Ordinary Semiconductors Research Articles

Harmonic generation from silicon membranes at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths.

Nonlinear silicon photonics offers unique abilities to generate, manipulate and detect optical signals in nano-devices, with applications based on field localization and large third order nonlinearity. However, at the nanoscale, inefficient nonlinear processes, absorption, and the lack of realistic models limit the nano-engineering of silicon. Here we report measurements of second and third harmonic generation from undoped silicon membranes. Using experimental results and simulations we identify the effective mass of valence electrons, which determines second harmonic generation efficiency, and oscillator parameters that control third order processes. We can then accurately predict the nonlinear optical properties of complex structures, without introducing and artificially separating the effective χ(2) into surface and volume contributions, and by simultaneously including effects of linear and nonlinear dispersions. Our results suggest that judicious exploitation of the nonlinear dispersion of ordinary semiconductors can provide reasonable nonlinear efficiencies and transformational device physics well into the UV range.

From Electronic Correlations to Functionality

This Special Issue is devoted to recent advances in the field of correlated electron materials, as studied within the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio 80. In such systems, unlike in ordinary metals or semiconductors, the Coulomb interaction plays an important and often a decisive role. As a consequence, correlated systems display a rich variety of quantum-mechanically entangled insulating, metallic, magnetic, or superconducting states. In eight reviews and twelve research articles, the routes from correlations to topology and from the bulk to surfaces and interfaces are explored. For further details see the Guest Editorial (article number 2200125) by Ulrich Eckern and Philipp Gegenwart.

Retrieving Linear and Nonlinear Optical Dispersions of Matter: Combined Experiment-Numerical Ellipsometry in Silicon, Gold and Indium Tin Oxide

The predominant methods currently used to determine nonlinear optical constants like the nonlinear refractive index n2 or the third order susceptibility χ(3) rely mostly on experimental, open and closed z-scan techniques and beam deflection methods. While these methods work well when the linear absorption is relatively small or negligible, the retrieval process is more complicated for a strongly scattering, dispersive or absorbing medium. The study of optics at the nanoscale in the picosecond or femtosecond laser pulsed regimes demands the development of new theoretical tools, and diverse experimental approaches, to extract and verify both linear and nonlinear optical dispersions exhibited by matter, especially when material constituents are fashioned into nanostructures of arbitrary shape. We present a practical, combined experimental and theoretical approach based on the hydrodynamic model that uses experimental results of harmonic generation conversion efficiencies to retrieve complex, nonlinear dispersion curves, not necessarily only for third order processes. We provide examples for materials that are of special interest to nanophotonics, for example, silicon, gold, and indium tin oxide (ITO), which displays nonlocal effects and a zero-crossing of the real part of the dielectric constant. The results for silicon and gold compare well with analytical predictions of nonlinear dispersion based on the nonlinear oscillator model. Based on our assessment of third harmonic generation conversion efficiencies in silicon, we predict χω(3) and χ3ω(3) are of order 10−17 (m/V)2 in the visible and near IR ranges, with respective peaks of 10−14 (m/V)2 and 10−16 (m/V)2 in the UV range. Similarly, gold’s χω(3) and χ3ω(3) are of order 10−17–10−16 (m/V)2, and predict χω(3)∼10−17(m/V)2 and χ3ω(3)∼10−18(m/V)2 for ITO. These results clearly suggest that judicious exploitation of the nonlinear dispersion of ordinary semiconductors has the potential to transform device physics in spectral regions that extend well into the UV range.

Understanding Doping of Quantum Materials.

Doping mobile carriers into ordinary semiconductors such as Si, GaAs, and ZnO was the enabling step in the electronic and optoelectronic revolutions. The recent emergence of a class of "quantum materials", where uniquely quantum interactions between the components produce specific behaviors such as topological insulation, unusual magnetism, superconductivity, spin-orbit-induced and magnetically induced spin splitting, polaron formation, and transparency of electrical conductors, pointed attention to a range of doping-related phenomena associated with chemical classes that differ from the traditional semiconductors. These include wide-gap oxides, compounds containing open-shell d electrons, and compounds made of heavy elements yet having significant band gaps. The atomistic electronic structure theory of doping that has been developed over the past two decades in the subfield of semiconductor physics has recently been extended and applied to quantum materials. The present review focuses on explaining the main concepts needed for a basic understanding of the doping phenomenology and indeed peculiarities in quantum materials from the perspective of condensed matter theory, with the hope of forging bridges to the chemists that have enabled the synthesis of some of the most interesting compounds in this field.

Uniaxial films of maximally controllable response under visible light

The controllability of photonic setups is strongly related to how coherently their outputs react to changes in their inputs; such a generic concept is treated in the case of films comprising multilayers of tilted optical axes, under visible light. The optimized designs incorporate ordinary metals or semiconductors while being able to achieve practically all the combinations of reflected, transmitted and absorbed power within the passivity limits. Importantly, most of the proposed structures exhibit substantial robustness to manufacturing defects and are fabricable with various methods. Therefore, they can make indispensable pieces of integrated photonic systems by improving their light-controlling operation for applications ranging from steering and electrodynamic switching to filtering and optical signal processing.

Theoretical Comparison between the Flicker Noise Behavior of Graphene and of Ordinary Semiconductors

Graphene is a material of particular interest for the implementation of sensors, and the ultimate performance of devices based on such a material is often determined by its flicker noise properties. Indeed, graphene exhibits, with respect to the vast majority of ordinary semiconductors, a peculiar behavior of the flicker noise power spectral density as a function of the charge carrier density. While in most materials flicker noise obeys the empirical Hooge law, with a power spectral density inversely proportional to the number of free charge carriers, in bilayer, and sometimes monolayer, graphene a counterintuitive behavior, with a minimum of flicker noise at the charge neutrality point, has been observed. We present an explanation for this stark difference, exploiting a model in which we enforce both the mass action law and the neutrality condition on the charge fluctuations deriving from trapping/detrapping phenomena. Here, in particular, we focus on the comparison between graphene and other semiconducting materials, concluding that a minimum of flicker noise at the charge neutrality point can appear only in the presence of a symmetric electron-hole behavior, a condition characteristic of graphene, but which is not found in the other commonly used semiconductors.

Chlorosome‐Like Molecular Aggregation of Chlorophyll Derivative on Ti3C2Tx MXene Nanosheets for Efficient Noble Metal‐Free Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

AbstractEfficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the visible‐to‐near infrared region at a low cost remains a challenging issue. This work demonstrates the fabrication of organic‐inorganic composites by deposition of supramolecular aggregates of a chlorophyll derivative, namely, zinc methyl 3‐devinyl‐3‐hydroxymethyl‐pyropheophorbide a (Chl) on the surface of Ti3C2Tx MXene with 2D accordion‐like morphology. This composite material is employed as noble metal‐free catalyst in photocatalytic HER under the white light illumination, where Chl serves as a small molecule organic semiconductor component instead of ordinary inorganic and polymer organic semiconductors such as TiO2 and g‐C3N4, and Ti3C2Tx serves as a co‐catalyst. Different composition ratios of Chl/Ti3C2Tx are compared for their light‐harvesting ability, morphology, charge transfer efficiency, and photocatalytic performance. The best HER performance is found to be as high as 52 ± 5 µmol h−1 gcat−1 after optimization. Such a large HER activity is attributed to the efficient light harvesting followed by exciton transfer in Chl aggregates and the resultant charge separation at the interface of Chl/Ti3C2Tx.

Assembly of β‐SiC Nanowires film and humidity sensing performance

Abstractβ‐SiC materials have been seen as the third‐generation semiconductor widely used in kinds of photoelectric device, high temperature electronics, and other fields. Compared with ordinary semiconductors, β‐SiC materials have huge potential application in replacing monocrystalline silicon in extreme environments because of their numerals extraordinary chemical and physical properties. Based on this, β‐SiC nanowires obviously are more desirable in any way. Here, we present a modified chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to synthesis β‐SiC nanowires, which needs no protect gas, and transfer it to Si/SiO2 substrates equipped with Au electrodes. The microstructure of the as‐prepared samples is tested by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The humidity sensing performance of electronic device is measured by electrochemical workstation test equipment. It shows that the resistance of β‐SiC nanowires increases with increasing environment humidity within very short response/recovery time‐0.5 seconds/0.5 seconds and also performs excellent cycling stability. Such advantage superiorities make it highly possible to apply β‐SiC nanowires into various environments.

Traditional Semiconductors in the Two-Dimensional Limit.

Interest in two-dimensional materials has exploded in recent years. Not only are they studied due to their novel electronic properties, such as the emergent Dirac fermion in graphene, but also as a new paradigm in which stacking layers of distinct two-dimensional materials may enable different functionality or devices. Here, through first-principles theory, we reveal a large new class of two-dimensional materials which are derived from traditional III-V, II-VI, and I-VII semiconductors. It is found that in the ultrathin limit the great majority of traditional binary semiconductors studied (a series of 28 semiconductors) are not only kinetically stable in a two-dimensional double layer honeycomb structure, but more energetically stable than the truncated wurtzite or zinc-blende structures associated with three dimensional bulk. These findings both greatly increase the landscape of two-dimensional materials and also demonstrate that in the double layer honeycomb form, even ordinary semiconductors, such as GaAs, can exhibit exotic topological properties.

Novel Chern insulators with half-metallic edge states

The central target of spintronics research is to achieve flexible control of highly efficient and spin-polarized electronic currents. Based on first-principles calculations and k·p models, we demonstrate that Cu2S/MnSe heterostructures are a novel type of Chern insulators with half-metallic chiral edge states and a very high Fermi velocity (0.87 × 106 m s−1). The full spin-polarization of the edge states is found to be robust against the tuning of the chemical potential. Unlike the mechanisms reported previously, this heterostructure has quadratic bands with a normal band order, that is, the p/d-like band is below the s-like band. Charge transfer between the Cu2S moiety and the substrate results in variation in the occupied bands, which together with spin–orbit coupling, triggers the appearance of the topological state in the system. These results imply that numerous ordinary semiconductors with normal band order may convert into Chern insulators with half-metallic chiral edge states through this mechanism, providing a strategy to find a rich variety of materials for dissipationless, 100% spin-polarized and high-speed spintronic devices.

Thermoelectric transport parallel to the planes in a multilayered Mott-Hubbard heterostructure

We present a theory for charge and heat transport parallel to the interfaces of a multilayer (ML) in which the interfacing gives rise the redistribution of the electronic charges. The ensuing electrical field couples self-consistently to the itinerant electrons, so that the properties of the ML crucially depend on an interplay between the on-site Coulomb forces and the long range electrostatic forces. The ML is described by the Falicov-Kimball model and the self-consistent solution is obtained by iterating simultaneously the DMFT and the Poisson equations. This yields the reconstructed charge profile, the electrical potential, the planar density of states, the transport function, and the transport coefficients of the device. We find that a heterostructure built of two Mott-Hubbard insulators exhibits, in a large temperature interval, a linear conductivity and a large temperature-independent thermopower. The charge and energy currents are confined to the central part of the ML. Our results indicate that correlated multilayers have the potential for applications; by tuning the band shift and the Coulomb correlation on the central planes, we can bring the chemical potential in the immediate proximity of the Mott-Hubbard gap edge and optimize the transport properties of the device. In such a heterostructure, a small gate voltage can easily induce a MI transition. This switching does not involve the diffusion of electrons over macroscopic distances and it is much faster than in ordinary semiconductors. Furthermore, the right combination of strongly correlated materials with small ZT can produce, theoretically at least, a heterostructure with a large ZT.

Robust fully-compensated ferrimagnetism and semiconductivity in inverse Heusler compounds: Ti2VZ (Z = P, As, Sb, Bi)

Compensated ferrimagnets, due to their zero net magnetization and potential for large spin-polarization, have been attracting more and more attention in the field of spintronics. We demonstrate potential candidate materials among the inverse Heusler compounds Ti2VZ (Z = P, As, Sb, Bi) by first principles calculations. It is found that these compounds with 18 valence electrons per unit cell have zero net magnetic moment with compensated sublattice magnetization, as anticipated by a variant of Slater-Pauling rule of Mt = NV − 18, where Mt is the total spin magnetic moment per formula unit and NV is the number of valence electrons per formula unit, and show semiconducting behavior in both spin channels with a moderate exchange splitting, as with ordinary ferromagnetic semiconductors. Furthermore, the fully compensated ferrimagnetism and semiconductivity are rather robust over a wide range of lattice contraction and expansion. Due to the above distinct advantages, these compounds will be promising candidates for spintronic applications.

Dielectric properties of amorphous phase-change materials

The dielectric function of several amorphous phase-change materials has been determined by employing a combination of impedance spectroscopy (9 kHz--3 GHz) and optical spectroscopy from the far- $(20\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, 0.6 THz) to the near- $(12\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}000\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, 360 THz) infrared, i.e., from the DC limit to the first interband transition. While phase-change materials undergo a change from covalent bonding to resonant bonding on crystallization, the amorphous and crystalline phases of ordinary chalcogenide semiconductors are both governed by virtually the same covalent bonds. Here, we study the dielectric properties of amorphous phase-change materials on the pseudobinary line between GeTe and $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_{2}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{3}$. These data provide important insights into the charge transport and the nature of bonding in amorphous phase-change materials. No frequency dependence of permittivity and conductivity is discernible in the impedance spectroscopy measurements. Consequently, there are no dielectric relaxations. The frequency-independent conductivity is in line with charge transport via extended states. The static dielectric constant significantly exceeds the optical dielectric constant. This observation is corroborated by transmittance measurements in the far infrared, which show optical phonons. From the intensity of these phonon modes, a large Born effective charge is derived. Nevertheless, it is known that crystalline phase-change materials such as GeTe possess even significantly larger Born effective charges. Crystallization is hence accompanied by a huge increase in the Born effective charge, which reveals a significant change of bonding upon crystallization. In addition, a clear stoichiometry trend in the static dielectric constant along the pseudobinary line between GeTe and $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_{2}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{3}$ has been identified.

Calculation of room temperature conductivity and mobility in tin-based topological insulator nanoribbons

Monolayers of tin (stannanane) functionalized with halogens have been shown to be topological insulators. Using density functional theory (DFT), we study the electronic properties and room-temperature transport of nanoribbons of iodine-functionalized stannanane showing that the overlap integral between the wavefunctions associated to edge-states at opposite ends of the ribbons decreases with increasing width of the ribbons. Obtaining the phonon spectra and the deformation potentials also from DFT, we calculate the conductivity of the ribbons using the Kubo-Greenwood formalism and show that their mobility is limited by inter-edge phonon backscattering. We show that wide stannanane ribbons have a mobility exceeding 106 cm2/Vs. Contrary to ordinary semiconductors, two-dimensional topological insulators exhibit a high conductivity at low charge density, decreasing with increasing carrier density. Furthermore, the conductivity of iodine-functionalized stannanane ribbons can be modulated over a range of three orders of magnitude, thus rendering this material extremely interesting for classical computing applications.

Metallic Interface Emerging at Magnetic Domain Wall of Antiferromagnetic Insulator: Fate of Extinct Weyl Electrons

Topological insulators, in contrast to ordinary semiconductors, accompany protected metallic surfaces described by Dirac-type fermions. Here, we theoretically show another emergent two-dimensional metal embedded in the bulk insulator is realized at a magnetic domain wall. The domain wall has long been studied as ingredients of both old-fashioned and leading-edge spintronics. The domain wall here, as an interface of seemingly trivial antiferromagnetic insulators, emergently realizes a functional interface preserved by zero modes with robust two-dimensional Fermi surfaces, where pyrochlore iridium oxides proposed to host condensed-matter realization of Weyl fermions offer such examples at low temperatures. The existence of ingap states pinned at domain walls, theoretically resembling spin/charge solitons in polyacetylene, and protected as the edge of hidden one-dimensional weak Chern insulators characterized by a zero-dimensional class A topological invariant, solves experimental puzzles observed in R2Ir2O7 with rare earth elements R. The domain wall realizes a novel quantum confinement of electrons and embosses a net uniform magnetization, which enables magnetic control of electronic interface transports beyond semiconductor paradigm.

Topological Insulating States in Laterally Patterned Ordinary Semiconductors

We propose that ordinary semiconductors with large spin-orbit coupling, such as GaAs, can host stable, robust, and tunable topological states in the presence of quantum confinement and superimposed potentials with hexagonal symmetry. We show that the electronic gaps which support chiral spin edge states can be as large as the electronic bandwidth in the heterostructure miniband. The existing lithographic technology can produce a topological insulator operating at a temperature of 10-100 K. Improvement of lithographic techniques will open the way to a tunable room temperature topological insulator.

Nonrelativistic quantum dynamics on a cone with and without a constraining potential

In this paper we investigate the bound state problem of nonrelativistic quantum particles on a conical surface. This kind of surface appears as a topological defect in ordinary semiconductors as well as in graphene sheets. Specifically, we compare and discuss the results stemming from two different approaches. In the first one, it is assumed that the charge carriers are bound to the surface by a constraining potential, while the second one is based on the Klein-Gordon type equation on surfaces, without the constraining potential. The main difference between both theories is the presence/absence of a potential which contains the mean curvature of a given surface. This fact changes the dependence of the bound states on the angular momentum l. Moreover, there are bound states that are absent in the Klein-Gordon theory, which instead appear in the Schrödinger one.

Phase diagram of graphene nanoribbons and band-gap bifurcation of Dirac fermions under quantum confinement

A $p$-$T$ phase diagram of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) terminated by hydrogen atoms is established based on first-principles calculations, where the stable phase at standard conditions (25 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C and 1 bar) is found to be a zigzag GNR (zzGNR). The stability of this new GNR is understood based on an electron-counting model, which predicts semiconducting nonmagnetic zzGNRs. Quantum confinement of Dirac fermions in the stable zzGNRs is found to be qualitatively different from that in ordinary semiconductors. Bifurcation of the band gap is predicted to take place, leading to the formation of polymorphs with distinct band gaps but equal thermodynamic stability. A tight-binding model analysis reveals the role of edge symmetry on the band-gap bifurcation.

Spin-dependent transport in double ferromagnetic-gate graphene structures

Based on the non-equilibrium Green's function method recently developed to solve the quantum relativistic-like Dirac's equation, spin dependent transport in double ferromagnetic-gate graphene structures has been investigated. The study is focussed on the possibility of controlling the spin polarization and the tunnelling magneto-resistance by the gate voltages. Different from the case of ordinary semiconductors, obtained results show that the transport depends weakly on the well width, but strongly on the confined hole states in the gated regions.

Electronic Compressibility of a Graphene Bilayer

We calculate the electronic compressibility arising from electron-electron interactions for a graphene bilayer within the Hartree-Fock approximation. We show that, due to the chiral nature of the particles in this system, the compressibility is rather different from those of either the two-dimensional electron gas or ordinary semiconductors. We find that an inherent competition between the contributions coming from intraband exchange interactions (dominant at low densities) and interband interactions (dominant at moderate densities) leads to a nonmonotonic behavior of the compressibility as a function of carrier density.