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29 - Charged Bosons in Quantum Heterostructures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2009

L. D. Shvartsman
Affiliation:
Racah Institute of Physics The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem 91904 Israel
J. E. Golub
Affiliation:
Racah Institute of Physics The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem 91904 Israel
A. Griffin
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
D. W. Snoke
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
S. Stringari
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Trento, Italy
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Summary

Abstract

We show that heterostructures may give rise to charged bosons. Bosons may be formed as a result of two quantum-well holes pairing in a repulsive potential. In the case where at least one hole has a negative effective mass, the repulsive electrostatic interaction may be converted to an effective attraction. The effect is a general one, possible in quantum layers of most cubic semiconductors. We compute the x-dependent hole-hole binding energy for AlGaAs/InxGa1−xAs/GaAs quantum layers, taking account of the screening by a degenerate background gas of positive mass holes. We conclude that bound hole–hole pairs should be observable in infrared absorption experiments.

The possibility of creating a controlled gas of bosons has stimulated years of work on excitonic systems [1–4], spin-polarized hydrogen [5], and atom trapping [6]. But the only opportunity of charged boson formation in solids which is widely accepted is Cooper pairing. The possibility of any other mechanism of charged boson formation in solids is a very exciting topic for investigation. Needless to say, the superfluidity of a charged boson gas in solids would be manifested as superconductivity.

In this work we discuss regular electrostatic repulsion, which, in the case where at least one of the carriers has a negative effective mass, may be converted to an effective attraction, as a mechanism of pairing. A composite boson, carrying charge 2|e|, may be formed in such a case.

It is known that the presence of negative mass states of carriers is a general property of crystal band structure.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

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