C. A. de Souza

Crystal structure and optical characterization of heterostructured GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs nanowires

Structural and optical properties of heterostructured GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs core/inner shell/outer shell nanowires are studied. Transmission electron microscopy and Raman scattering measurements unambiguously identify the presence of segments crystallized in zincblende and wurtzite phases, which spread to the shells. Four observed photoluminescence lines are assigned to the radiative recombination of photoexcited electrons confined in the center of the GaAs core and at the heterointerface between the outer GaAs shell and the inner AlGaAs shell with the holes localized at the heterointerface between the core and the inner AlGaAs shell; both recombinations take place in zincblende and wurtzite phases. One additional photoluminescence line is attributed to the spatially indirect recombination between the electrons in zincblende and the holes in wurtzite phases. The bandgap of the wurtzite phase and the band offsets between the zincblende and wurtzite phases are determined.

Photoluminescence of radial heterostructured GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs nanowires

Photoluminescence (PL) of high-density GaAs nanowires (NWs) encapsulated by a double AlGaAs/GaAs shell is studied. Two lines are found and assigned to the radiative recombinations of photoexcited electrons confined in the center of the GaAs core and at the heteroboundary between the outer GaAs shell and the inner AlGaAs one with the holes in the core and the holes confined at the heteroboundary between the core and the inner AlGaAs shell. The simple model, based on representation of the valence band structure using two levels, well accounts for the observed temperature dependence of the integrated photoluminescence intensities. The proposed double shell structure with tunneling transparent inner shell sets conditions for easy control of the emission energy of the heterostructured nanowires.

Dynamics of photoexcited carriers in the presence of disorder in radial heterostructured GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs nanowires

Time-resolved photoluminescence was employed to study electron-hole dynamics in radial heterostructured GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs core/inner shell/outer shell nanowires. It was found that impurity random potential results in a red shift of the recombination time maximum with respect to the photoluminescence peak energy.

Influence of interlayer tunneling on the quantized Hall phases in intentionally disordered multilayer structures.

Stability of the quantized Hall phases is studied in weakly coupled multilayers as a function of the interlayer correlations controlled by the interlayer tunneling and by the random variation of the well thicknesses. A strong enough interlayer disorder destroys the symmetry responsible for the quantization of the Hall conductivity, resulting in the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect. A clear difference between the dimensionalities of the metallic and insulating quantum Hall phases is demonstrated. The sharpness of the quantized Hall steps obtained in the coupled multilayers with different degrees of randomization was found consistent with the calculated interlayer tunneling energies. The observed width of the transition between the quantized Hall states in random multilayers is explained in terms of the local fluctuations of the electron density.

Manipulation of emission energy in GaAs/AlGaAs core-shell nanowires with radial heterostructure

Photoluminescence was studied in GaAs/AlGaAs nanowires (NWs) with different radial heterostructures. We demonstrated that manipulation of the emission energy may be achieved by appropriate choice of the shell structure. The emission at highest energy is generated in the NWs with tunneling thin AlGaAs inner shell and thin GaAs outer shell due to recombination of the photoexcited electrons confined in the outer shell with the holes in the core. Lower energy emission was shown to occur in the NWs with thick outer shell grown in the form of a short-period GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well structure. In this case, the tunneling probability through the multiple quantum wells controls the energy emitted by the NWs. The doping of core results in dominated low energy emission from the GaAs core.

Spectroscopic evidence of extended states in the quantized Hall phase of weakly coupled GaAs/AlGaAs multilayers

The influence of interlayer coupling on the formation of the quantized Hall phase at the filling factor ν=2 was studied in multilayer GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. The disorder broadened Gaussian photoluminescence line due to localized electrons was found in the quantized Hall phase of the isolated multi-quantum-well structure. On the other hand, the quantized Hall phase of weakly coupled multilayers emitted an unexpected asymmetrical line similar to that observed in metallic electron systems. We demonstrated that the observed asymmetry is caused by the partial population of extended electron states formed in the insulating quantized Hall phase due to spin-assisted interlayer percolation. A sharp decrease in the single-particle scattering time associated with these extended states was observed for the filling factor ν=2.

Effect of the Electron and Hole Scattering Potentials Compensation on Optical Band Edge of Heavily Doped GaAs/AlGaAs Superlattices

The optical broadenings studied by the photoluminescence in the intentionally disordered GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices were compared with the broadenings of the individual electron states measured by the Shubnikov‐de Haas oscillations. It was shown that the combined effect of the electron and hole energy blurrings is to decrease the optical broadening with respect to the individual state broadenings resulting in very sharp optical edges even in highly disordered superlattices.

Regimes of quantum transport in superlattices in a weak magnetic field

Weak field magnetoresistance was explored in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices with different strengths of disorder produced either by the random variation of the well thicknesses or by the interface roughness. Depending on the disorder strength, three different regimes of the quantum transport were distinguished: the regimes of weak localization identified as the regimes of propagative and diffusive Fermi surfaces and the strongly localized insulating regime. Our results imply different dephasing mechanisms in the weak and strong localization limits. The vertical coupling energies in the superlattices determined with the random variation of the well thicknesses revealed a significant decrease with increasing disorder strength.