No Arabic abstract
Local ultrafast optical excitation of electron-hole pairs in disordered semiconductors provides the possibility to observe experimentally interaction-assisted propagation of correlated quantum particles in a disordered environment. In addition to the interaction driven delocalization known for the conventional single-band TIP-(two-interacting-particles)-problem the semiconductor model has a richer variety of physical parameters that give rise to new features in the temporal dynamics. These include different masses, correlated vs. anticorrelated disorder for the two particles, and dependence on spectral position of excitation pulse.
A two-band model of a disordered semiconductor is used to analyze dynamical interaction induced weakening of localization in a system that is accessible to experimental verification. The results show a dependence on the sign of the two-particle interaction and on the optical excitation energy of the Coulomb-correlated electron-hole pair.
The dynamics of optically generated electron-hole pairs is investigated in a disordered semiconductor nanowire. The particle pairs are generated by short laser pulses and their dynamics is followed using the Heisenberg equation of motion. Is is shown that Coulomb-correlation acts against localization in the case of the two-interacting particles (TIP) problem. Furthermore, currents are generated using a coherent combination of full-gap and half-gap pulses. The subsequent application of a full-gap pulse after time $tau$ produces an intraband echo phenomenon $2tau$ time later. The echo current is shown to depend on the mass ratio between the electrons and the holes.
The individual building blocks of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures host fascinating physical phenomena, ranging from ballistic electron transport in graphene to striking optical properties of MoSe2 sheets. The presence of bonded and non-bonded cohesive interactions in a vdW heterostructure, promotes diversity in their structural arrangements, which in turn profoundly modulate the properties of their individual constituents. Here, we report on the presence of correlated structural disorder coexisting with the nearly perfect crystallographic order along the growth direction of epitaxial vdW heterostructures of Bi2Se3/graphene/SiC. Using the depth penetration of X-ray diffraction microscopy and scattering, we probed their crystal structure from atomic to mesoscopic length scales, to reveal that their structural diversity is underpinned by spatially correlated disorder states. The presence of the latter induces on a system, widely considered to behave as a collection of nearly independent 2-dimensional units, a pseudo-3-dimensional character, when subjected to epitaxial constraints and ordered substrate interactions. These findings shed new light on the nature of the vast structural landscape of vdW heterostructures and could enable new avenues in modulating their unique properties by correlated disorder.
We investigate a $d$-dimensional model ($d$ = 2,3) for sound waves in a disordered environment, in which the local fluctuations of the elastic modulus are spatially correlated with a certain correlation length. The model is solved analytically by means of a field-theoretical effective-medium theory (self-consistent Born approximation) and numerically on a square lattice. As in the uncorrelated case the theory predicts an enhancement of the density of states over Debyes $omega^{d-1}$ law (``boson peak) as a result of disorder. This anomay becomes reinforced for increasing correlation length $xi$. The theory predicts that $xi$ times the width of the Brillouin line should be a universal function of $xi$ times the wavenumber. Such a scaling is found in the 2d simulation data, so that they can be represented in a universal plot. In the low-wavenumber regime, where the lattice structure is irrelevant there is excellent agreement between the simulation at small disorder. At larger disorder the continuum theory deviates from the lattice simulation data. It is argued that this is due to an instability of the model with stronger disorder.
We demonstrate how supercell implementations of conventional lattice dynamical calculations can be used to determine the extent and nature of disorder-induced broadening in the phonon dispersion spectrum of disordered crystalline materials. The approach taken relies on band unfolding, and is first benchmarked against virtual crystal approximation phonon calculations. The different effects of mass and interaction disorder on the phonon broadening are then presented, focussing on the example of a simple cubic binary alloy. For the mass disorder example, the effect of introducing correlated disorder is also explored by varying the fraction of homoatomic and heteroatomic neighbours. Systematic progression in the degree of phonon broadening, on the one hand, and the form of the phonon dispersion curves from primitive to face-centered cubic type, on the other hand, is observed as homoatomic neighbours are disfavoured. The implications for rationalising selection rule violations in disordered materials and for using inelastic neutron scattering measurements as a means of characterising disorder are discussed.