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Harold Y. Hwang

Publications and source records attributed to Harold Y. Hwang.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv2014

Electrically Tunable Optical Absorption in a Graphene-based Salisbury Screen

We demonstrate a graphene-based Salisbury screen consisting of a single layer of graphene placed in close proximity to a gold back reflector. The light absorption in the screen can be actively tuned by electrically gating the carrier density in the graphene layer with an ionic liquid/gel. The screen was designed to achieve maximum absorption at a target wavelength of 3.2 micrometer by using a 600 nm-thick, non-absorbing silica spacer layer. Spectroscopic reflectance measurements were performed in-situ as a function of gate bias. The changes in the reflectance spectra were analyzed using a Fresnel based transfer matrix model in which graphene was treated as an infinitesimally thin sheet with conductivity given by the Kubo formula. Temporal coupled mode theory was employed to analyze and intuitively understand the observed absorption changes in the Salisbury screen. We achieved ~ 6 % change in the optical absorption of graphene by tuning the applied gate bias from 0.8 V to 2.6 V, where 0.8 V corresponds to graphene's charge neutrality point.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2014

Quantum longitudinal and Hall transport at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface at low electron densities

We examined the magneto-transport behavior of electrons confined at the conducting LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface in the low sheet carrier density regime. We observed well resolved Shubnikov-de Haas quantum oscillations in the longitudinal resistance, and a plateau-like structure in the Hall conductivity. The Landau indices of the plateaus in the Hall conductivity data show spacing close to 4, in units of the quantum of conductance. These experimental features can be explained by a magnetic breakdown transition, which quantitatively explains the area, structure, and degeneracy of the measured Fermi surface.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2014

Generation and Electric Control of Spin-Coupled Valley Current in WSe2

The valley degree of freedom in layered transition-metal dichalcogenides (MX2) provides the opportunity to extend functionalities of novel spintronics and valleytronics devices. Due to spin splitting induced by spin-orbital coupling (SOC), the non-equilibrium charge carrier imbalance between two degenerate and inequivalent valleys to realize valley/spin polarization has been successfully demonstrated theoretically and supported by optical experiments. However, the generation of a valley/spin current by the valley polarization in MX2 remains elusive and a great challenge. Here, within an electric-double-layer transistor based on WSe2, we demonstrated a spin-coupled valley photocurrent whose direction and magnitude depend on the degree of circular polarization of the incident radiation and can be further greatly modulated with an external electric field. Such room temperature generation and electric control of valley/spin photocurrent provides a new property of electrons in MX2 systems, thereby enabling new degrees of control for quantum-confined spintronics devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2013

Locally enhanced conductivity due to the tetragonal domain structure in LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ heterointerfaces

The ability to control materials properties through interface engineering is demonstrated by the appearance of conductivity at the interface of certain insulators, most famously the {001} interface of the band insulators LaAlO$_{3}$ and TiO$_{2}$-terminated SrTiO$_{3}$ (STO). Transport and other measurements in this system show a plethora of diverse physical phenomena. To better understand the interface conductivity, we used scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscopy to image the magnetic field locally generated by current in an interface. At low temperature, we found that the current flowed in conductive narrow paths oriented along the crystallographic axes, embedded in a less conductive background. The configuration of these paths changed on thermal cycling above the STO cubic-to-tetragonal structural transition temperature, implying that the local conductivity is strongly modified by the STO tetragonal domain structure. The interplay between substrate domains and the interface provides an additional mechanism for understanding and controlling the behaviour of heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2013

Landau Level Spectroscopy of Dirac Electrons in a Polar Semiconductor with Giant Rashba Spin Splitting

Optical excitations of BiTeI with large Rashba spin splitting have been studied in an external magnetic field ($B$) applied parallel to the polar axis. A sequence of transitions between the Landau levels (LLs), whose energies are in proportion to $\sqrt{B}$ were observed, being characteristic of massless Dirac electrons. The large separation energy between the LLs makes it possible to detect the strongest cyclotron resonance even at room temperature in moderate fields. Unlike in 2D Dirac systems, the magnetic field induced rearrangement of the conductivity spectrum is directly observed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2013

Tunable Coupling of Two-Dimensional Superconductors in Bilayer SrTiO3 Heterostructures

Interlayer coupling effects between high mobility two-dimensional superconductors are studied in bilayer delta-doped SrTiO3 heterostructures. By tuning the undoped SrTiO3 spacer layer between the dopant planes, clear tunable coupling is demonstrated in the variation of the sheet carrier density, Hall mobility, superconducting transition temperature, and the temperature- and angle-dependences of the superconducting upper critical field. Systematic variation is found between one effective (merged) two-dimensional superconductor to two decoupled two-dimensional superconductors. In the intermediate coupled regime, a crossover is observed due to coupling arising from inter-sub-band interactions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2013

Hot electron transport in a strongly correlated transition metal oxide

Oxide heterointerfaces are ideal for investigating strong correlation effects to electron transport, relevant for oxide-electronics. Using hot-electrons, we probe electron transport perpendicular to the La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$ (LSMO)- Nb-doped SrTiO$_3$ (Nb:STO) interface and find the characteristic hot-electron attenuation length in LSMO to be 1.48 $\pm$ 0.10 unit cells (u.c.) at -1.9 V, increasing to 2.02 $\pm$ 0.16 u.c. at -1.3 V at room temperature. Theoretical analysis of this energy dispersion reveals the dominance of electron-electron and polaron scattering. Direct visualization of the local electron transport shows different transmission at the terraces and at the step-edges.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2012

Nonlinear terahertz metamaterials via field-enhanced carrier dynamics in GaAs

We demonstrate nonlinear metamaterial split ring resonators (SRRs) on GaAs at terahertz frequencies. For SRRs on doped GaAs films, incident terahertz radiation with peak fields of ~20 - 160 kV/cm drives intervalley scattering. This reduces the carrier mobility and enhances the SRR LC response due to a conductivity decrease in the doped thin film. Above ~160 kV/cm, electric field enhancement within the SRR gaps leads to efficient impact ionization, increasing the carrier density and the conductivity which, in turn, suppresses the SRR resonance. We demonstrate an increase of up to 10 orders of magnitude in the carrier density in the SRR gaps on semi-insulating GaAs substrate. Furthermore, we show that the effective permittivity can be swept from negative to positive values with increasing terahertz field strength in the impact ionization regime, enabling new possibilities for nonlinear metamaterials.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2012

Measurements of the gate tuned superfluid density in superconducting LaAlO3/SrTiO3

The interface between the insulating oxides LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 exhibits a superconducting two-dimensional electron system that can be modulated by a gate voltage. While gating of the conductivity has been probed extensively and gating of the superconducting critical temperature has been demonstrated, the question whether, and if so how, the gate tunes the superfluid density and superconducting order parameter is unanswered. We present local magnetic susceptibility, related to the superfluid density, as a function of temperature, gate voltage and location. We show that the temperature dependence of the superfluid density at different gate voltages collapse to a single curve characteristic of a full superconducting gap. Further, we show that the dipole moments observed in this system are not modulated by the gate voltage.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2012

Critical thickness for ferromagnetism in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures

In heterostructures of LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO), two nonmagnetic insulators, various forms of magnetism have been observed [1-7], which may [8, 9] or may not [10] arise from interface charge carriers that migrate from the LAO to the interface in an electronic reconstruction [11]. We image the magnetic landscape [5] in a series of n-type samples of varying LAO thickness. We find ferromagnetic patches that appear only above a critical thickness, similar to that for conductivity [12]. Consequently we conclude that an interface reconstruction is necessary for the formation of magnetism. We observe no change in ferromagnetism with gate voltage, and detect ferromagnetism in a non-conducting p-type sample, indicating that the carriers at the interface do not need to be itinerant to generate magnetism. The fact that the ferromagnetism appears in isolated patches whose density varies greatly between samples strongly suggests that disorder or local strain induce magnetism in a population of the interface carriers.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2011

Control of electronic conduction at an oxide heterointerface using surface polar adsorbates

The transfer of electrons between a solid surface and adsorbed atomic or molecular species is fundamental in natural and synthetic processes, being at the heart of most catalytic reactions and many sensors. In special cases, metallic conduction can be induced at the surface of, for example, Si-terminated SiC1, or mixed-terminated ZnO2, in the presence of a hydrogen adlayer. Generally, only the surface atoms are significantly affected by adsorbates. However, remotely changing electronic states far from the adsorbed layer is possible if these states are electrostatically coupled to the surface. Here we show that the surface adsorption of common solvents such as acetone, ethanol, and water can induce a large change (factor of three) in the conductivity at the buried interface between SrTiO3 substrates and LaAlO3 thin films3-8. This phenomenon is observed only for polar solvents. Our result provides experimental evidence that adsorbates at the LaAlO3 surface induce accumulation of electrons at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface, suggesting a general polarization-facilitated electronic transfer mechanism, which can be used for sensor applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2011

Nonlinear THz Conductivity Dynamics in CVD-Grown Graphene

We report strong THz-induced transparency in CVD-grown graphene where 92%-96% of the peak-field is transmitted compared to 74% at lower field strength. Time-resolved THz-pump/THz-probe studies reveal that the absorption recovers in 2-3 ps. The induced transparency is believed to arise from nonlinear pumping of carriers in graphene which suppresses the mobility and consequently the conductivity in a spectral region where the light-matter interaction is particularly strong.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2010

Built-in and induced polarization across LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ heterojunctions

Ionic crystals terminated at oppositely charged polar surfaces are inherently unstable and expected to undergo surface reconstructions to maintain electrostatic stability. Essentially, an electric field that arises between oppositely charged atomic planes gives rise to a built-in potential that diverges with thickness. In ultra thin film form however the polar crystals are expected to remain stable without necessitating surface reconstructions, yet the built-in potential has eluded observation. Here we present evidence of a built-in potential across polar \lao ~thin films grown on \sto ~substrates, a system well known for the electron gas that forms at the interface. By performing electron tunneling measurements between the electron gas and a metallic gate on \lao ~we measure a built-in electric field across \lao ~of 93 meV/Å. Additionally, capacitance measurements reveal the presence of an induced dipole moment near the interface in \sto, illuminating a unique property of \sto ~substrates. We forsee use of the ionic built-in potential as an additional tuning parameter in both existing and novel device architectures, especially as atomic control of oxide interfaces gains widespread momentum.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2010

Charge writing at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 surface

Biased conducting-tip atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been shown to write and erase nanoscale metallic lines at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. Using various AFM modes, we show the mechanism of conductivity switching is the writing of surface charge. These charges are stably deposited on a wide range of LaAlO3 thicknesses, including bulk crystals. A strong asymmetry with writing polarity was found for 1 and 2 unit cells of LaAlO3, providing experimental evidence for a theoretically predicted built-in potential.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2009

Terahertz Kerr effect

We have observed optical birefringence in liquids induced by single-cycle THz pulses with field strengths exceeding 100 kV/cm. The induced change in polarization is proportional to the square of the THz electric field. The time-dependent THz Kerr signal is composed of a fast electronic response that follows the individual cycles of the electric field and a slow exponential response associated with molecular orientation.

cond-mat.other↗
arXiv2009

Observation of Nonequilibrium Carrier Distribution in Ge, Si and GaAs by Terahertz-pump--Terahertz-probe Measurements

We compare the observed strong saturation of the free carrier absorption in n-type semiconductors at 300 K in the terahertz frequency range when single-cycle pulses with intensities up to 150 MW/cm2 are used. In the case of germanium, a small increase of the absorption occurs at intermediate THz pulse energies. The recovery of the free carrier absorption was monitored by time-resolved THz-pump/THz-probe measurements. At short probe delay times, the frequency response of germanium cannot be fitted by the Drude model. We attribute these unique phenomena of Ge to dynamical overpopulation of the high mobility gamma conduction band valley.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2009

THz-pump -- THz-probe spectroscopy of semiconductors at high field strengths

Pumping n-type GaAs and InSb with ultrafast THz pulses having intensities higher than 150 MW/cm2 shows strong free carrier absorption saturation at temperatures of 300 K and 200 K respectively. If the energy imparted to the carriers exceeds the bandgap, impact ionization processes can occur. The dynamics of carrier cooling in GaAs and impact ionization in InSb were monitored using THz-pump/THz probe spectroscopy which provides both sub-bandgap excitation and probing, eliminating any direct optical electron-hole generation that complicates the evaluation of results in optical pump/THz probe experiments.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗