E. E. Vdovin

Twist-controlled resonant tunnelling in graphene/boron nitride/graphene heterostructures

Recent developments in the technology of van der Waals heterostructures made from two-dimensional atomic crystals have already led to the observation of new physical phenomena, such as the metal-insulator transition and Coulomb drag, and to the realization of functional devices, such as tunnel diodes, tunnel transistors and photovoltaic sensors. An unprecedented degree of control of the electronic properties is available not only by means of the selection of materials in the stack, but also through the additional fine-tuning achievable by adjusting the built-in strain and relative orientation of the component layers. Here we demonstrate how careful alignment of the crystallographic orientation of two graphene electrodes separated by a layer of hexagonal boron nitride in a transistor device can achieve resonant tunnelling with conservation of electron energy, momentum and, potentially, chirality. We show how the resonance peak and negative differential conductance in the device characteristics induce a tunable radiofrequency oscillatory current that has potential for future high-frequency technology.

High Broad‐Band Photoresponsivity of Mechanically Formed InSe–Graphene van der Waals Heterostructures

High broad‐band photoresponsivity of mechanically formed InSe–graphene van der Waals heterostructures is achieved by exploiting the broad‐band transparency of graphene, the direct bandgap of InSe, and the favorable band line up of InSe with graphene. The photoresponsivity exceeds that for other van der Waals heterostructures and the spectral response extends from the near‐infrared to the visible spectrum.

Resonant tunneling and photoluminescence spectroscopy in quantum wells containing self-assembled quantum dots

We investigate the optical and electrical properties of n-i-n GaAs/(AlGa)As double barrier resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) in which a layer of InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) is embedded in the center of the GaAs quantum well. A combination of photoluminescence (PL) and electrical measurements indicates that the electronic states and charge distribution in this type of RTD are strongly affected by the presence of the dots. Also, the dot PL properties depend strongly on bias, being affected by tunneling of majority (electrons) and minority (photocreated holes) carriers through the well. The measurements demonstrate nonlinear effects in the QD PL by means of resonant tunneling and the possibility of using the dot PL as a probe of carrier dynamics in RTDs.

Resonant tunnelling between the chiral Landau states of twisted graphene lattices

A class of multilayered functional materials has recently emerged in which the component atomic layers are held together by weak van der Waals forces that preserve the structural integrity and physical properties of each layer. An exemplar of such a structure is a transistor device in which relativistic Dirac fermions can resonantly tunnel through a boron nitride barrier, a few atomic layers thick, sandwiched between two graphene electrodes. An applied magnetic field quantizes graphene’s gapless conduction and valence band states into discrete Landau levels, allowing us to resolve individual inter-Landau-level transitions and thereby demonstrate that the energy, momentum and chiral properties of the electrons are conserved in the tunnelling process. We also demonstrate that the change in the semiclassical cyclotron trajectories, following an inter-layer tunnelling event, is analogous to the case of intra-layer Klein tunnelling. For small twist angles, electrons can resonantly tunnel between graphene layers in a van der Waals heterostructure. It is now shown that the tunnelling not only preserves energy and momentum, but also the chirality of electronic states.

Sensitive detection of photoexcited carriers by resonant tunneling through a single quantum dot

We show that the resonant tunnel current through a single energy level of an individual quantum dot within an ensemble of dots is strongly sensitive to photoexcited holes that become bound in the close vicinity of the dot. The presence of these holes lowers the electrostatic energy of the quantum dot state and switches the current carrying channel from fully open to fully closed with a high on/off ratio (> 50). The device can be reset by means of a bias voltage pulse. These properties are of interest for charge sensitive photon counting devices.

Probing the electronic properties of disordered two-dimensional systems by means of resonant tunnelling

We investigate resonant tunnelling in GaAs/(AlGa)As double-barrier resonant-tunnelling diodes in which a single layer of InAs self-assembled quantum dots is embedded in the centre of the GaAs quantum well. The dots provide a well-defined and controllable source of disorder in the well and we use resonant tunnelling to study the effect of this disorder on the electronic properties of the well.

Spatial mapping of the electron eigenfunctions in InAs self-assembled quantum dots by magnetotunnelling

We use magnetotunnelling spectroscopy as a non-invasive probe to produce two-dimensional spatial images of the probability density of an electron confined in a self-assembled semiconductor quantum dot. The images reveal clearly the elliptical symmetry of the ground state and the characteristic lobes of the higher-energy states.

Visualization of wave function of quantum dot at Fermi-edge singularity regime

We consider in this work many-body enhanced electron tunneling through an InAs quantum dot in a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the tunneling direction. We have examined in details the anisotropic behavior of the amplitude and shape of the resonant peaks.

Electronic energy levels, wavefunctions and potential landscape of nanostructures probed by magneto-tunnelling spectroscopy

We create electrostatically induced quantum dots by thermal diffusion of interstitial Mn out of a p-type (GaMn)As layer into the vicinity of a GaAs quantum well. This leads to the formation of deep, approximately circular and strongly confined dot-like potential minima in a large mesa diode structure. The minima are formed without need for advanced lithography or electrostatic gating. Using fields of up to 30 T, magnetotunnelling spectroscopy of an individual dot reveals the symmetry of the electronic eigenfunctions and, for the approximately circular dots, a rich spectrum of Fock-Darwin-like states with an orbital angular momentum component |lz| ranging from 0 up to 11. We find that a small fraction of the dots has elongated potential minima, giving rise to quenching of the orbital angular momentum of the electronic eigenstates. By developing a model to describe the diffusion of the Mn interstitial ions, we determine the electrostatic potential landscape in the quantum well and hence the distribution of dot shapes and sizes. This is in a good agreement with our experimental data.

Fermi-edge singularity at tunneling and anisotropic magneto-tunneling in low-dimensional semiconductor structures

We consider many-body enhanced electron tunneling through an InAs quantum dot in a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the tunneling direction. The critical exponent of the Fermi-edge singularity in the tunneling current is calculated as a function of the magnetic field. We use lowest Landau level approximation for the electrons in the emitter and perform scattering matrix calculations using the Born approximation. We examine in detail the anisotropic behavior of the amplitude and shape of the resonant peaks.