arXiv subjects

Danhong Huang

Publications and source records attributed to Danhong Huang.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Role of electron back action on photons in hybridizing double-layer graphene plasmons with localized photons

Induced polarization by Dirac electrons in double-layer graphene can affect hybridization of radiative and evanescent fields. Electron back action appears as a localized optical field to modify an incident surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) evanescent field. This leads to high sensitivity (beyond the diffraction limit) to local environments and provides a scrutiny tool for molecules or protein selectively bounded with carbon. A scattering matrix with frequencies around the surface-plasmon (SP) resonance supports this scrutiny tool and exhibits sensibly the increase, decrease and even a full suppression of the polarization field in the vicinity of a conducting surface for longer SPP wavelengthes. Moreover, triply-hybridized absorption peaks associated with SP, acoustic- and optical-like graphene plasmons become significant only at high SP frequencies, but are overshadowed by a round SPP peak for low SP frequencies. These resonant features (different from 3D photonic lattices) facilitate the polariton-only excitations, giving rise to possible polariton condensation for a threshold-free laser. The current graphene-plasmon hybridization formalism can be easily generalized to other two-dimensional materials, such as silicene, germanene, molybdenum disulfide, etc.

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arXiv2017

Optical and Boltzmann conductivities for extrinsic buckled honeycomb lattices at finite temperature

The optical and Boltzmann conductivities have been calculated for doped buckled honeycomb lattice structures such as silicene and germanene, as functions of temperature. By making use of previous results for the temperature-dependent chemical potential for gapped Dirac systems, we have calculated the dynamical polarization function and investigated the way in which initial doping affects its behavior at arbitrary temperature, frequency and wave number. We have calculated the optical and Boltzmann conductivities in the relaxation time approximation. Both these quantities are directly related to the polarizability, with the former being proportional to its long-wavelength limit, whereas the latter depends on static screening and the corresponding dielectric function. We demonstrated that initial doping substantially increases each type of conductivity at intermediate temperatures and we have introduced a formalism for calculating the inverse relaxation time and transition rates for the two inequivalent subbands in silicene.

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arXiv2017

Many-body theory for proton-induced point-defect effects on losses of electron energy and photons in quantum wells

The effects of point defects on the loss of either energies of ballistic electron beams or incident photons are studied by using a many-body theory in a multi-quantum-well system. This includes the defect-induced vertex correction to a bare polarization function of electrons within the ladder approximation as well as the intralayer and interlayer screening of defect-electron interactions are also taken into account in the random-phase approximation. The numerical results of defect effects on both energy-loss and optical-absorption spectra are presented and analyzed for various defect densities, number of quantum wells, and wave vectors. The diffusion-reaction equation is employed for calculating distributions of point defects in a layered structure. For completeness, the production rate for Frenkel-pair defects and their initial concentration are obtained based on atomic-level molecular-dynamics simulations. By combining defect-effect, diffusion-reaction and molecular-dynamics models proposed in this paper with a space-weather forecast model for the first time, it will be possible to enable specific designing for electronic and optoelectronic quantum devices that will be operated in space with radiation-hardening protection, and therefore, will effectively extend the lifetime of these satellite onboard electronic and optoelectronic devices.

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arXiv2017

Finite-temperature Coulomb Excitations in Extrinsic Dirac Structures

We have derived algebraic, analytic expressions for the chemical potential without any restriction on temperature for all types of doped, or extrinsic, gapped Dirac cone materials including gapped graphene, silicene, germanene and single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides. As an important intermediate step of our derivations, we have established a reliable piecewise-linear model for cal- culating the density-of-states in molybdenum disulfide, showing good agreement with previously obtained numerical results. For the spin- and valley-resolved band structure, we obtain an additional decrease of the chemical potential due to thermally induced doping of the upper subband at finite temperature. It has been demonstrated that since the symmetry between the electron and hole states in $MoS_2$ is broken, the chemical potential could cross the zero-energy level at sufficiently high temperature. These results allow us to investigate the collective properties, polarizability, plasmons and their damping. Emphasis is placed on low temperatures, when initial electron doping plays a crucial role. We clearly demonstrated the contribution of the initial doping to the finite-temperature collective properties of the considered materials.

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arXiv2017

Quantum-Electron Back Action on Hybridization of Radiative and Evanescent Field Modes

A back action from Dirac electrons in graphene on the hybridization of radiative and evanescent fields is found as an analogy to Newton's third law. Here, the back action appears as a localized polarization field which greatly modifies an incident surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) field. This yields a high sensitivity to local dielectric environments and provides a scrutiny tool for molecules or proteins selectively bounded with carbons. A scattering matrix is shown with varied frequencies nearby the surface-plasmon (SP) resonance for the increase, decrease and even a full suppression of the polarization field, which enables accurate effective-medium theories to be constructed for Maxwell-equation finite-difference time-domain methods. Moreover, double peaks in the absorption spectra for hybrid SP and graphene-plasmon modes are significant only with a large conductor plasma frequency, but are overshadowed by a round SPP peak at a small plasma frequency as the graphene is placed close to conductor surface. These resonant absorptions facilitate the polariton-only excitations, leading to polariton condensation for a threshold-free laser.

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arXiv2017

Exploring the Optical States for Black Phosphorus: Anisotropy and Bandgap Tuning

The dressed states arising from the interaction between electrons and holes, and off-resonant electromagnetic radiation have been investigated for recently fabricated gapped and anisotropic black phosphorus. Our calculations were carried out for the low-energy electronic subbands near the $Γ$ point. States for both linear and circular polarizations of the incoming radiation have been computed. However, our principal emphasis is on linearly polarized light with arbitrary polarization since this case has not been given much attention for dressing fields imposed on anisotropic structures. We have considered various cases for one- and few-layer phosphorus, including massless Dirac fermions with tunable in-plane anisotropy. Initial Hamiltonian parameters are renormalized in a largely different way compared to those for previously reported for gapped Dirac structures and, most importantly, existing anisotropy which could be modified in every direction.

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arXiv2017

Controlling plasmon modes and damping in buckled two-dimensional material open systems

Full ranges of both hybrid plasmon-mode dispersions and their damping are studied systematically by our recently developed mean-field theory in open systems involving a conducting substrate and a two-dimensional (2D) material with a buckled honeycomb lattice, such as silicene, germanene, and a group \rom{4} dichalcogenide as well. In this hybrid system, the single plasmon mode for a free-standing 2D layer is split into one acoustic-like and one optical-like mode, leading to a dramatic change in the damping of plasmon modes. In comparison with gapped graphene, critical features associated with plasmon modes and damping in silicene and molybdenum disulfide are found with various spin-orbit and lattice asymmetry energy bandgaps, doping types and levels, and coupling strengths between 2D materials and the conducting substrate. The obtained damping dependence on both spin and valley degrees of freedom is expected to facilitate measuring the open-system dielectric property and the spin-orbit coupling strength of individual 2D materials. The unique linear dispersion of the acoustic-like plasmon mode introduces additional damping from the intraband particle-hole modes which is absent for a free-standing 2D material layer, and the use of molybdenum disulfide with a large bandgap simultaneously suppresses the strong damping from the interband particle-hole modes.

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arXiv2016

Tunneling of Hybridized Pairs of Electrons through a One-Dimensional Channel

Recently, the electron transport through a quasi-one dimensional (quasi-1D) electron gas was investigated experimentally as a function of the confining potential. We present a physical model for quantum ballistic transport of electrons through a short conduction channel, and investigate the role played by the Coulomb interaction in modifying the energy levels of two-electron states at low temperatures as the width of the channel is increased. In this regime, the effect of the Coulomb interaction on the two-electron states has been shown to lead to four split energy levels, including two anti-crossings and two crossing-level states. Due to the interplay between the anti-crossing and crossing of the energy levels, the ground state for the two-electron model switches from one anti-crossing state for strong confinement to a crossing state for intermediate confinement as the channel width is first increased, and then returned to its original anti-crossing state. This switching behavior is related to the triplet spin degeneracy as well as the Coulomb repulsion and reflected in the ballistic conductance. Here, many-body effects can still affect electron occupations in the calculation of quantum ballistic conductance although it cannot vary the center-of-mass velocity.

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arXiv2016

Temperature-dependent collective effects for silicene, germanene and monolayer black phosphorus

We have calculated numerically electron exchange, correlation energies and dynamical polarization function for newly discovered silicene, germanene and black phosphorus (BP), consisting of puckered layers of elemental phosphorus atoms, broadening the range of two-dimensional (2D) materials at various temperatures. As a matter of fact, monolayer BP, produced by mechanical and liquid exfoliation techniques, has been predicted to be an insulator with a large energy splitting 1.6 eV for the quasiparticle band structure. We compare the dependence of these energies on the chemical potential, field-induced gap and the temperature and concluded that in many cases they behave qualitatively similarly, i.e., increasing with the doping, decreasing significantly at elevated temperatures, and displaying different dependence on the asymmetry gap at various temperatures. Furthermore, we used the dynamical polarizability to investigate the new "split" plasmon branches in the puckered lattices and predict a unique splitting, different from that in gapped graphene, for various energy gaps. Our results are crucial for stimulating electronic, transport and collective studies of these novel materials, as well as for enhancing silicene-based fabrication and technologies for photovoltaics and transistor devices.

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arXiv2015

Plasmon dissipation in gapped-graphene open systems at finite temperature

Numerical and closed-form analytic expressions for plasmon dispersion relations and rates of dissipation are first obtained at finite-temperatures for free-standing gapped graphene. These closed-system results are generalized to an open system with Coulomb coupling of graphene electrons to an external electron reservoir. New plasmon modes, as well as new plasmon dissipation channels, are found in this open system, including significant modifications arising from the combined effect of thermal excitation of electrons and an energy bandgap in gapped graphene. Moreover, the characteristics of the new plasmon mode and the additional plasmon dissipation may be fully controlled by adjusting the separation between the graphene layer from the surface of a thick conductor. Numerical results for the thermal shift of plasmon frequency in a doped gapped graphene layer, along with its sensitivity to the local environment, are demonstrated and analyzed. Such phenomenon associated with the frequency shift of plasmons may be applied to direct optical measurement of local electron temperature in transistors and nanoplasmonic structures.

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arXiv2015

Characterization of carrier transport properties in strained crystalline Si wall-like structures as a function of scaling into the quasi-quantum regime

We report the transport characteristics of both electrons and holes through narrow constricted crystalline Si "wall-like" long-channels that were surrounded by a thermally grown SiO2 layer. Importantly, as a result of the existence of fixed oxide charges in the thermally grown SiO2 layer and the Si/SiO2 interface, the effective Si cross-sectional wall widths were considerably narrower than the actual physical widths, due the formation of depletion regions from both sides. These nanostructures were configured into a metal-semiconductor-metal device configuration that was isolated from the substrate region. Dark currents, dc-photo-response, and carrier "time-of-flight" response measurements using a mode-locked femtosecond laser, were used in the study. In the narrowest wall devices, a considerable increase in conductivity was observed as a result of higher carrier mobilities due to lateral constriction and strain. The strain effects, which include the reversal splitting of light- and heavy- hole bands as well as the decrease of conduction-band effective mass by reduced Si bandgap energy, are formulated in our microscopic model for explaining the experimentally observed enhancements in both conduction- and valence-band mobilities with reduced Si wall thickness. The role of the biaxial strain buffing depth is elucidated and the quasi-quantum effect for the saturation hole mobility at small wall thickness is also found and explained. Specifically, the enhancements of the valence-band and conduction-band mobilities are found to be associated with different aspects of theoretical model.

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arXiv2015

Interplay of hybrid and unhybrid quantum transport of interacting electron pairs through a short conduction channel

For quantum ballistic transport of electrons through a short conduction channel, the role of Coulomb interaction may significantly modify the energy levels of an electron pair at low temperatures as the channel becomes wide. In this regime, the Coulomb effect on the orbital triplet and singlet electron-pair state is calculated and found to lead to four split energy levels, including two hybrid and two unhybrid states. Moreover, due to the interplay of hybrid and unhybrid Coulomb interactions between two electrons, our calculations reveal that the ground pair-state will switch from one hybrid orbit-triplet state (strong confinement) to the unhybrid orbit-singlet state (intermediate confinement) as the channel width gradually increases and then back to the original hybrid orbit-triplet state (weak confinement), due to larger total spin of the orbit-singlet state, as the channel width becomes larger than a threshold value. This switching behavior leaves a footprint in the conductance as well as in the diffusion thermoelectric power of electrons. Here, the predicted reoccurrence of the hybrid orbit-triplet state (spin-$0$ state) as a ground state is shown to relate to the higher spin degeneracy of the spin-$1$ state as well as to the strong Coulomb repulsion in the central region of the channel, which separates two electrons away and pushes them to different channel edges. The conductance reoccurrence region expands from the weak to the intermediate confinement regime with increasing linear electron density.

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arXiv2015

Temperature-dependent Plasmons and Their Damping Rates for Graphene with a Finite Energy Bandgap

We obtained numerical and closed-form analytic expressions for finite-temperature plasmon dispersion relations for intrinsic graphene in the presence of a finite energy gap in the energy spectrum. The calculations were carried out using the random-phase approximation. The analytic results have been derived in the high temperature regime and long-wavelength limit. We have found that the plasmon damping rate decreases in the presence of a band gap. Our method of calculation could also be applied to silicene and other buckled honeycomb lattice structures. The finite-temperature plasmon dispersion relations are presented when a single graphene layer is Coulomb coupled to a semi infinite conductor. Both cases of gapless and gapped monolayer graphene have been investigated when a thick substrate is in their proximity. Both the plasmon excitation frequency and damping rate are linear functions of the in-plane wave vector in the long wavelength limit when a monolayer interacts with a conducting substrate which is not the case for free-standing pristine or gapped graphene.

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arXiv2015

Coulomb Excitations for a Short Linear Chain of Metallic Shells

A self-consistent-field theory is given for the electronic collective modes of a chain containing a finite number, $N$, of Coulomb-coupled spherical two-dimensional electron gases (S2DE's) arranged with their centers along a straight line, simulating a narrow micro-ribbon of metallic shells. The separation between nearest-neighbor shells is arbitrary and because of the quantization of the electron energy levels due to their confinement to the spherical surface, all angular momenta $L$ of the Coulomb excitations and their projections $M$ on the quantization axis are coupled. However, for incoming light with a specific polarization, only one angular momentum quantum number is chosen. We show that when $N=3$ the next-nearest-neighbor Coulomb coupling is larger than its value if they are located at opposite ends of a right-angle triangle forming the triad. Additionally, the frequencies of the plasma excitations depend on the orientation of the line joining them with respect to the axis of quantization since the magnetic field generated from the induced oscillating electric dipole moment on one sphere can couple to the induced magnetic dipole moment on another.

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arXiv2014

Surface Plasmon Instability Leading to Emission of Radiation

We propose a new energy conversion approach from a dc electric field to a terahertz wave based on hybrid semiconductors by combining two-dimensional (2D) crystalline layers and a thick conducting material with possible applications as a source of coherent radiation. The hybrid nano-structure may consist of a single or pair of sheets of graphene, silicene or a 2D electron gas as would occur at a semiconductor hetero-interface. When an electric current is passed through a layer, we discover that the low-frequency plasmons may become unstable beyond a critical wave vector $q_c$. However, there is no instability for a single driven layer far from the conductor and the instability of an isolated pair of 2D layers occurs only at ultra long wavelengths. To bring in frequency agility for this spontaneous radiation, we manipulate the surface-plasmon induced instability, which leads to the emission of radiation (spiler), to occur at shorter wavelengths by choosing the conductor electron density, layer separation, distances of layers from the conductor surface and the driving-current strength. Applications of terahertz radiation from spiler for chemical analysis, security scanning, medical imaging and telecommunications are expected.

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arXiv2014

Engineering semiconductor hybrids for sensing

The effect of screening of the coulomb interaction between two layers of two-dimensional electrons, such as in graphene, by a highly doped semiconducting substrate is investigated. We employ the random-phase approximation to calculate the dispersion equation of this hybrid structure in order to determine the plasmon excitation spectrum. When an electric current is passed through a layer, the low-frequency plasmons in the layer may bifurcate into separate streams due to the current-driving effect. At a critical wave vector, determined by the separation between layers and their distance from the surface, their phase velocities may be in opposite directions and a surface plasmon instability leads to the emission of radiation. Applications to detectors and other electromagnetic devices exploiting nano-plasmonics are discussed.

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arXiv2014

Role Played by Surface Plasmons on Plasma Instability in Composite Layered Structures

We demonstrate the engineering of a source of radiation from growing surface plasmons (charge density oscillations) in a composite nano-system. The considered hybrid nano-structure consists of a thick layer of a conducting substrate on whose surface a plasmon mode is activated conjoining a single or pair of thin sheets of either monolayer graphene, silicene or a two-dimensional electron gas as would occur at a hetero-interface. When an electric current is passed through either a layer or within the substrate, the low-frequency plasmons in the layer may bifurcate into separate streams due to the driving current. At a critical wave vector, determined by the separation between layers (if there are two) and their distance from the surface, their phase velocities may be in opposite directions and a surface plasmon instability leads to the emission of radiation (spiler). Spiler takes advantage of the flexibility of choosing its constituents to produce sources of radiation. The role of the substrate is to screen the Coulomb interaction between two layers or between a layer and the surface. The range of wave vectors where the instability is achieved may be adjusted by varying layer separation and type of material. Applications to detectors and other electromagnetic devices exploiting nano-plasmonics are discussed.

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arXiv2014

Multi-timescale microscopic theory for radiation degradation of electronic and optoelectronic devices

A multi-timescale hybrid model is proposed to study microscopically the degraded performance of electronic devices, covering three individual stages of radiation effects studies, including ultrafast displacement cascade, intermediate defect stabilization and cluster formation, as well as slow defect reaction and migration. Realistic interatomic potentials are employed in molecular-dynamics calculations for the first two stages up to 100\,ns as well as for the system composed of layers with thickness of hundreds times of lattice constant. These quasi-steady-state results for individual layers are input into a rate-diffusion theory as initial conditions to calculate the steady-state distribution of point defects in a mesoscopic-scale layered-structure system, including planar biased dislocation loops and spherical neutral voids, on a much longer time scale. Assisted by the density-functional theory for specifying electronic properties of point defects, the resulting spatial distributions of these defects and clusters are taken into account in studying the degradation of electronic and optoelectronic devices, e.g., carrier momentum-relaxation time, defect-mediated non-radiative recombination, defected-assisted tunneling of electrons and defect or charged-defect Raman scattering as well. Such theoretical studies are expected to be crucial in fully understanding the physical mechanism for identifying defect species, performance degradations in field-effect transistors, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes and solar cells, and in the development of effective mitigation methods during their microscopic structure design stages.

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