
flame in an expanding background from an initial density 6.6 10^7 g/cm3 down to
2 10^6 g/cm3. The total amount of synthesized intermediate-mass elements (IME),
from silicon to calcium, was monitored during the calculation. We have made use
of the computed mass fractions, X_IME, of these elements to give an estimation
of the total amount of IME synthesized during the deflagration of a massive
white dwarf. Using X_IME and adopting the usual hypothesis that turbulence
decouples the effective burning velocity from the laminar flame speed, so that
the relevant flame speed is actually the turbulent speed on the integral
length-scale, we have built a simple geometrical approach to model the region
where IME are thought to be produced. It turns out that a healthy production of
IME involves the combination of not too short expansion times, t_c > 0.2 s, and
high turbulent intensities. According to our results it could be difficult to
produce much more than 0.2 solar masses of intermediate-mass elements within
the deflagrative paradigma. The calculations also suggest that the mass of IME
scales with the mass of Fe-peak elements, making it difficult to conciliate
energetic explosions with low ejected nickel masses, as in the well observed
SN1991bg or in SN1998de. Thus a large production of Si-peak elements,
especially in combination with a low or a moderate production of iron, could be
better addressed by either the delayed detonation route in standard
Chandrasekhar-mass models or, perhaps, by the off-center helium detonation in
the sub Chandrasekhar-mass scenario.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
Metallicity and its low temperature behavior in dilute 2D carrier systems
We theoretically consider the temperature and density dependent transport
properties of semiconductor-based 2D carrier systems within the RPA-Boltzmann
transport theory, taking into account realistic screened charged impurity
scattering in the semiconductor. We derive a leading behavior in the transport
property, which is exact in the strict 2D approximation and provides a zeroth
order explanation for the strength of metallicity in various 2D carrier
systems. By carefully comparing the calculated full nonlinear temperature
dependence of electronic resistivity at low temperatures with the corresponding
asymptotic analytic form obtained in the limit, both within the
RPA screened charged impurity scattering theory, we critically discuss the
applicability of the linear temperature dependent correction to the low
temperature resistivity in 2D semiconductor structures. We find quite generally
that for charged ionized impurity scattering screened by the electronic
dielectric function (within RPA or its suitable generalizations including local
field corrections), the resistivity obeys the asymptotic linear form only in
the extreme low temperature limit of . We point out the
experimental implications of our findings and discuss in the context of the
screening theory the relative strengths of metallicity in different 2D systems.Comment: We have substantially revised this paper by adding new materials and
figures including a detailed comparison to a recent experimen
The relative importance of electron-electron interactions compared to disorder in the two-dimensional "metallic" state
The effect of substrate bias and surface gate voltage on the low temperature
resistivity of a Si-MOSFET is studied for electron concentrations where the
resistivity increases with increasing temperature. This technique offers two
degrees of freedom for controlling the electron concentration and the device
mobility, thereby providing a means to evaluate the relative importance of
electron-electron interactions and disorder in this so-called ``metallic''
regime. For temperatures well below the Fermi temperature, the data obey a
scaling law where the disorder parameter (), and not the
concentration, appears explicitly. This suggests that interactions, although
present, do not alter the Fermi-liquid properties of the system fundamentally.
Furthermore, this experimental observation is reproduced in results of
calculations based on temperature-dependent screening, in the context of
Drude-Boltzmann theory.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Analysis of the Metallic Phase of Two-Dimensional Holes in SiGe in Terms of Temperature Dependent Screening
We find that temperature dependent screening can quantitatively explain the
metallic behaviour of the resistivity on the metallic side of the so-called
metal-insulator transition in p-SiGe. Interference and interaction effects
exhibit the usual insulating behaviour which is expected to overpower the
metallic background at sufficiently low temperatures. We find empirically that
the concept of a Fermi-liquid describes our data in spite of the large r_s = 8.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Compressibility of a two-dimensional hole gas in tilted magnetic field
We have measured compressibility of a two-dimensional hole gas in
p-GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure, grown on a (100) surface, in the presence of a
tilted magnetic field. It turns out that the parallel component of magnetic
field affects neither the spin splitting nor the density of states. We conclude
that: (a) g-factor in the parallel magnetic field is nearly zero in this
system; and (b) the level of the disorder potential is not sensitive to the
parallel component of the magnetic field
Reduction of Thermal Conductivity in Nanowires by Combined Engineering of Crystal Phase and Isotope Disorder
Nanowires are a versatile platform to investigate and harness phonon and thermal transport phenomena in nanoscale systems. With this perspective, we demonstrate herein the use of crystal phase and mass disorder as effective degrees of freedom to manipulate the behavior of phonons and control the flow of local heat in silicon nanowires. The investigated nanowires consist of isotopically pure and isotopically mixed nanowires bearing either a pure diamond cubic or a cubic-rhombohedral polytypic crystal phase. The nanowires with tailor-made isotopic compositions were grown using isotopically enriched silane precursors SiH, SiH, and SiH with purities better than 99.9%. The analysis of polytypic nanowires revealed ordered and modulated inclusions of lamellar rhombohedral silicon phases toward the center in otherwise diamond-cubic lattice with negligible interphase biaxial strain. Raman nanothermometry was employed to investigate the rate at which the local temperature of single suspended nanowires evolves in response to locally generated heat. Our analysis shows that the lattice thermal conductivity in nanowires can be tuned over a broad range by combining the effects of isotope disorder and the nature and degree of polytypism on phonon scattering. We found that the thermal conductivity can be reduced by up to ∼40% relative to that of isotopically pure nanowires, with the lowest value being recorded for the rhombohedral phase in isotopically mixed Si Si nanowires with composition close to the highest mass disorder (x ∼ 0.5). These results shed new light on the fundamentals of nanoscale thermal transport and lay the groundwork to design innovative phononic devices
Temperature dependent resistivity of spin-split subbands in GaAs 2D hole system
We calculate the temperature dependent resistivity in spin-split subbands
induced by the inversion asymmetry of the confining potential in GaAs 2D hole
systems. By considering both temperature dependent multisubband screening of
impurity disorder and hole-hole scattering we find that the strength of the
metallic behavior depends on the symmetry of the confining potential (i.e.,
spin-splitting) over a large range of hole density. At low density above the
metal-insulator transition we find that effective disorder reduces the
enhancement of the metallic behavior induced by spin-splitting. Our theory is
in good qualitative agreement with existing experiments
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