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E. E. Mendez

Publications and source records attributed to E. E. Mendez.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

Mobility-dependent Low-frequency Noise in Graphene Field Effect Transistors

We have investigated the low-frequency 1/f noise of both suspended and on-substrate graphene field-effect transistors and its dependence on gate voltage, in the temperature range between 300K and 30K. We have found that the noise amplitude away from the Dirac point can be described by a generalized Hooge's relation in which the Hooge parameter αH is not constant but decreases monotonically with the device's mobility, with a universal dependence that is sample and temperature independent. The value of αH is also affected by the dynamics of disorder, which is not reflected in the DC transport characteristics and varies with sample and temperature. We attribute the diverse behavior of gate voltage dependence of the noise amplitude to the relative contributions from various scattering mechanisms, and to potential fluctuations near the Dirac point caused by charge carrier inhomogeneity. The higher carrier mobility of suspended graphene devices accounts for values of 1/f noise significantly lower than those observed in on-substrate graphene devices and most traditional electronic materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Drastic Reduction of Shot Noise in Semiconductor Superlattices

We have found experimentally that the shot noise of the tunneling current $I$ through an undoped semiconductor superlattice is reduced with respect to the Poissonian noise value $2eI$, and that the noise approaches 1/3 of that value in superlattices whose quantum wells are strongly coupled. On the other hand, when the coupling is weak or when a strong electric field is applied to the superlattice the noise becomes Poissonian. Although our results are qualitatively consistent with existing theories for one-dimensional mulitple barriers, the theories cannot account for the dependence of the noise on superlattice parameters that we have observed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Shot-noise characteristics of triple-barrier resonant-tunneling diodes

We have found experimentally that the shot noise in InAlAs-InGaAs-InAlAs Triple-Barrier Resonant-Tunneling Diodes (TBRTD) is reduced over the 2eI Poissonian value whenever their differential conductance is positive, and is enhanced over 2eI when the differential conductance is negative. This behavior, although qualitatively similar to that found in double-barrier diodes, differs from it in important details. In TBRTDs the noise reduction is considerably larger than predicted by a semi-classical model, and the enhancement does not correlate with the strength of the negative differential conductance. These results suggest an incomplete understanding of the noise properties of multiple-barrier heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Unusual Tunneling Characteristics of Double-quantum-well Heterostructures

We report tunneling phenomena in double In$_{0.53}$Ga$_{0.47}$As quantum-well structures that are at odds with the conventional parallel-momentum-conserving picture of tunneling between two-dimensional systems. We found that the tunneling current was mostly determined by the correlation between the emitter and the state in one well, and not by that between those in both wells. Clear magnetic-field-dependent features were first observed before the main resonance, corresponding to tunneling channels into the Landau levels of the well near the emitter. These facts provide evidence of the violation of in-plane momentum conservation in two-dimensional systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Shot noise of large charge quanta in superconductor/semiconductor/superconductor junctions

We have found experimentally that the noise of ballistic electron transport in a superconductor/semiconductor/superconductor junction is enhanced relative to the value given by the general relation, S_V=2eIR^2coth(eV/2kT), for two voltage regions in which this expression reduces to its thermal and shot noise limits. The noise enhancement is explained by the presence of large charge quanta, with effective charge q*=(1+2Delta/eV)e, that generate a noise spectrum S_V=2q*IR^2, as predicted in Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3814 (1996). These charge quanta result from multiple Andreev reflections at each junction interface, which are also responsible for the subharmonic gap structure observed in the voltage dependence of the junction's conductance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Hopping Conductivity Beyond The Percolation Regime Probed By Shot-Noise Measurements

We have observed suppression of shot noise in the variable-range hopping regime for a two-dimensional electron gas whose localization length, xi, is controlled by a gate voltage. We have found that the suppression factor F (Fano factor) is approximately inversely proportional to the length of the system L (F=L0*/L) for a broad range of values of xi/L_0*, where L0* is the characteristic length. In the case xi/L0*<<1, we have identified L0* with the distance L0 between the hard hops along the sample length. On the other hand, when xi is of the order of L0*, we have observed that L0* does not agree with L0 calculated from the percolation model of hopping. We attribute this discrepancy to a breakdown of that model and to a reconstruction of the hopping paths.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Magnetotunneling Between Two-dimensional Electron Gases in InAs-AlSb-GaSb Heterostructures

We have observed that the tunneling magnetoconductance between two-dimensional (2D) electron gases formed at nominally identical InAs-AlSb interfaces most often exhibits two sets of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations with almost the same frequency. This result is explained quantitatively with a model of the conductance in which the 2D gases have different densities and can tunnel between Landau levels with different quantum indices. When the epitaxial growth conditions of the interfaces are optimized, the zero-bias magnetoconductance shows a single set of oscillations, thus proving that the asymmetry between the two electron gases can be eliminated.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Shot Noise in Negative-Differential-Conductance Devices

We have compared the shot-noise properties at T = 4.2 K of a double-barrier resonant-tunneling diode and a superlattice tunnel diode, both of which exhibit negative differential-conductance (NDC) in their current-voltage characteristics. While the noise spectral density of the former device was greatly enhanced over the Poissonian value of 2eI in the NDC region, that of the latter device remained 2eI. This result implies that charge accumulation, not system instability, is responsible for shot-noise enhancement in NDC devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Tunneling Characteristics of an Electron-Hole Trilayer under an In-plane Magnetic Field

We have studied the tunneling properties of GaSb/AlSb/InAs/AlSb/GaSb heterostructures, in which electrons and holes accumulate in the InAs and GaSb regions respectively, under a magnetic field parallel to the interfaces. The low-temperature (T = 4.2K), zero-bias magnetoconductance has shown a behavior with field that evidences the two-dimensional character of both electrons and holes and that has allowed us to determine the hole density and the electron-hole separation. The observed field dependence of the current-voltage characteristics is explained by the relative change in parallel momentum of electrons and holes induced by the field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Enhancement of Rabi Splitting in a Microcavity with an Embedded Superlattice

We have observed a large coupling between the excitonic and photonic modes of an AlAs/AlGaAs microcavity filled with an 84-({\rm Å})/20({\rm Å}) GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice. Reflectivity measurements on the coupled cavity-superlattice system in the presence of a moderate electric field yielded a Rabi splitting of 9.5 meV at T = 238 K. This splitting is almost 50% larger than that found in comparable microcavities with quantum wells placed at the antinodes only. We explain the enhancement by the larger density of optical absorbers in the superlattice, combined with the quasi-two-dimensional binding energy of field-localized excitons.

cond-mat↗

Magnetotunneling in a Two-Dimensional Electron-Hole System Near Equilibrium

We have measured the zero-bias differential tunneling conductance of InAs/AlSb/GaS b/AlSb/InAs heterostructures at low temperatures (1.7K < T < 60K) and unde r a magnetic field at various angles with the heterostructure's interfaces. Shubni kov-de Haas oscillations in the magnetoconductance reveal the two-dimensional (2D) character of the electrons accumulated at the InAs interfaces and yield their num ber in each of them. The temperature dependence of the oscillations suggests the f ormation of a field-induced energy gap at the Fermi level, similar to that observe d before in simpler 2D-2D tunneling systems. A calculation of the magnetoconductan ce that considers different 2D densities in the two InAs electrodes agrees with th e main observations, but fails to explain features that might be related to the pr esence of 2D holes in the GaSb region.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Spin Dynamics of Cavity Polaritons

We have studied polariton spin dynamics in a GaAs/AlGaAs microcavity by means of polarization- and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy as a function of excitation density and normal mode splitting. The experiments reveal a novel behavior of the degree of polarization of the emission, namely the existence of a finite delay to reach its maximum value. We have also found that the stimulated emission of the lower polariton branch has a strong influence on spin dynamics: in an interval of $\sim$150 ps the polarization changes from +100% to negative values as high as -60%. This strong modulation of the polarization and its high speed may open new possibilities for spin-based devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Observation of Partially Suppressed Shot Noise in Hopping Conduction

We have observed shot noise in the hopping conduction of two dimensional carriers confined in a p-type SiGe quantum well at a temperature of 4K. Moreover, shot noise is suppressed relative to its ``classical'' value 2eI by an amount that depends on the length of the sample and carrier density, which was controlled by a gate voltage. We have found a suppression factor to the classical value of about one half for a 2 $μ$m long sample, and of one fifth for a 5 $μ$m sample. In each case, the factor decreased slightly as the density increased toward the insulator-metal transition. We explain these results in terms of the characteristic length ($\simeq 1μ$m in our case) of the inherent inhomogeneity of hopping transport.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Raman spectroscopy of InN films grown on Si

We have used Raman spectroscopy to study indium nitride thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (111) silicon substrates at temperatures between 450 and 550 C. The Raman spectra show well defined peaks at 443, 475, 491, and 591 cm{-1}, which correspond to the A_1(TO), E_1(TO), E_2^{high}, and A_1(LO) phonons of the wurtzite structure, respectively. In backscattering normal to the surface the A_1(TO) and E_1(TO) peaks are very weak, indicating that the films grow along the hexagonal c axis. The dependence of the peak width on growth temperature reveals that the optimum temperature is 500 C, for which the fullwidth of the E_2^{high} peak has the minimum value of 7 cm{-1}. This small value, comparable to previous results for InN films grown on sapphire, is evidence of the good crystallinity of the films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Electric-Field Tuning of Spin-Dependent Exciton-Exciton Interactions in Coupled Quantum Wells

We have shown experimentally that an electric field decreases the energy separation between the two components of a dense spin-polarized exciton gas in a coupled double quantum well, from a maximum splitting of $\sim 4$ meV to zero, at a field of $\sim $35 kV/cm. This decrease, due to the field-induced deformation of the exciton wavefunction, is explained by an existing calculation of the change in the spin-dependent exciton-exciton interaction with the electron-hole separation. However, a new theory that considers the modification of screening with that separation is needed to account for the observed dependence on excitation power of the individual energies of the two exciton components.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Shot Noise Enhancement in Resonant Tunneling Structures in a Magnetic Field

We have observed that the shot noise of tunnel current, I, in GaSb-AlSb-InAs-AlSb-GaSb double-barrier structure under a magnetic field can exceed 2qI. The measurements were done at T=4K in fields up to 5T parallel to the current. The noise enhancement occurred at each of the several negative-differential conductance regions induced by the tunneling of holes through Landau levels in the InAs quantum well. The amount of the enhancement increased with the strength of the negative conductance and reached values up to 8qI. These results are explained qualitatively by fluctuations of the density of states in the well, but point out the need for a detailed theory of shot noise enhancement in resonant tunneling devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗