arXiv subjects

F. M. Peeters

Publications and source records attributed to F. M. Peeters.

At least 469 records · Page 26Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

Saddle point states and energy barriers for vortex entrance and exit in superconducting disks and rings

The transitions between the different vortex states of thin mesoscopic superconducting disks and rings are studied using the non-linear Ginzburg-Landau functional. They are saddle points of the free energy representing the energy barrier which has to be overcome for transition between the different vortex states. In small superconducting disks and rings the saddle point state between two giant vortex states, and in larger systems the saddle point state between a multivortex state and a giant vortex state and between two multivortex states is obtained. The shape and the height of the nucleation barrier is investigated for different disk and ring configurations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Resistance effects due to magnetic guiding orbits

The Hall and magnetoresistance of a two dimensional electron gas subjected to a magnetic field barrier parallel to the current direction is studied as function of the applied perpendicular magnetic field. The recent experimental results of Nogaret {\em et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 84}, 2231 (2000)] for the magneto- and Hall resistance are explained using a semi-classical theory based on the Landauer-Büttiker formula. The observed positive magnetoresistance peak is explained as due to a competition between a decrease of the number of conducting channels as a result of the growing magnetic field, from the fringe field of the ferromagnetic stripe as it becomes magnetized, and the disappearance of snake orbits and the subsequent appearance of cycloidlike orbits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Magnetic field dependence of the exciton energy in a quantum disk

The groundstate energy and binding energy of an exciton, confined in a^M quantum disk, are calculated as a function of an external magnetic field. The confinement potential is a hard wall of finite height. The diamagnetic shift is investigated for magnetic fields up to 40$T$. Our results are applied to $In_{y}Al_{1-y}As/Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ self-assembled quantum dots and very good agreement with experiments is obtained. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of the dot size on the diamagnetic shift by changing the disk radius. The exciton excited states are found as a function of the magnetic field. The relative angular momentum is not a quantum number and changes with the magnetic field strength.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Non-Quantized Penetration of Magnetic Field in the Vortex State of Superconductors

As first pointed out by Bardeen and Ginzburg in the early sixties, the amount of magnetic flux carried by vortices depends on their distance to the sample edge and can be smaller than one flux quantum, f0 = h/2e. In bulk superconductors, this reduction of flux becomes negligible already at submicron distances from the edge but, in thin films, the effect may survive at much larger distances. In the absence of any experimental observation, such flux reduction is perceived to be an exotic or unimportant effect, and it is often assumed that magnetic field enters type-II superconductors in units of f0. Here we report the measurements of the amount of flux associated with the entrance of individual vortices in a superconducting film and show that the flux that they bring in, always differs substantially from f0. We have observed vortices that carry as little as 0.001 f0 as well as seemingly "negative vortices" whose penetration leads to the expulsion of magnetic field. We distinguish two phenomena responsible for non-quantized flux penetration: the finite-size effect and a non-linear screening of magnetic field in the presence of a surface barrier. The latter effect has previously not been considered but is likely to cause non-quantized penetration in many cases.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Fine structure of excitons in a quantum well in the presence of a nonhomogeneous magnetic field

The trapping of excitons in a semiconductor quantum well due to a circular symmetric nonhomogeneous magnetic field is studied. The effect of the spin state of the exciton on its trapping energy is analyzed, and the importance of the interaction of the orbital and spin Zeeman effect as compared to the diamagnetic term in the exciton Hamiltonian is emphasized. Magnetic field profiles are considered, which can experimentally be created through the deposition of ferromagnetic disks on top of a semiconductor heterostructure. This setup gives rise to a magnetic dipole type of profile in the $xy$ plane of the exciton motion. We find that the spin direction of the exciton influences its localization by changing the confinement region in the effective potential. The exciton confinement increases with magnetic field intensity, and this is more pronounced when the exciton g-factor is different from zero. The numerical calculations are performed for GaAs/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As quantum wells and we show that it open up a new realistic path for experiments designed to probe exciton trapping in semiconductors.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Wigner crystallization in the two electron quantum dot

Wigner crystallization can be induced in a quantum dot by increasing the effective electron-electron interaction through a decrease of the electron density or by the application of a strong magnetic field. We show that the ground state in both cases is very similar but the energy scales are very different and therefore also the dynamics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Ground state of excitons and charged excitons in a quantum well

A variational calculation of the ground state of a neutral exciton and of positively and negatively charged excitons (trions) in single quantum well is presented. We study the dependance of the correlation energy and of the binding energy on the well width and on the hole mass. Our results are are compared with previous theoretical results and with avalaible experimental data.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Confinement of two-dimensional excitons in a non-homogeneous magnetic field

The effective Hamiltonian describing the motion of an exciton in an external non-homogeneous magnetic field is derived. The magnetic field plays the role of an effective potential for the exciton motion, results into an increment of the exciton mass and modifies the exciton kinetic energy operator. In contrast to the homogeneous field case, the exciton in a non-homogeneous magnetic field can also be trapped in the low field region and the field gradient increases the exciton confinement. The trapping energy and wave function of the exciton in a GaAs two-dimensional electron gas for specific circular magnetic field configurations are calculated. The results show than excitons can be trapped by non-homogeneous magnetic fields, and that the trapping energy is strongly correlated with the shape and strength of the non-homogeneous magnetic field profile.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Snake orbits and related magnetic edge states

We study the electron motion near magnetic field steps at which the strength and/or sign of the magnetic field changes. The energy spectrum for such systems is found and the electron states (bound and scattered) are compared with their corresponding classical paths. Several classical properties as the velocity parallel to the edge, the oscillation frequency perpendicular to the edge and the extent of the states are compared with their quantum mechanical counterpart. A class of magnetic edge states is found which do not have a classical counterpart.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Semi-classical magnetoresistance in weakly modulated magnetic fields

The semi-classical conductance of a two-dimensional electron gas is calculated in the presence of a one-dimensional modulated magnetic field with zero average. In the limit of small magnetic field amplitudes (B) the contribution of the magnetic modulation to the magnetoresistance increases as $B^{3/2}$ in the diffusive limit, while the increase is linear in $B$ in the ballistic regime. Temperature does not influence the power law behavior but it decreases the prefactor of this functional behavior.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Paramagnetic Meissner effect in mesoscopic samples

Using the non-linear Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory, we study the magnetic response of different shaped samples in the field-cooled regime (FC). For high external magnetic fluxes, the conventional diamagnetic response under cooling down can be followed by the paramagnetic Meissner effect (PME). A second-order transition from a giant vortex state to a multi-vortex state, with the same vorticity, occurs at the second critical field which leads to the suppression of PME.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Vortex states in superconducting rings

The superconducting state of a thin superconducting disk with a hole is studied within the non-linear Ginzburg-Landau theory in which the demagnetization effect is accurately taken into account. We find that the flux through the hole is not quantized, the superconducting state is stabilized with increasing size of the hole for fixed radius of the disk, and a transition to a multi-vortex state is found if the disk is sufficiently large. Breaking the circular summetry through a non central location of the hole in the disk enhances the multi-vortex state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Radial fluctuations induced stabilization of the ordered state in two dimensional classical clusters

Melting of two dimensional (2D) clusters of classical particles is studied using Brownian dynamics and Langevin molecular dynamics simulations. The particles are confined by a circular hard wall or a parabolic external potential and interact through a dipole or a screened Coulomb potential. We found that with decreasing strength of the inter--particle interaction clusters with short-range inter-particle interaction which are confined by a hard wall exhibit a re-entrant behavior in its orientational order.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Vortex Matter in Mesoscopic Superconducting Disks and Rings

Phase transitions between different (i.e. giant and multi-vortex) superconducting states and between the superconducting-normal state of mesoscopic disks and rings are studied in the presence of an external magnetic field by solving the two non-linear Ginzburg-Landau equations self-consistently. The flux through a circular disk with a hole in the middle is not quantized.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Transitions between different superconducting states in mesoscopic disks

Using a linear analysis, we study the stability of giant-vortex states in very thin disks. The vortex expulsion and penetration fields are obtained for finite thickness disks from a numerical solution of the non-linear Ginzburg-Landau (GL) equations. Using an extension of the London approximation, in which the phase distribution of the order parameter is prescribed and the superconducting electron density is found numerically, we consider the free energy behavior for transitions between different superconducting states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Optically Detected Magnetophonon Resonances in Polar Semiconductors

Magnetophonon resonances are found for $ω_{c}=ω_{LO}/N$ with N=1,2,3 .... in the polaron cyclotron resonance (CR) linewidth and effective mass of bulk polar semiconductors. The CR mass and the linewidth are obtained from the full polaron magneto-optical absorption spectrum which are calculated using the memory function technique. The amplitude of the resonant peak in the linewidth can be described by an exponential law at low temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Enhanced stability of the square lattice of a classical bilayer Wigner crystal

The stability and melting transition of a single layer and a bilayer crystal consisting of charged particles interacting through a Coulomb or a screened Coulomb potential is studied using the Monte-Carlo technique. A new melting criterion is formulated which we show to be universal for bilayer as well as for single layer crystals in the case of (screened) Coulomb, Lennard--Jones and 1/r^{12} repulsive inter-particle interactions. The melting temperature for the five different lattice structures of the bilayer Wigner crystal is obtained, and a phase diagram is constructed as a function of the interlayer distance. We found the surprising result that the square lattice has a substantial larger melting temperature as compared to the other lattice structures. This is a consequence of the specific topology of the defects which are created with increasing temperature and which have a larger energy as compared to the defects in e.g. a hexagonal lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Flux penetration and expulsion in thin superconducting disks

Using an expansion of the order parameter over the eigenfunctions of the linearized first Ginzburg-Landau (GL) equation, we obtain numerically the saddle points of the free energy separating the stable states with different number of vortices. In contrast to known surface and geometrical barrier models, we find that in a wide range of magnetic fields below the penetration field, the saddle point state for flux penetration into a disk does not correspond to a vortex located nearby the sample boundary, but to a region of suppressed superconductivity at the disk edge with no winding of the current, and which is {\it a nucleus} for the following vortex creation. The height of this {\it nucleation barrier}, which determines the time of flux penetration, is calculated for different disk radii and magnetic fields.

cond-mat.supr-con↗