No Arabic abstract
Bound electron-hole excitonic states are generally not expected to form with charges of negative effective mass. We identify such excitons in a single layer of the semiconductor WSe2, where they give rise to narrow-band upconverted photoluminescence in the UV, at an energy of 1.66 eV above the first band-edge excitonic transition. Negative band curvature and strong electron-phonon coupling result in a cascaded phonon progression with equidistant peaks in the photoluminescence spectrum, resolvable to ninth order. Ab initio GW-BSE calculations with full electron-hole correlations unmask and explain the admixture of upper conduction-band states to this complex many-body excitation: an optically bright, bound exciton in resonance with the semiconductor continuum. This exciton is responsible for atomic-like quantum-interference phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency. Since band curvature can be tuned by pressure or strain, synthesis of exotic quasiparticles such as flat-band excitons with infinite reduced mass becomes feasible.
Nanostructured semiconductors emit light from electronic states known as excitons[1]. According to Hunds rules[2], the lowest energy exciton in organic materials should be a poorly emitting triplet state. Analogously, the lowest exciton level in all known inorganic semiconductors is believed to be optically inactive. These dark excitons (into which the system can relax) hinder light-emitting devices based on semiconductor nanostructures. While strategies to diminish their influence have been developed[3-5], no materials have been identified in which the lowest exciton is bright. Here we show that the lowest exciton in quasi-cubic lead halide perovskites is optically active. We first use the effective-mass model and group theory to explore this possibility, which can occur when the strong spin-orbit coupling in the perovskite conduction band is combined with the Rashba effect [6-10]. We then apply our model to CsPbX3 (X=Cl,Br,I) nanocrystals[11], for which we measure size- and composition-dependent fluorescence at the single-nanocrystal level. The bright character of the lowest exciton immediately explains the anomalous photon-emission rates of these materials, which emit 20 and 1,000 times faster[12] than any other semiconductor nanocrystal at room[13-16] and cryogenic[17] temperatures, respectively. The bright exciton is further confirmed by detailed analysis of the fine structure in low-temperature fluorescence spectra. For semiconductor nanocrystals[18], which are already used in lighting[19,20], lasers[21,22], and displays[23], these optically active excitons can lead to materials with brighter emission and enhanced absorption. More generally, our results provide criteria for identifying other semiconductors exhibiting bright excitons with potentially broad implications for optoelectronic devices.
At low temperatures, in very clean two-dimensional (2D) samples the electron mean free path for collisions with static defects and phonons becomes greater than the sample width. Under this condition, the electron transport occurs by formation of a viscous flow of an electron fluid. We study the viscous flow of 2D electrons in a magnetic field perpendicular to the 2D layer. We calculate the viscosity coefficients as the functions of magnetic field and temperature. The off-diagonal viscosity coefficient determines the dispersion of the 2D hydrodynamic waves. The decrease of the diagonal viscosity in magnetic field leads to negative magnetoresistance which is temperature- and size dependent. Our analysis demonstrates that the viscous mechanism is responsible for the giant negative magnetoresistance recently observed in the ultra-high-mobility GaAs quantum wells. We conclude that 2D electrons in that structures in moderate magnetic fields should be treated as a viscous fluid.
An electric field that builds in the direction against current, known as negative nonlocal resistance, arises naturally in viscous flows and is thus often taken as a telltale of this regime. Here we predict negative resistance for the ballistic regime, wherein the ee collision mean free path is greater than the length scale at which the system is being probed. Therefore, negative resistance alone does not provide strong evidence for the occurrence of the hydrodynamic regime; it must thus be demoted from the rank of a smoking gun to that of a mere forerunner. Furthermore, we find that negative response is log-enhanced in the ballistic regime by the physics related to the seminal Dorfman-Cohen log divergence due to memory effects in the kinetics of dilute gases. The ballistic regime therefore offers a unique setting for exploring these interesting effects due to electron interactions.
Quantum dots are arguably one of the best platforms for optically accessible spin based qubits. The paramount demand of extended qubit storage time can be met by using quantum-dot-confined dark exciton: a longlived electron-hole pair with parallel spins. Despite its name the dark exciton reveals weak luminescence that can be directly measured. The origins of this optical activity remain largely unexplored. In this work, using the atomistic tight-binding method combined with configuration-interaction approach, we demonstrate that atomic-scale randomness strongly affects oscillator strength of dark excitons confined in self-assembled cylindrical InGaAs quantum dots with no need for faceting or shape-elongation. We show that this process is mediated by two mechanisms: mixing dark and bright configurations by exchange interaction, and equally important appearance of non-vanishing optical transition matrix elements that otherwise correspond to nominally forbidden transitions in a non-alloyed case. The alloy randomness has essential impact on both bright and dark exciton states, including their energy, emission intensity, and polarization angle. We conclude that, due to the atomic-scale alloy randomness, finding dots with desired dark exciton properties may require exploration of a large ensemble, similarly to how dots with low bright exciton splitting are selected for entanglement generation.
Excitons in alloyed nanowire quantum dots have unique spectra as shown here using atomistic calculations. The bright exciton splitting is triggered solely by alloying and despite cylindrical quantum dot shape reaches over $15~mu$eV, contrary to previous theoretical predictions, however, in line with experimental data. This splitting can however be tuned by electric field to go below $1$~$mu$eV threshold. The dark exciton optical activity is also strongly affected by alloying reaching notable $1/3500$ fraction of the bright exciton and having large out-of-plane polarized component.