Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of optimization of self-assembly quantum rings growth strategy based on substrate engineering

In this paper, the kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of the self-assembly quantum rings （QRs） based on the substrate engineering, which is related to the eventual shape of the formed quantum ring, are implemented. According to the simulation results, the availability of the QR with tunable size and the formation of smooth shape on the ideal flat substrate are checked. Through designing the substrate engineering, i.e., changing the depth, the separation and the ratio between the radius and the height of the embedded inclusions, the position and size of QR can be controlled and eventually the growth strategy of optimizing the self-assembly QRs is accomplished.

Spin transport in a chain of polygonal quantum rings with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

Using a transfer matrix method, we investigate spin transport through a chain of polygonal rings with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling（DSOC）. The spin conductance is dependent on the number of sides in the polygons. When DSOC is considered in a chain which also has Rashba spin-orbit coupling（RSOC） of the same magnitude, the total conductance is the same as that for the same chain with no SOC. However, when the two types of SOC have different values, there results a unique anisotropic conductance.

Size and temperature effects on electric properties of CdTe/ZnTe quantum rings

The electronic properties of CdTe/ZnTe quantum rings （QRs） are investigated as functions of size and temperature using an eight-band strain-dependent k.p Hamiltonian. The size effects of diameter and height on the strain distributions around the QRs are studied. We find that the interband transition energy, defined as the energy difference between the ground electronic and the ground heavy-hole subbands, increases with the increasing QR inner diameter regardless of the temperature, while the interband energy decreases with the increasing QR height, This is attributed to the reduction of subband energies in both the conduction and the valence bands due to the strain effects. Our model, in the framework of the finite element method and the theory of elasticity of solids, shows a good agreement with the temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurement of the interband transition energies.

Quantum Rings with Two Deeply Bound Electrons under a Magnetic Field

A model is proposed to study the quantum rings with two deeply bound electrons under a variable magnetic field. The emphasis is placed to clarify the effect of the size （diameter） and the width of the ring on the fractional Aharonov-Bohm oscillation. It was found that the reduction of size will lead to a very strong oscillation in the ground state energy and in the persistent current. The electronic correlation has also been demonstrated by showing the nodal structures of wave functions.

Strain distributions and electronic structure of three-dimensional InAs/GaAs quantum rings

This paper presents a finite element calculation for the electronic structure and strain distribution of self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum rings. The strain distribution calculations are based on the continuum elastic theory. An ideal three-dimensional circular quantum ring model is adopted in this work. The electron and heavy-hole energy levels of the InAs/GaAs quantum rings are calculated by solving the three-dimensional effective mass SchrSdinger equation including the deformation potential and piezoelectric potential up to the second order induced by the strain. The calculated results show the importance of strain and piezoelectric effects, and these effects should be taken into consideration in analysis of the optoelectronic characteristics of strain quantum rings.

Spin transport properties in double quantum rings connected in series

A new model of metal/semiconductor/metal double-quantum-ring connected in series is proposed and the transport properties in this model are theoretically studied. The results imply that the transmission coefficient shows periodic variations with increasing semiconductor ring size. The effects of the magnetic field and Rashba spin-orbit interaction on the transmission coefficient for two kinds of spin state electrons are different. The number of the transmission coefficient peaks is related to the length ratio between the upper arm and the half circumference of the ring. In addition, the transmission coefficient shows oscillation behavior with enhanced external magnetic field, and the corresponding average value is related to the two leads＇ relative position.

Localized states of flattened quantum elliptic rings and their optical properties

A flattened elliptic ring containing an electron is studied. The emphasis is placed on clarifying the effect of the flattening. The localized states are classified into four types according to their inherent nodes. When the ring becomes more flattened, the total probability of dipole absorption of each state is found to be reduced. Furthermore, each spectral line of absorption is found to shift towards red and may split into a few lines, and these lines as a whole become more diffusive.

Effect of electric field on the spectrum and the persistent current of a quantum ring with two electrons （II） additional effect of a charged impurity

This paper studies the effect of a charged impurity together with or without an external homogeneous electric field on a quantum ring threaded by a magnetic field B and containing two electrons. The potential caused by the impurity has been plotted which is helpful to the understanding of the electronic structures inside the ring. The deep valley appearing in the potential curve is the source of localization, which affects seriously the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation （ABO） of the energy and persistent current. It also causes the fluctuation of the total orbital angular momentum L of the pair of electrons. It is found that the appearance of the impurity reduces the domain of the fractional ABO. During the increase of B, the domain of the integral ABO may appear earlier when B is even quite small. The transition from the localized states to extended states has also been studied. Furthermore, it has deduced a set of related formulae for a transformation, by which an impurity with a charge ep placed at an arbitrary point Rp is equivalent to an impurity with a revised charge ep placed at the X-axis with a revised radial distance Rp. This transformation facilitates the calculation and make the analysis of the physical result clearer.

Effect of electric field on the electronic spectrum and the persistent current of a quantum ring with two electrons

The effect of an electric field E on a narrow quantum ring that contains two electrons and is threaded by a magnetic flux B has been investigated. Localization of the electronic distribution and suppression of the AharonovBohm oscillation （ABO） are found in the two-electron ring, which are similar to those found in a one-electron ring. However, the period of ABO in a two-electron ring is reduced by half compared with that in a one-electron ring. Furthermore, during the variation of B, the persistent current of the ground state may undergo a sudden change in sign. This change is associated with a singlet-triplet transition and has no counterpart in one-electron rings. For a given E, there exists a threshold of energy. When the energy of the excited state exceeds the threshold, the localization would disappear and the ABO would recover. The value of the threshold is proportional to the magnitude of E. Once the threshold is exceeded, the persistent current is much stronger than the current of the ground state at E=0.

Energy Spectra of a Magnetic Quantum Ring with an Off-Center Impurity

In this paper, we calculate the low-lying spectra of a single-electron magnetic quantum ring with an offcenter Coulomb impurity, where the magnetic field is zero within the ring and constant elsewhere. The impurity, either an acceptor or a donor, is located at a distance d as measured from the plane of the ring along the vertical z direction. The magnetic moments are found in order to get visible discontinuities at the points of the ground-state orbital angular momentum L transitions induced by magnetic fields.

Donor-bound electron states in a two-dimensional quantum ring under uniform magnetic field

The electron states in a two-dimensional GaAs/AlGaAs quantum ring are theoretically studied in effective mass approximation. On-centre donor impurity and uniform magnetic field perpendicular to the ring plane are taken into account. The energy spectrum with different angular momentum changes dramatically with the geometry of the ring. The donor impurity reduces the energies with an almost fixed value; however, the magnetic field alters energies in a more complex way. For example, energy levels under magnetic field will cross each other when increasing the inner radius and outer radius of the ring, leading to the fact that the arrangement of energy levels is distinct in certain geometry of the ring. Moreover, energy levels with negative angular momentum exhibit the non-monotonous dependence on the increasing magnetic field.

Approximate calculation of electronic energy levels of axially symmetric quantum dot and quantum ring by using energy dependent effective mass

Calculations of electronic structures about the semiconductor quantum dot and the semiconductor quantum ring are presented in this paper. To reduce the calculation costs, for the quantum dot and the quantum ring, their simplified axially symmetric shapes are utilized in our analysis. The energy dependent effective mass is taken into account in solving the Schrodinger equations in the single band effective mass approximation. The calculated results show that the energy dependent effective mass should be considered only for relatively small volume quantum dots or small quantum rings. For large size quantum materials, both the energy dependent effective mass and the parabolic effective mass can give the same results. The energy states and the effective masses of the quantum dot and the quantum ring as a function of geometric parameters are also discussed in detail.

Transport properties in a multi-terminal regular polygonal quantum ring with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Transport properties in a multi-terminal regular polygonal quantum ring with Rashba spin-orbit coupling （SOC） are investigated analytically using quantum networks and the transport matrix metLod. The results show that conduc- tances remain at exactly the same values when the output leads are located at axisymmetric positions. However, for the nonaxisymmetrical case, there is a phase difference between the upper and lower arm, which leads to zero conductances appearing periodically. An isotropy of the conductance is destroyed by the Rashba SOC effect in the axisymmetric case. In addition, the position of zero conductance is regulated with the strength of the Rashba SOC.

Pure spin polarized transport based on Rashba spin orbit interaction through the Aharonov Bohm interferometer embodied four-quantum-dot ring

The spin-polarized linear conductance spectrum and current–voltage characteristics in a four-quantum-dot ring embodied into Aharonov–Bohm （AB） interferometer are investigated theoretically by considering a local Rashba spin–orbit interaction. It shows that the spin-polarized linear conductance and the corresponding spin polarization are each a function of magnetic flux phase at zero bias voltage with a period of 2π, and that Hubbard U cannot influence the electron transport properties in this case. When adjusting appropriately the structural parameter of inter-dot coupling and dot-lead coupling strength, the electronic spin polarization can reach a maximum value. Furthermore, by adjusting the bias voltages applied to the leads, the spin-up and spin-down currents move in opposite directions and pure spin current exists in the configuration space in appropriate situations. Based on the numerical results, such a model can be applied to the design of a spin filter device.

Four-Electron Quantum Ring in a Magnetic Field

We study a quantum ring （QR） with four electrons in a perpendicular external magnetic field B by exact diagonalization. The low-lying spectra of the QR as a function orb are obtained. A phase diagram is presented indicating that the angular momentum and the spin of the ground state of the QR may jump when B and/or the radius of the QR vary, and a corresponding analysis is performed. By plotting the density functions of the QR, the ground-state configuration is found to be a regular quadrangle. Furthermore, the features of the ground-state persistent current are revealed.

Two-electron quantum ring in short pulses

The response of a two-electron quantum ring system to the short laser pulses of different shapes in the presence of external static electric field is studied.The variation of transition probabilities of the two-electron quantum ring from ground state to excited states with a number of parameters is shown and explained.The energy levels and wavefunctions of the system in the presence of static electric field are found by solving the time-independent Schrodinger equation numerically by the finite difference method.The shape of the pulse plays a dominant role on the dynamics.

Electronic transport through a quantum ring coupled to ferromagnetic leads

We study the spin-dependent transport through a one-dimensional quantum ring with taking both the Rashba spin-orbit coupling （RSOC） and ferromagnetic leads into consideration. The linear conductance is obtained by the Green＇s function method. We find that due to the quantum interference effect arising from the RSOC-induced spin precession phase and the difference in travelling phase between the two arms of the ring, the conductance becomes spin-polarized even in the antiparallel magnetic configuration of the two leads, which is different from the case in single conduction channel system. The linear conductance, the spin polarization and the tunnel magnetoresistance are periodic functions of the two phases, and can be efficiently tuned by the structure parameters.

Electronic states of InAs/GaAs tyre-shape quantum ring

In the framework of the effective mass theory, this paper calculates the electron energy levels of an InAs/GaAs tyre-shape quantum ring （TSQR） by using the plane wave basis. The results show that the electron energy levels axe sensitively dependent on the TSQR＇s section thickness d, and insensitively dependent on TSQR＇s section inner radius R1 and TSQR＇s inner radius R2. The model and results provide useful information for the design and fabrication of InAs/GaAs TSQRs.

Spin transport properties of a Dresselhaus-polygonal quantum ring

We propose a theoretical method to investigate the effect of the Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling（DSOC） on the spin transport properties of a regular polygonal quantum ring with an arbitrary number of segments. We find that the DSOC can break the time reversal symmetry of the spin conductance in a polygonal ring and that this property can be used to reverse the spin direction of electrons in the polygon with the result that a pure spin up or pure spin down conductance can be obtained by exchanging the source and the drain. When the DSOC is considered in a polygonal ring with Rashba spin–orbit coupling（RSOC） with symmetric attachment of the leads, the total conductance is independent of the number of segments when both of the two types of spin–orbit coupling（SOC） have the same value. However, the interaction of the two types of SOC results in an anisotropic and shape-dependent conductance in a polygonal ring with asymmetric attachment of the leads. The method we proposed to solve for the spin conductance of a polygon can be generalized to the circular model.

Binding Energy of Excitons in a Quantum Ring

The binding energy of excitons confined to a quantum ring under the influence of perpendicular homogeneous magnetic field is calculated as a function of the ring radius. Calculations are made by using the method of exact diagonalization within the effective-mass approximation. The feature of binding energy of the ground state as a function of the ring radius for several values of the magnetic field has been revealed. The interesting feature of our study is that, in a quantum ring, the geometric structure of exeitons may reveal transition.