arXiv subjects

R. J. Nicholas

Publications and source records attributed to R. J. Nicholas.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

The impact of the halide cage on the electronic properties of fully inorganic caesium lead halide perovskites

Perovskite solar cells with record power conversion efficiency are fabricated by alloying both hybrid and fully inorganic compounds. While the basic electronic properties of the hybrid perovskites are now well understood, key electronic parameters for solar cell performance, such as the exciton binding energy of fully inorganic perovskites, are still unknown. By performing magneto transmission measurements, we determine with high accuracy the exciton binding energy and reduced mass of fully inorganic CsPbX$_3$ perovskites (X=I, Br, and an alloy of these). The well behaved (continuous) evolution of the band gap with temperature in the range $4-270$\,K suggests that fully inorganic perovskites do not undergo structural phase transitions like their hybrid counterparts. The experimentally determined dielectric constants indicate that at low temperature, when the motion of the organic cation is frozen, the dielectric screening mechanism is essentially the same both for hybrid and inorganic perovskites, and is dominated by the relative motion of atoms within the lead-halide cage.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Ultrahigh magnetic field spectroscopy reveals the band structure of the 3D topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$

We have investigated the band structure at the $Γ$ point of the three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ using magneto-spectroscopy over a wide range of energies ($0.55-2.2$\,eV) and in ultrahigh magnetic fields up to 150\,T. At such high energies ($E>0.6$\,eV) the parabolic approximation for the massive Dirac fermions breaks down and the Landau level dispersion becomes nonlinear. At even higher energies around 0.99 and 1.6 eV, new additional strong absorptions are observed with a temperature and magnetic-field dependence which suggest that they originate from higher band gaps. Spin orbit splittings for the further lying conduction and valence bands are found to be 0.196 and 0.264 eV.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Spatially resolved studies of the phases and morphology of methylammonium and formamidinium lead tri-halide perovskites

The family of organic-inorganic tri-halide perovskites including MA (MethylAmmonium)PbI$_{3}$, MAPbI$_{3-x}$Cl$_{x}$, FA (FormAmidinium)PbI$_{3}$ and FAPbBr$_{3}$ are having a tremendous impact on the field of photovoltaic cells due to their ease of deposition and efficiencies, but device performance can be significanly affected by inhomogeneities. Here we report a study of temperature dependent micro-photoluminescence which shows a strong spatial inhomogeneity related to the presence of microcrystalline grains, which can be both light and dark. In all of the tri-iodide based materials there is evidence that the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition observed around 160K does not occur uniformly across the sample with domain formation related to the underlying microcrystallite grains, some of which remain in the high temperature, tetragonal, phase even at very low temperatures. At low temperature the tetragonal domains can be significantly influenced by local defects in the layers. In FAPbBr$_{3}$ a more macroscopic domain structure is observed with large numbers of grains forming phase correlated regions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Disorder induced Dirac-point physics in epitaxial graphene from temperature-dependent magneto-transport measurements

We report a study of disorder effects on epitaxial graphene in the vicinity of the Dirac point by magneto-transport. Hall effect measurements show that the carrier density increases quadratically with temperature, in good agreement with theoretical predictions which take into account intrinsic thermal excitation combined with electron-hole puddles induced by charged impurities. We deduce disorder strengths in the range 10.2 $\sim$ 31.2 meV, depending on the sample treatment. We investigate the scattering mechanisms and estimate the impurity density to be $3.0 \sim 9.1 \times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$ for our samples. An asymmetry in the electron/hole scattering is observed and is consistent with theoretical calculations for graphene on SiC substrates. We also show that the minimum conductivity increases with increasing disorder potential, in good agreement with quantum-mechanical numerical calculations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Hot carrier relaxation of Dirac fermions in bilayer epitaxial graphene

Energy relaxation of hot Dirac fermions in bilayer epitaxial graphene is experimentally investigated by magnetotransport measurements on Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and weak localization. The hot-electron energy loss rate is found to follow the predicted Bloch-Grüneisen power-law behaviour of $T^4$ at carrier temperatures from 1.4 K up to $\sim$100 K, due to electron-acoustic phonon interactions with a deformation potential coupling constant of 22 eV. A carrier density dependence $n_e^{-1.5}$ in the scaling of the $T^4$ power law is observed in bilayer graphene, in contrast to the $n_e^{-0.5}$ dependence in monolayer graphene, leading to a crossover in the energy loss rate as a function of carrier density between these two systems. The electron-phonon relaxation time in bilayer graphene is also shown to be strongly carrier density dependent, while it remains constant for a wide range of carrier densities in monolayer graphene. Our results and comparisons between the bilayer and monolayer exhibit a more comprehensive picture of hot carrier dynamics in graphene systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Weak localization scattering lengths in epitaxial, and CVD graphene

Weak localization in graphene is studied as a function of carrier density in the range from 1 x $10^{11}$\,cm$^{-2}$ to 1.43 x $10^{13}$\,cm$^{-2}$ using devices produced by epitaxial growth onto SiC and CVD growth on thin metal film. The magnetic field dependent weak localization is found to be well fitted by theory, which is then used to analyse the dependence of the scattering lengths L$_φ$, L$_i$, and L$_*$ on carrier density. We find no significant carrier dependence for L$_φ$, a weak decrease for L$_i$ with increasing carrier density just beyond a large standard error, and a n$^{-\frac{1}{4}}$ dependence for L$_*$. We demonstrate that currents as low as 0.01\,nA are required in smaller devices to avoid hot-electron artefacts in measurements of the quantum corrections to conductivity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Ultra-high magnetic field study of the layer split bands in Graphite

We report studies of the magnetospectroscopy of graphite into a new regime of high energies and ultra-high magnetic fields which allows us to perform the first spectroscopic studies of the interlayer split off bands, $E_{1}$ and $E_{2}$. These bands can be well described by an asymmetric bilayer model and have only a small interlayer band gap asymmetry. We show that all of the properties of the electrons and holes can be described by a simple relativistic behaviour determined by $γ_{0}$ and $γ_{1}$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Phase-space for the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect in epitaxial graphene

We report the phase-space defined by the quantum Hall effect breakdown in polymer gated epitaxial graphene on SiC (SiC/G) as a function of temperature, current, carrier density, and magnetic fields up to 30T. At 2K breakdown currents ($I_c$) almost two orders of magnitude greater than in GaAs devices are observed. The phase boundary of the dissipationless state ($ρ_{xx}=0$) shows a (1-$(T/T_c)^2$) dependence and persists up to $T_c>45K$ at 29T. With magnetic field $I_c$ was found to increase $\propto B^{3/2}$ and $T_c \propto B^{1.88}$. As the Fermi energy approaches the Dirac point, the $ν=2$ quantized Hall plateau appears continuously from fields as low as 1T up to at least 19T due to a strong magnetic field dependence of the carrier density.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Energy loss rates of hot Dirac fermions in epitaxial, exfoliated and CVD graphene

Energy loss rates for hot carriers in graphene have been measured using graphene produced by epitaxial growth on SiC, exfoliation and chemical vapour deposition (CVD). It is shown that the temperature dependence of the energy loss rates measured with high-field damped Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, and the temperature dependence of the weak localization peak close to zero field correlate well, with the high-field measurements understating the energy loss rates by $\sim$40% compared to the low-field results. The energy loss rates for all graphene samples follow a universal scaling of $T_{e}^4$ at low temperatures and depend weakly on carrier density $\propto$ n$^{-1/2}$ evidence for enhancement of the energy loss rate due to disorder in CVD samples.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

The origin of electron-hole asymmetry in graphite

The electron hole asymmetry has been measured in natural graphite using magneto-optical absorption measurements. A splitting is observed for the transitions at both the $K$-point and the $H$-point of the Brillouin zone of graphite where the effect of trigonal warping vanishes. This result is fully consistent with the SWM Hamiltonian providing the free electron kinetic energy terms are taken into account. An identical electron-hole asymmetry should be present in graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Cyclotron Resonance study of the electron and hole velocity in graphene monolayers

We report studies of cyclotron resonance in monolayer graphene. Cyclotron resonance is detected using the photoconductive response of the sample for several different Landau level occupancies. The experiments measure an electron velocity at the K- (Dirac) point of $c_{K}^{*}$ = 1.093 x 10$^{6}$ ms$^{-1}$ and in addition detect a significant asymmetry between the electron and hole bands, leading to a difference in the electron and hole velocities of 5% by energies of 125 meV away from the Dirac point.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Superlattice Magnetophonon Resonances in Strongly Coupled InAs/GaSb Superlattices

We report an experimental study of miniband magnetoconduction in semiconducting InAs/GaSb superlattices. For samples with miniband widths below the longitudinal optical phonon energy we identify a new superlattice magnetophonon resonance (SLMPR) caused by resonant scattering of electrons across the mini-Brillouin zone. This new resonant feature arises directly from the drift velocity characteristics of the superlattice dispersion and total magnetic quantisation of the superlattice Landau level minibands.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2001

Measurements of the Composite Fermion masses from the spin polarization of 2-D electrons in the region $1<ν<2$

Measurements of the reflectivity of a 2-D electron gas are used to deduce the polarization of the Composite Fermion hole system formed for Landau level occupancies in the regime 1<ν<2. The measurements are consistent with the formation of a mixed spin CF system and allow the density of states or `polarization' effective mass of the CF holes to be determined. The mass values at ν=3/2 are found to be ~1.9m_{e} for electron densities of 4.4 x 10^{11} cm^{-2}, which is significantly larger than those found from measurements of the energy gaps at finite values of effective magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Vertical transport and electroluminescence in InAs/GaSb/InAs structures: GaSb thickness and hydrostatic pressure studies

We have measured the current-voltage (I-V) of type II InAs/GaSb/InAs double heterojunctions (DHETs) with 'GaAs like' interface bonding and GaSb thickness between 0-1200 Å. A negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed for all DHETs with GaSb thickness $>$ 60 Åbelow which a dramatic change in the shape of the I-V and a marked hysteresis is observed. The temperature dependence of the I-V is found to be very strong below this critical GaSb thickness. The I-V characteristics of selected DHETs are also presented under hydrostatic pressures up to 11 kbar. Finally, a mid infra-red electroluminescence is observed at 1 bar with a threshold at the NDR valley bias. The band profile calculations presented in the analysis are markedly different to those given in the literature, and arise due to the positive charge that it is argued will build up in the GaSb layer under bias. We conclude that the dominant conduction mechanism in DHETs is most likely to arise out of an inelastic electron-heavy-hole interaction similar to that observed in single heterojunctions (SHETs) with 'GaAs like' interface bonding, and not out of resonant electron-light-hole tunnelling as proposed by Yu et al. A Zener tunnelling mechanism is shown to contribute to the background current beyond NDR.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Free carrier effects in gallium nitride epilayers: the valence band dispersion

The dispersion of the A-valence-band in GaN has been deduced from the observation of high-index magneto-excitonic states in polarised interband magneto-reflectivity and is found to be strongly non-parabolic with a mass in the range 1.2-1.8 m_{e}. It matches the theory of Kim et al. [Phys. Rev. B 56, 7363 (1997)] extremely well, which also gives a strong k-dependent A-valence-band mass. A strong phonon coupling leads to quenching of the observed transitions at an LO-phonon energy above the band gap and a strong non-parabolicity. The valence band was deduced from subtracting from the reduced dispersion the electron contribution with a model that includes a full treatment of the electron-phonon interaction.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2001

Magneto-photoluminescence of GaN/AlGaN quantum wells: valence band reordering and excitonic binding energies

A re-ordered valence band in GaN/AlGaN quantum wells with respect to GaN epilayers has been found as a result of the observation of an enhanced g-factor in magneto-luminescence spectra in fields up to 55 T. This has been caused by a reversal of the states in the strained AlGaN barriers thus giving different barrier heights for the different quantum well hole states. From k.p calculations in the quasi-cubic approximation, a change in the valence-band ordering will account for the observed values for the g-factors. We have also observed the well-width dependence of the in-plane extent of the excitonic wavefunction from which we infer an increase in the exciton binding energy with the reduction of the well width in general agreement with theoretical calculations of Bigenwald et al (phys. stat. sol. (b) 216, 371 (1999)) that uses a variational approach in the envelope function formalism that includes the effect of the electric field in the wells.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Metal-Insulator oscillations in a Two-dimensional Electron-Hole system

The electrical transport properties of a bipolar InAs/GaSb system have been studied in magnetic field. The resistivity oscillates between insulating and metallic behaviour while the quantum Hall effect shows a digital character oscillating from 0 to 1 conducatance quantum e^2/h. The insulating behaviour is attributed to the formation of a total energy gap in the system. A novel looped edge state picture is proposed associated with the appearance of a voltage between Hall probes which is symmetric on magnetic field reversal.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Searches for Skyrmions in the Limit of Zero g-Factor

Energy gaps have been measured for the ferromagnetic quantum Hall effect states at v=1 and 3 in GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunctions as a function of Zeeman energy, which is reduced to zero by applying hydrostatic pressures of up to 20kbar. At large Zeeman energy the gaps are consistent with spin wave excitations. For a low density sample the gap at v=1 decreases with increasing pressure and reaches a minimum when the g-factor vanishes. At small Zeeman energy the excitation appears to consist of a large number of reversed spins and may be interpreted as a Skyrmion. The data also suggest Skyrmionic excitations take place at v=3. The width of the minimum at v=1 is found to decrease as the g-factor is reduced in a similar way for all samples.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗