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Graphene has emerged as a promising material for optoelectronics due to its potential for ultrafast and broad-band photodetection. The photoresponse of graphene junctions is characterized by two competing photocurrent generation mechanisms: a conventional photovoltaic effect and a more dominant hot-carrier-assisted photothermoelectric (PTE) effect. The PTE effect is understood to rely on variations in the Seebeck coefficient through the graphene doping profile. A second PTE effect can occur across a homogeneous graphene channel in the presence of an electronic temperature gradient. Here, we study the latter effect facilitated by strongly localised plasmonic heating of graphene carriers in the presence of nanostructured electrical contacts resulting in electronic temperatures of the order of 2000 K. At certain conditions, the plasmon-induced PTE photocurrent contribution can be isolated. In this regime, the device effectively operates as a sensitive electronic thermometer and as such represents an enabling technology for development of hot carrier based plasmonic devices.

Hybrid plasmonic metal-graphene systems are emerging as a class of optical metamaterials that facilitate strong light-matter interactions and are of potential importance for hot carrier graphene-based light harvesting and active plasmonic applications. Here we use femtosecond pump-probe measurements to study the near-field interaction between graphene and plasmonic gold nanodisk resonators. By selectively probing the plasmon-induced hot carrier dynamics in samples with tailored graphene-gold interfaces, we show that plasmon-induced hot carrier generation in the graphene is dominated by direct photoexcitation with minimal contribution from charge transfer from the gold. The strong near-field interaction manifests as an unexpected and long-lived extrinsic optical anisotropy. The observations are explained by the action of highly localized plasmon-induced hot carriers in the graphene on the subresonant polarizability of the disk resonator. Because localized hot carrier generation in graphene can be exploited to drive electrical currents, plasmonic metal-graphene nanostructures present opportunities for novel hot carrier device concepts.

In this article, we use optical transmission spectroscopy to measure the changes in the resonance features of a Au plasmonic nanoresonator array consisting of concentric ring/disc cavity elements, when graphene is introduced as an encapsulating medium. We show that by using finite element modelling to best reproduce our experimental results the dielectric response of the graphene film can be determined. We discuss the potential of such structures for chemical sensing applications.

We report the room temperature observation of significant ballistic electron transport in shallow etched four-terminal mesoscopic devices fabricated on an InSb/AlInSb quantum well (QW) heterostructure with a crucial partitioned growth-buffer scheme. Ballistic electron transport is evidenced by a negative bend resistance signature which is quite clearly observed at 295 K and at current densities in excess of 10(6) A/cm(2). This demonstrates unequivocally that by using effective growth and processing strategies, room temperature ballistic effects can be exploited in InSb/AlInSb QWs at practical device dimensions.

We report the magnetic field detection properties of ballistic sensors utilizing the negative bend resistance of InSb∕In(1-x)Al(x)Sb quantum well cross junctions as a function of temperature and geometric size. We demonstrate that the maximum responsivity to magnetic field and its linearity increase as the critical device dimension is reduced. This observation deviates from the predictions of the classical billiard ball model unless significant diffuse boundary scattering is included. The smallest device studied has an active sensor area of 35×35 nm(2), with a maximum responsivity of 20 kΩ∕T, and a noise-equivalent field of 0.87μT∕Hz at 100 K.

We report the optical measurement of the spin dynamics at elevated temperatures and in zero magnetic field for two types of degenerately doped n-InSb quantum wells (QWs), one asymmetric (sample A) and one symmetric (sample B) with regards to the electrostatic potential across the QW. Making use of three directly determined experimental parameters: the spin lifetime, τ(s), the sheet carrier concentration, n, and the electron mobility, μ, we directly extract the zero-field spin splitting. For the asymmetric sample where the Rashba interaction is the dominant source of spin splitting, we deduce a room temperature Rashba parameter of α = 0.09 ± 0.1 eV Å which is in good agreement with calculations and we estimate the Rashba coefficient α(0) (a figure of merit for the ease with which electron spins can be modulated via an electric field). We review the merits/limitations of this approach and the implications of our findings for spintronic devices.

We report an individually addressable Ti∕GaAs metal-semiconductor hybrid optical nanosensor with positive photoresistance and a sensitivity that increases as the device dimensions shrink. The underlying physics relates to the crossover from ballistic to diffusive transport of the photoinduced carriers and the geometric enhancement of the effect associated with a Schottky-barrier-coupled parallel metal shunt layer. For a 250 nm device under 633 nm illumination we observe a specific detectivity of D(*)=5.06×10(11) cm √Hz∕W with a dynamic response of 40 dB.

We report on the magnetotransport in a 90 nm thick n-type GaAs epitaxial thin film in the weak localization (WL) regime. Low temperature (T