InAs Quantum Wells Research Articles

Temperature Dependent Optical Properties of Ultrathin InAs Quantum Well

Temperature-dependent photoluminescence (TDPL) and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) of ultrathin InAs quantum wells (QWs) in GaAs matrix have been investigated to understand the optical properties of carriers. Samples containing different thicknesses of InAs (0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.2, 1.4 monolayers) have been used for this study. The PL peak position of InAs with temperature does not follow the Varshni model at low temperatures. The activation energy (EA) of these QWs has been calculated from TDPL. As expected, the thinnest QW sample (0.5 monolayer) results in the smallest EA of 23 meV, whereas the thickest QW sample (1.4 monolayer) results in the highest EA of 79 meV. Carrier lifetime has been calculated from TRPL measurement for varying temperatures. At 10 K, the carrier lifetime increased almost linearly from 250 to 800 ps with the InAs QW thickness. Thicker InAs QW results in a longer carrier lifetime, which has been explained by the carrier escape model. Higher temperatures resulted in a decrease in carrier lifetime, which suggests carrier escape is dominating the temporal decay behavior.

InP-based strain engineered InAs(Sb)/InAsPSb multiple quantum wells with tunable emission and high internal quantum efficiency enabled by Sb incorporation

A type I InAs(Sb)/InAsPSb strain engineered multiple quantum wells light emitting diodes system has been demonstrated. Tensile InAsPSb quantum barriers with a high degree of band offset (∆EC = 116–123 meV, ∆EV = 193–250 meV) were used to compensate for the high compressive strain of the InAs(Sb) quantum wells. The structure was grown on the n+-InAsxP1−x metamorphic buffer with a high degree of relaxation (98%), low surface roughness (0.69 nm), and low dislocation density. Through careful strain engineering design, the compressive strain of InAs(Sb) reaches 0.57%–1.52% without strain relaxation. The incorporation of Sb into the multiple quantum wells not only reduces the bandgap but also improves the interface quality by acting as an effective surfactant. Structural analysis reveals superior quality in InAsSb/InAsPSb multiple quantum wells compared to InAs/InAsPSb multiple quantum wells, demonstrating significantly reduced interface roughness and suppression of the Stranski–Krastanov growth mode. Room temperature electroluminescence measurements show a tunable emission wavelength ranging from 2.7 to 3.3 μm, accompanied by a narrow full width at half maximum value of 45 meV. Photoluminescence analysis indicates that the internal quantum efficiency of InAsSb/InAsPSb multiple quantum wells is 5.5%, which is 7 times higher than that of InAs/InAsPSb.

Spin Polarization via Adiabatic and Counterdiabatic Engineering.

A spin filter is a device that allows only a single spin state to pass, equivalent to a polarizing filter for a beam of light. Here, taking inspiration from shortcuts to adiabaticity, I demonstrate that the potential landscape of a typical quantum point contact can be tuned to act as a two terminal spin filter or to generate a spin-polarized beam. The effect presented is sufficiently robust that rough engineering yields a significant effect, as demonstrated by experiments on asymmetrically biased quantum point contacts in InAs quantum wells.

Influence of an Overshoot Layer on the Morphological, Structural, Strain, and Transport Properties of InAs Quantum Wells.

InAs quantum wells (QWs) are promising material systems due to their small effective mass, narrow bandgap, strong spin-orbit coupling, large g-factor, and transparent interface to superconductors. Therefore, they are promising candidates for the implementation of topological superconducting states. Despite this potential, the growth of InAs QWs with high crystal quality and well-controlled morphology remains challenging. Adding an overshoot layer at the end of the metamorphic buffer layer, i.e., a layer with a slightly larger lattice constant than the active region of the device, helps to overcome the residual strain and provides optimally relaxed lattice parameters for the QW. In this work, we systematically investigated the influence of overshoot layer thickness on the morphological, structural, strain, and transport properties of undoped InAs QWs on GaAs(100) substrates. Transmission electron microscopy reveals that the metamorphic buffer layer, which includes the overshoot layer, provides a misfit dislocation-free InAs QW active region. Moreover, the residual strain in the active region is compressive in the sample with a 200 nm-thick overshoot layer but tensile in samples with an overshoot layer thicker than 200 nm, and it saturates to a constant value for overshoot layer thicknesses above 350 nm. We found that electron mobility does not depend on the crystallographic directions. A maximum electron mobility of 6.07 × 105 cm2/Vs at 2.6 K with a carrier concentration of 2.31 × 1011 cm-2 in the sample with a 400 nm-thick overshoot layer has been obtained.

Observation of large spin-polarized Fermi surface of a magnetically proximitized semiconductor quantum well

The magnetic proximity effect (MPE) attracts much attention as a promising way for introducing ferromagnetism into a nonmagnetic electron-transport channel. Although the range of MPE is generally limited to the interface, it is extended to several tens of nm in high-quality semiconductor bilayers consisting of a nonmagnetic quantum well (QW) and an underlying ferromagnetic semiconductor (FMS) layer. To elucidate the mechanism of this long-range MPE, it is essential to observe the magnetically proximitized electronic structure of the nonmagnetic semiconductor. Here, by investigating the Shubnikov - de Haas oscillations in nonmagnetic n-type InAs QW / FMS (Ga,Fe)Sb bilayers, we successfully observe the spin-polarized Fermi surface of the InAs QW. The spontaneous spin-splitting energy in the conduction band of the InAs QW reaches 18 meV when applying a negative gate voltage. This large and gate-tunable spin-polarized Fermi surface of a magnetically proximitized InAs QW provides an ideal platform for novel spintronic and topological devices.

Boosting Photovoltaic Efficiency in Double Quantum Well Intermediate Band-Solar Cells through Impurity Positioning

The photovoltaic conversion efficiency of a single-intermediate band solar cell that incorporates a double quantum well structure consisting of GaAs/InAs/GaAs/InAs/GaAs embedded in the intrinsic region of conventional p-i-n structure is analyzed. The width of the intermediate band and the solutions for the two lowest energy states has been determined by solving the two-impurities-related Schrodinger equation based on the Numerov method. The position of these impurities determines three distinct cases: the system in the absence of impurities (Case 1), impurities at the center of GaAs quantum barriers (Case 2), and impurities at the center of InAs quantum wells (Case 3). The photovoltaic conversion efficiency has been calculated as a function of the widths L y H of the quantum well structures. The obtained results indicate an improvement in efficiency under the specific conditions of these parameters.

Mobility exceeding 100 000 cm2/V s in modulation-doped shallow InAs quantum wells coupled to epitaxial aluminum

The two-dimensional electron gas residing in shallow InAs quantum wells coupled to epitaxial aluminum is a widely utilized platform for exploration of topological superconductivity. Strong spin-orbit coupling, a large effective $g$ factor, and control over proximity-induced superconductivity are important attributes. Disorder in shallow semiconductor structures plays a crucial role for the stability of putative topological phases in hybrid structures. We report on the transport properties of 2DEGs residing 10 nm below the surface in shallow InAs quantum wells in which mobility may exceed 100 000 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}/\mathrm{V}$ s at 2DEG density ${n}_{2\mathrm{DEG}}\ensuremath{\le}1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{12}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ at low temperature.

Molecular beam epitaxy of InAs quantum wells on InP(001) for high mobility two-dimensional electron gases

For InAs quantum-well structures grown on InP, the dislocations generated in the strain relaxation is confined in the compositionally graded buffer layer, leaving the two-dimensional electron gases nearly unscattered by the defects.

Controlling Fermi level pinning in near-surface InAs quantum wells

Hybrid superconductor–semiconductor heterostructures are a promising platform for quantum devices based on mesoscopic and topological superconductivity. In these structures, a semiconductor must be in close proximity to a superconductor and form an Ohmic contact. This can be accommodated in narrow bandgap semiconductors, such as InAs, where the surface Fermi level is positioned close to the conduction band. In this work, we study the structural properties of near-surface InAs quantum wells and find that surface morphology is closely connected to low-temperature transport, where electron mobility is highly sensitive to the growth temperature of the underlying graded buffer layer. By introducing an In0.81Al0.19As capping layer, we show that we change the surface Fermi level pinning of the In0.81Al0.19As thin film as compared to the In0.81Ga0.19As, giving rise to a tuning of the Fermi level in the InAs layer. Experimental measurements show a strong agreement with Schrödinger–Poisson calculations of the electron density, suggesting the conduction band energy of the In0.81Ga0.19As and In0.81Al0.19As surface is pinned to 40 and 309 meV above the Fermi level, respectively.

The one-dimensional hydrogenic impurity states confined at one end of the InAs quantum well

ABSTRACT The one-dimensional (1-D) confined hydrogenic impurity states confined in the InAs quantum-well has been studied due to its wide application in manufacturing high-electron-mobility transistors in semiconductor physics. We calculate the energy levels and wave functions of this system using the linear variational method. Choosing the wave function of a particle confined in a 1-D infinitely deep quantum well as a basis set, we obtain the numerical solutions of the energy levels and wave functions of the hydrogenic impurity states confined at one end of the InAs quantum-well by solving the Hamiltonian matrix equation. It is found when the quantum well is very narrow, the eigen-energy approaches to the exact solution with a small number of basis set functions; whereas for a relatively wide quantum well, it is necessary to use a large number of basis set functions. The confinement effect of the quantum well on the energy level and binding energy of the hydrogenic impurity state has been studied in great detail. Although the linear variational method used in this work has only been applied to the hydrogenic impurity state confined in the quantum well, for the non-hydrogenic confined systems, this method is still applicable. Therefore, our work provides a new method to study the energy level structure of the impurity state confined in the external environment and has some practical applications in the fields of semiconductor physics, material science, etc.

Induced Superconducting Pairing in Integer Quantum Hall Edge States.

Indium arsenide (InAs) near surface quantum wells (QWs) are promising for the fabrication of semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures given that they allow for a strong hybridization between the two-dimensional states in the quantum well and the ones in the superconductor. In this work, we present results for InAs QWs in the quantum Hall regime placed in proximity of superconducting NbTiN. We observe a negative downstream resistance with a corresponding reduction of Hall (upstream) resistance, consistent with a very high Andreev conversion. We analyze the experimental data using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, generalized to allow for Andreev reflection processes. We attribute the high efficiency of Andreev conversion in our devices to the large transparency of the InAs/NbTiN interface and the consequent strong hybridization of the QH edge modes with the states in the superconductor.

Gate-controlled proximity magnetoresistance in In1−xGaxAs/(Ga,Fe)Sb bilayer heterostructures

The magnetic proximity effect (MPE), ferromagnetic coupling at the interface of magnetically dissimilar layers, attracts much attention as a promising pathway for introducing ferromagnetism into a high-mobility non-magnetic conducting channel. Recently, our group found giant proximity magnetoresistance (PMR), which is caused by MPE at an interface between a non-magnetic semiconductor InAs quantum well (QW) layer and a ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Fe)Sb layer. The MPE in the non-magnetic semiconductor can be modulated by applying a gate voltage and controlling the penetration of the electron wavefunction in the InAs QW into the neighboring insulating ferromagnetic (Ga,Fe)Sb layer. However, optimal conditions to obtain strong MPE at the InAs/(Ga,Fe)Sb interface have not been clarified. In this paper, we systematically investigate the PMR properties of In1-xGaxAs (x = 0%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%) / (Ga,Fe)Sb bilayer semiconductor heterostructures under a wide range of gate voltage. The inclusion of Ga alters the electronic structures of the InAs thin film, in particular changing the effective mass and the QW potential of electron carriers. Our experimental results and theoretical analysis of the PMR in these In1-xGaxAs/(Ga,Fe)Sb heterostructures show that the MPE depends not only on the degree of penetration of the electron wavefunction into (Ga,Fe)Sb but also on the electron density. These findings help us to unveil the microscopic mechanism of MPE in semiconductor-based non-magnetic/ferromagnetic heterojunctions.

Measurements of cyclotron resonance of the interfacial states in strong spin–orbit coupled 2D electron gases proximitized with aluminum

Two dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in InAs quantum wells proximitized by aluminum are promising platforms for topological qubits based on Majorana zero modes. However, there are still substantial uncertainties associated with the nature of electronic states at the interface of these systems. It is challenging to probe the properties of these hybridized states as they are buried under a relatively thick aluminum layer. In this work, we have investigated a range of InAs/In1−xGaxAs heterostructures with Al overlayers using high precision time-domain THz spectroscopy (TDTS). Despite the thick metallic overlayer, we observe a prominent cyclotron resonance in a magnetic field that can be associated with the response of the interfacial states. Measurements of the THz range complex Faraday rotation allow the extraction of the sign and magnitude of the effective mass, density of charge carriers, and scattering times of the 2DEG despite the close proximity of the aluminum layer. We discuss the extracted band parameters and connect their values to the known physics of these materials.

Cyclotron mass of an electron in strong magnetic fields in a wide InAs quantum well

The results of calculations of the Landau level and cyclotron mass in strong magnetic fields in an InAs quantum well based on the two-band model are presented. The calculations were performed in the approximation of infinity of the depth of the quantum well, taking into account the Landau level of the second subband. It is shown that taking into account the cyclotron transition of electrons within the second subband satisfactorily describes the experimental data obtained in strong magnetic fields in the InAs/In0.81Ga0.19As/InxAl1−xAs heterostructure.

Supercurrent rectification and magnetochiral effects in symmetric Josephson junctions.

Transport is non-reciprocal when not only the sign, but also the absolute value of the current depends on the polarity of the applied voltage. It requires simultaneously broken inversion and time-reversal symmetries, for example, by an interplay of spin-orbit coupling and magnetic field. Hitherto, observation of nonreciprocity was tied to resistivity, and dissipationless non-reciprocal circuit elements were elusive. Here we engineer fully superconducting non-reciprocal devices based on highly transparent Josephson junctions fabricated on InAs quantum wells. We demonstrate supercurrent rectification far below the transition temperature. By measuring Josephson inductance, we can link the non-reciprocal supercurrent to an asymmetry of the current-phase relation, and directly derive the supercurrent magnetochiral anisotropy coefficient. A semiquantitative model explains well the main features of our experimental data. Non-reciprocal Josephson junctions have the potential to become for superconducting circuits what pn junctions are for traditional electronics, enabling new non-dissipative circuit elements.

Time-resolved mid-infrared photoluminescence from highly strained InAs/InGaAs quantum wells grown on InP substrates

We measured time-resolved mid-infrared photoluminescence (PL) from highly strained InAs/InGaAs quantum wells (QWs) grown on InP substrates with a wavelength up-conversion technique. The InAs QWs at 4 K exhibit a narrow PL peaked at a wavelength of 2.125 μm and a PL lifetime as long as 1.1 ns, which supports high homogeneity of the QW thickness and few defects. As the pump fluence increases, a fast PL decay appears within the first 200 ps due to Auger recombination. The temperature dependence of the PL intensity and PL decay reveals interfacial nonradiative trap states in the QWs.

Missing Shapiro steps in topologically trivial Josephson junction on InAs quantum well

Josephson junctions hosting Majorana fermions have been predicted to exhibit a 4π periodic current phase relation. One experimental consequence of this periodicity is the disappearance of odd steps in Shapiro steps experiments. Experimentally, missing odd Shapiro steps have been observed in a number of materials systems with strong spin-orbit coupling and have been interpreted in the context of topological superconductivity. Here we report on missing odd steps in topologically trivial Josephson junctions fabricated on InAs quantum wells. We ascribe our observations to the high transparency of our junctions allowing Landau-Zener transitions. The probability of these processes is shown to be independent of the drive frequency. We analyze our results using a bi-modal transparency distribution which demonstrates that only few modes carrying 4π periodic current are sufficient to describe the disappearance of odd steps. Our findings highlight the elaborate circumstances that have to be considered in the investigation of the 4π Josephson junctions in relationship to topological superconductivity.

Experimental measurements of effective mass in near-surface InAs quantum wells

Near surface indium arsenide quantum wells have recently attracted a great deal of interest since they can be interfaced epitaxially with superconducting films and have proven to be a robust platform for exploring mesoscopic and topological superconductivity. In this work, we present magnetotransport properties of two-dimensional electron gases confined to an indium arsenide quantum well near the surface. The electron mass extracted from the envelope of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations shows an average effective mass $m^{*}$ = 0.04 at low magnetic field. Complementary to our magnetotransport study, we employed cyclotron resonance measurements and extracted the electron effective mass in the ultra high magnetic field regime. Our measurements show that the effective mass depends on magnetic field in this regime. The data can be understood by considering a model that includes non-parabolicity of the indium arsenide conduction bands.

Charge scattering mechanisms in shallow InAs quantum wells

We studied the charge scattering mechanisms present in In0.2Al0.8Sb/InAs/Al0.8Ga0.2Sb wells placed in close proximity to the surface of the heterostructures, at depths from 7 nm to 15 nm. The heterostructures were either unintentionally doped, doped from below the channel, or from above the channel. Measurements of sheet and Hall resistances were performed at T = 2 K in a variable magnetic field and under illumination with wavelengths of 400 nm up to 1300 nm. The charge density dependencies of the Hall mobility and quantum scattering time were used to infer the dominant scattering mechanisms. We found that the surface proximity induces significant band bending and an asymmetric placement of the charge distribution in the well. The result is an increase in interface roughness scattering, which reduces the mobility and the quantum scattering time values. In addition, the quantum scattering time is sensitive to scattering off charged impurities, remote or close to the well. Top doping restores the band profile symmetry and improves the transport. A symmetric profile, however, lowers the expectations for a strong spin–orbit coupling and spintronic applications.

Voltage-Tunable Superconducting Resonators: A Platform for Random Access Quantum Memory

In quantum computing architectures, one important factor is the trade-off between the need to couple qubits to each other and to an external drive and the need to isolate them well enough in order to protect the information for an extended period of time. In the case of superconducting circuits, one approach is to utilize fixed frequency qubits coupled to coplanar waveguide resonators such that the system can be kept in a configuration that is relatively insensitive to noise. Here, we propose a scalable voltage-tunable quantum memory (QuMem) design concept compatible with superconducting qubit platforms. Our design builds on the recent progress in fabrication of Josephson field effect transistors (JJ-FETs) which use InAs quantum wells. The JJ-FET is incorporated into a tunable coupler between a transmission line and a high-quality resonator in order to control the overall inductance of the coupler. A full isolation of the high-quality resonator can be achieved by turning off the JJ-FET. This could allow for long coherence times and protection of the quantum information inside the storage cavity. The proposed design would facilitate the implementation of random access memory for storage of quantum information in between computational gate operations.