Abstract: We study how mechanical strain affects the magnetic field dependence of the exciton states in type-I semiconductor nanorings. Strain spatially separates the electron and hole in (In,Ga)As/GaAs nanorings which is beneficial for the occurrence of the excitonic Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect. In narrow strained (In,Ga)As/GaAs nanorings the AB oscillations in the exciton ground-state energy are due to anticrossings with the first excited state. No such AB oscillations are found in unstrained GaAs/(Al,Ga)As nanorings irrespective of the ring width. Our results are obtained within an exact numerical diagonalization scheme and are shown to be accurately described by a two-level model with off-diagonal coupling t. The later transfer integral expresses the Coulomb coupling between states of electron-hole pairs. We also found that the oscillator strength for exciton recombination in (In,Ga)As/GaAs nanorings exhibits AB oscillations, which are superimposed on a linear increase with magnetic field. Our results agree qualitatively with recent experiments on the excitonic Aharonov-Bohm effect in type-I (In,Ga)As/GaAs nanorings.

Abstract: We present a mean-field description of the zigzag phase transition of a quasi-one-dimensional system of strongly interacting particles, with interaction potential r−ne−r/λ, that are confined by a power-law potential (yα). The parameters of the resulting one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau theory are determined analytically for different values of α and n. Close to the transition point for the zigzag phase transition, the scaling behavior of the order parameter is determined. For α=2, the zigzag transition from a single to a double chain is of second order, while for α>2, the one-chain configuration is always unstable and, for α<2, the one-chain ordered state becomes unstable at a certain critical density, resulting in jumps of single particles out of the chain.

Abstract: We investigated the magnetic flux dependence of the supercurrent in mesoscopic d-wave superconducting loops, containing impurities and surface defects, by numerically solving the Bogoliubovde Gennes equations self-consistently. In the presence of impurities, bound states arise close to the Fermi energy. In the case of a single impurity, the flux-induced current is found to be suppressed. This can be different when more impurities are introduced in the sample due to the quantum interference effect, which depends sensitively on the relative position between the impurities. We further analyze the effect of small surface defects at the inner or outer edge of the loop, and show that indentation and bulge defects have pronounced and different effects on the supercurrent.

Abstract: We investigate how the interplay of quantum confinement and particle number-parity fluctuations affects superconducting correlations in ultra-small metallic grains. Using the number-parity projected BCS formalism we calculate the critical temperature and the excitation gap as a function of the grain size for grains with even and odd number of confined carriers. We show that the experimentally observed anomalous increase of the coupling ratio ΔE/kBTc with decreasing superconducting grain size can be attributed to an enhancement of the number-parity fluctuations in ultra-small grains.

Abstract: The scattering of two-dimensional (2D) massless Dirac electrons is investigated in the presence of a random array of circular mass barriers. The inverse momentum relaxation time and the Hall factor are calculated and used to obtain parallel and perpendicular resistivity components within linear transport theory. We found a nonzero perpendicular resistivity component which has opposite sign for electrons in the different K and K′ valleys. This property can be used for valley filter purposes. The total cross section for scattering on penetrable barriers exhibits resonances due to the presence of quasibound states in the barriers that show up as sharp gaps in the cross section while for Schrödinger electrons they appear as peaks.

Abstract: Density-functional theory in combination with the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism is used to study the effect of substitutional doping on the electronic transport properties of hydrogen passivated zig-zag graphene nanoribbon devices. B, N and Si atoms are used to substitute carbon atoms located at the center or at the edge of the sample. We found that Si -doping results in better electronic transport as compared to the other substitutions. The transmission spectrum also depends on the location of the substitutional dopants: for single atom doping the largest transmission is obtained for edge substitutions, whereas substitutions in the middle of the sample give larger transmission for double carbon substitutions. The obtained results are explained in terms of electron localization in the system due to the presence of impurities. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: We investigated the mixing and segregation of a system consisting of two different species of particles, having different charges, interacting through a pure Coulomb potential, and confined in a three-dimensional parabolic trap. The structure of the cluster and its normal mode spectrum are analyzed as a function of the relative charge and the relative number of different types of particles. We found that (a) the system can be in a mixed or segregated state depending on the relative charge ratio parameter and (b) the segregation process is mediated by a first or second order structural phase transition which strongly influences the magic cluster properties of the system.

Abstract: Starting from fully converged density-functional theory calculations, the quasiparticle corrections are calculated for different sized Si and Ge nanowires using the GW approximation. The effectiveness of recently developed techniques in speeding up the convergence of the quasiparticle calculations is demonstrated. The complete quasiparticle band structures are also obtained using an interpolation technique based on maximallylocalized Wannier functions. From the quasiparticle results, we assess the correctness of the commonly applied scissor-shift correction. Dispersion changes are observed, which are also reflected in changes in the effective band masses calculated taking into account quasiparticle corrections.

Abstract: We predict heating of quasiparticles driven by order parameter oscillations in the resistive state of short superconducting microbridges. The finite relaxation time of the magnitude of the order parameter |Δ| and the dependence of the spectral functions both on |Δ| and the supervelocity Q are the origin of this effect. Our results are opposite to those of Aslamazov and Larkin [ Zh. Eks. Teor. Fiz. 70 1340 (1976)] and Schmid et al. [ Phys. Rev. B 21 5076 (1980)] where cooling of quasiparticles was found.

Abstract: The configuration interaction method is used to obtain the magneto-optical absorption spectrum of a few-electron (Ne=1,2,,5) quantum dot containing a single magnetic ion. We find that the IR spectrum (the position, the number, and the oscillator strength of the cyclotron resonance peaks) depends on the strength of the Coulomb interaction, the number of electrons, and the position of the magnetic ion. We find that the Kohn theorem is no longer valid as a consequence of the electron-spin-magnetic-ion-spin-exchange interaction.

Abstract: It is well known that the formation of discrete electron levels strongly influences the pairing in metallic nanograins. Here, we focus on another effect of quantum confinement in superconducting grains that was not studied previously, i.e., spatially nonuniform pairing. This effect is very significant when single-electron levels form bunches and/or a kind of shell structure. We find that, in highly symmetric grains, the order parameter can exhibit variations with position by an order of magnitude. Nonuniform pairing is closely related to a quantum-confinement-induced modification of the pairing-interaction matrix elements and size-dependent pinning of the chemical potential to groups of degenerate or nearly degenerate levels. For illustrative purposes, we consider spherical metallic nanograins and also rectangular shapes. We show that the relevant matrix elements are, as a rule, enhanced in the presence of quantum confinement, which favors spatial variations of the order parameter, compensating the corresponding energy cost. The size-dependent pinning of the chemical potential further increases the spatial variation of the pair condensate. The role of nonuniform pairing is smaller in less symmetric confining geometries and/or in the presence of disorder. However, it always remains of importance when the energy spacing between discrete electron levels δ is approaching the scale of the bulk gap ΔB, i.e., δ>0.10.2 ΔB.

Abstract: Using an exact-diagonalization approach we show that one- and two-electron InAs quantum dots exhibit an avoided crossing in the energy spectra that is induced by the spin-orbit coupling in the presence of an in-plane external magnetic field. The width of the avoided crossings depends strongly on the orientation of the magnetic field, which reveals the intrinsic anisotropy of the spin-orbit-coupling interactions. We find that for specific orientations of the magnetic field avoided crossings vanish. A value of this orientation can be used to extract the ratio of the strength of Rashba and Dresselhaus interactions. The spin-orbit anisotropy effects for various geometries and orientations of the confinement potential are discussed. Our analysis explains the physics behind the recent measurements performed on a gated self-assembled quantum dot [ S. Takahashi et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 246801 (2010)].

Abstract: The vortex-vortex interaction potential in bulk superconductors is calculated within the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory and is obtained from a numerical solution of a set of two coupled nonlinear GL differential equations for the vector potential and the superconducting order parameter, where the merger of vortices into a giant vortex is allowed. Further, the interaction potentials between a vortex and a giant vortex and between a vortex and an antivortex are obtained for both type-I and type-II superconductors. Our numerical results agree asymptotically with the analytical expressions for large intervortex separations that are available in the literature. We propose empirical expressions valid over the full interaction range, which are fitted to our numerical data for different values of the GL parameter.