Subband Splitting Research Articles

Reliability of In-band and Broadband Spectral Index Measurement: Systematic Study of the Effect of Signal-to-noise Ratio for uGMRT Data

Low-radio-frequency spectral index measurements are a powerful tool for distinguishing between different emission mechanisms and, in turn, understanding the nature of the sources. Besides the standard method of estimating the “broadband” spectral index of sources from observations in two different frequency “bands,” if the observations were made with large instantaneous bandwidth, the “in-band” spectral index can be determined, either using images of emission at multiple frequency ranges within a band or using the novel Multi Term-Multi Frequency Synthesis (MT-MFS) imaging algorithm. Here, using simulated upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) data, we have systematically studied the reliability of various methods of spectral index estimation for sources with a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns). It is found that for synthetic uGMRT point-source data, the MT-MFS imaging algorithm produces in-band spectral indices for S/N ≲ 100 that have errors ≳0.2, making them unreliable. However, at a similar S/N, the sub-band splitting method produces errors ≲0.2, which are more accurate and unbiased than the in-band spectral indices. The broadband spectral indices produce errors ≲0.2 even for S/N ≳ 15, and hence they are most reliable if there are no higher-order variations in the spectral index. These results may be used to improve the uGMRT observation and data analysis strategies, depending on the brightness of the target source.

Optimizing thermoelectric performance of carbon-doped h-BN monolayers through tuning carrier concentrations and magnetic field

The thermoelectric properties of carbon-doped monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are studied using a tight-binding model employing Green function approach and the Kubo formalism. Accurate tight-binding parameters are obtained to achieve excellent fitting with Density Functional Theory results for doped h-BN structures with impurity type and concentration. The influence of carbon doping on the electronic properties, electrical conductivity, and heat capacity of h-BN is studied, especially under an applied magnetic field. Electronic properties are significantly altered by doping type, concentration, and magnetic field due to subband splitting, merging of adjacent subbands, and band gap reduction. These modifications influence the number, location, and magnitude of DOS peaks, generating extra peaks inside the band gap region. Heat capacity displays pronounced dependence on both magnetic field and impurity concentration, exhibiting higher intensity at lower dopant levels. Electrical conductivity is increased by double carbon doping compared to single doping, but is reduced at high magnetic fields because of high carrier scattering. The electronic figure of merit ZT increases with lower impurity concentration and is higher for CB versus CN doping at a given field strength. The power factor can be improved by increasing magnetic field and decreasing doping concentration. In summary, controlling doping and magnetic field demonstrates the ability to effectively engineer the thermoelectric properties of monolayer h-BN.

Penta graphene: Investigating the role of external fields and electron/hole doping in enhancing transport performance

This comprehensive study utilizes the full tight-binding model and Green's function approach, employing the linear response theory, to investigate the electronic and thermal conductance of penta-graphene (PG) under various external parameters such as bias voltage, magnetic field, and doping. The results reveal that these parameters significantly enhance the thermoelectric properties of PG through modifications in its band structure and increased charge carrier density. By applying electric and magnetic fields, the wide band gap of PG, can be substantially reduced, with the magnetic field inducing subband splitting and modifying the band edges. The thermal properties of PG are initially negligible below 1500 K in the absence of external fields, but their magnitude increases remarkably by external fields, with the magnetic field exhibiting a more pronounced effect than the electric field. Interestingly, the chemical potential exhibits a surprising influence on the temperature dependence of PG's thermal properties, surpassing even the impact of the magnetic field at higher temperatures. The Lorenz number of PG complies with the Wiedemann-Franz law, remaining constant at low temperatures and reaching a peak value at higher temperatures and external fields alters this behavior by reducing the constant region and shifting the peak to lower temperatures. Moreover, the presence of electron-hole impurities in PG leads to peaks in the power factor (PF) and figure of merit (ZT), with the electric and magnetic fields causing these peaks to shift towards lower impurity concentrations. These findings highlight the potential of PG for various device applications and open up new avenues for further research and development in this promising field.

Remarkable thermopower property enhancement in two-dimensional SiC via B and N doping and magnetic field

DFT-based tight binding theory calculations and the Kubo conductivity formula were used to investigate the thermopower properties of 2D SiC with different impurity concentrations and magnetic field. The electronic and thermal properties were studied for cases that a carbon replaced with B (BC) and N (NC) atoms. The impurity concentration has been controlled by varying the number of cells from n2 [two unit cells] to n5 [five unit cells]. The electronic structure of the doped SiC has been strongly modified with the impurity type and the created band gap is sensitive to impurity concentration and field strength. In all selected structures, regardless of the impurity type, the subband splitting and the band gap reduction are caused by the magnetic field. Selective doped structures have thermal properties that are dependent on the type and concentration of impurity and the strength of the magnetic field. As a result of the investigations, we are able to conclude (i) structures that contain lower impurity concentrations have larger thermal properties, (ii) doped structures containing BC impurities exhibit higher thermal properties than doped structures containing NC impurities and (iii) magnetic fields have a stronger influence on structures with lower impurity concentrations.

Magneto-electronic and thermopower properties of B, N and Si doped monolayer graphene

Pure graphene is limited by its gapless energy band structure in catalytic reactions that are important for energy conversion applications. However, impurities can create a band gap and improve the electrical and photocatalytic properties of graphene, leading to a wide range of energy-related applications. In this study, the Kubo-Greenwood formula was used to investigate the thermopower properties of monolayer graphene doped with B, N, and Si atoms under various concentrations of impurities and magnetic fields. The impurity concentration was controlled by varying the number of unit cells. The electronic structure of the doped graphene are strongly influenced by the type and concentration of impurities, with a created energy gap that was sensitive to the impurity concentration. Furthermore, applying a magnetic field resulted in subband splitting and band gap reduction for all selected structures, regardless of the impurity type. The thermal properties of the doped structures are dependent on the impurity type, concentration, and magnetic field strength. It was observed that the thermal properties decreased with increasing impurity concentration and were affected by the magnetic field. The thermal properties of the nitrogen-doped structure is higher than those of the boron-doped and silicon-carbide-doped structures. Overall, these findings are significant for developing more efficient energy conversion devices.

Engineered Kondo screening and nonzero Berry phase in SrTiO3/LaTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures

Controlling the interplay between localized spins and itinerant electrons at the oxide interfaces can lead to exotic magnetic states. Here we devise SrTiO3/LaTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures with varied thickness of the LaTiO3 layer (n monolayers) to investigate the magnetic interactions in the two-dimensional electron gas system. The heterostructures exhibit significant Kondo effect when the LaTiO3 layer is rather thin (n = 2, 10), manifesting the strong interaction between the itinerant electrons and the localized magnetic moments at the interfaces, while the Kondo effect is greatly inhibited when n = 20. Notably, distinct Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations are observed and a nonzero Berry phase of {\pi} is extracted when the LaTiO3 layer is rather thin (n = 2, 10), which is absent in the heterostructure with thicker LaTiO3 layer (n = 20). The observed phenomena are consistently interpreted as a result of sub-band splitting and symmetry breaking due to the interplay between the interfacial Rashba spin-orbit coupling and the magnetic orderings in the heterostructures. Our findings provide a route for exploring and manipulating nontrivial electronic band structures at complex oxide interfaces.

An Efficient Compression Method of Underwater Acoustic Sensor Signals for Underwater Surveillance.

In this paper, we propose a new compression method using underwater acoustic sensor signals for underwater surveillance. Generally, sonar applications that are used for surveillance or ocean monitoring are composed of many underwater acoustic sensors to detect significant sources of sound. It is necessary to apply compression methods to the acquired sensor signals due to data processing and storage resource limitations. In addition, depending on the purposes of the operation and the characteristics of the operating environment, it may also be necessary to apply compression methods of low complexity. Accordingly, in this research, a low-complexity and nearly lossless compression method for underwater acoustic sensor signals is proposed. In the design of the proposed method, we adopt the concepts of quadrature mirror filter (QMF)-based sub-band splitting and linear predictive coding, and we attempt to analyze an entropy coding technique suitable for underwater sensor signals. The experiments show that the proposed method achieves better performance in terms of compression ratio and processing time than popular or standardized lossless compression techniques. It is also shown that the compression ratio of the proposed method is almost the same as that of SHORTEN with a 10-bit maximum mode, and both methods achieve a similar peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) index on average.

Metallization and proximity superconductivity in topological insulator nanowires

A heterostructure consisting of a topological insulator (TI) nanowire brought into proximity with a superconducting layer provides a promising route to achieve topological superconductivity and associated Majorana bound states (MBSs). Here, we study effects caused by such a coupling between a thin layer of an $s$-wave superconductor and a TI nanowire. We show that there is a distinct phenomenology arising from the metallization of states in the TI nanowire by the superconductor. In the strong coupling limit, required to induce a large superconducting pairing potential, we find that metallization results in a shift of the TI nanowire subbands ($\sim 20$ meV) as well as it leads to a small reduction in the size of the subband gap opened by a magnetic field applied parallel to the nanowire axis. Surprisingly, we find that metallization effects in TI nanowires can also be beneficial. Most notably, coupling to the superconductor induces a potential in the portion of the TI nanowire close to the interface with the superconductor, this breaks inversion symmetry and at finite momentum lifts the spin degeneracy of states within a subband. As such coupling to a superconductor can create or enhance the subband splitting that is key to achieving topological superconductivity. This is in stark contrast to semiconductors, where it has been shown that metallization effects always reduce the equivalent subband-splitting caused by spin-orbit coupling. We also find that in certain geometries metallization effects can reduce the critical magnetic required to enter the topological phase. We conclude that, unlike in semiconductors, the metallization effects that occur in TI nanowires can be relatively easily mitigated, for instance by modifying the geometry of the attached superconductor or by compensation of the TI material.

Study of electronic band structure in a 75-nm-wide n-GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well by surface acoustic waves

From measured magnetic field dependences of attenuation and velocity of surface acoustic waves (SAW), we calculated the real part of electron the conductivity in a 75-nm-wide n-GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well in magnetic fields of up to 18 T at frequencies of 30–300 MHz in the temperature range 20–500 mK. We observed slow magneto-oscillations of the conductivity depended on SAW intensity and occurred due to elastic intersubband scattering between the symmetric (S) and antisymmetric (AS) subbands formed by Coulomb repulsion between the electrons. Our theoretical description of the magneto-oscillations allowed estimating the quantum and the intersubband scattering times. The experimentally obtained subband splitting value 0.42 meV was close to the theoretically found 0.57 meV. Additionally, in tilted magnetic fields of 0.5–1.5, T we observed crossings of the Landau levels between the S and AS subbands. According to the developed theory, the crossings at the in-plane field below 1.5 T occur due to different dependences of cyclotron energies in the subbands on the in-plane field. Namely, the cyclotron energy in the S (AS) subband decreases (increases) with the rising of the in-plane field. Work supported by “BASIS,” NSF DMR-1644779 and DMR-1420541, GBMF4420, and State of Florida.]

Large Zeeman Splitting in Out-of-Plane Magnetic Field in a Double-Layer Quantum Point Contact

In this study, we observe that the conductance of a quantum point contact on a GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum well depends significantly on the magnetic field perpendicular to the two-dimensional electron gas. In the presence of the magnetic field, the subband edge splitting due to the Zeeman energy reaches 0.09 meV at 0.16 T, thereby suggesting an enhanced g-factor. The estimated g-factor enhancement is 17.5 times that of the bare value. It is considered that a low electron density and high mobility makes it possible to reach a strong many-body interaction regime in which this type of strong enhancement in g-factor can be observed.

Large enhancement of thermoelectric performance in MoS2/h-BN heterostructure due to vacancy-induced band hybridization

Local impurity states arising from atomic vacancies in two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets are predicted to have a profound effect on charge transport due to resonant scattering and can be used to manipulate thermoelectric properties. However, the effects of these impurities are often masked by external fluctuations and turbostratic interfaces; therefore, it is challenging to probe the correlation between vacancy impurities and thermoelectric parameters experimentally. In this work, we demonstrate that n-type molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) supported on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrate reveals a large anomalous positive Seebeck coefficient with strong band hybridization. The presence of vacancies on MoS2 with a large conduction subband splitting of 50.0 ± 5.0 meV may contribute to Kondo insulator-like properties. Furthermore, by tuning the chemical potential, the thermoelectric power factor can be enhanced by up to two orders of magnitude to 50 mW m-1 K-2 Our work shows that defect engineering in 2D materials provides an effective strategy for controlling band structure and tuning thermoelectric transport.

Observation of the Spin-Orbit Gap in Bilayer Graphene by One-Dimensional Ballistic Transport.

We report on measurements of quantized conductance in gate-defined quantum point contacts in bilayer graphene that allow the observation of subband splittings due to spin-orbit coupling. The size of this splitting can be tuned from 40 to 80 μeV by the displacement field. We assign this gate-tunable subband splitting to a gap induced by spin-orbit coupling of Kane-Mele type, enhanced by proximity effects due to the substrate. We show that this spin-orbit coupling gives rise to a complex pattern in low perpendicular magnetic fields, increasing the Zeeman splitting in one valley and suppressing it in the other one. In addition, we observe a spin polarized channel of 6e^{2}/h at high in-plane magnetic field and signatures of interaction effects at the crossings of spin-split subbands of opposite spins at finite magnetic field.

Time-Varying Time–Frequency Tilings Using Non-Uniform Orthogonal Filterbanks Based on MDCT Analysis/Synthesis and Time Domain Aliasing Reduction

Time Domain Aliasing Reduction (TDAR) is a method to improve the impulse response compactness of non-uniform orthogonal Modified Discrete Cosine Transforms (MDCT). Previously, TDAR was only possible between frames of identical time-frequency tilings, however in this letter we describe a method to overcome this limitation. This method enables the use of TDAR between two consecutive frames of different time-frequency tilings by introducing another subband merging or subband splitting step. Consecutively, this method allows more flexible and adaptive filterbank tilings while retaining compact impulse responses, two attributes needed for efficient perceptual audio coding.

Magnetoresistance, magnetoimpedance, magnetothermopower, and photoconductivity in silver-doped manganese sulfides

New multifunction materials in the AgXMn1‒XS (Х = 0.05) system have been synthesized and investigated in the temperature range of 77‒500 K in magnetic fields up to 12 kOe. Near the temperature of the magnetic transition (ТN = 176 K), the anomalous behavior of the temperature dependence of magnetization has been observed and has been attributed to the formation of ferrons. An analysis of the infrared spectroscopy data and I‒V characteristics has revealed the spin-polaron subband splitting. Several conductivity channels have been found from the impedance spectra. The temperature and magnetic field dependences of the carrier relaxation time have been obtained. The magnetoresistance (−21%), magnetoimpedance (−65%), magnetothermopower (−40%), and photoconductivity effects have been detected. The majority carrier type, density, and mobility have been determined from the Hall-effect measurement data. The observed effects have been explained using a ferron model.

Valley Subband Splitting in Bilayer Graphene Quantum Point Contacts.

We report a study of one-dimensional subband splitting in a bilayer graphene quantum point contact in which quantized conductance in steps of 4e^{2}/h is clearly defined down to the lowest subband. While our source-drain bias spectroscopy measurements reveal an unconventional confinement, we observe a full lifting of the valley degeneracy at high magnetic fields perpendicular to the bilayer graphene plane for the first two lowest subbands where confinement and Coulomb interactions are the strongest and a peculiar merging or mixing of K and K^{'} valleys from two nonadjacent subbands with indices (N,N+2), which are well described by our semiphenomenological model.

GaSb-based diode lasers with asymmetric coupled quantum wells

Asymmetric tunnel coupled quantum wells with built-in resonant second order nonlinearity were designed and fabricated within the antimonide material system. The quantum wells demonstrated intensive photo- and electroluminescence responses associated with optical transitions between two tunnel-split conduction band subbands and one valence band subband. The thickness of the tunnel barrier defined the optical gain bandwidth and resonance energy for the difference frequency generation. The test diode lasers based on asymmetric quantum wells with a conduction subband splitting of about 25 meV operated near 2.1 μm at room temperature and demonstrated high differential gain and excellent performance parameters. The experimental modal gain spectra showed relatively flat top and an extended bandwidth at high pumping levels.

Quantum Hall states observed in thin films of Dirac semimetal Cd3As2

A well known semiconductor Cd3As2 has reentered the spotlight due to its unique electronic structure and quantum transport phenomena as a topological Dirac semimetal. For elucidating and controlling its topological quantum state, high-quality Cd3As2 thin films have been highly desired. Here we report the development of an elaborate growth technique of high-crystallinity and high-mobility Cd3As2 films with controlled thicknesses and the observation of quantum Hall effect dependent on the film thickness. With decreasing the film thickness to 10 nm, the quantum Hall states exhibit variations such as a change in the spin degeneracy reflecting the Dirac dispersion with a large Fermi velocity. Details of the electronic structure including subband splitting and gap opening are identified from the quantum transport depending on the confinement thickness, suggesting the presence of a two-dimensional topological insulating phase. The demonstration of quantum Hall states in our high-quality Cd3As2 films paves a road to study quantum transport and device application in topological Dirac semimetal and its derivative phases.

Ballistic One-Dimensional InAs Nanowire Cross-Junction Interconnects.

Coherent interconnection of quantum bits remains an ongoing challenge in quantum information technology. Envisioned hardware to achieve this goal is based on semiconductor nanowire (NW) circuits, comprising individual NW devices that are linked through ballistic interconnects. However, maintaining the sensitive ballistic conduction and confinement conditions across NW intersections is a nontrivial problem. Here, we go beyond the characterization of a single NW device and demonstrate ballistic one-dimensional (1D) quantum transport in InAs NW cross-junctions, monolithically integrated on Si. Characteristic 1D conductance plateaus are resolved in field-effect measurements across up to four NW-junctions in series. The 1D ballistic transport and sub-band splitting is preserved for both crossing-directions. We show that the 1D modes of a single injection terminal can be distributed into multiple NW branches. We believe that NW cross-junctions are well-suited as cross-directional communication links for the reliable transfer of quantum information as required for quantum computational systems.

Size-effects in indium gallium arsenide nanowire field-effect transistors

We fabricate and analyze InGaAs nanowire MOSFETs with channel widths down to 18 nm. Low-temperature measurements reveal quantized conductance due to subband splitting, a characteristic of 1D systems. We relate these features to device performance at room-temperature. In particular, the threshold voltage versus nanowire width is explained by direct observation of quantization of the first sub-band, i.e., band gap widening. An analytical effective mass quantum well model is able to describe the observed band structure. The results reveal a compromise between reliability, i.e., VT variability, and on-current, through the mean free path, in the choice of the channel material.

Hole effective masses and subband splitting in type-II superlattice infrared detectors

We explore band structure effects to help determine the suitability of n-type type-II superlattice (T2SL) absorbers for infrared detectors. It is often assumed that the exceedingly large growth-direction band-edge curvature hole effective mass in n-type long wavelength infrared (LWIR) T2SL would lead to low hole mobility and therefore low detector collection quantum efficiency. We computed the thermally averaged conductivity effective mass and show that the LWIR T2SL hole conductivity effective mass along the growth direction can be orders of magnitude smaller than the corresponding band-edge effective mass. LWIR InAs/GaSb T2SL can have significantly smaller growth-direction hole conductivity effective mass than its InAs/InAsSb counterpart. For the InAs/InAsSb T2SL, higher Sb fraction is more favorable for hole transport. Achieving long hole diffusion length becomes progressively more difficult for the InAs/InAsSb T2SL as the cutoff wavelength increases, since its growth-direction hole conductivity effective mass increases significantly with decreasing band gap. However, this is mitigated by the fact that the splitting between the top valence subbands also increases with the cutoff wavelength, leading to reduced inter-subband scattering and increased relaxation time.