Hou-Zhi Zheng

Enhanced thermoelectric performance of graphene nanoribbons

The thermoelectric properties of a series of armchair and zigzag graphene nanoribbons with narrow width are examined using nonequilibrium Green function method and molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that these nanoribbons are rather stable when the edge atoms are passivated by hydrogen and those with armchair edges exhibit much better thermoelectric performance than their zigzag counterparts. Moreover, the corresponding ZT value increases with decreasing ribbon width. By optimizing the doping level, a room temperature ZT of 6.0 can be achieved for the narrowest armchair nanoribbon. The significantly enhanced ZT value makes armchair graphene nanoribbon a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications.

Controlled growth of Zn-polar ZnO epitaxial film by nitridation of sapphire substrate

Surface nitridation is used to eliminate O-polar inversion domains and control the growth of single-domain Zn-polar ZnO film on sapphire (0001) substrate by rf-plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. It is found that the nitridation temperature is crucial for achieving quality AlN buffer layers and ZnO films with cation polarity, as demonstrated by ex situ transmission electron microscopy. Under optimal growth conditions, a 4×4 surface reconstruction was observed, which is confirmed to be a characteristic surface structure of the Zn-polar films, and can be used as a fingerprint to optimize the ZnO growth.

Controlled growth of O-polar ZnO epitaxial film by oxygen radical preconditioning of sapphire substrate

Oxygen radicals pregrowth treatment and surface nitridation were used to eliminate Zn-polar inversion domains and control the growth of single-domain O-polar ZnO film on sapphire (0001) substrate by rf plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. We found that the formation of oxygen-terminated sapphire surface prior to nitridation is crucial for achieving the anion polarity in subsequent AlN and ZnO layers, as demonstrated by formation of the 3×3 surface reconstruction during ZnO growth and ex situ polarity determination. This method, in general, can be applied to growth of other polar films, such as II-VI oxides and III-V nitrides, on sapphire (0001) substrates.

Spin dynamics in the second subband of a quasi-two-dimensional system studied in a single-barrier heterostructure by time-resolved Kerr rotation

Spin dynamics in the first and second subbands have been examined simultaneously by time resolved Kerr rotation in a single-barrier heterostructure of a 500 nm thick GaAs absorption layer. By scanning the wavelengths of the probe and pump beams towards the short wavelength in the zero magnetic field, the spin coherent time T-2(1)* in the 1st subband E-1 decreases in accordance with the Dyakonov-Perel (DP) spin decoherence mechanism. Meanwhile, the spin coherence time T-2(2)* in the 2nd subband E-2 remains very low at wavelengths longer than 810 nm, and then is dramatically enhanced afterwards. At 803 nm, T-2(2)* (450 ps) becomes ten times longer than T-2(1)* (50 ps). A new feature has been discovered at the wavelength of 811nm under the bias of -0.3V (807nm under the bias of -0.6V) that the spin coherence times (T-2(1)* and T-2(2)*) and the effective g* factors (vertical bar g*(E-1)vertical bar and vertical bar g*(E-2)vertical bar) all display a sudden change, presumably due to the resonant spin exchange coupling between two spin opposite bands. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2008.

Electronic structure of self-assembled InAs quantum disks in an axial magnetic field and two-electron quantum-disk qubit

We have studied the single-electron and two-electron vertically assembled quantum disks in an axial magnetic field using the effective mass approximation. The electron interaction is treated accurately by the direct diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix. We calculate the six energy levels of the single-electron quantum disks and the two lowest energy levels of the two-electron quantum disks in an axial magnetic field. The change of the magnetic field strongly modifies the electronic structures as an effective potential, leading to the splitting of the levels and the crossings between the levels. The effect of the vertical alignment on the electronic structures is discussed. It is demonstrated that the switching of the ground-state spin exists between S=0 and S=1. The energy difference ΔE between the lowest S=0 and S=1 states is shown as a function of the axial magnetic field. It is also found that the variation of the energy difference between the lowest S=0 and S=1 states in the strong-BS=0 state is ...

A convenient way of determining the ferromagnetic transition temperature of metallic (Ga,Mn)As

We have studied magnetic and transport properties of insulating and metallic (Ga,Mn)As layers before and after annealing. A dramatic increase of the ferromagnetic transition temperature T-C by postgrowth annealing has been realized in both insulating and metallic (Ga,Mn)As. The as-grown insulating (Ga,Mn)As can be turned into metallic by the low-temperature annealing. For all the metallic (Ga,Mn)As, a characteristic feature in the temperature dependence of sheet resistance appears around T-C. This phenomenon may provide a simple and more convenient method to determine the T-C of metallic (Ga,Mn)As compared with superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurement. Moreover, the T-C of the metallic (Ga,Mn)As obtained by this way is in good agreement with that measured by a SQUID magnetometer

InxGa1-xAs/AlyGa1-yAs/AlzGa1-zAs asymmetric step quantum-well middle wavelength infrared detectors

InxGa1-xAs/AlyGa1-yAs/AlzGa1-zAs asymmetric step quantum-well middle wavelength (3-5 mum) infrared detectors are fabricated. The components display photovoltaic-type photocurrent response as well as the bias-controlled modulation of the peak wavelength of the main response, which is ascribed to the Stark shifts of the intersubband transitions from the local ground states to the extended first excited states in the quantum wells, at the 3-5.3 mum infrared atmospheric transmission window. The blackbody detectivity (D-bb*) of the detectors reaches to about 1.0x10(10) cm Hz(1/2)/W at 77 K under bias of +/-7 V. By expanding the electron wave function in terms of normalized plane wave basis within the framework of the effective-mass envelope-function theory, the linear Stark effects of the intersubband transitions between the ground and first excited states in the asymmetric step well are calculated. The obtained results agree well with the corresponding experimental measurements

Method for measuring two-qubit entanglement of formation by local operations and classical communication

We present a parametrically efficient method for measuring the entanglement of formation E-f in an arbitrarily given unknown two-qubit state rho(AB) by local operations and classical communication. The two observers, Alice and Bob, first perform some local operations on their composite systems separately, by which the desired global quantum states can be prepared. Then they estimate seven functions via two modified local quantum networks supplemented a classical communication. After obtaining these functions, Alice and Bob can determine the concurrence C and the entanglement of formation E-f.

Valley Zeeman splitting of monolayer MoS2 probed by low-field magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy at room temperature

The valley Zeeman splitting of monolayer two-dimensional (2D) materials in the magnetic field plays an important role in the valley and spin manipulations. In general, a high magnetic field (6–65u2009T) and low temperature (2–30u2009K) were two key measurement conditions to observe the resolvable valley Zeeman splitting of monolayer 2D materials in current reported experiments. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate an effective measurement scheme by employing magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy, which enables us to distinguish the valley Zeeman splitting under a relatively low magnetic field of 1 T at room temperature. MCD peaks related to both A and B excitonic transitions in monolayer MoS2 can be clearly observed. Based on the MCD spectra under different magnetic fields (−3 to 3u2009T), we obtained the valley Zeeman splitting energy and the g-factors of A and B excitons, respectively. Our results show that MCD spectroscopy is a high-sensitive magneto-optical technique to explore the valley and spi...

Method for detecting concurrence without the structural physical approximation by local operations and classical communication

We present a modified method for detecting the concurrence in an arbitrary two-qubit quantum state rho(AB) with local operations and classical communication. In this method, it is not necessary for the two observers to prepare the quantum state rho(AB) by the structural physical approximation. Their main task is to measure four specific functions via two local quantum networks. With these functions they can determine the concurrence and then the entanglement of formation.