No Arabic abstract
We theoretically investigate correlated electron-hole states in vertically coupled quantum dots. Employing a prototypical double-dot confinement and a configuration-interaction description for the electron-hole states, it is shown that the few-particle ground state undergoes transitions between different quantum states as a function of the interdot distance, resulting in unexpected spatial correlations among carriers and in electron-hole localization. Such transitions provide a direct manifestations of inter- and intradot correlations, which can be directly monitored in experiments.
We report growth and characterization of a coupled quantum dot structure that utilizes nanowire templates for selective epitaxy of radial heterostructures. The starting point is a zinc blende InAs nanowire with thin segments of wurtzite structure. These segments have dual roles: they act as tunnel barriers for electron transport in the InAs core, and they also locally suppress growth of a GaSb shell, resulting in coaxial InAs-GaSb quantum dots with integrated electrical probes. The parallel quantum dot structure hosts spatially separated electrons and holes that interact due to the type-II broken gap of InAs-GaSb heterojunctions. The Coulomb blockade in the electron and hole transport is studied, and periodic interactions of electrons and holes are observed and can be reproduced by modeling. Distorted Coulomb diamonds indicate voltage-induced ground-state transitions, possibly a result of changes in the spatial distribution of holes in the thin GaSb shell.
We use temporally resolved intensity cross-correlation measurements to identify the biexciton-exciton radiative cascades in a negatively charged QD. The polarization sensitive correlation measurements show unambiguously that the excited two electron triplet states relax non-radiatively to their singlet ground state via a spin non conserving flip-flop with the ground state heavy hole. We explain this mechanism in terms of resonant coupling between the confined electron states and an LO phonon. This resonant interaction together with the electron-hole exchange interaction provides an efficient mechanism for this, otherwise spin-blockaded, electronic relaxation.
In this article we review our work on the dynamics and decoherence of electron and hole spins in single and double quantum dots. The first part, on electron spins, focuses on decoherence induced via the hyperfine interaction while the second part covers decoherence and relaxation of heavy-hole spins due to spin-orbit interaction as well as the manipulation of heavy-hole spin using electric dipole spin resonance.
We argue that Coulomb blockade phenomena are a useful probe of the cross-over to strong correlation in quantum dots. Through calculations at low density using variational and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (up to r_s ~ 55), we find that the addition energy shows a clear progression from features associated with shell structure to those caused by commensurability of a Wigner crystal. This cross-over (which occurs near r_s ~ 20 for spin-polarized electrons) is, then, a signature of interaction-driven localization. As the addition energy is directly measurable in Coulomb blockade conductance experiments, this provides a direct probe of localization in the low density electron gas.
We use time-resolved charge detection techniques to investigate single-electron tunneling in semiconductor quantum dots. The ability to detect individual charges in real-time makes it possible to count electrons one-by-one as they pass through the structure. The setup can thus be used as a high-precision current meter for measuring ultra-low currents, with resolution several orders of magnitude better than that of conventional current meters. In addition to measuring the average current, the counting procedure also makes it possible to investigate correlations between charge carriers. In quantum dots, we find that the strong Coulomb interaction makes electrons try to avoid each other. This leads to electron anti-bunching, giving stronger correlations and reduced noise compared to a current carried by statistically independent electrons. The charge detector is implemented by monitoring changes in conductance in a near-by capacitively coupled quantum point contact. We find that the quantum point contact not only serves as a detector but also causes a back-action onto the measured device. Electron scattering in the quantum point contact leads to emission of microwave radiation. The radiation is found to induce an electronic transition between two quantum dots, similar to the absorption of light in real atoms and molecules. Using a charge detector to probe the electron transitions, we can relate a single-electron tunneling event to the absorption of a single photon. Moreover, since the energy levels of the double quantum dot can be tuned by external gate voltages, we use the device as a frequency-selective single-photon detector operating at microwave energies.