Deformation Potential Coupling Research Articles

Interlayer Exciton-Phonon Coupling in MoSe2/WSe2 Heterostructures.

Transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures have garnered strong interest for their robust excitonic properties, mixed light-matter states such as exciton-polaritons, and tailored properties, vital for advanced device engineering. Two-dimensional heterostructures inherit their physics from monolayers with the addition of interlayer processes that have been particularly emphasized for their electronic and optical properties. Here, we demonstrate the interlayer coupling of the MoSe2 phonons to WSe2 excitons in a WSe2/MoSe2 heterostructure using resonant Raman scattering. The WSe2 monolayer induces an interlayer resonance in the Raman cross-section of the MoSe2 A1g phonons. Frozen-phonon calculations within density functional theory reveal a strong deformation-potential coupling between the A1g MoSe2 phonon and the electronic states of the close-by WSe2 layer approaching 20% of the intralayer coupling to the MoSe2 electrons. Understanding the vibrational properties of van der Waals heterostructures requires going beyond the sum of their constituents and considering cross-material coupling.

Electronic thermal conductivity of few-layer black phosphorus

The theoretical investigations of anisotropic electronic thermal conductivity of nanoscale black phosphorus along zigzag and armchair directions are presented. Electrons in black phosphorus assumed to be scattered by in-plane linear dispersion phonons and out-of-plane quadratic dispersion phonons via deformation potential couplings. The individual contributions from in-plane phonon and out-of-plane phonon processes to the electronic thermal conductivity show dominant role of in-plane phonon processes. The anisotropic behaviour of electronic thermal conductivity is noticed and found to be sensitive to the carrier density and temperature. Role and relative importance of anisotropic electronic thermal conductivity in the analysis of experimental thermal conductivity data of nanoscale black phosphorus samples is investigated.

Coupling to octahedral tilts in halide perovskite nanocrystals induces phonon-mediated attractive interactions between excitons

Understanding the origin of electron–phonon coupling in lead halide perovskites is key to interpreting and leveraging their optical and electronic properties. Here we show that photoexcitation drives a reduction of the lead–halide–lead bond angles, a result of deformation potential coupling to low-energy optical phonons. We accomplish this by performing femtosecond-resolved, optical-pump–electron-diffraction-probe measurements to quantify the lattice reorganization occurring as a result of photoexcitation in nanocrystals of FAPbBr3. Our results indicate a stronger coupling in FAPbBr3 than CsPbBr3. We attribute the enhanced coupling in FAPbBr3 to its disordered crystal structure, which persists down to cryogenic temperatures. We find the reorganizations induced by each exciton in a multi-excitonic state constructively interfere, giving rise to a coupling strength that scales quadratically with the exciton number. This superlinear scaling induces phonon-mediated attractive interactions between excitations in lead halide perovskites.

Heterogeneous integration of superconducting thin films and epitaxial semiconductor heterostructures with lithium niobate

We report on scalable heterointegration of superconducting electrodes and epitaxial semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) on strong piezoelectric and optically nonlinear lithium niobate. The implemented processes combine the sputter-deposited thin film superconductor niobium nitride and III–V compound semiconductor membranes onto the host substrate. The superconducting thin film is employed as a zero-resistivity electrode material for a surface acoustic wave resonator with internal quality factors representing a three-fold enhancement compared to identical devices with normal conducting electrodes. Superconducting operation of resonators is achieved to temperatures and electrical radio frequency powers . Heterogeneously integrated single QDs couple to the resonant phononic field of the surface acoustic wave resonator operated in the superconducting regime. Position and frequency selective coupling mediated by deformation potential coupling is validated using time-integrated and time-resolved optical spectroscopy. Furthermore, acoustoelectric charge state control is achieved in a modified device geometry harnessing large piezoelectric fields inside the resonator. The hybrid QD—surface acoustic wave resonator can be scaled to higher operation frequencies and smaller mode volumes for quantum phase modulation and transduction between photons and phonons via the QD. Finally, the employed materials allow for the realization of other types of optoelectronic devices, including superconducting single photon detectors and integrated photonic and phononic circuits.

Phonon coupling versus pure dephasing in the photon statistics of cooperative emitters

Realizing scalable quantum networks requires a meticulous level of understanding and mitigating the deleterious effects of decoherence. Many quantum device platforms feature multiple decoherence mechanisms, often with a dominant mechanism seemingly fully masking others. In this paper, we show how access to weaker dephasing mechanisms can nevertheless be obtained for optically active qubits by performing two-photon coincidence measurements. To this end we theoretically investigate the impact of different decoherence mechanisms on cooperatively emitting quantum dots. Focusing on the typically dominant deformation-potential coupling to longitudinal acoustic phonons and typically much less severe additional sources of pure dephasing, we employ a numerically exact method to show that these mechanisms lead to very different two-photon coincidence signals. Moreover, surprisingly, the impact of the strongly coupled phonon environment is weak and leads to long-lived coherences. We trace this back to the superohmic nature of the deformation-potential coupling causing interemitter coherences to converge to a nonzero value on a short timescale, whereas pure dephasing contributions cause a complete decay of coherence over longer times. Our approach provides a practical means of investigating decoherence processes on different timescales in solid-state emitters, and thus contributes to understanding and possibly eliminating their detrimental influences.

Quantum Oscillations of the Energy Loss Rate of Hot Electrons in Graphene at Strong Magnetic Fields

We present a theoretical model for the calculation of the energy loss rate (ELR) of hot electrons in a monolayer graphene due to their coupling with acoustic phonons at high perpendicular magnetic fields. Electrons interact with both transverse acoustic (TA) and longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons. Numerical simulations of the ELR are performed as a function of the magnetic field, the electron temperature, the electron density, and the Landau level broadening. We find robust oscillations of the ELR as a function of the filling factor ν that originate from the oscillating density of states at the Fermi level. Screening effects on the deformation potential coupling are taken into account, and it is found that they lead to a significant reduction of ELR, especially, at low electron temperatures, Te, and high magnetic fields. At temperatures much lower than the Bloch-Grüneisen temperature, the ELR shows a Te4 dependence that is related to the unscreened electron interaction with TA acoustic phonons. Finally, our theoretical model is compared with existing experimental results and a very good quantitative agreement is found.

Electron energy relaxation in SiGe quantum wells

In this article, we theoretically calculated the hot electron energy relaxation induced by longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons, longitudinal optical (LO) phonons and importantly two-transverse acoustic (2TA) phonons in two-dimensional SiGe quantum wells, by incorporating dynamic screening effect in LA phonon scattering and hot-phonon effect in LO phonon scattering mechanisms. At the low-temperature regime, the ELR is found to be dominated by LA phonons and at higher temperature ELR is dominated by LO phonons. In the intermediate temperature range, 2TA phonon scattering mechanism is very important and we incorporated in our calculations. The unscreened longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonon due to deformation potential (DP) coupling is dominant over the screened acoustic piezoelectric phonon contribution. At higher temperatures, there is a crossover from ELR due to LA phonons to ELR due to longitudinal optical (LO) phonons with the cross-over temperature being about Te∼40K. The LA phonon screening effect and hot phonon effect is demonstrated to reduce ELR significantly. In the intermediate temperature range (30 K

Terahertz radiation from propagating acoustic phonons based on deformation potential coupling.

We report on new THz electromagnetic emission mechanism from deformational coupling of acoustic (AC) phonons with electrons in the propagation medium of non-polar Si. The epicenters of the AC phonon pulses are the surface and interface of a GaP transducer layer whose thickness (d) is varied in nanoscale from 16 to 45 nm. The propagating AC pulses locally modulate the bandgap, which in turn generates a train of electric field pulses, inducing an abrupt drift motion at the depletion edge of Si. The fairly time-delayed THz bursts, centered at different times (t1T H z, t2T H z, and t3T H z), are concurrently emitted only when a series of AC pulses reach the point of the depletion edge of Si, even without any piezoelectricity. The analysis on the observed peak emission amplitudes is consistent with calculations based on the combined effects of mobile charge carrier density and AC-phonon-induced local deformation, which recapitulates the role of deformational potential coupling in THz wave emission in a formulatively distinct manner from piezoelectric counterpart.

Phonon-drag thermopower and thermoelectric performance of MoS2 monolayer in quantizing magnetic field

We present a theory of phonon-drag thermopower, , in MoS2 monolayer at a low-temperature regime in the presence of a quantizing magnetic field B. Our calculations for consider the electron–acoustic phonon interaction via deformation potential (DP) and piezoelectric (PE) couplings for longitudinal (LA) and transverse (TA) phonon modes. The unscreened TA-DP is found to dominate over other mechanisms. The is found to oscillate with the magnetic field where the lifting effect of the valley and spin degeneracies in MoS2 monolayer has been clearly observed. An enhanced with a peak value of mV K−1 at about T = 10 K is predicted, which is closer to the zero field experimental observation. In the Bloch–Grüneisen regime the temperature dependence of gives the power-law , where δ e varies marginally around 3 and 5 for unscreened and screened couplings, respectively. In addition, is smaller for larger electron density n e . The power factor PF is found to increase with temperature T, decrease with n e , and oscillate with B. The prediction of an increase of thermal conductivity with temperature and the magnetic field is responsible for the limit of the figure of merit (ZT). At a particular magnetic field and temperature, ZT can be maximized by optimizing electron density. By fixing cm−2, the highest ZT is found to be 0.57 at T = 5.8 K and B = 12.1 T. Our findings are compared with those in graphene and MoS2 for the zero-magnetic field.

Anomalous circular phonon dichroism in transition metal dichalcogenides

A magnetic field can generally induce circular phonon dichroism based on the formation of Landau levels of electrons. Here, we study the magnetization-induced circular phonon dichroism in transition metal dichalcogenides, without forming Landau levels. We find that, instead of the conventional deformation potential coupling, pseudogauge-type electron-phonon coupling plays an essential role in the emergence of the phenomenon. As a concrete example, a large dichroism signal is obtained in monolayer MoTe2 on a EuO substrate, even without considering Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Due to the two-dimensional spin-valley-coupled band structure, MoTe2 shows a reciprocal and nonreciprocal absorption of circularly polarized acoustic phonons upon reversing the direction of phonon propagation and magnetization, respectively. By varying the gate voltage, a tunable circular phonon dichroism can be realized, which paves a way toward different physics and applications of two-dimensional acoustoelectronics.

Acoustoelectric current in graphene due to electron deformation potential and piezoelectric phonon couplings

Recent studies strongly indicate that graphene can be used as a channel material for converting surface acoustic waves to acoustoelectric current, which is a resource for various exciting technological applications. On the theoretical side, studies on phonon amplification/attenuation and acoustoelectric current at low temperatures in graphene have reported approximate analytical results under exceedingly simplifying conditions using the Boltzmann transport equation. Overcoming the earlier simplifying assumptions, we investigate both numerically and analytically the governing kinetic equations for amplification/attenuation and acoustoelectric current, taking into account the piezoelectric and deformation potential electron phonon coupling mechanism in the semi classical Boltzmann transport formalism approach, and obtain analytical results that are in reasonable agreement with the reported experimental results.

Phonon-limited transport and Fermi arc lifetime in Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals harbor topological Fermi-arc surface states which determine the nontrivial charge current response to external fields. We here study the quasiparticle decay rate of Fermi arc states arising from their coupling to acoustic phonons, as well as the phonon-limited conductivity tensor for a clean Weyl semimetal slab. Using the phonon modes for an isotropic elastic continuum with a deformation potential coupling to electrons, we determine the temperature dependence of the quasiparticle decay rate, both near and far away from the arc termination points. By solving the coupled Boltzmann equations for the bulk and arc state distribution functions in the slab geometry, we show how the linear response conductivity depends on key parameters such as the temperature, the chemical potential, the geometric shape of the Fermi arcs, or the slab width. The chiral nature of Fermi arc states causes an enhancement of the longitudinal conductivity along the chiral direction at low temperatures, together with a 1/T^2 scaling regime at intermediate temperatures without counterpart for the conductivity along the perpendicular direction.

Phenomenological model for long-wavelength optical modes in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are an exciting family of 2D materials; a member of this family, ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$, became the first studied monolayer semiconductor. In this paper, a generalized phenomenological continuum approach for the optical vibrations of the monolayer TMDs valid in the long-wavelength limit is developed. The equation of motions for nonpolar and polar oscillations include the phonon dispersion up to a quadratic approximation in the phonon wave vector. On the other hand, the polar modes satisfy coupled equations for the displacement vector and the inner electric field. The two-dimensional phonon dispersion curves for in-plane and out-of-plane oscillations are thoroughly analyzed. The model parameters are fitted from density functional perturbation theory calculations. The current formalism provides an effective tool to describe the phonon dispersion curves around the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ point of the Brillouin zone for a large group of members of the TMD monolayers. A detailed evaluation of the intravalley Pekar-Fr\"ohlich and the ${A}_{1}$-homopolar mode deformation potential coupling mechanisms is performed. The effects of metal ions and chalcogen atoms on polaron mass and binding energy are studied. It is argued that both mechanisms should be considered for a correct analysis of the properties of the polaron or of any process that involves the intraband transitions assisted by the electron-phonon interaction.

Oscillations of the electron energy loss rate in two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides in the presence of a quantizing magnetic field

We study the hot electron energy-loss rate (ELR) induced by acoustic ${P}^{\mathrm{ac}}$ and optical ${P}^{\mathrm{op}}$ phonons, in two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), in presence of quantizing magnetic field $B$, including the hot-phonon effect. At the low-temperature regime, the ELR is found to display a quantum oscillations with their amplitude being found to increase with the increase of the magnetic field. The unscreened TA phonon due to deformation potential (DP) coupling is dominant over the other screened acoustic phonon contributions. In the extreme Bloch-Gr\"uneisen (BG) region, the ELR displays a pronounced ${P}^{\mathrm{ac}}\ensuremath{\propto}{T}^{4}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}({T}^{6})$ temperature dependence for unscreened TA-DP phonons (other screened mechanisms). When the temperature increases, ${T}_{e}>{T}_{\mathrm{BG}}$, the ELR shows a linear ${P}^{\mathrm{ac}}\ensuremath{\propto}T$ behavior in the equipartition region. At higher temperatures, there is a crossover from ${P}^{\mathrm{ac}}$ dominated ELR to ${P}^{\mathrm{op}}$ by zeroth-order DP coupling dominated ELR with the cross-over temperature being about ${T}_{e}\ensuremath{\sim}50\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. The hot phonon effect is demonstrated to reduce ELR significantly. The effect of the magnetic field is found to enhance the ELR significantly, making $B$ as its another tuning knob. Among the four TMDC materials, ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$ (${\mathrm{MoSe}}_{2}$) displays the biggest ELR due to acoustic (optical) phonon scattering while ${\mathrm{WSe}}_{2}$ (${\mathrm{WS}}_{2}$) shows the smallest ELR. Our results for the ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$ material are compared with those of the zero-field ELR.

Temperature-dependent transport properties of two-dimensional hole gas in Ge channel modulation-doped square quantum wells

We present a theoretical study of the transport properties of two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) in Ge channel modulation-doped square quantum wells, with very high room-temperature drift mobilities. Within the variational approach, we obtain analytic expressions for the carrier distribution, and autocorrelation functions for various scattering mechanisms. The results were used to determine the hole mobility where only the relevant scattering processes, namely acoustic phonons (Deformation potential and Piezoelectric coupling), ionized impurity, surface roughness were considered. The partials and total mobility dependences on temperature were found. It is shown that acoustic phonon and surface roughness scattering are the dominant mechanism. The interpretation of these results is carried out and the scattering mechanisms limiting the 2DHG mobility in Ge quantum wells of SiGe heterostructure are discussed.

Phase diagram and phonon-induced backscattering in topological insulator nanowires

We present an effective low-energy theory of electron-phonon coupling effects for clean cylindrical topological insulator nanowires. Acoustic phonons are modelled by isotropic elastic continuum theory with stress-free boundary conditions. We take into account the deformation potential coupling between phonons and helical surface Dirac fermions, and also include electron-electron interactions within the bosonization approach. For half-integer values of the magnetic flux $\Phi_B$ along the wire, the low-energy theory admits an exact solution since a topological protection mechanism then rules out phonon-induced $2k_F$-backscattering processes. We determine the zero-temperature phase diagram and identify a regime dominated by superconducting pairing of surface states. As example, we consider the phase diagram of HgTe nanowires. We also determine the phonon-induced electrical resistivity, where we find a quadratic dependence on the flux deviation $\delta\Phi_B$ from the nearest half-integer value.

Reply to “Comment on ‘Superconductivity at low density near a ferroelectric quantum critical point: Doped SrTiO3 ”'

In our paper (W\"olfle and Balatsky, Phys. Rev. B 98, 104505 (2018)) we presented a microscopic theory of superconductivity for doped SrTiO$_{3}$ by proposing two pairing mechanisms acting simultaneously with relative strength depending on the closeness to the ferroelectric quantum critical point. The first mechanism rests on the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction, and the second assumed a coupling to the soft transverse optical phonon. In their comment Ruhman and Lee point out an error in our estimate of the deformation potential coupling to the soft mode. We agree that this type of coupling cannot explain the gigantic isotope effect observed experimentally, so that a different coupling mechanism needs to be found. As for the first pairing mechanism, Ruhman and Lee maintain the view expressed in their paper (Ruhman and Lee, Phys. Rev. B 94, 224515 (2016)) that the energy range over which the usual longitudinal optical phonon mediated interaction operates is limited by the Fermi energy. We object to this view and in this reply present evidence that the cutoff energy is much larger. In a weak coupling system such as SrTiO$_{3}$ the cutoff is given by the energy beyond which quasiparticles cease to be well defined.

Quantum Dot Optomechanics in Suspended Nanophononic Strings

AbstractThe optomechanical coupling of quantum dots and flexural mechanical modes is studied in suspended nanophononic strings. The investigated devices are designed and monolithically fabricated on an (Al)GaAs heterostructure. Radio frequency elastic waves with frequencies ranging between and 400 MHz are generated as Rayleigh surface acoustic waves on the unpatterned substrate and injected as Lamb waves in the nanophononic string. Quantum dots inside the nanophononic string exhibit a 15‐fold enhanced optomechanical modulation compared to those dynamically strained by the Rayleigh surface acoustic wave. Detailed finite element simulations of the phononic mode spectrum of the nanophononic string confirm that the observed modulation arises from valence band deformation potential coupling via shear strain. The corresponding optomechanical coupling parameter is quantified to . This value exceeds that reported for vibrating nanorods by approximately one order of magnitude at 100 times higher frequencies. Using this value, a derived vertical displacement in the range of 10 nm is deduced from the experimentally observed modulation. The results represent an important step toward the creation of large scale optomechanical circuits interfacing single optically active quantum dots with optical and mechanical waves.

Dynamically tuned non-classical light emission from atomic defects in hexagonal boron nitride

Luminescent defects in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) have recently emerged as a promising platform for non-classical light emission. On-chip solutions, however, require techniques for controllable in-situ manipulation of quantum light. Here, we demonstrate the dynamic spectral and temporal tuning of the optical emission from h-BN via moving acousto-mechanical modulation induced by stimulated phonons. When perturbed by the propagating acoustic phonon, the optically probed radiative h-BN defects are periodically strained and their sharp emission lines are modulated by the deformation potential coupling. This results in an acoustically driven spectral tuning within a 2.5-meV bandwidth. Our findings, supported by first-principles theoretical calculations, reveal exceptionally high elasto-optic coupling in h-BN of ~50 meV/%. Temporal control of the emitted photons is achieved by combining the acoustically mediated fine-spectral tuning with spectral detection filtering. This study opens the door to the use of sound for scalable integration of h-BN emitters in nanophotonic and quantum information technologies.

Phonon-Limited Mobility in n-Type Few-Layer InSe Devices From First Principles

A theoretical investigation on the phonon-limited mobility in intrinsic n-type few-layer indium selenide (InSe) double-gate devices for temperature T > 100 K is presented. The temperature-dependent mobility curves measured by quantum Hall effect are reproduced successfully by invoking the scatterings by acoustic phonon, homopolar optical phonon, longitudinal optical phonon via the deformation potential coupling, and the Fröhlich interaction. In InSe, the Fröhlich interaction plays the dominant role in determining the mobility. Additionally, simulated thickness-dependent mobility provides physical insight into the mobility degradation below 30 nm.