We theoretically investigate the interband transitions and quantum kinetics induced by light carrying orbital angular momentum, or twisted light, in bulk semiconductors. We pose the problem in terms of the Heisenberg equations of motion of the electron populations, and inter- and intra-band coherences. Our theory extends the free-carrier Semiconductor Bloch Equations to the case of photo-excitation by twisted light. The theory is formulated using cylindrical coordinates, which are better suited to describe the interaction with twisted light than the usual cartesian coordinates used to study regular optical excitation. We solve the equations of motion in the low excitation regime, and obtain analytical expressions for the coherences and populations; with these, we calculate the orbital angular momentum transferred from the light to the electrons and the paramagnetic and diamagnetic electric current densities.
Time resolved intensity cross-correlation measurements of radiative cascades are used for studying non-radiative relaxation processes of excited carriers confined in semiconductor quantum dots. We spectrally identify indirect radiative cascades which include intermediate phonon assisted relaxations. The energy of the first photon reveals the multicarrier configuration prior to the non-radiative relaxation, while the energy of the second photon reveals the configuration after the relaxation. The intensity cross correlation measurements thus provide quantitative measures of the non-radiative pro…
We study theoretically the entanglement created in a scattering between an electron, incoming from a source lead, and another electron bound in the ground state of a quantum dot, connected to two leads. We analyze the role played by the different kinds of resonances in the transmission spectra and by the number of scattering channels, into the amount of quantum correlations between the two identical carriers. It is shown that the entanglement between their energy states is not sensitive to the presence of Breit-Wigner resonances, while it presents a peculiar behavior in correspondence of Fano …
While time-dependent perturbation theory shows inefficient carrier-phonon scattering in semiconductor quantum dots, we demonstrate that a quantum kinetic description of carrier-phonon interaction predicts fast carrier capture and relaxation. The considered processes do not fulfill energy conservation in terms of free-carrier energies because polar coupling of localized quantum-dot states strongly modifies this picture.
We report that two rotated layers of blue phosphorene behave as a direct band gap semiconductor. The optical spectrum shows absorption peaks in the visible region of the spectrum and in addition the energy of these peaks can be tuned with the rotational angle. These findings makes twisted bilayer blue phosphorene a strong candidate as a solar cell or photodetection device. Our results are based on ab initio calculations of several rotated blue phosphorene layers.
We investigate the coherent dynamics of carriers in semiconductor superlattices driven by ac-dc electric fields. We solve numerically the time-dependent effective-mass equation for the envelope function. We find that carriers undergo Rabi oscillations when the driving frequency is close to the separation between minibands.
new defect-assisted mechanism of multiphonon intraband carrier relaxation in semiconductor quantum dots, where the carrier is found in a coherent superposition of the initial, final, and defect states, is proposed. It is shown that this mechanism is capable of explaining the observed trends in temperature dependences of the intraband relaxation rates for PbSe and CdSe colloidal nanocrystal quantum dots.
I theoretically investigate the response of bulk semiconductors to excitation by twisted light below the energy bandgap. To this end, I modify a well-known model of light-semiconductor interaction to account for the conservation of the light's momentum. I show that the excited states can be thought of as a superposition of slightly perturbed exciton states undergoing a complex center-of-mass motion. In addition, the absorption would occur at a slightly shifted energy (compared to plane waves) and would exhibit complex spatial patterns in the polarization and current.
A quantum theory of the spin-dependent scattering of semiconductor electrons by a Schottky barrier at an interface with a ferromagnet is presented. The reflection of unpolarized non-equilibrium carriers produces spontaneous spin-polarization in the semiconductor. If a net spin-polarization pre-exists in the semiconductor, the combination of the ferromagnet magnetization and the incident carrier polarization combine to tilt the reflected polarization in the semiconductor. The spin reflection properties are investigated as functions of the system characteristics: the Schottky barrier height, sem…
The rate at which excited charge carriers relax to their equilibrium state affects many aspects of the performance of nanoscale devices, including switching speed, carrier mobility and luminescent efficiency. Better understanding of the processes that govern carrier relaxation therefore has important technological implications. A significant increase in carrier-carrier interactions caused by strong spatial confinement of electronic excitations in semiconductor nanostructures leads to a considerable enhancement of Auger effects, which can further result in unusual, Auger-process-controlled reco…
This paper derives Langevin equations for an optical cavity where the dominant nonlinearity arises from free-carrier dispersion. We define a generalized Wigner function, compute a Fokker-Planck equation that approximates the master equation, and convert this to a system of stochastic differential equations. These equations are similar to the Wigner equations for an optical Kerr cavity, but have additional noise terms due to the incoherent carrier excitation and decay processes. We use these equations to simulate a phase-sensitive amplifier and latch and compare the results to a Kerr model.
We address the problem of free carrier screening of exciton states in two-dimensional monolayer semiconductors. Basic theoretical considerations are presented concerning the applicability of the commonly used static approximation of the screening effect and the implications are discussed. We show that the low-frequency models lead to a major overestimation of the free carrier response and are inadequate to describe the screening of strongly bound excitons in monolayer materials. The presented arguments are consistent with existing high-level many-body theories and transparently illustrate the …
The spin-configuration of semiconductor artificial molecules consisting of quantum dots and spin field effect transistors is studied theoretically. We find that the antiferromagnetic spin configuration can be changed to the ferromagnetic one by applying a gate voltage to the spin field effect transistors. We show that the square-norm of the total spin of an artificial molecule oscillates with the twist angle $θ$ and has maxima at $θ=$ an odd integer times $π$. We also show that the square-norm of the total spin of the ring-shaped artificial molecule changes drastically at certain values of $θ$…
The interaction between graphene plasmons and surface phonons of a semiconductor substrate is investigated, which can be efficiently controlled by the carrier injection of the substrate. The energy and lifetime of surface phonons in a substrate depend a lot on the carrier concentration, which provides a new machanism to tune plasmon-phonon coupled modes (PPCMs). More specifically, the dispersion and lifetime of PPCMs can be controlled by the carrier concentration change of the substrate. The energy of PPCMs for a given momentum increases as the carrier concentration of a substrate increases. O…
We theoretically calculate the impurity-scattering induced resistivity of twisted bilayer graphene at low twist angles where the graphene Fermi velocity is strongly suppressed. We consider, as a function of carrier density, twist angle, and temperature, both long-ranged Coulomb scattering and short-ranged defect scattering within a Boltzmann theory relaxation time approach. For experimentally relevant disorder, impurity scattering contributes a resistivity comparable to (much larger than) the phonon scattering contribution at high (low) temperatures. Decreasing twist angle leads to larger resi…
Magic angle twisted bilayer graphene has emerged as a powerful platform for studying strongly correlated electron physics, owing to its almost dispersionless low-energy bands and the ability to tune the band filling by electrostatic gating. Techniques to control the twist angle between graphene layers have led to rapid experimental progress but improving sample quality is essential for separating the delicate correlated-electron physics from disorder effects. Owing to the 2D nature of the system and the relatively low carrier density, the samples are highly susceptible to small doping inhomoge…
We investigate the possibility of charge carrier localization in magnetic semiconductors due to the presence of a highly inhomogeneous external magnetic field. As an example, we study in detail the properties of a magnetic semiconductor-permalloy disk hybrid system. We find that the giant Zeeman respose of the magnetic semiconductor in conjuction with the highly non-uniform magnetic field created by the vortex state of a permalloy disk can lead to Zeeman localized states at the interface of the two materials. These trapped state are chiral, with chirality controlled by the orientation of the c…
We consider magnetic properties of the planar structure consisting of a ferromagnetic metal, diluted magnetic semiconductor and the quantum well (by the example of the hybrid heterostructure Fe--Ga(Mn)As--InGaAs). In the framework of the mean-field theory, there is the significant amplification of the ferromagnetism induced by the ferromagnetic metal (Fe) in the system of magnetic impurities (Mn) due to their indirect interaction via the conductivity channel in the quantum well. As a result, the high-temperature ferromagnetism arises leading to the spin polarization of charge carriers (holes) …
We report scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) of twisted graphene bilayer on SiC substrate. For twist angle ~ 4.5o the Dirac point ED is located about 0.40 eV below the Fermi level EF due to the electron doping at the graphene/SiC interface. We observed an unexpected result that the local Dirac point around a nanoscaled defect shifts towards the Fermi energy during the STS measurements (with a time scale about 100 seconds). This behavior was attributed to the decoupling between the twisted graphene and the substrate during the measurements, which lowers the carrier densi…
We study the spin dynamics of carriers due to the Rashba interaction in semiconductor quantum disks and wells after excitation with light with orbital angular momentum. We find that although twisted light transfers orbital angular momentum to the excited carriers and the Rashba interaction conserves their total angular momentum, the resulting electronic spin dynamics is essentially the same for excitation with light with orbital angular momentum $l=+|l|$ and $l=-|l|$. The differences between cases with different values of $|l|$ are due to the excitation of states with slightly different energi…
Motivated by recent experimental findings on the low-energy spectrum of Kekulé-patterned graphene, the optoelectronic signatures of graphene superlattices with a spatial modulation that triples the size of the unit cell and folds the valleys to the center of the Brillouin zone are studied. For superlattices like those visualized in recent experiments, the optoelectronic response reveals multiple species of carriers distinguished by their effective masses or Fermi velocities. Their signatures are similar to those of systems hosting multifold fermions in which different frequency intervals are d…
The charge transport in some organic semiconductors demonstrates nonlinear properties and further universal power-law scaling with both bias and temperature. The physical origin of this behavior is investigated here using variable range hopping theory. The results shows, this universal power-law scaling can be well explained by variable range hopping theory . Relation to the recent experimental data is also discussed.
When the excitation of carriers in real space is focused down to the nanometer scale, the carrier system can no longer be viewed as homogeneous and ultrafast transport of the excited carrier wave packets occurs. In state-of-the-art semiconductor structures like low-dimensional heterostructures or monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides, the Coulomb interaction between excited carriers becomes stronger due to confinement or reduced screening. This demands a fundamental understanding of strongly interacting electrons and holes and the influence of Coulomb correlations. To study the corres…
This article reviews spin-dependent transport of carriers in homogenous three-dimensional and two-dimensional semiconductors. We begin with a discussion of optical orientation of electron spins, which allows both the creation and detection of spin-polarized carriers in semiconductors. Then we review non-equilibrium spin flow including spin drift and diffusion caused by electric fields and concentration gradients. A controlled spin precession is possible both in external magnetic fields and in effective magnetic fields due to a broken inversion symmetry. Although the Coulomb interaction does no…
We introduce the concept of a spintronic effective mass for spin-polarized carriers in semiconductor structures, which arises from the strong spin-polarization dependence of the renormalized effective mass in an interacting spin-polarized electron system. The majority-spin many-body effective mass renormalization differs by more than a factor of 2 at rs=5 between the unpolarized and the fully polarized two-dimensional system, whereas the polarization dependence (~15%) is more modest in three dimensions around metallic densities (rs~5). The spin-polarization dependence of the carrier effective …
We report on theoretical and experimental study of the spin polarization recovery and Hanle effect for the charge carriers interacting with the fluctuating nuclear spins in the semiconductor structures. We start the theoretical description from the simplest model of static and isotropic nuclear spin fluctuations. Then we describe the modification of the polarization recovery and Hanle curves due to the anisotropy of the hyperfine interaction, finite nuclear spin correlation time, and the strong pulsed spin excitation. For the latter case, we describe the resonance spin amplification effect in …
A three-terminal spectroscopy that probes both subsurface energy barriers and interband optical transitions in a semiconductor heterostructure is demonstrated. A metal-base transistor with a unipolar p-type semiconductor collector embedding InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) is studied. Using minority/majority carrier injection, ballistic electron emission spectroscopy and its related hot-carrier scattering spectroscopy measures barrier heights of a buried AlxGa1-xAs layer in conduction band and valence band respectively, the band gap of Al0.4Ga0.6As is therefore determined as 2.037 +/- 0.009 eV at …
In reduced-dimensional semiconductors, doping-induced carrier plasmons can strongly couple with quasiparticle excitations, leading to a significant band gap renormalization. We develop a new plasmon-pole theory that efficiently and accurately capture this coupling. Using monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a prototype two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor, we reveal an enhanced band gap renormalization around 400 meV and an unusual nonlinear evolution of its band gap with doping. This 2D prediction significantly differs from the linear behaviors that are common to one-dimensional structures.…
Reverse-biased graphene (Gr)/semiconductor Schottky diodes exhibit much enhanced sensitivity for gas sensing. However, carrier transport across the junctions is not fully understood yet. Here, Gr/SiC, Gr/GaAs and Gr/Si Schottky junctions under reverse-bias are investigated by temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements. A reduction in barrier height with increasing reverse-bias is observed for all junctions, suggesting electric-field enhanced thermionic emission. Further analysis of the field dependence of the reverse current reveals that while carrier transport in Gr/SiC Schottky junct…
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are promising material candidates for next-generation nanoelectronics. However, there are fundamental challenges related to their metal-semiconductor (MS) contacts which limit the performance potential for practical device applications. In this work, we exploit 2D monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as an ultrathin decorating layer to form a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) contact, and demonstrate a novel diode-like selective enhancement of the carrier transport through it. Compared to the conventional MS contact, the MIS contact dominated by both t…
We present a detailed study, within the mean-field approximation, of an impurity band model for III-V diluted magnetic semiconductors. Such a model should be relevant at low carrier densities, below and near the metal-insulator transition. Positional disorder of the magnetic impurities inside the host semiconductor is shown to have observable consequences for the shape of the magnetization curve. Below the critical temperature the magnetization is spatially inhomogeneous, leading to very unusual temperature dependence of the average magnetization as well as specific heat. Disorder is also foun…
We have experimentally tested the hypothesis of free charge carrier mediated spin-transport in the small molecule organic semiconductor Alq3 at room temperature. A spin current was pumped into this material by pulsed ferromagnetic resonance of an adjacent NiFe layer, while a charge current resulting from this spin current via the inverse spin-Hall effect (ISHE) was detected in a Pt layer adjacent on the other side of the Alq3 layer, confirming a pure spin current through the Alq3 layer. Charge carrier spin states in Alq3, were then randomized by simultaneous application of electron paramagneti…
In this work we carry out a theoretical study of the phonon-induced resistivity in twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG), in which two Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene devices are rotated relative to each other by a small angle $θ$. We show that at small twist angles ($θ\sim 1^\circ$) the effective mass of the TDBG system is greatly enhanced, leading to a drastically increased phonon-induced resistivity in the high-temperature limit where phonon scattering leads to a linearly increasing resistivity with increasing temperature. We also discuss possible implications of our theory on superconduct…
We theoretically investigate optical injection processes, including one- and two-photon carrier injection and two-color coherent current injection, in twisted bilayer graphene with moderate angles. The electronic states are described by a continuum model, and the spectra of injection coefficients are numerically calculated for different chemical potentials and twist angles, where the transitions between different bands are understood by the electron energy resolved injection coefficients. The comparison with the injection in monolayer graphene shows the significance of the interlayer coupling …
Manipulation of Rashba effects in two-dimensional (2D) electron systems is highly desirable for controllable applications in spintronics and optoelectronics. Here, by combining first-principles investigation and model analysis, we use uniaxial stress to control BiTeI monolayer as a Rashba 2D semiconductor for useful spin and transport properties. We find that the stress-driven electron system can be described by an effective anisotropic Rashba model including all the three Pauli matrixes, and uniaxial stress allows an out-of-plane spin component. When appropriate electron carriers are introduc…
We investigate the role of the nuclear spin quantum dynamics in hyperfine-induced spin relaxation of hopping carriers in organic semiconductors. The fast hopping regime with a small carrier spin precession during a waiting time between hops is typical for organic semiconductors possessing long spin coherence times. We consider this regime and focus on a carrier random walk diffusion in one dimension, where the effect of the nuclear spin dynamics is expected to be the strongest. Exact numerical simulations of spin systems with up to 25 nuclear spins are performed using the Suzuki-Trotter decomp…
This paper, based on a presentation at the Spintronics 2001 conference, provides a review of our studies on II-VI and III-V Mn-doped Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors. We use simple models appropriate for the low carrier density (insulating) regime, although we believe that some of the unusual features of the magnetization curves should qualitatively be present at larger dopings (metallic regime) as well. Positional disorder of the magnetic impurities inside the host semiconductor is shown to have observable consequences for the shape of the magnetization curve. Below the critical temperature th…
The theoretical effects of phase separation on encounter-limited charge carrier recombination in organic semiconductor blends are investigated using kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations of pump-probe experiments. Using model bulk heterojunction morphologies, the dependence of the recombination rate on domain size and charge carrier mobility are quantified. Unifying competing models and simulation results, we show that the mobility dependence of the recombination rate can be described using the power mean of the electron and hole mobilities with a domain size dependent exponent. Additionally, …
Two-photon time-resolved photoluminescence has been recently applied to various semiconductor devices to determine carrier lifetime and surface recombination velocities. So far the theoretical modeling activity has been mainly limited to the commonly used one-photon counterpart of the technique. Here we provide the analytical solution to a 3D diffusion equation that describes two-photon microscopy in the low-injection regime. We focus on a system with a single buried interface with enhanced recombination, and analyze how transport, bulk and surface recombinations influence photoluminescence de…
We develop a mean-field theory of carrier-induced ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors. Our approach represents an improvement over standard RKKY model allowing spatial inhomogeneity of the system, free-carrier spin polarization, finite temperature, and free-carrier exchange and correlation to be accounted for self-consistently. As an example, we calculate the electronic structure of a Mn$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs superlattice with alternating ferromagnetic and paramagnetic layers and demonstrate the possibility of semiconductor magnetoresistance systems with designed properties.
Using time-resolved optical Kerr rotation, we measure the low temperature valley dynamics of resident electrons and holes in exfoliated WSe$_2$ monolayers as a systematic function of carrier density. In an effort to reconcile the many disparate timescales of carrier valley dynamics in monolayer semiconductors reported to date, we directly compare the doping-dependent valley relaxation in two electrostatically-gated WSe$_2$ monolayers having different dielectric environments. In a fully-encapsulated structure (hBN/WSe$_2$/hBN, where hBN is hexagonal boron nitride), valley relaxation is found to…
We have studied the dielectric screening of electric field which is induced by a gate voltage in twisted double bilayer graphene by using a sample with a mismatch angle of about 5 degrees. In low temperature magnetotransport measurements, quantum oscillations of magnetoresistance originating from two bands with different carrier density were observed. The behavior of the carrier densities with respect to the total carrier density were distinct from that of the AB-stacked tetralayer graphene. The carrier density ratio was theoretically analyzed in terms of the model that the induced charge deca…
The interplay between the illuminated excitation of carriers and subsequent thermalization and recombination leads to the formation of non-equilibrium distributions for the "hot" carriers and to heating of both electrons, holes and phonons. In spite of the fundamental and practical importance of these processes, there is no theoretical framework which encompasses all of them and provides a clear prediction for the non-equilibrium carrier distributions. Here, a self-consistent theory accounting for the interplay between excitation, thermalization, and recombination in continuously-illuminated s…
A comprehensive survey is given of the thermoballistic approach to charge carrier transport in semiconductors. This semiclassical approach bridges the gap between the drift-diffusion and ballistic ("thermionic") models of carrier transport, whose validity is limited to the range of very small and very large values, respectively, of the carrier mean free path. The physical concept underlying the thermoballistic approach, while incorporating basic features of the drift-diffusion and ballistic descriptions, constitutes a novel, unifying scheme. It is based on the introduction of "ballistic config…
One of the fundamental properties of semiconductors is their ability to support highly tunable electric currents in the presence of electric fields or carrier concentration gradients. These properties are described by transport coefficients such as electron and hole mobilities. Recently, advances in electronic structure methods for real materials have made it possible to study these properties with predictive accuracy and without resorting to empirical parameters. Here, we review the most recent developments in the area of ab initio calculations of carrier mobilities of semiconductors. In the …
We have investigated the effect of twisting on electronic band structure, effective mass and carrier mobilities of three prototypes of AGNRs (N=6, 7 & 8) using Density functional theory combined with Deformation potential theory and Effective mass approximation. It is shown that the influence of twisted modes electron-phonon interaction is smaller than stretching modes, nonetheless, twisting has a profound effect on effective mass and mobilities. Similar to earlier reported conclusion in which the ideal N=3n wide HAGNR potentially exhibit an electron mobility comparable to intrinsic graphene, …
We show that the carrier recombination rate of noncentrosymmetric materials can be strongly modified by spin-orbit coupling. Our proposed mechanism involves the separation of conduction and valence bands into their respective spin components, which changes the transition dipole moments between them. The change in the carrier recombination can be either positive or negative in sign, or vary depending on the location of carriers in the Brillouin zone. We have performed a large scale DFT screening study to identify candidate materials that display this effect. We have selected three materials, Pb…
We report on extremely sensitive measurements of changes in the microwave properties of high purity non-intentionally-doped single-crystal semiconductor samples of gallium phosphide, gallium arsenide and 4H-silicon carbide when illuminated with light of different wavelengths at cryogenic temperatures. Whispering gallery modes were excited in the semiconductors whilst they were cooled on the coldfinger of a single-stage cryocooler and their frequencies and Q-factors measured under light and dark conditions. With these materials, the whispering gallery mode technique is able to resolve changes o…
Twisted heterostructures of two-dimensional crystals offer almost unlimited scope for the design of novel metamaterials. Here we demonstrate a room-temperature ferroelectric semiconductor that is assembled using mono- or few- layer MoS2. These van der Waals heterostructures feature broken inversion symmetry, which, together with the asymmetry of atomic arrangement at the interface of two 2D crystals, enables ferroelectric domains with alternating out-of-plane polarisation arranged into a twist-controlled network. The latter can be moved by applying out-of-plane electrical fields, as visualized…
Auger recombination in semiconductors is a many-body phenomenon in which recombination of electrons and holes is accompanied by excitation of other charge carriers. Being nonradiative, it is detrimental to light emission. The excess energy of the excited carriers is normally rapidly converted to heat, making Auger processes difficult to probe directly. Here, we employ a technique in which the Auger-excited carriers are detected by their ability to tunnel out of the semiconductor through a thin barrier, generating a current. We employ vertical van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures with monolayer…
