Macroscopically ordered state in an exciton system

There is a rich variety of quantum liquids -- such as superconductors, liquid helium and atom Bose-Einstein condensates -- that exhibit macroscopic coherence in the form of ordered arrays of vortices. Experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered electronic state in semiconductors has, however, remained a challenging and relatively unexplored problem. A promising approach for the realization of such a state is to use excitons, bound pairs of electrons and holes that can form in semiconductor systems. At low densities, excitons are Bose-particles, and at low temperatures, of the order of a few kelvin, excitons can form a quantum liquid -- that is, a statistically degenerate Bose gas or even a Bose-Einstein condensate. Here we report photoluminescence measurements of a quasi-two-dimensional exciton gas in GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells and the observation of a macroscopically ordered exciton state. Our spatially resolved measurements reveal fragmentation of the ring-shaped emission pattern into circular structures that form periodic arrays over lengths up to 1 mm.     

Towards Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons in potential traps

An exciton is an electron-hole bound pair in a semiconductor. In the low-density limit, it is a composite Bose quasi-particle, akin to the hydrogen atom. Just as in dilute atomic gases, reducing the temperature or increasing the exciton density increases the occupation numbers of the low-energy states leading to quantum degeneracy and eventually to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). Because the exciton mass is small--even smaller than the free electron mass--exciton BEC should occur at temperatures of about 1 K, many orders of magnitude higher than for atoms. However, it is in practice difficult to reach BEC conditions, as the temperature of excitons can considerably exceed that of the semiconductor lattice. The search for exciton BEC has concentrated on long-lived excitons: the exciton lifetime against electron-hole recombination therefore should exceed the characteristic timescale for the cooling of initially hot photo-generated excitons. Until now, all experiments on atom condensation were performed on atomic gases confined in the potential traps. Inspired by these experiments, and using specially designed semiconductor nanostructures, we have collected quasi-two-dimensional excitons in an in-plane potential trap. Our photoluminescence measurements show that the quasi-two-dimensional excitons indeed condense at the bottom of the traps, giving rise to a statistically degenerate Bose gas.     

Spontaneous coherence in a cold exciton gas

If bosonic particles are cooled down below the temperature of quantum degeneracy, they can spontaneously form a coherent state in which individual matter waves synchronize and combine. Spontaneous coherence of matter waves forms the basis of a number of fundamental phenomena in physics, including superconductivity, superfluidity and Bose-Einstein condensation. Spontaneous coherence is the key characteristic of condensation in momentum space. Excitons--bound pairs of electrons and holes--form a model system to explore the quantum physics of cold bosons in solids. Cold exciton gases can be realized in a system of indirect excitons, which can cool down below the temperature of quantum degeneracy owing to their long lifetimes. Here we report measurements of spontaneous coherence in a gas of indirect excitons. We found that spontaneous coherence of excitons emerges in the region of the macroscopically ordered exciton state and in the region of vortices of linear polarization. The coherence length in these regions is much larger than in a classical gas, indicating a coherent state with a much narrower than classical exciton distribution in momentum space, characteristic of a condensate. A pattern of extended spontaneous coherence is correlated with a pattern of spontaneous polarization, revealing the properties of a multicomponent coherent state. We also observed phase singularities in the coherent exciton gas. All these phenomena emerge when the exciton gas is cooled below a few kelvin.     

量子阱中屏蔽激子的束缚能

用变分法计算了鼻子阱中屏蔽激子的束缚能．屏蔽效应是用有限厚度介质中电子气的介电函数描述的．     

GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs对称耦合双量子阱中激子结合能的压力效应

考虑三元混晶效应,采用变分法讨论GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs对称耦合双量子阱中激子结合能的压力效应,并计算激子结合能随阱宽和中间垒宽的变化关系以及Al组分的影响.结果表明,激子结合能随阱宽的增加先增加至极大,随后减小;随垒宽则先减小到极小,随后增加.结合能随压力则近线性增加,且当阱宽较宽时,Al组分对结合能的影响不明显.     

多孔硅的发光

用电化学腐蚀的方法成功地制备出多孔硅系列样品,这种材料具有室温下肉眼可见的红色发光。波段分布在550-900nm之间的带状光谱,半宽度为0.31eV,峰值波长位于700nm附近。随着测量温度的升高,发光峰位兰移,发光强度随温度的变化呈指数变化规律。实验结果表明,多孔硅的发光是局域在量子线上激子的辐射复合。     

Experimental observation of electron-hole recollisions

An intense laser field can remove an electron from an atom or molecule and pull the electron into a large-amplitude oscillation in which it repeatedly collides with the charged core it left behind. Such recollisions result in the emission of very energetic photons by means of high-order-harmonic generation, which has been observed in atomic and molecular gases as well as in a bulk crystal. An exciton is an atom-like excitation of a solid in which an electron that is excited from the valence band is bound by the Coulomb interaction to the hole it left behind. It has been predicted that recollisions between electrons and holes in excitons will result in a new phenomenon: high-order-sideband generation. In this process, excitons are created by a weak near-infrared laser of frequency f(NIR). An intense laser field at a much lower frequency, f(THz), then removes the electron from the exciton and causes it to recollide with the resulting hole. New emission is predicted to occur as sidebands of frequency f(NIR)?+?2nf(THz), where n is an integer that can be much greater than one. Here we report the observation of high-order-sideband generation in semiconductor quantum wells. Sidebands are observed up to eighteenth order (+18f(THz), or n = 9). The intensity of the high-order sidebands decays only weakly with increasing sideband order, confirming the non-perturbative nature of the effect. Sidebands are strongest for linearly polarized terahertz radiation and vanish when the terahertz radiation is circularly polarized. Beyond their fundamental scientific significance, our results suggest a new mechanism for the ultrafast modulation of light, which has potential applications in terabit-rate optical communications.     

Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons in bilayer electron systems

An exciton is the particle-like entity that forms when an electron is bound to a positively charged 'hole'. An ordered electronic state in which excitons condense into a single quantum state was proposed as a theoretical possibility many years ago. We review recent studies of semiconductor bilayer systems that provide clear evidence for this phenomenon and explain why exciton condensation in the quantum Hall regime, where these experiments were performed, is as likely to occur in electron-electron bilayers as in electron-hole bilayers. In current quantum Hall excitonic condensates, disorder induces mobile vortices that flow in response to a supercurrent and limit the extremely large bilayer counterflow conductivity.     

Bose-Einstein condensation of quasi-equilibrium magnons at room temperature under pumping

Bose-Einstein condensation is one of the most fascinating phenomena predicted by quantum mechanics. It involves the formation of a collective quantum state composed of identical particles with integer angular momentum (bosons), if the particle density exceeds a critical value. To achieve Bose-Einstein condensation, one can either decrease the temperature or increase the density of bosons. It has been predicted that a quasi-equilibrium system of bosons could undergo Bose-Einstein condensation even at relatively high temperatures, if the flow rate of energy pumped into the system exceeds a critical value. Here we report the observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas of magnons at room temperature. Magnons are the quanta of magnetic excitations in a magnetically ordered ensemble of magnetic moments. In thermal equilibrium, they can be described by Bose-Einstein statistics with zero chemical potential and a temperature-dependent density. In the experiments presented here, we show that by using a technique of microwave pumping it is possible to excite additional magnons and to create a gas of quasi-equilibrium magnons with a non-zero chemical potential. With increasing pumping intensity, the chemical potential reaches the energy of the lowest magnon state, and a Bose condensate of magnons is formed.     

Single-exciton optical gain in semiconductor nanocrystals

Nanocrystal quantum dots have favourable light-emitting properties. They show photoluminescence with high quantum yields, and their emission colours depend on the nanocrystal size--owing to the quantum-confinement effect--and are therefore tunable. However, nanocrystals are difficult to use in optical amplification and lasing. Because of an almost exact balance between absorption and stimulated emission in nanoparticles excited with single electron-hole pairs (excitons), optical gain can only occur in nanocrystals that contain at least two excitons. A complication associated with this multiexcitonic nature of light amplification is fast optical-gain decay induced by non-radiative Auger recombination, a process in which one exciton recombines by transferring its energy to another. Here we demonstrate a practical approach for obtaining optical gain in the single-exciton regime that eliminates the problem of Auger decay. Specifically, we develop core/shell hetero-nanocrystals engineered in such a way as to spatially separate electrons and holes between the core and the shell (type-II heterostructures). The resulting imbalance between negative and positive charges produces a strong local electric field, which induces a giant ( approximately 100 meV or greater) transient Stark shift of the absorption spectrum with respect to the luminescence line of singly excited nanocrystals. This effect breaks the exact balance between absorption and stimulated emission, and allows us to demonstrate optical amplification due to single excitons.     

硅基低维结构的电子态和光学性质

Canham的文章发表以后，引起了世界范围的研究热潮，目的是实现硅基的集成光电子技术．其中一个主要的研究方向是多孔硅的发光机制．根据各自的实验结果提出了不同的模型：量子限制、表面态复合、硅氧烷及其衍生物、以及声子辅助跃迁等．同时开始了理论计算，方法包括：紧束缚、经验赝势、和基于局域密度泛函的第一原理方法等．大部分理论计算研究的是量子限制对多孔硅和纳米硅晶发光的效应．计算得到的辐射寿命比直接能隙GaAs中激子的长得多，说明量子限制不能完全解释多孔硅的高发光效率．提出了一个经验赝势的同质结模型来计算多孔硅和纳米硅晶的电子结构．多孔硅的波函数用一组体Si波函数展开，它们的波矢满足周期性边界条件．利用简并微扰论计算了S量子线、量子孔、量子阱层和棱柱晶粒的电子态和光跃迁几率(寿命)．用紧束缚集团模型研究了表面键饱和对Si纳米晶体发光的效应．取表面Si原子的悬键与吸附原子之间的相互作用能量Vs为不同的值，代表不同的吸附原子．发现当Vs的绝对值变小时，能隙减小，同时跃迁几率增加约2个数量级．     

Hybridization of electronic states in quantum dots through photon emission

The self-assembly of semiconductor quantum dots has opened up new opportunities in photonics. Quantum dots are usually described as 'artificial atoms', because electron and hole confinement gives rise to discrete energy levels. This picture can be justified from the shell structure observed as a quantum dot is filled either with excitons (bound electron-hole pairs) or with electrons. The discrete energy levels have been most spectacularly exploited in single photon sources that use a single quantum dot as emitter. At low temperatures, the artificial atom picture is strengthened by the long coherence times of excitons in quantum dots, motivating the application of quantum dots in quantum optics and quantum information processing. In this context, excitons in quantum dots have already been manipulated coherently. We show here that quantum dots can also possess electronic states that go far beyond the artificial atom model. These states are a coherent hybridization of localized quantum dot states and extended continuum states: they have no analogue in atomic physics. The states are generated by the emission of a photon from a quantum dot. We show how a new version of the Anderson model that describes interactions between localized and extended states can account for the observed hybridization.     

电场对量子阱中激子的影响

利用变分方法计算了GaAs/Al_2Ga_(1-x)As量子阱中激子的束缚能,分析了电场、势阱宽度对激子束缚能的影响。采用明显不可分离的试探波函数,并考虑了电场对势阱中载流子几率分布的影响,计算了重空穴激子和轻空穴激子吸收峰位置随电场变化,结果与实验值符合得较好。     

GaAs/Al_xGa_(1-x)As和In_(1-x)Ga_xAs/GaSb_(1-y)As_y量子阱中激子的结合能

计算了GaAs/Al_xGa_(1-x)As和In_(1-x)Ga_xAs/GaSb_(1-y)As_y量子阱中激子的结合能,得到了结合能随阱宽和阱深的变化。结果表明,在这两类量子阱结构中激子结合能的变化规律有本质的不同。     

纳米氧化锌颗粒的荧光光谱特性及测试条件的影响

分别用沉淀法和有机物单源的热分解方法从溶液中生长了不同尺寸的氧化锌纳米晶体,研究了纳米晶体的荧光特性及其对测量样品状态的依赖关系.尺寸比较大的ZnO纳米晶体在固态下其荧光光谱为宽阔的发光带,并在宽阔发光带上出现一系列明显的精细结构,而分散于有机溶剂中时其荧光由激子复合发射和通过氧空位的复合发射组成.分散于有机溶剂中的中等尺寸的表面包裹的纳米ZnO晶体的荧光由激子荧光、通过浅杂质的发射和通过本征缺陷复合的荧光组成,其强度随着测量浓度的升高而增强,并且激子的荧光发生红移;尺寸比较小的表面包裹的纳米晶体的荧光为激子复合和通过氧空位复合的荧光组成,激子荧光强度、通过氧空位的发光强度及其相对强度随着纳米晶体浓度的变化而变化,测量浓度的升高,激子发光峰没有位移,但与缺陷态相关的激发光荧光发生红移.     

OLE技术在MIS中的应用

跟踪分析生成图形应用程序Ｇｅｎｇｒａｐｈ中的更新图形对象子功能Ｕｐｄａｔｅｇｒｐｈ，给出在ＭＩＳ中用Ｕｐｄａｔｅｇｒａｐｈ增加图形功能的方法．该方法具有方便用户操作、提高系统安全性和系统效率等优点．     

Ultrafast terahertz probes of transient conducting and insulating phases in an electron-hole gas

Many-body systems in nature exhibit complexity and self-organization arising from seemingly simple laws. For example, the long-range Coulomb interaction between electrical charges has a simple form, yet is responsible for a plethora of bound states in matter, ranging from the hydrogen atom to complex biochemical structures. Semiconductors form an ideal laboratory for studying many-body interactions of electronic quasiparticles among themselves and with lattice vibrations and light. Oppositely charged electron and hole quasiparticles can coexist in an ionized but correlated plasma, or form bound hydrogen-like pairs called excitons. The pathways between such states, however, remain elusive in near-visible optical experiments that detect a subset of excitons with vanishing centre-of-mass momenta. In contrast, transitions between internal exciton levels, which occur in the far-infrared at terahertz (1012 s(-1)) frequencies, are independent of this restriction, suggesting their use as a probe of electron-hole pair dynamics. Here we employ an ultrafast terahertz probe to investigate directly the dynamical interplay of optically-generated excitons and unbound electron-hole pairs in GaAs quantum wells. Our observations reveal an unexpected quasi-instantaneous excitonic enhancement, the formation of insulating excitons on a 100-ps timescale, and the conditions under which excitonic populations prevail.     

AlGaInAs multi-quantum wells ring laser with optical coupling waveguides

Based on InAIGaAs multi-quantum wells epitaxy structure for Fabry-Pero laser diode, a multi-quantum wells semiconductor ring laser is realized using ICP dry etching process and polyimide planarization process, The laser is generated in a semiconductor resonator ring and is output by two coupled integrated bus waveguides. The ring diameter is 700μm and the width of the waveguide is 3 μm. The output optical power-current （P-I） characteristic and the wavelength spectra of the ring laser are measured using a fiber coupled to the cleaved facet of the bus waveguide. The threshold current of the device is 120 mA and the wavelength is 1602 nm at an injected current of 160 mA. In addition, the operation mode for the laser in the resonator ring is roughly discussed based on the P- I characteristic plot.     

均匀相互作用玻色气体的凝聚温度

最近人们已经在实验中实现了相互作用玻色气体的玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚,相互作用玻色气体的凝聚温度是玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚问题中一个重要的热力学量,运用鹰势方法和巨正则分布,作者对盒子中相互作用玻色气全的凝聚温度给预了详细考察,研究表明凝聚温度的移动为δTc/Tc=-2.9an^1/3,此处a和n分别为两粒子的S波散射长度和粒子精密度。     

Te掺杂ZnSe/[(CdSe)_l(ZnSe)_3]_m超晶格荧光光谱

对垒区Ｔｅ掺杂浓度不同的ＺｎＳｅ／［（ＣｄＳｅ）１（ＺｎＳｅ）３］ｍ短周期超晶格量子阱的稳态和瞬态荧光进行了实验研究，通过不同激发强度下逐级饱和过程测得ＺｎＳｅ垒区自由激子寿命为３５ｐｓ，［（ＣｄＳｅ）１（ＺｎＳｅ）３］７阱区自由激子寿命为１７７ｐｓ，束缚在不同ｎ值的Ｔｅｎ束缚激子的复合寿命为０．５～１０ｎｓ．揭示了Ｔｅ掺杂浓度对能量传递、荧光波长和荧光寿命的灵敏的影响及其规律．