Degenerate states of narrow semiconductor rings in the presence of spin orbit coupling: Role of time-reversal and large gauge transformations

The electron Hamiltonian of narrow semiconductor rings with the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin orbit terms is invariant under time-reversal operation followed by a large gauge transformation. We find that all the eigenstates are doubly degenerate when integer or half-integer quantum fluxes thread the quantum ring. The wavefunctions of a degenerate pair are related to each other by the symmetry operation. These results are valid even in the presence of a disorder potential. When the Zeeman term is present only some of these degenerate levels anticross

Phonons in a Nanoparticle Mechanically Coupled to a Substrate

The discrete nature of the vibrational modes of an isolated nanometer-scale solid dramatically modifies its low-energy electron and phonon dynamics from that of a bulk crystal. However, nanocrystals are usually coupled--even if only weakly--to an environment consisting of other nanocrystals, a support matrix, or a solid substrate, and this environmental interaction will modify the vibrational properties at low frequencies. In this paper we investigate the modification of the vibrational modes of an insulating spherical nanoparticle caused by a weak {\it mechanical} coupling to a semi-infinite substrate. The phonons of the bulk substrate act as a bath of harmonic oscillators, and the coupling to this reservoir shifts and broadens the nanoparticle's modes. The vibrational density of states in the nanoparticle is obtained by solving the Dyson equation for the phonon propagator, and we show that environmental interaction is especially important at low frequencies. As a probe of the modified phonon spectrum, we consider nonradiative energy relaxation of a localized electronic impurity state in the nanoparticle, for which good agreement with experiment is found.Comment: 10 pages, Revte

Electron yields from spacecraft materials

Photoyields and secondary electron emission (SEE) characteristics were determined under UHV conditions for a group of insulating materials used in spacecraft applications. The SEE studies were carried out with a pulsed primary beam while photoyields were obtained with a chopped photon beam from a Kr resonance source with major emission at 123.6 nm. This provides a photon flux close to that of the Lyman alpha in the space environment. Yields per incident photon are obtained relative to those from a freshly evaporated and air oxidized Al surface. Results are presented for Kapton, FEP Teflon, the borosilicate glass covering of a shuttle tile, and spacesuit outer fabric

Photovoltaic Oscillations Due to Edge-Magnetoplasmon Modes in a Very-High Mobility 2D Electron Gas

Using very-high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2D electron Hall bar samples, we have experimentally studied the photoresistance/photovoltaic oscillations induced by microwave irradiation in the regime where both 1/B and B-periodic oscillations can be observed. In the frequency range between 27 and 130 GHz we found that these two types of oscillations are decoupled from each other, consistent with the respective models that 1/B oscillations occur in bulk while the B-oscillations occur along the edges of the Hall bars. In contrast to the original report of this phenomenon (Ref. 1) the periodicity of the B-oscillations in our samples are found to be independent of L, the length of the Hall bar section between voltage measuring leads.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Radiative Leptonic Decays of the charged BB and DD Mesons Including Long-Distance Contribution

In this work we study the radiative leptonic decays of $B^-$, $D^-$ and $D_s^-\to \gamma l \bar{\nu}$, including both the short-distance and long-distance contributions. The short-distance contribution is calculated by using the relativistic quark model, where the bound state wave function we used is that obtained in the relativistic potential model. The long-distance contribution is estimated by using vector meson dominance model.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

Spin relaxation in diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots

Electron spin relaxation induced by phonon-mediated s-d exchange interaction in a II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot is investigated theoretically. The electron-acoustic phonon interaction due to piezoelectric coupling and deformation potential is included. The resulting spin lifetime is typically on the order of microseconds. The effectiveness of the phonon-mediated spin-flip mechanism increases with increasing Mn concentration, electron spin splitting, vertical confining strength and lateral diameter, while it shows non-monotonic dependence on the magnetic field and temperature. An interesting finding is that the spin relaxation in a small quantum dot is suppressed for strong magnetic field and low Mn concentration at low temperature.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.