No Arabic abstract
In the effective mass approximation, electronic property in graphene can be characterized by the relativistic Dirac equation. Within such a continuum model we investigate the electronic transport through graphene waveguides formed by connecting multiple segments of armchair-edged graphene nanoribbons of different widths. By using appropriate wavefunction connection conditions at the junction interfaces, we generalize the conventional transfer matrix approach to formulate the linear conductance of the graphene waveguide in terms of the structure parameters and the incident electron energy. In comparison with the tight-binding calculation, we find that the generalized transfer matrix method works well in calculating the conductance spectrum of a graphene waveguide even with a complicated structure and relatively large size. The calculated conductance spectrum indicates that the graphene waveguide exhibits a well-defined insulating band around the Dirac point, even though all the constituent ribbon segments are gapless. We attribute the occurrence of the insulating band to the antiresonance effect which is intimately associated with the edge states localized at the shoulder regions of the junctions. Furthermore, such an insulating band can be sensitively shifted by a gate voltage, which suggests a device application of the graphene waveguide as an electric nanoswitch.
An easy to implement and powerful method for the solution of 3D scattering problems that can be well described by Helmholtz equation is presented. The matrix algebra used provides excellent stability versus the number of junctions as well as great computational speed. The matrix truncation method yields an easy single-parameter convergence procedure. Subsequently, some aspects of the electronic transport through metal nanowires are studied by the use of Landauers scattering approach to the conductance. We predict the existence of current vortex-rings patterns due to sharp enough narrow-wide connections in atomic size point contacts. Longitudinal resonances between scattering centers provide a simple physical picture for the understanding of negative differential resistance in ideal monoatomic contacts. Relatively long nanowires with high geometrical perfection -like those recently observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy- are modelled exhibiting resonant tunnelling and total reflection at given incident energy intervals.
Theory of electronic transport through a triangular triple quantum dot subject to a perpendicular magnetic field is developed using a tight binding model. We show that magnetic field allows to engineer degeneracies in the triple quantum dot energy spectrum. The degeneracies lead to zero electronic transmission and sharp dips in the current whenever a pair of degenerate states lies between the chemical potential of the two leads. These dips can occur with a periodicity of one flux quantum if only two levels contribute to the current or with half flux quantum if the three levels of the triple dot contribute. The effect of strong bias voltage and different lead-to-dot connections on Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the conductance is also discussed.
We present a theory of spin, electronic and transport properties of a few-electron lateral triangular triple quantum dot molecule in a magnetic field. Our theory is based on a generalization of a Hubbard model and the Linear Combination of Harmonic Orbitals combined with Configuration Interaction method (LCHO-CI) for arbitrary magnetic fields. The few-particle spectra obtained as a function of the magnetic field exhibit Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. As a result, by changing the magnetic field it is possible to engineer the degeneracies of single-particle levels, and thus control the total spin of the many-electron system. For the triple dot with two and four electrons we find oscillations of total spin due to the singlet-triplet transitions occurring periodically in the magnetic field. In the three-electron system we find a transition from a magnetically frustrated to the spin-polarized state. We discuss the impact of these phase transitions on the addition spectrum and the spin blockade of the lateral triple quantum dot molecule.
We report transport measurements through graphene on SrTiO3 substrates as a function of magnetic field B, carrier density n, and temperature T. The large dielectric constant of SrTiO3 screens very effectively long-range electron-electron interactions and potential fluctuations, making Dirac electrons in graphene virtually non-interacting. The absence of interactions results in a unexpected behavior of the longitudinal resistance in the N=0 Landau level, and in a large suppression of the transport gap in nano-ribbons. The bulk transport properties of graphene at B=0T, on the contrary, are completely unaffected by the substrate dielectric constant.
Ultracold atom magnetic field microscopy enables the probing of current flow patterns in planar structures with unprecedented sensitivity. In polycrystalline metal (gold) films we observe long-range correlations forming organized patterns oriented at +/- 45 deg relative to the mean current flow, even at room temperature and at length scales orders of magnitude larger than the diffusion length or the grain size. The preference to form patterns at these angles is a direct consequence of universal scattering properties at defects. The observed amplitude of the current direction fluctuations scales inversely to that expected from the relative thickness variations, the grain size and the defect concentration, all determined independently by standard methods. This indicates that ultracold atom magnetometry enables new insight into the interplay between disorder and transport.