We have observed an unusual dc current spontaneously generated in the conducting channel of a short-gated GaAs transistor. The magnitude and direction of this current critically depend upon the voltage applied to the gate. We propose that it is initiated by the injection of hot electrons from the gate that relax via phonon emission. The phonons then excite secondary electrons from asymmetrically distributed impurities in the channel, which leads to the observed current.
We collect values of selected performance characteristics of semiconductor spin qubits defined in electrically controlled nanostructures. The characteristics are envisioned to serve as a community source for the values of figures of merit with agreed-on definitions allowing comparison of different qubit platforms. We include characteristics on the qubit coherence, speed, fidelity, and the qubit-size of multi-qubit devices. The review focuses on collecting the values of these characteristics as reported in the literature, rather than on the details of their definitions or significance. The core of the review are thus tables and figures.
Electronic current densities can reach extreme values in highly conducting nanostructures where constrictions limit current. For bias voltages on the 1 volt scale, the highly non-equilibrium situation can influence the electronic density between atoms, leading to significant inter-atomic forces. An easy interpretation of the non-equilibrium forces is currently not available. In this work, we present an ab-initio study based on density functional theory of bias-induced atomic forces in gated graphene nanoconstrictions consisting of junctions between graphene electrodes and graphene nano-ribbons in the presence of current. We find that current-induced bond-forces and bond-charges are correlated, while bond-forces are not simply correlated to bond-currents. We discuss, in particular, how the forces are related to induced charges and the electrostatic potential profile (voltage drop) across the junctions. For long current-carrying junctions we may separate the junction into a part with a voltage drop, and a part without voltage drop. The latter situation can be compared to a nano-ribbon in the presence of current using an ideal ballistic velocity-dependent occupation function. This shows how the combination of voltage drop and current give rise to the strongest current-induced forces in nanostructures.
We developed a method to calculate the magnetoresistance of magnetic nanostructures. We discretize a magnetic disk in small cells and numerically solve the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation in order to obtain its magnetization profile. We consider a anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) that depends on the local magnetization as the main source of the magnetoresistance. We then use it as an input to calculate the resistance and current distribution numerically, using a relaxation method. We show how magnetoresistance measurements can be useful to obtain information on the magnetic structure. Additionally, we obtain non-homogeneous current distributions for different magnetic configurations in static and dynamical regimes.
Transitions to immeasurably small electrical resistance in thin films of Ag/Au nanostructure-based films have generated significant interest because such transitions can occur even at ambient temperature and pressure. While the zero-bias resistance and magnetic transition in these films have been reported recently, the non-equilibrium current-voltage ($I-V$) transport characteristics at the transition remains unexplored. Here we report the $I-V$ characteristics at zero magnetic field of a prototypical Ag/Au nanocluster film close to its resistivity transition at the critical temperature $T_{C}$ of $approx160$ K. The $I-V$ characteristics become strongly hysteretic close to the transition and exhibit a temperature-dependent critical current scale beyond which the resistance increases rapidly. Intriguingly, the non-equilibrium transport regime consists of a series of nearly equispaced resistance steps when the drive current exceeds the critical current. We have discussed the similarity of these observations with resistive transitions in ultra-thin superconducting wires via phase slip centres.
Employing unbiased large-scale time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group simulations, we demonstrate the generation of a charge-current vortex via spin injection in the Rashba system. The spin current is polarized perpendicular to the system plane and injected from an attached antiferromagnetic spin chain. We discuss the conversion between spin and orbital angular momentum in the current vortex that occurs because of the conservation of the total angular momentum and the spin-orbit interaction. This is in contrast to the spin Hall effect, in which the angular-momentum conservation is violated. Finally, we predict the electromagnetic field that accompanies the vortex with regard to possible future experiments.