Graphene Nanobubbles as Valley Filters and Beam Splitters.

The energy band structure of graphene has two inequivalent valleys at the K and K^{'} points of the Brillouin zone. The possibility to manipulate this valley degree of freedom defines the field of valleytronics, the valley analogue of spintronics. A key requirement for valleytronic devices is the ability to break the valley degeneracy by filtering and spatially splitting valleys to generate valley polarized currents.

Electron Interference in Ballistic Graphene Nanoconstrictions.

We realize nanometer size constrictions in ballistic graphene nanoribbons grown on sidewalls of SiC mesa structures. The high quality of our devices allows the observation of a number of electronic quantum interference phenomena. The transmissions of Fabry-Perot-like resonances are probed by in situ transport measurements at various temperatures.

Theoretical analysis of a dual-probe scanning tunneling microscope setup on graphene.

Experimental advances allow for the inclusion of multiple probes to measure the transport properties of a sample surface. We develop a theory of dual-probe scanning tunneling microscopy using a Green's function formalism, and apply it to graphene. Sampling the local conduction properties at finite length scales yields real space conductance maps which show anisotropy for pristine graphene systems and quantum interference effects in the presence of isolated impurities.

Auger processes mediating the nonresonant optical emission from a semiconductor quantum dot embedded inside an optical cavity.

We show that Auger processes involving wetting layer transitions mediate emission from a cavity that is detuned from a quantum dot by even tens of meV. The wetting layer thus acts as a reservoir, which by Coulomb scattering can supply or absorb the energy difference between emitter and cavity. We perform microscopic calculations of the effect treating the wetting layer as a non-Markovian reservoir interacting with the coupled quantum dot-cavity system through Coulomb interactions.

Forces acting on a small particle in an acoustical field in a viscous fluid.

We calculate the acoustic radiation force from an ultrasound wave on a compressible, spherical particle suspended in a viscous fluid. Using Prandtl-Schlichting boundary-layer theory, we include the kinematic viscosity of the solvent and derive an analytical expression for the resulting radiation force, which is valid for any particle radius and boundary-layer thickness provided that both of these length scales are much smaller than the wavelength of the ultrasound wave (millimeters in water at megahertz frequencies). The acoustophoretic response of suspended microparticles is predicted and analyzed using parameter values typically employed in microchannel acoustophoresis.

Robust conductance of dumbbell molecular junctions with fullerene anchoring groups.

The conductance of a molecular wire connected to metallic electrodes is known to be sensitive to the atomic structure of the molecule-metal contact. This contact is to a large extent determined by the anchoring group linking the molecular wire to the metal. It has been found experimentally that a dumbbell construction with C(60) molecules acting as anchors yields more well-defined conductances as compared to the widely used thiol anchoring groups.