arXiv subjects

Harvey Beere

Publications and source records attributed to Harvey Beere.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Triggering InAs/GaAs Quantum Dot nucleation and growth rate determination by in-situ modulation of surface energy

Epitaxial InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots (QDs) are widely used as highly efficient and pure sources of single photons and entangled photon-pairs, however reliable wafer-scale growth techniques have proved elusive. Growth of two-dimensional Quantum Well (QW) thin-films can be achieved with atomic precision down to below the de Broglie wavelength of electrons in the material, exposing the quantum particle-in-a-box energy vs. thickness-squared relationship. However, difficulties in controlling the exact moment of nanostructure nucleation obscure this behaviour in epitaxial QD material, preventing a clear understanding of their growth. In this work we demonstrate that QD nucleation can be induced by directly modulating the crystal surface energy without additional materials or equipment. This gains us quantitative measure of the QD growth rate and enables predictive design of QD growth processes. We believe this technique will be crucial to the realisation of uniform arrays of QDs required for scalable quantum devices at the single-photon level.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Cross-over between Magnetic and Electric Edges in Quantum Hall Systems

We report on the transition from magnetic edge to electric edge transport in a split magnetic gate device which applies a notch magnetic field to a two-dimensional electron gas. The gate bias allows tuning the overlap of magnetic and electric edge wavefunctions on the scale of the magnetic length. Conduction at magnetic edges - in the 2D-bulk - is found to compete with conduction at electric edges until magnetic edges become depleted. Current lines then move to the electrostatic edges as in the conventional quantum Hall picture. The conductivity was modelled using the quantum Boltzmann equation in the exact hybrid potential. The theory predicts the features of the bulk-edge cross-over in good agreement with experiment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

'Metal'-like transport in high-resistance, high aspect ratio two-dimensional electron gases

We investigate the striking absence of strong localisation observed in mesoscopic two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) (Baenninger et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 1016805, Backes et al 2015 Phys. Rev. B 92 235427) even when their resistivity $ρ>> h/e^2$. In particular, we try to understand whether this phenomenon originates in quantum many-body effects, or simply percolative transport through a network of electron puddles. To test the latter scenario, we measure the low temperature (low-$T$) transport properties of long and narrow 2DEG devices in which percolation effects should be heavily suppressed in favour of Coulomb blockade. Strikingly we find no indication of Coulomb blockade and that the high-$ρ$, low-$T$ transport is exactly similar to that previously reported in mesoscopic 2DEGs with different geometries. Remarkably, we are able to induce a `metal'-insulator transition (MIT) by applying a perpendicular magnetic field $B$. We present a picture within which these observations fit into the more conventional framework of the 2D MIT.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Observation of geometry dependent conductivity in two-dimensional electron systems

We report electrical conductivity $σ$ measurements on a range of two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) of varying linear extent. Intriguingly, at low temperatures ($T$) and low carrier density ($n_{\mathrm{s}}$) we find the behavior to be consistent with $σ\sim L^α$, where $L$ is the length of the 2DEG along the direction of transport. Importantly, such scale-dependent behavior is precisely in accordance with the scaling hypothesis of localization~[Abrahams~\textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{42}, 673 (1979)] which dictates that in systems where the electronic wave function $ξ$ is localized, $σ$ is not a material-specific parameter, but depends on the system dimensions. From our data we are able to construct the "$β$-function" $\equiv (h/e^2) d \ln σ/ d \ln L$ and show this to be strongly consistent with theoretically predicted limiting values. These results suggest, remarkably, that the electrons in the studied 2DEGs preserve phase coherence over lengths $\sim~10~μ$m. This suggests the utility of the 2DEGs studied towards applications in quantum information as well as towards fundamental investigations into many-body localized phases.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Density-dependent thermopower oscillations in mesoscopic two-dimensional electron gases

We present thermopower $S$ and resistance $R$ measurements on GaAs-based mesoscopic two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) as functions of the electron density $n_s$. At high $n_s$ we observe good agreement between the measured $S$ and $S_{\rm{MOTT}}$, the Mott prediction for a non-interacting metal. As $n_s$ is lowered, we observe a crossover from Mott-like behaviour to that where $S$ shows strong oscillations and even sign changes. Remarkably, there are absolutely no features in $R$ corresponding to those in $S$. In fact, $R$ is devoid of even any universal conductance fluctuations. A statistical analysis of the thermopower oscillations from two devices of dissimilar dimensions suggest a universal nature of the oscillations. We critically examine whether they can be mesoscopic fluctuations of the kind described by Lesovik and Khmelnitskii in Sov. Phys. JETP. \textbf{67}, 957 (1988).

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Unconventional Metallicity and Giant Thermopower in a Strongly Interacting Two Dimensional Electron System

We present thermal and electrical transport measurements of low-density (10$^{14}$ m$^{-2}$), mesoscopic two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures at sub-Kelvin temperatures. We find that even in the supposedly strongly localised regime, where the electrical resistivity of the system is two orders of magnitude greater than the quantum of resistance $h/e^2$, the thermopower decreases linearly with temperature indicating metallicity. Remarkably, the magnitude of the thermopower exceeds the predicted value in non-interacting metallic 2DESs at similar carrier densities by over two orders of magnitude. Our results indicate a new quantum state and possibly a novel class of itinerant quasiparticles in dilute 2DESs at low temperatures where the Coulomb interaction plays a pivotal role.

cond-mat.str-el↗