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Presents information on a study which investigated the behavior of bistable quantum dot cells in the presence of realistic confinement potentials produced by depletion gates on top of a gallium arsenide/aluminum gallium arsenide heterostructure. Statement of the problem and cell model; Configuration-interaction method; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

We have calculated the exchange-energy contribution to the total energy of quasi-two-dimensional hole systems realized by a hard-wall quantum-well confinement of valence-band states in typical semiconductors. The magnitude of the exchange energy turns out to be suppressed from the value expected for analogous conduction-band systems whenever the mixing between heavy-hole and light-hole components is strong. Our results are obtained using a very general formalism for calculating the exchange energy of many-particle systems where single-particle states are spinors. We have applied this formalism to obtain analytical results for spin-3/2 hole systems in limiting cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study quantum-well-confined holes based on the Luttinger-model description for the valence band of typical semiconductor materials. Even when only the lowest quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) subband is populated, the static spin susceptibility turns out to be very different from the universal isotropic Lindhard-function line shape obtained for 2D conduction-electron systems. The strongly anisotropic and peculiarly density-dependent spin-related response of 2D holes at long wavelengths should make it possible to switch between easy-axis and easy-plane magnetization in dilute magnetic quantum wells. An effective g factor for 2D hole systems is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a metaheuristic for solving combinatorial optimization problems that is based on the foraging behavior of biological ant colonies. Starting with the 1996 seminal paper by Dorigo, Maniezzo and Colorni, ACO techniques have been used to solve the traveling salesperson problem (TSP). In this paper, we focus on a particular type of the ACO algorithm, namely, the rank-based ACO algorithm for the TSP. In particular, this paper identifies an optimal set of key parameters by statistical analysis applied to results of the rank-based ACO for the TSP. Specifically, for six frequently used TSPs available on the World Wide Web, we will solve a total of 27000 instances for each problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theoretical study of ac charge transport arising from adiabatic temporal variation of zero-field spin splitting in a quasi-one-dimensional hole system (realized, e.g., in a quantum wire or point contact). As in conduction-electron systems, part of the current results from spin-dependent electromotive forces. We find that the magnitude of this current contribution is two orders of magnitude larger for holes and exhibits parametric dependences that make it more easily accessible experimentally. Our results suggest hole structures to be good candidates for realizing devices where spin currents are pumped by time-varying electric fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid superconductor-two-dimensional electron gas microdevice is presented. Its working principle is based on the suppression of Andreev reflection at the superconductor-semiconductor interface caused by a magnetic barrier generated by a ferromagnetic strip placed on top of the structure. Device switching is predicted with fields up to some mT and working frequencies of several GHz, making it promising for applications ranging from microswitches and storage cells to magnetic field discriminators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the operation of quantum cellular automaton cells with more than two electrons. Polarization of the driven cell as a function of the distance between the cell and the neutralizing charge plane; Cell-to-cell response function; Quantum-mechanical calculation on cells containing varying number of electrons.

We have constructed a fitness parameter, characterizing the intrinsic attractiveness for patents to be cited, from attributes of the associated inventions known at the time a patent is granted. This exogenously obtained fitness is shown to determine the temporal growth of the citation network in conjunction with mechanisms of preferential attachment and obsolescence-induced aging that operate without reference to characteristics of individual patents. Our study opens a window to understanding quantitatively the interplay of the rich-gets-richer and fit-gets-richer paradigms that have been suggested to govern the growth dynamics of real-world complex networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an analysis of citations accrued over time by patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1998. In contrast to previous studies, a disaggregation by technology category is performed, and exogenously caused citation-number growth is controlled for. Our approach reveals an intrinsic citation rate that clearly separates into an--in the long run, exponentially time-dependent--aging function and a completely time-independent preferential-attachment-type growth kernel. For the general case of such a separable citation rate, we obtain the time-dependent citation distribution analytically in a form that is valid for any functional form of its aging and growth parts. Good agreement between theory and long-time characteristics of patent-citation data establishes our work as a useful framework for addressing still open questions about knowledge-propagation dynamics, such as the observed excess of citations at short times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varying the quantum-well width in an HgTe/CdTe heterostructure allows for realizing normal and inverted semiconducting band structures, making it a prototypical system to study two-dimensional (2D) topological-insulator behavior. We have calculated the zero-temperature thermodynamic density of states DT for the electron-doped situation in both regimes, treating interactions within the Hartree-Fock approximation. A distinctively different behavior for the density dependence of DT is revealed in the inverted and normal cases, making it possible to detect the system's topological phase through measurement of macroscopic observables, such as the quantum capacitance or electronic compressibility. Our results establish the 2D electron system in HgTe quantum wells as unique in terms of its collective electronic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theoretical study of Coulomb-exchange interaction for electrons confined in a cylindrical quantum wire and subject to a Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling with radial electric field. The effect of spin splitting on the single-particle band dispersions, the quasiparticle effective mass, and the system's total exchange energy per particle are discussed. Exchange interaction generally suppresses the quasiparticle effective mass in the lowest nanowire sub-band, and a finite spin splitting is found to significantly increase the magnitude of the quasiparticle-mass suppression (by up to 15% in the experimentally relevant parameter regime). In contrast, spin-orbit coupling causes a modest (1%-level) reduction of the magnitude of the exchange energy per particle. Our results shed light on the interplay of spin-orbit coupling and Coulomb interaction in quantum-confined systems, including those that are expected to host exotic quasiparticle excitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate proximity-induced superconductivity in monolayers of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in the presence of an externally generated exchange field. A variety of superconducting order parameters is found to emerge from the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity, covering the entire spectrum of possibilities to be symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the valley and spin degrees of freedom, as well as even or odd in frequency. More specifically, when a conventional s-wave superconductor with singlet Cooper pairs is tunnel-coupled to the TMD layer, both spin-singlet and triplet pairings between electrons from the same and opposite valleys arise due to the combined effects of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic-substrate-induced exchange field. As a key finding, we reveal the existence of an exotic even-frequency triplet pairing between equal-spin electrons from different valleys, which arises whenever the spin orientations in the two valleys are noncollinear. All types of superconducting order turn out to be highly tunable via straightforward manipulation of the external exchange field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom expects that making semiconductors ferromagnetic requires doping with magnetic ions and that superconductivity cannot coexist with magnetism. However, recent concerted efforts exploring new classes of materials have established that intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductors exist and that certain types of strongly correlated metals can be ferromagnetic and superconducting at the same time. Here we show that the trifecta of semiconducting behavior, ferromagnetism, and superconductivity can be achieved in a single material. Samarium nitride (SmN) is a well-characterized intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductor, hosting strongly spin-ordered 4f electrons below a Curie temperature of 27 K. We have now observed that it also hosts a superconducting phase below 4 K when doped to electron concentrations above 1021cm-3. The large exchange splitting of the conduction band in SmN favors equal-spin triplet pairing with p-wave symmetry. Significantly, superconductivity is enhanced in superlattices of gadolinium nitride (GdN) and SmN. An analysis of the robustness of such a superconducting phase against disorder leads to the conclusion that the 4f bands are crucial for superconductivity, making SmN a heavy-fermion-type superconductor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]