Quantum States Of Electrons Research Articles

Spin-torque quantization and microwave sensitivity of a nano-sized spin diode

Rectification of microwave signal by the spin-torque diode is very promising for its practical applications in microwave imaging. This is due to a very high sensitivity of magnetic tunnel junction under the bias current, which was previously demonstrated in a number of works [1-3]. The decreasing of cross-sectional area of the spin-torque diode up to the nano-sized dimensions below 10 nm allows one to reach high sensitivity without any bias current. Transverse quantization of electron states in the magnetic nanowire based on nano-sized metallic spin valves and magnetic tunnel junctions can create an additional impact not only on the magnetoresistance, but also on the spin-transfer torque in such structures. In this work we present an analysis of the quantization effect of conductance and spin-transfer torques on the microwave sensitivity of nano-sized spin-torque diodes during the reduction of its cross-sectional area. It was found that the magnetoresistance values up to 130 % can be achieved in a magnetic nanowire containing spin-valve diode with the nonmagnetic metal spacer. As a result, the maximum microwave sensitivity of spin-torque diodes based on these structures can be increased several times that opens the way for the further development of highly sensitive microwave detectors.

CRYSTALLINE ACCOMMODATION LAW EXPLAINS THE CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF MATERIALS

All crystalline materials crystallize in one of seven crystalline systems which have different shapes and sizes. Why crystalline materials take particular forms of crystals and what make the atoms arrange themselves in these forms. Actually, until now there is no well defined law can account for the crystalline structure of materials. Here we show that the crystalline accommodation law, which is theoretically derived and experimentally verified, can explain the crystalline structure of all types of phases. This law is derived directly from the quantum conditions on the free electrons Fermi gas inside the crystal. The new law relates both the volume of Fermi sphere VF and volume of Brillouin zone VB to the valence electron concentration VEC as, for all crystalline systems and phases, where n is the number of atoms per lattice point or primitive cell. Also because of this law, we introduce the occupied electronic quantum states notation (OEQS), which determine the number of occupied zones in the valence band.

Quantum scattering beyond the plane-wave approximation

While a plane-wave approximation in high-energy physics works well in a majority of practical cases, it becomes inapplicable for scattering of the vortex particles carrying orbital angular momentum, of Airy beams, of the so-called Schrödinger cat states, and their generalizations. Such quantum states of photons, electrons and neutrons have been generated experimentally in recent years, opening up new perspectives in quantum optics, electron microscopy, particle physics, and so forth. Here we discuss the non-plane-wave effects in scattering brought about by the novel quantum numbers of these wave packets. For the well-focused electrons of intermediate energies, already available at electron microscopes, the corresponding contribution can surpass that of the radiative corrections. Moreover, collisions of the cat-like superpositions of such focused beams with atoms allow one to probe effects of the quantum interference, which have never played any role in particle scattering.

Attosecond electron pulse trains and quantum state reconstruction in ultrafast transmission electron microscopy

We introduce a framework for the preparation, coherent manipulation and characterization of free-electron quantum states, experimentally demonstrating attosecond pulse trains for electron microscopy. Specifically, we employ phase-locked single-color and two-color optical fields to coherently control the electron wave function along the beam direction. We establish a new variant of quantum state tomography - "SQUIRRELS" - to reconstruct the density matrices of free-electron ensembles and their attosecond temporal structure. The ability to tailor and quantitatively map electron quantum states will promote the nanoscale study of electron-matter entanglement and the development of new forms of ultrafast electron microscopy and spectroscopy down to the attosecond regime.

Quantum Oscillations of the Microwave Sensitivity of a Spin-Torque Diode in a Magnetic Nanobridge

The reduction of the area of the cross section of a spin-valve-like structure to a nanoscale is an important problem of modern spin electronics. However, the transverse quantization of electronic states in the spin valve, which forms a magnetic nanobridge at this scale, additionally affects not only the magnetoresistance but also the spin-transfer torques. In this work, features of the quantization of the magnetoresistance and spin-angular momentum associated with the spin transfer in a Co/Au/Co metallic nanobridge with metallic contacts have been theoretically analyzed. It has been shown that these features are manifested in oscillations of the microwave sensitivity of a spin-torque diode based on the spin-valve structure mentioned above.

Spatial transport of electron quantum states with strong attosecond pulses

This work follows up the work of Dimitrovsky, Briggs and co-workers on translated electron atomic states by a strong field of an atto-second laser pulse, also described as creation of atoms without a nucleus. Here, we propose a new approach by analyzing the electron states in the Kramers–Henneberger moving frame in the dipole approximation. The wave function follows the displacement vector . This allows arbitrarily shaped pulses, including the model delta-function potentials in the Dimitrovsky and Briggs approach. In the case of final-length single-cycle pulses, we apply both the Kramers–Henneberger moving frame analysis and a full numerical treatment of our 1D model. When the laser pulse frequency exceeds the frequency associated by the energy difference between initial and final states, the entire wavefunction is translated in space nearly without loss of coherence, to a well defined distance from the original position where the ionized core is left behind. This statement is demonstrated on the excited Rydberg states (n = 10, n = 15), where almost no distortion in the transported wave functions has been observed. However, the ground state (n = 1) is visibly distorted during the removal by pulses of reasonable frequencies, as also predicted by Dimitrovsky and Briggs analysis. Our approach allows us to analyze general pulses as well as the model delta-function potentials on the same footing in the Kramers–Henneberger frame.

Realizing double Dirac particles in the presence of electronic interactions

Double Dirac fermions have recently been identified as possible quasiparticles hosted by three-dimensional crystals with particular non-symmorphic point group symmetries. Applying a combined approach of ab-initio methods and dynamical mean field theory, we investigate how interactions and double Dirac band topology conspire to form the electronic quantum state of Bi$_2$CuO$_4$. We derive a downfolded eight-band model of the pristine material at low energies around the Fermi level. By tuning the model parameters from the free band structure to the realistic strongly correlated regime, we find a persistence of the double Dirac dispersion until its constituting time reveral symmetry is broken due to the onset of magnetic ordering at the Mott transition. We analyze pressure as a promising route to realize a double-Dirac metal in Bi$_2$CuO$_4$.

Effect of random vacancies on the electronic properties of graphene and T graphene: a theoretical approach

In this communication we present together four distinct techniques for the study of electronic structure of solids : the tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbitals (TB-LMTO), the real space and augmented space recursions and the modified exchange-correlation. Using this we investigate the effect of random vacancies on the electronic properties of the carbon hexagonal allotrope, graphene, and the non-hexagonal allotrope, planar T graphene. We have inserted random vacancies at different concentrations, to simulate disorder in pristine graphene and planar T graphene sheets. The resulting disorder, both on-site (diagonal disorder) as well as in the hopping integrals (off-diagonal disorder), introduces sharp peaks in the vicinity of the Dirac point built up from localized states for both hexagonal and non-hexagonal structures. These peaks become resonances with increasing vacancy concentration. We find that in presence of vacancies, graphene-like linear dispersion appears in planar T graphene and the cross points form a loop in the first Brillouin zone similar to buckled T graphene that originates from $\pi$ and $\pi$* bands without regular hexagonal symmetry. We also calculate the single-particle relaxation time, $\tau(\vec{q})$ of $\vec{q}$ labeled quantum electronic states which originates from scattering due to presence of vacancies, causing quantum level broadening.

Transparent Perovskite Barium Stannate with High Electron Mobility and Thermal Stability

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) and transparent oxide semiconductors (TOSs) have become necessary materials for a variety of applications in the information and energy technologies, ranging from transparent electrodes to active electronics components. Perovskite barium stannate (BaSnO3), a new TCO or TOS system, is a potential platform for realizing optoelectronic devices and observing novel electronic quantum states due to its high electron mobility, excellent thermal stability, high transparency, structural versatility, and flexible doping controllability. This article reviews recent progress in the doped BaSnO3 system, discussing the wide range of physical properties, electron-scattering mechanism, and demonstration of key semiconducting devices such as pn diodes and field-effect transistors. Moreover, we discuss the pathways to achieving two-dimensional electron gases at the interface between BaSnO3 and other perovskite oxides and describe remaining challenges for observing novel quantum phenomena at the heterointerface.

Te vacancy-driven superconductivity in orthorhombic molybdenum ditelluride

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have received great attentions because of diverse quantum electronic states such as topological insulating (TI), Weyl semimetallic (WSM) and superconducting states. Recently, the superconducting states emerged in pressurized semimetallic TMDs such as MoTe2 and WTe2 have become one of the central issues due to their predicted WSM states. However, the difficulty in synthetic control of chalcogen vacancies and the ambiguous magneto transport properties have hindered the rigorous study on superconducting and WSM states. Here, we report the emergence of superconductivity at 2.1 K in Te-deficient orthorhombic Td-MoTe2−x with an intrinsic electron-doping, while stoichiometric monoclinic 1T′-MoTe2 shows no superconducting state down to 10 mK, but exhibits a large magnetoresistance of 32 000% at 2 K in a magnetic field of 14 T originating from nearly perfect compensation of electron and hole carriers. Scanning tunnelling spectroscopy and synchrotron x-ray diffraction combined with theoretical calculations clarify that Te vacancies trigger superconductivity via intrinsic electron doping and the evolution of the Td phase from the 1T′ phase below 200 K. Unlike the pressure-induced superconducting state of monoclinic MoTe2, this Te vacancy-induced superconductivity is emerged in orthorhombic MoTe2, which is predicted as Weyl semimetal, via electron-doping. This chalcogen vacancy induced-superconductivity provides a new route for cultivating superconducting state together with WSM state in 2D van der Waals materials.

Localization landscape theory of disorder in semiconductors. I. Theory and modeling

We present here a model of carrier distribution and transport in semiconductor alloys accounting for quantum localization effects in disordered materials. This model is based on the recent development of a mathematical theory of quantum localization which introduces for each type of carrier a spatial function called localization landscape. These landscapes allow us to predict the localization regions of electron and hole quantum states, their corresponding energies, and the local densities of states. We show how the various outputs of these landscapes can be directly implemented into a drift-diffusion model of carrier transport and into the calculation of absorption/emission transitions. This creates a new computational model which accounts for disorder localization effects while also capturing two major effects of quantum mechanics, namely, the reduction of barrier height (tunneling effect) and the raising of energy ground states (quantum confinement effect), without having to solve the Schr\"odinger equation. Finally, this model is applied to several one-dimensional structures such as single quantum wells, ordered and disordered superlattices, or multiquantum wells, where comparisons with exact Schr\"odinger calculations demonstrate the excellent accuracy of the approximation provided by the landscape theory.

On the peculiarities of galvanomagnetic effects in high magnetic fields in twisting bicrystals of the 3D topological insulator Bi1–x Sb x (0.07 ≤ x ≤ 0.2)

Galvanomagnetic effects in twisting bicrystals of Bi1–x Sb x alloys (0.07 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) at low temperatures and in magnetic fields up to 40 T are studied. It is found that, at small crystallite misorientation angles, the semiconductor–semimetal transition is induced in the central layer (~60-nm-thick) and two adjacent layers (each ~20-nm-thick) of the interface at different values of ultraquantum magnetic field. Bicrystals with large misorientation angles, being located in strong magnetic fields, exhibit quantum oscillations of the magnetoresistance and the Hall effect, thus indicating that the density of states is higher and charge carriers are heavier in the adjacent layers of the interfaces than in the crystallites. Our results show also that twisting bicrystals contain regions with different densities of quantum electronic states, which are determined by the crystallite misorientation angle and magnetic-field strength.

Intense laser field effects on the intersubband optical absorption and refractive index change in the [formula omitted]-doped GaAs quantum wells

In this paper, we have investigated the effects of the non-resonant intense laser field on the electronic and optical properties such as linear, nonlinear and the total optical absorption coefficient and refractive index change for transitions between two lower-lying electronic states in the GaAs-based δ-doped quantum well. Within the effective mass approximation, we calculated the eigenvalues and corresponding eigenfunctions as a function of the intense laser parameter by solving the Schrödinger equation in the laser-dressed confinement potential. The analytical expressions of the linear and third-order non-linear optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes are obtained by using the compact-density matrix formalism. The obtained results show that the separation between ground and first excited energy levels in the δ-doped quantum well decreases in energy by the increase of the laser field intensity and this effect leads to an optical red-shift in the intersubband transitions. This behavior gives us a new degree of freedom in tunability of different device applications based on the optical transitions.

Quantum model for mode locking in pulsed semiconductor quantum dots

Quantum dots in GaAs/InGaAs structures have been proposed as a candidate system for realizing quantum computing. The short coherence time of the electronic quantum state that arises from coupling to the nuclei of the substrate is dramatically increased if the system is subjected to a magnetic field and to repeated optical pulsing. This enhancement is due to mode locking: oscillation frequencies resonant with the pulsing frequencies are enhanced, while off-resonant oscillations eventually die out. Because the resonant frequencies are determined by the pulsing frequency only, the system becomes immune to frequency shifts caused by the nuclear coupling and by slight variations between individual quantum dots. The effects remain even after the optical pulsing is terminated. In this work, we explore the phenomenon of mode locking from a quantum mechanical perspective. We treat the dynamics using the central-spin model, which includes coupling to 10--20 nuclei and incoherent decay of the excited electronic state, in a perturbative framework. Using scaling arguments, we extrapolate our results to realistic system parameters. We estimate that the synchronization to the pulsing frequency needs time scales in the order of $1\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{s}$.

Quantum Confinement Effects on the Near Field Enhancement in Metallic Nanoparticles

In this work, we study the strong confinement effects on the electromagnetic response of metallic nanoparticles. We calculate the field enhancement factor for nanospheres of various radii by using optical constants obtained from both classical and quantum approaches, and compare their size dependent features. To evaluate the scattered near field, we solve the electromagnetic wave equation within a finite element framework. When quantization of electronic states is considered for the input optical functions, a significant blue-shift in the resonance of the enhanced field is observed, in contrast to the case in which functions obtained classically are used. Furthermore, a noticeable underestimation of the field amplification is found in the calculation based on a classical dielectric function. Our results are in good agreement with available experimental reports and provide relevant information on the cross-over between classical and quantum regime, useful in potentiating nanoplasmonics applications.

Finite Element Modeling of Fowler–Nordheim Program-Erase Process in High- $k$ Interpoly Dielectric Flash Memories

The program/erase process in floating gate (FG) flash memory devices is modeled by considering sequential quantum tunneling of electrons and taking into account quantum confinement in the channel and FG. We precisely determine location of quasi-bound or decaying quantum states in the inversion layer and in FG comprising a nanocrystal (NC) layer, and compute their lifetime by finding the complex eigenenergy of the resonance transmission problem. Self-consistent solutions to Poisson and Schrodinger equations are obtained for the quantum states of electrons in the inversion layer of MOS devices, and subsequently, sequential Fowler–Nordheim tunneling current to the spherical NCs is obtained using finite-element method considering open boundary conditions. The method described here is capable of determining the tunneling current accurately for arbitrary potential profiles, and can be applied for composite tunnel dielectric stacks. Our results show good agreement with the experimental data for high- $k$ interpoly dielectric flash memory devices.

Temperature activated coupling in topologically distinct semiconductor nanostructures

We present a detailed analysis of the emission of individual GaAs/AlGaAs complex nano-systems composed of two concentric and topologically distinct quantum nanostructures, namely, a quantum dot and a quantum ring. Time resolved, temperature and excitation power density dependence of the photoluminescence from single and ensemble dot/ring structures have been used in order to determine the carrier dynamics. Despite the small spatial separation between the dot and the ring, the exciton dynamics in the two nanostructures is completely decoupled at low temperatures. At higher temperatures, we observe a clear change in the carrier dynamics, which shows the onset of the coupling between the two nanostructures. We attribute such change in carrier dynamics to the breaking of topology induced selection rules which allows the transfer of the carriers between the dot and the ring via an electronic quantum state, common to the two nanostructures.

Spin of the ground quantum state of electrons from first principles in the representation of Feynman path integrals

A method for calculating the spin of the ground quantum state of nonrelativistic electrons and distance between energy levels of quantum states differing in the spin magnitude from first principles is proposed. The approach developed is free from the one-electron approximation and applicable in multielectron systems with allowance for all spatial correlations. The possibilities of the method are demonstrated by the example of calculating the energy gap between spin states in model ellipsoidal quantum dots with a harmonic confining field. The results of computations by the Monte Carlo method point to high sensitivity of the energy gap to the break of spherical symmetry of the quantum dot. For three electrons, the phenomenon of inversion has been revealed for levels corresponding to high and low values of the spin. The calculations demonstrate the practical possibility to obtain spin states with arbitrarily close energies by varying the shape of the quantum dot, which is a key condition for development prospects in technologies of storage systems based on spin qubits.

Analytical chemistry, multidimensional spectral signatures, and the future of coherent multidimensional spectroscopy

Spectroscopy is a dominant measurement methodology because it resolves molecular level details over a wide concentration range. Its limitations, however, become challenged when applied to complex materials. Coherent multidimensional spectroscopy (CMDS) is the optical analogue of multidimensional NMR and like NMR, its multidimensionality promises to increase the spectral selectivity of vibrational and electronic spectroscopy. This article explores whether this promise can make CMDS a dominant spectroscopic method throughout the sciences. In order for CMDS to become a dominant methodology, it must create multidimensional spectral fingerprints that provide the selectivity required for probing complex samples. Pump-CMDS probe methods separate the pump’s measurement of dynamics from a multidimensional and selective probe. Fully coherent CMDS methods are ideal multidimensional probes because they avoid relaxation effects, spectrally isolate the output signals, and provide unique and invariant spectral signatures using any combination of vibrational and electronic quantum states.

Europe bets €1 billion on Quantum tech [News

European quantum physicists have done some amazing things over the past few decades: sent single photons to Earth orbit and back, created quantum bits that will be at the heart of computers that can crack today's encryption, and "teleported" the quantum states of photons, electrons, and atoms. But they've had less success at turning the science into technology. At least that's the feeling of some 3,400 scientists who signed the "Quantum Manifesto," which calls for a big European project to support and coordinate quantum-tech R&D. The European Commission heard them, and answered in May with a ϵ1 billion, 10-year-long megaproject called the Quantum Technology Flagship, to begin in 2018.