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# The eclipsing bursting X-ray binary EXO 0748-676 revisited by XMM-Newton

## 1 Introduction

The X-ray binary EXO 0748$``$676 is unique in showing all types of variability commonly seen in different low-mass X-ray binaries. The source was discovered in outburst by the EXOSAT satellite. The observations revealed the existence of sharp eclipses, intensity dips as well as repetitive type I bursts which were used to infer the presence of a neutron star as the compact object and to estimate the distance to $``$ 10 kpc (Parmar et al. 1986 hereafter PA86, Gottwald et al. 1986). More recent observations with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) have also shown that the source exhibits variable ($``$ Hz and $``$ kHz) quasi-periodic oscillations (Homan et al. 1999, Homan & van der Klis 2000). The length of the orbital period (3.82 hr), combined with the duration of the eclipses, allows the geometry of the system to be constrained with a high $``$ 75 inclination and a $``$ 0.5 M companion. The presence of residual flux during eclipses and of dips in the orbital light curve makes EXO 0748$``$676 typical of the ADC (accretion disc corona) sources in which the central compact source is surrounded by an asymmetric disc with the presence of a bulge in the outer edge and an extended central hot region (White et al. 1982). This complex geometry has prevented so far the different components to be isolated unambiguously and contradictory interpretations of the spectral variability have been put forward. From EXOSAT data, Parmar et al. (1986) concluded to the presence of a cut-off power-law emission whose part was strongly absorbed. However from ASCA observations, Church et al. (1998) described the spectrum as the superposition of a point source ($``$ 2 keV) blackbody from the neutron star and a partially covered Comptonized emission, originating from the ADC.
The very rich variability of EXO 0748$``$676 makes it an ideal target for XMM-Newton. The high throughput and large energy coverage of the EPIC cameras provide for the first time a detailed picture of the system. We present here the results obtained with the EPIC MOS and PN cameras. More results on the RGS Grating observations of the source can be found in Cottam et al. (2001).

## 2 Observations and data reduction

EXO 0748$``$676 was observed by XMM-Newton at four occasions during the CAL/PV phase, in revolutions 50, 55, 59 and 67 of the satellite. Details on the XMM-Newton mission and on the EPIC MOS and PN cameras can be found in Jansen et al. (2001), Turner et al. (2001) and Strüder et al. (2001).

Scientific data from EPIC MOS were secured in revolutions 59 and 67 (see Table 1). The data, obtained with a 2.6 s time resolution, were processed with the standard analysis of the XMM Science Analysis System. This involves the removal of bad or hot pixels, and of the electronic noise. For the MOS, X-ray events with pattern 0 to 12 (similar to grades 0-4 in ASCA) were selected. The gain was adjusted with reference to the closest observation in the Closed Calibration position. The source events were selected by applying a mask of radius 1.5′ centered on the source which corresponds to $``$ 98% of the energy of the typical point spread function of the telescope (Gondoin et al. 2000). The source is bright and some effects of the pile-up of events might be expected in the FF mode. The average counting rate in each MOS camera, except for the bursts, was found to be between (7-10) event/reading frame which is at the threshold for significant pile-up (see Fig. 6 in Ballet 1999). The pile-up rate is expected to be less than $``$ 0.8% so that a moderate effect should affect the most central part of the image.

EPIC PN data are currently available from revolution 67 of XMM-Newton in three different modes (Table 1). For light curves we selected the valid event-patterns (single, double, triple and quadruple; pattern 0-12) while for the spectral analysis only single-events (pattern 0) were used for which an advanced spectral response matrix exists. To avoid pile-up effects only the data from the fastest read-out mode (the SW) was used for the spectral analysis.

## 3 The varying light curve of EXO 0748$``$676

### 3.1 The EPIC MOS observations

Light curves were produced by selecting the source events in two different soft S (0.5 - 2 keV) and hard H (2 - 10 keV) energy ranges and adding the counts from the two MOS cameras. The background rate is found negligible with mean values of $``$ 0.04 and $``$ 0.08 counts s-1, respectively in the soft and hard bands, illustrating the very clean images obtained by XMM-Newton. Figures 1 and 2 show the extreme variability of the source for the two observations. In each observation, an eclipse is clearly seen in the hard band as well as several type I bursts with counting rates reaching up to 25 counts s-1.

The characteristics of the two eclipses are similar to those reported from EXOSAT (PA86) and RXTE (Hertz et al. 1997). The present lack of exact absolute timing prevents a precise comparison with the source ephemeris. However, the use of the provisional start times listed in Table 1 gives observed mid eclipses times which fall within 17 s (April 4) and 38 s (April 21) of the predicted times using the linear ephemeris of Hertz et al. (1997). More tight constraints on the period changes will be provided when precise absolute timings will be available. Due to the very low background rates, the residual counts in eclipse can be measured for the first time very accurately. In the hard band, the residual counts are (0.50$`\pm `$0.20) counts s-1 and (0.37$`\pm `$0.18) counts s-1 on April 4 and 21 respectively, which corresponds to (10$`\pm `$4)% and (7$`\pm `$3)% of the corresponding mean flux outside eclipse. Significantly, this ratio, in the time interval corresponding to the hard eclipse, is (87$`\pm `$25)% and (32$`\pm `$10)% in the soft band. The behaviour of the source is different in the two observations as seen in Fig. 1 and 2.

On 4 April 2000, the variability is mainly confined to the hard band with the presence of two typical dips, around phase $``$ 0.7 of the 3.82 hr cycle (where phase 0 is defined as the mid-eclipse time). There is no evidence in the soft band of the eclipse nor of the dips. The hardness ratio, computed as (H-S)/(H+S), is also shown at the top of Fig. 1 and 2. A significant softening is seen during eclipse, bursts and dips. On 21 April 2000, the source appears in a quite different and more active state. An intense flaring activity is seen in the soft band with two major increases of flux arising around phase 0.2 and 0.6. The hardness ratio is marked by a significant softening during these flares.

A similar activity around the same phases has been noted from previous ASCA observations though above 1 keV and with somewhat different energy bands (Church et al. 1998). The lack of information at lower energy has made the interpretation uneasy in this case. The very wide spectral coverage of EPIC allows here a more straightforward separation between the lowest energies (below 2 keV) where the absorption effects are dominant and the higher ones (above 2 keV) where they are negligible (see below). We note also that our definition of the hardness ratio is quite different to that adopted in the 1 - 10 keV range for the EXOSAT observations (PA86).

### 3.2 The EPIC PN observations

The EPIC PN observations of EXO 0748$``$676 in FF and SW modes on April 21 (see Table 1) were performed accidentally at almost identical binary phases. The light curves are qualitatively identical showing marked features like flaring activity and dips at similar phases. Since during the FF observation also the MOS cameras observed EXO 0748$``$676 (Fig. 2) we show only the EPIC PN light curves of the SW observation in Fig. 3.

## 4 Spectral variability

Source spectra were accumulated from the EPIC PN data, using a circular extraction region of radius 40″ around the peak surface brightness. Background spectra were created in adjacent regions of the same size. In view of the large variability of the source four representative spectra were chosen by selecting events in time intervals corresponding to the first and second soft flaring episodes (F1 and F2), the between-flare or quiescent interval (Q) and the dip part (D) of the EPIC PN SW observation on April 21 (see Fig. 3). The count rate during this observation was well below the pile-up limit of the SW mode of $``$ 100 counts s-1. Spectra were binned to obtain at least 20 counts per bin. The most recent response matrices (version Sept. 2000) were obtained from the hardware groups and the spectra analyzed using the XSPEC package.

Descriptions with a power-law and either a blackbody or a multi-temperature blackbody accretion disc model, as suggested from previous observations, were found inadequate (see Table 2 where reduced $`\chi ^2`$ values are given for various spectral models). In particular none of the models represents the spectrum around 0.7 keV where a steep decline due to an emission line feature can be seen. This line can be attributed to the O-VIII ion. To model the soft part of the spectra below 2 keV where more lines are visible we therefore tried thermal emission models, keeping in mind that the models available in XSPEC were developed for a thin plasma in collisional equilibrium, while the plasma which likely exists in EXO 0748$``$676 is photo-ionized by hard X-ray emission from a central source (see below).

Best fits in the range 0.15 - 10 keV were obtained with a combination of a power-law (PL) and a Raymond-Smith thermal component (RS), each attenuated by individual photo-electric absorption (Morrison & McCammon 1983). Elemental abundances were treated relative to solar (Anders & Grevesse 1989). It was checked that the fits with the Mewe et al (1985) instead of the RS thermal model gives fully consistent results including for the abundances.

The four representative spectra were jointly fitted by the same model. In the power-law component, intensity and index were each kept as single free parameter tied together for all four spectra. Only the column density attenuating this component was allowed to vary individually. Similarly in the thermal component, the temperature and the elemental abundances were tied, but intensity and absorption allowed to vary separately. The abundances of Si and higher Z elements were fixed to zero as is suggested by the RGS spectrum where no emission lines of these elements are found (Cottam et al. 2001). The other abundances were allowed to vary freely. The best fit RS model results in non-solar abundances of N (10$`\pm `$2), O (0.6$`\pm `$0.1), Ne (0.02$`\pm `$0.02) and Mg (0.31$`\pm `$0.23). The Mg line was only seen in the spectrum between flares. Table 3 summarizes the best fit continuum parameters for the different intensity levels of the source. All quoted errors were determined at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$ of +2.7 around the $`\chi ^2`$ minimum. The spectra are shown in Fig. 4 with superimposed best fit spectral models. Residual features around emission lines seen below 1 keV are caused by calibration problems of the charge transfer losses in SW mode. In the current version of charge transfer loss correction in SW the event energies are over-corrected by about 10 - 20 eV at energies below 1 keV, i.e. the data points in the spectra are shifted to the right. This causes the typical residual pattern seen in the bottom panel of Fig. 4 where data and model emission lines are shifted slightly against each other in energy. This should affect the derived abundances only slightly and will not affect our conclusions. Other residuals near 2.2 keV are caused by problems in the effective mirror areas around the Au edge.

The modulation of the source is mainly due to a strong PL absorption varying from 13.0$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 in the dip to $``$ 6$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 in quiescence and down to (1.5 - 2.2)$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 during flares. In the same time, the soft RS component is affected by a much lower (0.04 - 0.1)$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 absorption increasing only to 0.2$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 during the dip. However, the flares are marked also by a significant increase in the RS intensity.

## 5 Discussion

The very good sensitivity of the EPIC cameras at energies below 2 keV allows for the first time to build a consistent picture of the source. A straightforward interpretation of its variability can be made with an unique effect of absorption in front of a stable underlying emission with two separated components. The hard component, best described by a power-law, is suggestive of a Comptonized-type spectrum with a high energy break high above the 12 keV XMM-Newton limit. This same component was also identified in EXOSAT and ASCA observations (PA86, Church et al. 1998). However at low energy, the XMM-Newton observations show clearly that the emission is dominated by a thin hot plasma, affected by a much lower absorption than the hard component. This is at variance with previous interpretations involving a second unabsorbed Comptonized spectrum (PA86) or a blackbody emission (Church et al. 1998).

A constraint on the size of the emission area for the hard Comptonized emission is provided by its nearly complete eclipse in the orbital cycle. For a binary orbit with a Porb = 3.82 h, the transition time ($`\delta `$T) in and out of eclipses yields a typical size of R = $`5.41\times 10^{11}`$ (Mx+Mc)1/3$``$($`\delta `$T/Porb)$``$sin$`i`$ cm, where Mx and Mc are the masses of the compact star and of the companion in M and $`i`$ the inclination of the system. Eclipse transition times are best determined by high time resolution data of 19 eclipses seen by EXOSAT (PA86) and 10 eclipses seen by RXTE (Hertz et al. 1997) which give mean values of $``$ 6 s (EXOSAT) and $``$ 5 s (RXTE). Assuming a compact star of 1.0 M, a 0.45 M companion and an inclination of $`i`$ = 75 (PA86), yields a typical radius of the Comptonized emission of $`R`$ = (2.4$`\pm `$0.5)$`\times 10^8`$ cm.

On the other hand, the soft thermal component is seen un-eclipsed so that its size should be significantly greater than the companion occulting sphere which, for a Roche lobe filling star on the main sequence is of radius R $``$ 7.9$`\times 10^9`$$``$Porb(hr) cm (Frank et al. 1992). This corresponds to $``$ 3$`\times 10^{10}`$ cm for EXO 0748$``$676.

The picture of the system as seen by XMM-Newton is therefore a rather compact ($``$ 2$`\times 10^8`$ cm) Comptonized region as a central hard X-ray source surrounded by a more extended ($``$ 3$`\times 10^{10}`$ cm) hot halo-type thermal emission. This is the opposite to the previous descriptions in which the central source was expected to be a ($``$ 2 keV) blackbody surrounded by a Comptonized emission from the accretion disc corona (ADC) (Church et al. 1998). We stress that the inner Comptonized region is compatible in size with the disturbed inner edge of the accretion disc where low frequency QPOs are expected to form. If the observed (0.58 - 2.44) Hz QPOs (Homan et al. 1999) are indeed produced at the Keplerian frequency in the accretion disc, their distance to the centre is given by $`r`$ = 1.50 108 $`\nu `$-2/3$``$(Mx/M) cm, where $`\nu `$ is the QPO frequency, which corresponds to a range of (0.8 - 2.2)$`\times 10^8`$ cm in radial distance. The ADC is then strictly restricted to the central part of the disc. The spectral variability demonstrates that we always see this inner ADC strongly absorbed even during flares, most probably because of the high inclination and of the occultation by the external parts of the disc including the bulge during the dip.

The most extended halo region is much less absorbed. In fact we note that the lowest best fitting value of NH is a factor two lower than the average galactic column density in this direction NH$``$ 1.1$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 (Dickey & Lockman 1998). This is possibly due to the more complex shape of the continuum in this region and a contamination by highly ionized regions in the system which should be accounted for by a warm absorber. The absorption during the dip is a factor $``$ 2 higher than the galactic value, revealing that the thermal extended halo is also significantly affected by absorption of the bulge. This is in favour of a flattened rather than spherical halo. The emission measure of this thermal halo in quiescent state is $``$ 0.8$`\times 10^{58}`$ cm-3 for a 10 kpc distance. For a spherical halo, with a typical dimension of $``$ 3$`\times 10^{10}`$ cm, the electron density will then be $`n`$ $``$ 0.8$`\times 10^{13}`$ cm-3. If a flat geometry is assumed, with a radius of $``$ 3$`\times 10^{10}`$ cm and a typical height of $`h`$ $``$ 109 cm, this density is significantly higher at $`n`$ $``$ 5.3$`\times 10^{14}`$ cm-3. We note that very similar values of emission measures and densities are derived from the characteristics of the absorption edges and emission lines of highly ionized elements clearly detected by the RGS at energies lower than 2.5 keV (Cottam et al. 2001). If the central source is seen through such a flat halo, a rough estimate of the absorption is NH $``$ $`h`$.$`n`$ $`5.3\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2. This value is consistent with the measured absorption of 6.4$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 (Table 3). The estimated dimension and density of the halo suggest that it may be a hot atmosphere at the surface of an irradiated accretion disc. The high inclination of the system will impose then that the central source is always seen through this extended highly ionized region on top of the accretion disc. A better description of the halo may therefore be in terms of a fully photo-ionized model which is beyond the scope of this letter. Some caution should then be taken in interpreting the abundances derived from a pure collisional RS model.

Assuming a distance of $``$ 10 kpc, consistent with a maximum Eddington luminosity in the bursts (Gottwald et al. 1986), the (2 - 10 keV) unabsorbed luminosity of the source is constant at $``$ 2.0$`\times 10^{36}`$ erg s-1 which is comparable to the luminosities observed by ASCA and EXOSAT, though at the lowest end. In the total XMM-Newton range, the (0.5 - 10 keV) luminosity only slightly varies from 2.64 (in quiescence) to 2.79$`\times 10^{36}`$ erg s-1 (flares). In this range, the thermal halo luminosity varies from 0.6 (quiescence) to 2.1$`\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1 (flares), contributing from 2 to 7.5% to the total luminosity. The increase of the halo luminosity is apparently not linked to any simultaneous changes in the central source luminosity. The total increase of energy inside the flares with typical duration of $``$ 2000 s is $``$ 3$`\times 10^{38}`$ erg. This is only a small fraction of the energy $``$ 2$`\times 10^{39}`$ erg released during the bursts. It is then possible that the halo changing luminosity may be due to a delayed re-processing of a previous burst at the surface of the accretion disc.

###### Acknowledgements.

The results presented are based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly financed by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA).
EPIC was developed by the EPIC Consortium led by the Principal Investigator, Dr. M. J. L. Turner. The consortium comprises the following Institutes: University of Leicester, University of Birmingham, (UK); CEA/Saclay, IAS Orsay, CESR Toulouse, (France); IAAP Tübingen, MPE Garching,(Germany); IFC Milan, ITESRE Bologna, IAUP Palermo, Italy. EPIC is funded by: PPARC, CEA, CNES, DLR and ASI.


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# Triplet superconductivity induced by screened phonon interactions in ferromagnetic compounds

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## Abstract

We propose that screened pairing interactions mediated by phonons could give rise to a spin triplet superconductivity in ferromagnetic compounds such as $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$. It is pointed out that the pairing interactions include anisotropic components such as those of $`p`$, $`d`$, $`f`$-waves in addition to dominant $`s`$-wave component due to the momentum dependence. Since the ferromagnetic long-range order coexists, there is a large splitting of the Fermi surfaces of up and down spin electrons, which suppresses singlet pairing. Therefore, triplet pairing occurs at last due to the sub-dominant anisotropic interactions, even in the absence of magnetic contribution to the pairing interactions.

\]

Recently, a coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetic long-range order was observed in $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$ under pressure . In the phase diagram on the pressure and temperature plane the superconductivity appears inside the area of the ferromagnetic phase. For this proximity of the superconductivity and the ferromagnetism, spin triplet superconductivity is a possible candidate in this compound.

In addition, singlet pairing is considered to be unfavalable in this compound. The ferromagnetism and superconductivity occur in the same electron band  or at least in very close electron bands from the crystal structure. Thus, there is a large Fermi surface splitting, which suppresses antiparallel spin pairing, in the electron band responsible to the superconductivity.

As a mechanism of triplet pairing, magnetically mediated superconductivity has been considered . However, there are some behaviors which are not easily explained only by this mechanism. For example, the magnetic fluctuations and their contribution to the pairing interactions increase near the transition points. Such behavior is reproduced in the calculation of Fay and Appel . In their calculation, it decreases in a narrow region of the width of 1% of the exchange interaction parameter near the second order transition point, but this decrease would not occur in $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$, since the magnetic transition is of first order in $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$. Therefore, the superconducting transition temperature seems to increase as the magnetic boundary is approached in this mechanism. However, in the observation, $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ decreases near the phase boundary ($`1.6\mathrm{GPa}`$) within the width of $`0.3\mathrm{GPa}`$ of the pressure, which is not very narrow.

Decreases of the superconducting transition temperatures as the magnetic phase approached were also observed in high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ superconductors. However, in those compounds, the magnetic phase is antiferromagnetism. Thus, we have a physical explanation of the decrease of the superconducting transition temperature based on the reduction of the density of states near the Fermi surface (pseudogap) due to the antiferromagnetic fluctuations . On the other hand, the ferromagnetic fluctuations do not induce any pseudogap near the Fermi surface, since it is split to two surfaces.

On the other hand, if the decrease of the superconducting transition temperature near the magnetic phase boundary at the high pressure is correlated to the decrease of the ferromagnetic transition temperature, the absence of the superconductivity at pressures $`p\stackrel{<}{}1\mathrm{G}\mathrm{P}\mathrm{a}`$ does not seem to be explained without any extra mechanisms. For example, pair breaking effect due to Lorentz force by internal magnetic field created by ferromagnetic moments might suppress the superconducting transition temperature at low pressure. It might be also possible that the degree of nesting of the Fermi surface  changes by pressure and gives rise to the pressure dependences of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`T_x`$ defined in . Therefore, the magnetic mechanisms of the superconductivity is not conclusive at present.

In this paper, we propose a phonon mechanism of triplet superconductivity in $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$ system. In the conventional mechanisms, the phonon mediated interactions have often been considered not to induce anisotropic superconductivity. However, we shall point out in this paper that the momentum dependence of the phonon mediated interactions could give rise to a triplet superconductivity in ferromagnetic superconductors. In a spin polarized state, the spin and charge degrees of freedom are locked together, and we concentrate ourselves on clarifying properties of the phonon mediated interaction.

It is easily verified that the pairing interactions contain both singlet and triplet components due to the momentum dependence. For example, when the screening length becomes longer for weak screening, the pairing interactions mediated by phonons have shaper peak near $`q0`$ in momentum space. Then, anisotropic components have large magnitudes. In the limit where the pairing interactions are proportional to the $`\delta `$-function, all components have the same magnitude. Foulkes and Gyorffy theoretically examined $`p`$-wave pairing in metals due to electron-phonon interaction, when the short range Coulomb interaction suppresses the $`s`$-wave pairing .

Anisotropic superconductivity induced by phonon interaction has been considered by Abrikosov as a mechanism of high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ superconductivity . In this mechanism, it was shown that the gap function can vary in sign in the presence of on-site Coulomb repulsion. The momentum dependence of the pairing interactions was examined, where screening effect was taken into account. Bouvier and Bok calculated the superconducting gap and obtained anisotropic momentum dependence of the gap function  in the same model. Recently, Friedel and Kohmoto , and Chang, Friedel, and Kohmoto  have shown that $`d`$-wave superconductivity is induced by screened phonon interactions with an assist of a contribution from the antiferromagnetic fluctuations. In the studies so far, it was shown that a singlet pairing component is dominant in the screened phonon interactions.

Usually, since the largest component has even parity in the momentum space, it contributes to singlet pairing. Therefore, a sub-dominant triplet pairing interaction cannot induce superconducting transition. However, in ferromagnetic superconductors such as $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$, the dominant singlet pairing interaction would not be able to overcome the Pauli pair breaking effect. Therefore, the sub-dominant interaction could give rise to the triplet superconductivity.

In the following, we illustrate that the phonon mediated pairing interactions contain both singlet and triplet pairing interactions by taking into account the screening effect. We calculate a coupling constant of sub-dominant triplet pairing interactions, which becomes dominant after singlet pairing is suppressed. It is shown that the screening effect gives rise to an additional lattice constant dependence of the pairing interactions through the screening length scaled by the inverse of the Fermi momentum.

We examine a model with a screened phonon interaction defined by

$$V(𝐤,𝐤^{})=g\frac{q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{q^2+q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}\frac{\omega (𝐪)^2}{\omega (𝐪)^2(\xi _𝐤\xi _𝐤^{})^2},$$
$`(1)`$
where $`𝐪=𝐤𝐤^{}`$, $`q=|𝐪|`$, and $`q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}`$ is the screening length. This interaction has been examined by many authors  for the high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ superconductivity. As explained in the text books, near the Fermi surface where $`|\xi |\stackrel{<}{}\omega (𝐪)`$, the interaction is attractive due to over-screening. We put $`(\xi _𝐤\xi _𝐤^{})^20`$ for simplicity, since $`k_\mathrm{B}T\omega _\mathrm{D}`$ where $`\omega _\mathrm{D}`$ denotes the Debye frequency. Hence, we have

$$V(𝐤,𝐤^{})=g\frac{q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{|𝐤𝐤^{}|^2+q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}.$$
$`(2)`$
Let us first consider the Thomas-Fermi screening for a while for a qualitative argument. We will improve our theory with a more detailed momentum dependence of the dielectric funcion in the random phase approximation (RPA) later. In the Thomas-Fermi approximation, we put

$$q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=4\pi e^2\rho _\mathrm{t}(\mu ),$$
$`(3)`$
which is valid for long wave lengths such as $`qk_\mathrm{F}`$. Here, $`\rho _\mathrm{t}(\mu )`$ is the total density of states of the conduction electrons per unit volume at the chemical potential $`\mu `$.

We assume a spherically symmetric Fermi surface for simplicity. Assuming $`\omega _\mathrm{D}ϵ_\mathrm{F}`$, we can put $`|𝐤|k_\mathrm{F}`$. Thus, we have

$$V(𝐤,𝐤^{})=\frac{g(\alpha 1)}{\alpha \mathrm{cos}\overline{\theta }},$$
$`(4)`$
where $`\overline{\theta }`$ denotes the angle between $`𝐤`$ and $`𝐤^{}`$, and $`\alpha =1+q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2k_\mathrm{F}^2`$.

The pairing interaction eq. (4) is expanded as

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill V(𝐤,𝐤^{})& =& \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}V_lP_l(\mathrm{cos}\overline{\theta })\hfill \\ & =& \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{m=l}{\overset{l}{}}g_l\gamma _{lm}(\theta ,\phi )\gamma _{lm}^{}(\theta ^{},\phi ^{}),\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(5)`$
where $`(\theta ,\phi )`$ and $`(\theta ^{},\phi ^{})`$ denote the directions of $`𝐤`$ and $`𝐤^{}`$, respectively. Here, $`g_l=V_l/(2l+1)`$ and $`\gamma _{lm}(\theta ,\phi )=Y_{lm}(\theta ,\phi )`$ with the spherical harmonic functions $`Y_{lm}`$.

The $`s`$-wave coupling constant is calculated as

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill g_0& =& V_0=V(\overline{\theta })\frac{\mathrm{d}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}{4\pi }\hfill \\ & =& \frac{1}{2}g(\alpha 1)\mathrm{log}|\frac{\alpha 1}{\alpha +1}|.\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(6)`$
The coupling constant $`g_0`$ is larger than $`g_1`$, but it is not effective in practice, since singlet pairing is suppressed as we explained above. Thus, we calculate the next dominant $`p`$-wave component and obtain

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill g_1& =& \frac{1}{3}V_1=V(\overline{\theta })\mathrm{cos}\overline{\theta }\frac{\mathrm{d}\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}}{4\pi }\hfill \\ & =& g(\alpha 1)\left[1+\frac{\alpha }{2}\mathrm{log}|\frac{\alpha 1}{\alpha +1}|\right].\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(7)`$
In order to improve our approximation, we examine the screening effect in an RPA. The pairing interaction is modifed as

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill V(𝐤,𝐤^{})& =& g\frac{q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{q^2+q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}u(q/2k_\mathrm{F})}\frac{\omega (𝐪)^2}{\omega (𝐪)^2(\xi _𝐤\xi _𝐤^{})^2}\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(8)`$
with

$$u(x)=\frac{1}{2}\left[1+\frac{1x^2}{2x}\mathrm{log}|\frac{1+x}{1x}|\right],$$
$`(9)`$
according to the result of the dielectric function by Lindhard

$$\kappa (q)=1+\frac{q_s^2}{q^2}u(\frac{q}{2k_\mathrm{F}}).$$
$`(10)`$
The Thomas-Fermi approximation could be recovered in the long wave length limit. We apply the same simplification putting $`(\xi _𝐤\xi _𝐤^{})^20`$ in eq. (8). The coupling constant is obtained by numerical calculation.

Figure 1 shows the dimensionless coupling constants defined by $`\lambda _p|g_1|N(0),`$ where $`N(0)`$ is the density of states per a spin and unit volume, in the Thomas-Fermi approximation and an RPA. It is found that they exhibit a peak around $`q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2k_\mathrm{F}^21/2`$, and the Thomas-Fermi approximation agrees well with the RPA for $`q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2k_\mathrm{F}^2\stackrel{<}{}1/2`$.

The transition temperature of the $`p`$-wave superconductivity is given by

$$T_{\mathrm{c}p}=1.13\omega _\mathrm{D}\mathrm{exp}[1/\lambda _p]$$
$`(11)`$
in the weak coupling limit. Short range Coulomb repulsion is not very effective in the case of $`p`$-wave pairing . Figure 2 shows the transition temperature of the triplet superconductivity based on the formula (11). Because of the singular exponential form of eq. (11), the peak of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ is sharper than that of $`\lambda _p`$.

The screening length $`q_s^1`$ is considered as follows. The total density of states per unit volume is expressed as

$$\rho _\mathrm{t}(ϵ_\mathrm{F})=2\frac{m}{2\pi ^2\mathrm{}^2}k_\mathrm{F}.$$
$`(12)`$
Inserting eq. (12) into eq. (3), we have

$$\alpha 1=\frac{q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{2k_\mathrm{F}^2}=\frac{2}{\pi a_\mathrm{H}}\frac{1}{k_\mathrm{F}},$$
$`(13)`$
where $`a_\mathrm{H}`$ denotes the Bohr radius ($`a_\mathrm{H}=\mathrm{}^2/e^2m0.5293\mathrm{\AA }`$). Since $`k_\mathrm{F}1/a`$ with lattice constant $`a`$, this expression means that a large lattice constant results in a strong screening effect, (i.e., a short screening length $`q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}`$).

In our spherically symmetric system, the Fermi momentum $`k_\mathrm{F}`$ is expressed as $`k_\mathrm{F}=(3\pi ^2)^{1/3}n^{1/3}/a`$, where $`n`$ denotes conduction electron (or hole) number per a site. Thus, eq. (13) is written as

$$\frac{q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{2k_\mathrm{F}^2}=\frac{2}{\pi (3\pi ^2)^{1/3}n^{1/3}}\frac{a}{a_\mathrm{H}}\frac{a}{a_0}.$$
$`(14)`$
Here, we have defined a characteristic length $`a_0`$ by

$$a_0=\frac{1}{2}\pi (3\pi ^2)^{1/3}n^{1/3}a_\mathrm{H},$$
$`(15)`$
which scales the lattice constant. If we put $`n1`$ as the order of magnitude, we obtain $`a_0=2.57\mathrm{\AA }`$. When $`a4\mathrm{\AA }`$ , one has $`q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2k_\mathrm{F}^2=a/a_01.6`$ as the order of magnitude.

Now, we discuss the pressure dependence of the transition temperature of the triplet supercoductivity. The pressure dependence of the transition temperature is not easily figured out theoretically in the phonon mechanisms even in $`s`$-wave superconductors. The Debye frequecy $`\omega _\mathrm{D}`$ increases with pressure. Then, the prefactor of the weak coupling expression of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ increases. On the other hand, the electron-phonon coupling constant and the electron density of states would decrease. These effects would contribute to the the pressure dependence in conventional superconductors. In $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$, however, the superconducting transition temperature increases more sensitively to the pressure near 1GPa  than those in conventional superconductors.

In the present mechanism, we have an additional contribution to the pressure dependence through the screening effect. At high pressures, the lattice constant $`a`$ is shorten. Then, from eq. (14), the value of $`q_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2k_\mathrm{F}^2`$ is reduced by the pressure. Figure 3 shows dependence of the superconducting transition temperature on the inverse of the lattice constant. A large value of $`1/a`$ corresponds to a high pressure. Since the pressure dependences of $`\omega _\mathrm{D}`$, $`g`$, $`N(0)`$ are not considered, this figure only shows the additional contribution though the screening effect. It is found that the superconductivity does not occur for $`a\stackrel{>}{}a_0`$ and that the pressure would enhance the transition temperature of the triplet superconductivity near $`aa_0`$. This result is consistent with the behavior of the transition temperature in the experimental phase diagram near 1GPa qualitatively, although it is more sensitive to the pressure in the experiment.

In addition, inside the region of the ferromagnetic phase, Lorentz force created by internal magnetic field should suppress pair formation. The superconducting transition temperature should be reduced from the value that we estimated in the above. Thus, the superconductivity must be absent in a wider region than those in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

On the other hand, decreases of the superconducting and the ferromagnetic transition temperatures are observed at high pressures ($`1.6\mathrm{GPa}`$. For such high pressures, crystal structure might become unstable. Single phases might not be able to exist in this region. The decreases of the transition temperatures might be due to the instability of the crystal. At very high pressures, an unharmonicity may play some role in the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature.

In addition, near the phase boundary between the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic states, the ferromagnetic fluctuations should be strong. The superconductivity might be suppressed near the phase boundary by some renormalization effect due to the strong magnetic fluctuations, since the pairing interactions would not increase significantly there in phonon mechanisms. In a spin polarized state the spin and charge degrees of freedom are locked together. The pressure dependence of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`T_x`$ might be explained by taking into account the change in the degree of nesting of the quasi-two-dimensional parts of the Fermi surface .

In conclusion, we proposed a phonon mechanism of triplet superconductivity in ferromagnetic systems. The momentum dependence of the pairing interactions mediated by phonons give rise to both singlet and triplet components. The singlet interaction is stronger than the triplet one, but the Fermi surface splitting suppresses the singlet superconductivity in the ferromagnetic state. For an appropriate region of the screening length, the triplet superconductivity occurs. The superconducting transition temperature depends on the lattice constant through the screening length scaled by inverse of the Fermi momentum. Such dependence might contribute to the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature in $`\mathrm{UGe}_2`$.

This work was partially (H.S.) supported by a grant for Core Research for Evolutionary Science and Technology (CREST) from Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST).


text:
# Classical analysis of correlated multiple ionization in strong fields

## I Introduction

Classical models for atomic processes can provide useful insights in situations where quantum effects are not prominent, as for instance in the dynamics of highly excited states or in multiphoton absorption processes. Microwave ionization of hydrogen and other atoms with a single valence electron, localized wave packet dynamics or electron scattering off atoms come to mind . They provide a natural starting point for semiclassical investigations that include, at least approximately, quantum interference effects. In particular the ionization of Rydberg atoms in linear and elliptically polarized microwave fields has received considerable attention and similarities and differences between classical and quantal behaviour have been sorted out in great detail . In most cases only a single electron is considered and sufficient to interpret the observations.

Interactions between electrons seem to play an important role in multiphoton multiple ionization in strong laser fields. Experiments show that the yield of multiply charged ions is much higher than can be expected on the basis of an independent electron model . More recently, it has been noted that the electrons can escape non-sequentially and that they are correlated in their final state . This correlation in the final state came as a big surprise and it is our main objective here to discuss a classical model for it.

## II The model

The full process of multiphoton multiple ionization is quite complicated and involves many steps. A plausible model relevant for the field intensities of the experiments is the rescattering mechanism . Before the pulse arrives, the atom is in its ground state. Then one electron escapes from the atom, most likely by tunnelling through the Stark barrier. This electron is then accelerated by the field and can be reflected back towards the atom. During this impact energy is transfered to other electrons, perhaps lifting them above the ionization threshold or bringing them close enough so that tunnelling is again possible. If not enough energy is provided at this stage, perhaps another rescattering process can follow until eventually multiple ionization takes place or the pulse disappears. However, before the escape to multiple ionization all excited electrons pass close to the nucleus where they interact strongly with the each other and with the Coulomb attraction. During this phase their (classical) motion is very fast compared to the field oscillations and an adiabatic analysis, keeping the field fixed, can be applied. Morevoer, because of the strong interaction all memory of the previous motion is lost, so that the initial state for the multiple ionization event is a statistical distribution of electrons close to the nucleus. Our discussion starts once this intermediate cloud of excited electrons has formed. We do not consider the process by which it has been generated; for instance, one might imagine exposing ions to both an electric field and an electron beam.

The arguments that follow focus on two electron escape but can easily be extended to discuss multiple ionization, as indicated below. The Hamiltonian then has as usual the kinetic energy of the electrons, their mutual repulsion, the attraction to the core and the potential due to the oscillating electric field. In many experiments the recoil momentum of the ion is measured, and given the extremely small momenta of the photons it is possible to calculate it as the sum of the momenta of the electrons.

Initially, there is no field and the atom is in its ground state. In the final state, after the pulse is turned off, both electrons are free and have positive total energy. Not all the energy difference has to be provided by the impacting electron since there can be additional acceleration by the field after the electrons escape from the core region. However, within the adiabatic assumption motivated above, the energy content of the intermediate electron cloud has to be high enough to let both electrons escape from the immediate vicinity of the nucleus. Without field this implies positive energy, but if the field is on and non-zero, a Stark saddle forms some distance away from the nucleus and the electrons can escape over it. The rapid acceleration downfield will then pull the electrons out and feed in the energy needed to remain asympotically free once the pulse is gone.

The Stark saddle that forms in the field provides a focus and a bottleneck for the electrons which they have to cross in order to leave the atom. All electrons see the same saddle and would like to cross it, but if they try to do simultaneously, as suggested by the observed electron correlations, their mutual repulsion gets in their way. Suppose that one electron is slightly ahead of the other when running up the hill towards the Stark saddle: the one that is ahead has the advantage that the repulsion with the companion pushes it uphill, whereas the one behind not only has to fight the attraction to the nucleus but also the repulsion from the one ahead. Their interaction is perfectly balanced if they cross the saddle side by side, with reflection symmetry with respect to the field axis. The previous considerations suggest that deviations from this symmetric configuration are amplified and cannot lead to simultaneous ionization. The arguments used here are similar to the ones advanced by Wannier in his analysis of double ionization upon electron impact .

Therefore, we propose that near the threshold for double ionization the dominant path leading to non-sequential double ionization has both electrons escape symmetrically with respect to the field axis. If more than two electrons are ionized simultaneously the natural extension is that they form a regular n-gon in a plane perpendicular to the field axis.

## III Symmetric double ionization

With the field pointing along the $`x`$-axis and two electrons confined to the plane $`z=0`$ their coordinates in the symmetric subspace are $`(x,y,0)`$ and $`(x,y,0)`$ in position and $`(p_x,p_y,0)`$ and $`(p_x,p_y,0)`$ in momenta. The classical Hamilton function for this geometry then is (in atomic units)

$$H(p_x,p_y,x,y,t)=p_x^2+p_y^2+V(x,y,t)$$
(1)
with potential energy

$$V(x,y,t)=\frac{4}{\sqrt{x^2+y^2}}+\frac{1}{2y}+2Fxf(t)\mathrm{cos}(\omega t+\varphi )$$
(2)
and the pulse shape

$$f(t)=\mathrm{sin}^2(\pi t/T_d)$$
(3)
where the duration of the pulse is taken to be four field cycles, $`T_d=8\pi /\omega `$. The rescattering of the electrons leads to a highly excited complex of total energy $`\stackrel{~}{E}`$ which every now and then is close to the symmetric configuration described by the Hamiltonian (1). Any configuration on this energy shell (for some fixed time $`t`$) as well as any phase $`\varphi `$ of the field is equally likely, and the experimental observations are averages over initial conditions and phases.

Fig. 1 shows equipotential lines for the potential (2) at a maximum of the field for $`F=0.137`$ a.u., corresponding to an intensity of $`6.610^{14}`$ W/cm2. The saddle is located along the line $`x=r_s\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ and $`y=r_s\mathrm{sin}\theta `$ with $`\theta =\pi /6`$ or $`5\pi /6`$ and at a distance $`r_s^2=\sqrt{3}/|Ff(t)\mathrm{cos}(\omega t+\varphi )|`$. For the above mentioned field the saddle has an energy of $`V_s=1.69`$ a.u..

Sample trajectories within the symmetric configuration are shown in Fig. 2. It is evident that they cross the saddle during a maximum of the field and that once on the other side the energy increases rapidly. This acceleration is accompanigned by a rapid separation from the nucleus, so that during field reversals the electrons will not return to the nuclues and will remain essentially free.

A quantity of direct experimental interest is the distribution of momenta of the ion, estimated as $`𝐩_{\mathrm{Ion}}(𝐩_1+𝐩_2)`$ . The many realization of the experiment and the unknown details of the initial conditions can be modelled by averaging over all initial conditions of prescribed energy and all phases of the field. The results for peak field strength $`F=0.137`$ a.u. are shown in Fig. 3. For initial energy $`\stackrel{~}{E}=0.58`$ a.u. the final distribution of momenta clearly shows the double hump structure also seen in experiment. The perpendicular momentum of a single electron show a clear suppression near zero momentum and a long tail. The suppression for small momenta is a clear sign of electron repulsion. We are not aware of expeperimental data on this distribution.

## IV The saddle and three-dimensional motions

Within the symmetric subspace mentioned before the position of the saddle separating trapped motion from ionized motion is clear. And as in many models of chemical reactions it has one unstable direction that defines the reaction coordinate and a stable motion perpendicular to the reaction coordinate. However, in the space of six degrees of freedom of the full 3-d two electron motion and in the adiabatic approximation for the field the stability analysis of the saddle reveals two unstable directions and four stable ones. The stable directions are of minor importance: if excited they persist in the neighborhood of the saddle as some uncoupled finite amplitude motions. The second unstable direction besides the reaction coordinate is responsible for the importance of the symmetric subspace. Motion leading away from this symmetric subspace will typically have one electron escaping and the other returning to the nucleus. This corresponds to single ionization. The electron returned to the nucleus may have enough energy to ionize in the next step or may gain additional energy from the field to ionize later. Either way, the electrons do not escape symmetrically and simultaneously, so that there are no correlations between the two outgoing electrons and the ionization is sequential.

Without going into the technical details of this analysis, we can illustrate some of these features with trajectories started slightly outside the symmetry plane (Fig. 4).

Fig 4a shows initial conditions on the saddle and symmetrically escaping electrons. For some deviation from symmetry, one electron escapes, the other remains trapped to the nucleus (Fig. 4b). It is possible, however, that the second electron picks up enough energy to ionize itself (Fig. 4c). In this figure the loss of correlation between the electrons is evidenced by their escape in opposite directions.

## V Triple and higher ionization

The model is easily extended to the case of simultaneous removal of more than two electrons . The key assumption is that the process is dominated by a symmetric configuration of the electrons with respect to the field polarization axis. Specifically, we assume that all electrons move in a plane perpendicular to the field and that they obey a $`C_{Nv}`$ symmetry, which generalizes the $`C_{2v}`$ symmetry of the previous case. The reflection symmetry limits the momenta to be parallel to the symmetry planes and thus confines the motion to a dynamically allowed subspace in the high-dimensional $`N`$-body phase space.

With the electric field directed along the $`z`$-axis the positions of the $`N`$-electrons are $`z_i=z`$, $`\rho _i=\rho `$ and $`\phi _i=2\pi i/N`$, where $`(\rho _i,\phi _i,z_i)`$ are cylindrical coordinates. The momenta of the electrons are all identical, $`p_{\rho ,i}=p_\rho `$, $`p_{z,i}=p_z`$ and $`p_{\phi ,i}=0`$. For this geometry the classical Hamiltonian for $`N`$ electrons, for zero total angular momentum along the field axis reads

$$H(p_\rho ,p_z,\rho ,z,t)=N\frac{p_\rho ^2+p_z^2}{2}+V(\rho ,z,t),$$
(4)
with potential energy

$$V=\frac{N^2}{\sqrt{\rho ^2+z^2}}+\frac{N(N1)}{4\rho \mathrm{sin}(\pi /N)}+NzFf(t)\mathrm{cos}(\omega t+\varphi ).$$
(5)
The equipotential curves look very much like the ones shown for two particles and the dynamics is similar. One interesting aspect of this many electron configuration is that it is limited to at most 13 electrons: for larger numbers of electrons the repulsion between overweights the attraction to the nucleus and no saddle configuration can be found.

## VI Final remarks

The present considerations suggest that correlated, non-seuqential multiple ionization in strong laser pulses proceeds through a saddle configuration with symmetrically moving electrons. The configurations can be seen analogous to the symmetrically escaping electrons in double ionization without field as discussed many years ago by Wannier. As in that case it is possible to derive a threshold law, which, however, is not only different from his but also much more difficult to observe because of the presence of the laser pulse. Further consequences of the model are under investigation.

Financial support by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and KBN under project 2P302B00915 are gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# Classical and Quantum Hamiltonian Ratchets

## Abstract

We explain the mechanism leading to directed chaotic transport in Hamiltonian systems with spatial and temporal periodicity. We show that a mixed phase space comprising both regular and chaotic motion is required and derive a classical sum rule which allows to predict the chaotic transport velocity from properties of regular phase-space components. Transport in quantum Hamiltonian ratchets arises by the same mechanism as long as uncertainty allows to resolve the classical phase-space structure. We derive a quantum sum rule analogous to the classical one, based on the relation between quantum transport and band structure.

Stimulated by the biological task of explaining the functioning of molecular motors, the study of ratchets  has widened to a general exploration of “self-organized” transport, i.e., transport without external bias, in nonlinear systems . Along with this process, there has been a tendency to reduce the models under investigation from realistic biophysical machinery to the minimalist systems customary in nonlinear dynamics. External noise, for example, which originally served to account for the fluctuating environment of molecular motors, has been replaced by deterministic chaos. This required to include inertia terms in the equations of motion, thus leaving the regime of overdamped dynamics and leading to deterministic inertia ratchets with dissipation . It is then a consequent but radical step to abandon friction altogether. Indeed, transport in *Hamiltonian ratchets* was observed numerically if all symmetries were broken that generate to each trajectory a countermoving partner .

As a parallel development, the desire to realize ratchets in artificial, nanostructured electronic systems, required to consider quantum effects . *Quantum Hamiltonian ratchets*, however, have been studied only in the framework of one-band systems where no transport occurs .

In this paper we explain how a Hamiltonian ratchet works. We rely on methods which—although well established in studies of deterministic dynamics—have never before been applied to ratchets. We derive a classical and an analogous quantum sum rule for transport allowing the following conclusions: (i) Directed transport is a property associated with individual invariant sets of the dynamics. A necessary condition for non-zero transport is a mixed phase space with coexisting regular and chaotic regions. (ii) Transport in chaotic regions can be described quantitatively by using topological and further properties of adjacent regular regions only. (iii) Quantum transport persists for all times and approaches the classical transport when $`\mathrm{}`$ is small compared to the major invariant sets of the classical phase space.

We consider a Hamiltonian of the form $`H(x,p,t)=T(p)+V(x,t)`$, where $`T(p)`$ is the kinetic energy. The force $`V^{}`$ is periodic in space and time, $`V^{}(x+1,t)=V^{}(x,t+1)=V^{}(x,t)`$, and has zero mean $`_0^1dt_0^1dxV^{}(x,t)=0`$. Usually directed transport is demonstrated by following selected trajectories over very long times  or an ensemble of trajectories which generates spatial distributions as shown in Fig. 1a,c. While this is easily implemented numerically, it gives no clue about the origin of the transport (but see Ref. ). Instead, we shall exploit the periodicity of the dynamics with respect to space and time and analyze transport in terms of the invariant sets of phase space, *reduced to the spatio-temporal unit cell* $`x,t[0,1)`$. For any finite invariant set $`M`$ we define ballistic transport as phase-space volume times average velocity expressed as

$$\tau _M=_0^1dt_0^1dx_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}dp\chi _M(x,p,t)\frac{H}{p},$$
(1)
where $`\chi _M`$ is the characteristic function of $`M`$. Transport is additive for the union of two or more disjunct invariant sets, i.e., for $`M=_iM_i`$, with $`M_iM_j=\mathrm{}`$ for all $`ij`$, we have

$$\tau _M=\underset{i}{}\tau _{M_i}.$$
(2)
This sum rule for Hamiltonian transport has far-reaching consequences to be discussed in the following.

For a generic Hamiltonian system, phase space is mixed and comprises an infinite number of minimal invariant sets of different types. For the sake of definiteness we will restrict the following discussion to the most interesting case of a chaotic region containing embedded regular islands (Fig. 1b). In any of these invariant sets the time-averaged velocity $`v_i`$ is the same for almost all initial conditions (assuming ergodicity for chaotic components). Hence, for a chaotic region, $`\tau _{\mathrm{ch}}=A_{\mathrm{ch}}v_{\mathrm{ch}}`$ with $`A_{\mathrm{ch}}`$ denoting its area in a stroboscopic Poincaré section. For an embedded island we have $`\tau _i=A_iv_i`$ where $`A_i`$ includes the areas of the narrow chaotic layers inside the island and of the infinite hierarchy of island chains surrounding it because all these invariant sets share the same mean velocity. This velocity $`v_i`$ is identical to the rational winding number $`w_i=x_i/t_i`$ of the stable fixed point at the center of the island. In extended phase space, this corresponds to a shift of the island by $`x_i`$ spatial after $`t_i`$ time periods. Typically, the chaotic set is bounded from above and below by two non-contractible KAM-tori $`p_{a,b}(x,t)`$ enclosing the spatial unit cell. Treating the phase-space region in between as the global invariant set $`M`$ appearing on the l.h.s. of Eq. (2), its transport $`\tau _M`$ is obtained from Eq. (1) as $`T_aT_b`$ with $`T_{a,b}=_0^1dt_0^1dxT(p_{a,b}(x,t))`$ denoting averages of the kinetic energy over the tori. Using the sum rule (2) we can now express transport of the chaotic region in terms of its adjoining regular components (KAM-tori and islands) as

$$A_{\mathrm{ch}}v_{\mathrm{ch}}=T_aT_b\underset{i}{}A_iw_i.$$
(3)
This is our main result on classical transport in Hamiltonian ratchets. Not only does Eq. (3) provide an efficient method to determine the chaotic drift velocity, it also expresses the simple principle generating directed ballistic motion: Decomposing phase space into different invariant sets, these will in general have average velocities different from each other and also different from zero but related by the sum rule (2). Therefore a necessary condition for directed chaotic transport in Hamiltonian ratchets is *a mixed phase space*.

Lévy flights  are a characteristic feature of chaotic motion in a generic mixed phase space and indeed they were observed in Hamiltonian ratchets . They reflect the slow exchange between subsets of a chaotic region, separated by leaky barriers . As these subsets are not invariant, their contributions to Eq. (2) are contained in the contribution of the chaotic invariant set. Lévy flights lead to power-law tails in spatial distributions. For example, the asymmetric shapes of the peaks visible in Figs. 1a,c can be attributed to these tails. Notably, in Fig. 1c one clearly sees a mean transport to the right although the same data shows no indication of a power-law tail in this direction. We stress that the sum rule allows to predict the mean velocity of chaotic trajectories without any reference to such details of the chaotic dynamics. This suggests that Lévy flights are not a necessary element of the mechanism of chaotic transport in Hamiltonian ratchets.

In Ref.  it was shown that a necessary condition for directed transport is the breaking of all symmetries which to each trajectory generate a countermoving partner. For a chaotic set invariant under such a symmetry, this is in agreement with Eq. (3) because then the r.h.s. vanishes identically. However, chaotic sets can also occur as symmetry-related pairs transporting in opposite directions. Moreover, if phase space cannot be decomposed into invariant subsets, e.g., for an ergodic system, there cannot be transport even with all symmetries broken.

Up to now we have only considered transport of invariant sets of the unit cell. For an arbitrary initial distribution transport is determined by projection onto these invariant sets . Therefore, the location of an initial distribution *within an invariant set* is irrelevant. This applies also to the location within the temporal unit cell, i.e., to the question of phase dependence discussed in . In particular, in case that the plane $`p=0`$, $`0x,t1`$ is completely within the chaotic invariant set, any initial condition restricted to this plane will result in the same average transport. We now understand how a Hamiltonian ratchet makes particles initially at rest ($`p=0`$) move with a predetermined mean velocity as, e.g., in Fig. 1a.

We have checked Eq. (3) numerically for a continuously driven system . We determined the areas $`A_i`$ and winding numbers $`w_i`$ for the regular islands shown in the Poincaré section of Fig. 1b as well as $`T_a`$ and $`T_b`$ for the limiting KAM-tori, yielding $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}=0.092\pm 0.011`$. The error estimate includes the uncertainty in the location of the bounding KAM-tori and the contribution from neglected small islands. The result is in agreement with the value $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}=0.082\pm 0.002`$ determined with much more computational effort from the spatial distribution of $`10^4`$ trajectories, started with $`p=0`$ (Fig. 1a).

As a minimal model for directed chaotic transport in Hamiltonian ratchets, we propose a kicked Hamiltonian

$$H(x,p,t)=T(p)+V(x)\underset{n}{}\delta (tn).$$
(4)
It reduces the dynamics to a map for position and momentum $`x_{n+1}=x_n+T^{}(p_n)`$, $`p_{n+1}=p_nV^{}(x_{n+1})`$, just after the kick. As an example we take a symmetric potential $`V(x)=(x\mathrm{mod}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}1/2)^2/2`$ and an asymmetric kinetic energy $`T(p)=|p|+3\mathrm{sin}(2\pi p)/(4\pi ^2)`$. We consider the dynamics on a cylinder with transport along the $`x`$-axis and $`p[1/2,+1/2)`$ being a periodic variable. Fig. 1d shows the Poincaré section for one unit cell. There are only two major invariant sets—a chaotic sea and a regular island centered around a periodic orbit with winding number $`w_{\mathrm{reg}}=1`$. According to Eq. (1), transport of the full phase space vanishes identically because of the periodic momentum variable. Applying the sum rule (2) the contributions to transport from the two invariant sets cancel exactly,

$$A_{\mathrm{ch}}v_{\mathrm{ch}}+A_{\mathrm{reg}}w_{\mathrm{reg}}=0.$$
(5)
We find the transport velocity of the chaotic component as $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}=f_{\mathrm{reg}}/(1f_{\mathrm{reg}})`$, where $`f_{\mathrm{reg}}=A_{\mathrm{reg}}/(A_{\mathrm{reg}}+A_{\mathrm{ch}})`$ denotes the relative area of the regular island. From Fig. 1d, $`f_{\mathrm{reg}}=0.117\pm 0.001`$, thus $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}=0.133\pm 0.001`$ in agreement with $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}=0.1344\pm 0.0003`$ from the spatial distribution of Fig. 1c.

In order to extend our concept of directed transport in Hamiltonian systems to quantum ratchets, we first demonstrate by a numerical example that quantum Hamiltonian ratchets can work. Fig. 2 shows that the average velocity of a wavepacket initialized in the chaotic sea varies between $`0`$ for large and the classical value $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}`$ for small values of $`\mathrm{}`$. We explain this behavior in the following.

In analogy with our approach to classical transport, we consider the invariants of the quantum dynamics, the stationary states of the time-evolution operator over one period, i.e., $`\widehat{U}=\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\widehat{V}/\mathrm{}}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\widehat{T}/\mathrm{}}`$ for the kicked Hamiltonian Eq. (4). They satisfy $`\widehat{U}|\varphi _{\alpha ,k}=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi \mathrm{i}ϵ_\alpha (k))|\varphi _{\alpha ,k}`$, with the quasienergy $`ϵ_\alpha (k)[0,1)`$ . Similarly, spatial periodicity implies $`\varphi _{\alpha ,k}(x+1,t)=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi \mathrm{i}k)\varphi _{\alpha ,k}(x,t)`$ with quasimomentum $`k[0,1)`$ where $`h`$ is chosen rational for systems periodic in $`p`$. Quantum transport is related to the expectation values in the stationary states $`\overline{v}_{\alpha ,k}\varphi _{\alpha ,k}|\widehat{v}|\varphi _{\alpha ,k}`$ of the velocity operator $`\widehat{v}=\widehat{T}^{}(\widehat{p})`$, where $`=_0^1dx_0^1dt()`$. Using a generalization of the Hellman-Feynman theorem to time-periodic systems , we express velocities by *band slopes* as

$`\overline{v}_{\alpha ,k}=\mathrm{d}ϵ_\alpha (k)/\mathrm{d}k.`$ (6)
This allows to discuss quantum transport in terms of spectral properties. Examples for quasienergy band spectra are shown in Fig. 3 together with the corresponding velocity distributions. The semiclassical regime is characterized by the existence of two different types of bands and corresponding eigenstates : Bands pertaining to regular states appear as straight lines in the spectrum, while the chaotic bands show oscillations and wide avoided crossings among themselves. Associating the terms chaotic and regular with the bands is supported by the Husimi representations of the corresponding eigenfunctions (insets in Fig. 3a). The new aspect introduced into this picture by directed chaotic transport is the *overall slope of the chaotic bands*.

Only on a coarse quasienergy scale, the two sets of bands appear to cross. On a sufficiently fine scale, all crossings are avoided. Consequently the actual bands change their character between regular and chaotic at each of the narrow crossings and have no overall slope. Switching from the latter (“adiabatic”) to the former (“diabatic”) viewpoint is a well-controlled procedure . Formally, this behavior of the bands can be described in terms of their winding number (average slope) with respect to the periodic $`(ϵ,k)`$-space: In the adiabatic as well as in the diabatic case, all quasienergy bands must close after an integer number of periods in the $`ϵ`$ and $`k`$ directions, so that their winding number $`\overline{w}`$ must be rational. Clearly, in the adiabatic case, all winding numbers are zero. Going from the adiabatic to the diabatic case amounts to a mere reconnection of bands at the crossings, preserving the sum of winding numbers. Thus it must be zero also in the diabatic representation,

$$\underset{\alpha }{}\overline{w}_\alpha ^{(\mathrm{ch})}+\underset{\alpha }{}\overline{w}_\alpha ^{(\mathrm{reg})}=0.$$
(7)
This is the quantum-mechanical analogue of the classical sum rule (5). Because of the localization of the regular states on tori inside the regular island, the winding number of the regular bands in $`(ϵ,k)`$-space is in the semiclassical limit identical to the winding number in $`(x,t)`$-space of the central periodic orbit, i.e., $`\overline{w}_\alpha ^{(\mathrm{reg})}=w_{\mathrm{reg}}`$. Moreover, in this limit, the fractions of regular and chaotic bands correspond to the relative phase-space volumes $`f_{\mathrm{reg}}`$ and $`1f_{\mathrm{reg}}`$, respectively. We therefore obtain from Eq. (7) the mean slope of the chaotic bands, $`\overline{w}^{(\mathrm{ch})}=f_{\mathrm{reg}}/(1f_{\mathrm{reg}})=v_{\mathrm{ch}}`$, as the classical drift velocity. This is confirmed in Fig. 3a.

The asymptotic quantum transport velocity for a given initial wavepacket $`|\psi `$ is an average of band slopes weighted with the overlaps $`|\psi |\varphi _{\alpha ,k}|^2`$. We can now explain our observations in Fig. 2: For $`\mathrm{}A_{\mathrm{reg}}`$, an initial wavepacket prepared in the chaotic region of a single unit cell of the extended system is a superposition of chaotic eigenfunctions from the entire band spectrum. Consequently, its drift velocity is given by the mean slope of the chaotic bands and thus by the classical value $`v_{\mathrm{ch}}`$. In contrast, for $`\mathrm{}A_{\mathrm{reg}}`$, there are no states restricted to the regular or the chaotic set and hence quantum transport does not correspond to classical transport in this regime.

Our analysis based on the winding numbers can be applied to predict the mean quantum transport in the semiclassical regime from the classical value. The band spectra, however, encode more detailed information about quantum transport. It can be extracted by a double Fourier transform $`ϵt`$, $`kx`$ (discrete position in units of the spatial period) and subsequent squaring of the spectral density, translating two-point correlations in the bands into the entire time evolution of the spatial distribution on the scale of the spatial period. A formal definition of the resulting *generalized form factor* $`K(x,t)`$ and further details are found in . A semiclassical theory for the form factor in Hamiltonian ratchets, which will be published elsewhere, requires to account for the simultaneous presence of regular and chaotic regions in phase space. It relates the form factor $`K(x,t)`$ to the respective contributions of these invariant sets to the classical spatio-temporal distribution $`P(x,t)`$ (Fig. 4).

We benefitted from discussions with S. Flach, P. Hänggi, M. Holthaus and O. Yevtushenko. MFO acknowledges financial support from the Volkswagen foundation. TD thanks for the hospitality enjoyed during stays at the MPI für Physik komplexer Systeme, Dresden, and the MPI für Strömungsforschung, Göttingen, generously financed by the MPG.


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# Variable and reversible quantum structures on a single carbon nanotube

## Abstract

The band gap of a semiconducting single wall carbon nanotube decreases and eventually vanishes leading to metalization as a result of increasing radial deformation. This sets in a band offset between the undeformed and deformed regions of a single nanotube. Based on the superlattice calculations, we show that these features can be exploited to realize various quantum well structures on a single nanotube with variable and reversible electronic properties. These quantum structures and nanodevices incorporate mechanics and electronics.

preprint: To be appear in PRB
Unusual properties of electrons in the quantum structures which were realized by using semiconductor heterostructures ($`A_nB_m`$) have initiated several fundamental studies. Owing to the band offsets of the semiconductor heterostructures, the energies of the band states of one semiconductor $`B`$ may fall into the band gap of the adjacent semiconductor $`A`$. According to the effective mass approximation (EMA), the height (depth) of the conduction (valence) band edge of $`A`$ from that of $`B`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_C`$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }E_V`$), behaves as a potential barrier for electrons (holes). For example, $`m`$ layers of $`B`$ between $`n`$ layers of two $`A`$’s form a quantum well yielding confined electronic states. The depth of the well and the width of the barrier and well (in terms of number of layers $`n`$ and $`m`$, respectively) are crucial parameters to monitor the resulting electronic properties. Multiple quantum well structures (MQWS) or resonant tunneling double barrier structures (RTDBS) can be tailored from the combination of $`A`$ and $`B`$, and from various stacking sequence of $`n`$ and $`m`$.

Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) can display metallic or semiconducting character depending on their chiralities and diameters. Similar to the aforementioned idea exploited extensively in crystals, quantum structures can also be produced in SWNT’s. It has been experimentally demonstrated that a rectifying behavior can be achieved by the junction of two different SWNT’s. Furthermore, the transport measurements on the ropes and individual nanotubes have indicated a resonant tunneling behavior. Recently, the quantum dot behavior has been also observed. Like the semiconductor heterostructures, a different electronic property requires each time the fabrication of a new device using SWNT junctions.

In this work, we propose a practical and interesting alternative, and show that various quantum structures can easily be realized on an individual SWNT, and their electronic properties can be variably and reversibly monitored. We predict and use the feature that the band gap of a semiconducting SWNT can be modified by radial deformation as described in Fig. 1(a). More importantly, if such a deformation is not uniform but has different strength at different zones, each zone displays different band gap. Owing to the band offsets at the junction of different zones, MQWS or RTDBS of the desired electronic character can be formed, and novel electronic nanodevices can be engineered on a single nanotube. This scheme is quite different from the previous constructions of SWNT heterostructures or quantum dots, where one had to fabricate each time a different junction or topological defects to satisfy the desired electronic character.

First-principles calculations are carried out within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) using plane waves with a cutoff energy of 500 eV and ultra soft pseudopotentials. Constrained structure optimizations are performed on the SWNT under transversal compression. The zigzag (7,0) tube is a semiconductor when it is undeformed, but its band gap $`E_g`$ is modified upon introducing an elliptic deformation, which is quantified by the ratio of the elliptic major axis to the minor axis $`a/b`$. The band gap decreases with increasing $`a/b`$, and eventually vanishes for $`a/b`$ 1.28 (see Fig. 1(b)). After the onset of metalization upon the closure of the band gap, the density of states at the Fermi energy $`D(E_F)`$ increases with further increase of $`a/b`$, as shown in Fig. 1(c). Relatively stronger radial deformations are required for the closure of the gap of (8,0) and (9,0) tubes. The radial deformation $`a/b`$, the strain energy per atom $`E_s`$, and the compressive force on the fixed atom $`F_c`$ at the closure of the band gap are calculated to be ($`a/b=1.28`$; $`E_s=18`$ meV; $`F_c=0.32`$ eV/A), ($`a/b=1.54`$; $`E_s=38`$ meV; $`F_c=0.31`$ eV/A), and ($`a/b=1.36`$; $`E_s=18`$ meV; $`F_c=0.25`$ eV/A) for (7,0), (8,0) and (9,0) tubes, respectively. The armchair (6,6) SWNT maintains the metallic behavior despite the radial deformation. Remarkably, the induced deformations, in particular those causing to insulator-metal transition, are elastic. Our results confirm that the atomic structure and hence the electronic properties return to the original, undeformed state when the compressive stress is lifted.

Normally, as the radius $`R\mathrm{}`$ the electronic structure of a SWNT near the band edges becomes similar to that obtained by folding the $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`\pi `$bands of the graphene. However, a singlet state at the band edge of a ($`n`$,0) SWNT with small $`R`$ involves significant $`\sigma ^{}\pi ^{}`$ hybridization. This state occurs above the $`\pi ^{}`$band ($`n=9`$), but falls in the gap ($`n=7,8`$) and eventually closes the gap ($`n=6`$) as $`n`$ decreases. Apparently, the estimate of $`E_g`$ based on the simple extrapolation using the experimental gaps of SWNT with relatively larger radius is not valid for the (7,0) tube. In the present case, introducing radial deformation and hence increasing the curvature at both ends of the elliptic major axis reduces the band gap of the (7,0) SWNT owing to the enhanced $`\sigma ^{}\pi ^{}`$ hybridization.

We performe also TB total energy and electronic structure calculations for the undeformed and uniformly deformed (7,0) SWNT by using transferable parameters related to carbon 2$`s`$ and 2$`p_{x,y,z}`$ orbitals. The radial deformation has been induced by approaching two atoms of the unit cell at one end of the diameter to two similar atoms at the other end indicated by dark atoms in Fig. 1(a). Once the transversal strain is set by fixing these four atoms, the rest of atoms are relaxed by the conjugate gradient method. We consider undeformed ($`a/b=`$1) and five different degrees of radial deformation ($`a/b>`$1). The variation of $`E_g`$, first and second states of the conduction band, ($`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$) and those of the valence band, ($`v_1`$ and $`v_2`$) are illustrated in Fig. 1(d) and 1(e). Data points on the curves shown in these figures correspond to different degrees of elliptic deformations from I to VI as described in Fig. 1(a). We note deviations between the first-principles PW and empirical TB results perhaps due to the differences in the details of the deformations and limitations of the empirical method. It is also known that the band gap $`E_g`$ is usually underestimated by local density approximation (LDA) calculations. On the other hand, as discussed before, the $`\sigma ^{}\pi ^{}`$ hybridization effect is crucial for setting $`E_g`$, and first-principles PW calculations described it better. While the present GGA calculations for the undeformed (7,0) tube finds $`E_g=0.242`$ eV, an earlier LDA calculation predicted $`E_g=0.09`$ eV. Our TB calculations using transferable parameters predict $`E_g0.5`$ eV and hence relatively stronger deformation is required to reduce the TB gap $`E_g`$ to 0.1 eV. Earlier TB calculations found $`E_g1.0`$ eV for undeformed tube. Comparison of band gaps measured by STM spectroscopy with those calculated by different methods, and an extensive analysis for their variation with the radial deformation applied on different SWNT’s will be presented elsewhere. Nevertheless, both methods (PW and TB) predict here similar overall behavior for the band gap variation with the radial deformation. We will use the TB method to study MQWS, since it allows us to treat a large number of carbon atoms, which cannot be treated easily with the present first-principles PW method. We will treat the (7,0) tube as a prototype system

Reducing $`E_g`$ and eventually the onset of insulator-metal transition, and further metallization of certain SWNT’s with increasing radial deformation, and the reversible nature of all these sequence of physical events incorporate important ingredients suitable to form novel quantum structures and nanodevices. We investigate MQWS as a generic system and demonstrate that one can generate electronic properties convenient for various device applications. To start, we consider a (7,0) zigzag nanotube, that is pressed to squash only at certain regions. We assume that the undeformed region $`A`$ of $`n`$ unit cells, and adjacent deformed region $`B`$ of $`m`$ unit cells (one interface atomic layer at both side has intermediary deformation) repeat periodically, so that the translational periodicity along the axis of the tube involves $`n+m=`$16 cells and 448 carbon atoms. This tube forms a $`(A_nB_m)`$ superlattice of semiconductor heterostructure, where the band gap of $`A`$ is larger than that of $`B`$. Since $`E_g(A;a/b=1)>E_g(B;a/b>1)`$, a band offset shall occur at the junction. The ($`n=8`$, $`m=`$8) supercells of the superlattices are schematically described for two different degrees of deformation in Fig. 2. Note that at low degree of deformation the junction can be formed by using one interface layer, while more interface layers may be necessary if $`B`$ is severely deformed or a graded junction is aimed.

Experimental and theoretical methods have been proposed in the past to determine the band offsets, and hence to reveal the band diagram perpetuating along the superlattice axis. For the present situation ambiguities exist in calculating alignments of the band edges and to determine band diagram in real space including band bowing due to the charge transfer between $`A`$ and $`B`$. Even if the band diagram were known, it is not obvious whether EMA is applicable for an individual, non uniformly deformed SWNT. Therefore, instead of applying EMA to the 1D band diagram, we directly calculate the electronic structure of the ($`A_nB_m`$) superlattice on an individual (7,0) SWNT. The band alignment is not explicit, but it is indigenous to the method and hence the confined states shall be obtained directly from the present TB superlattice calculations.

We performed calculations on three different superlattices described in Fig. 2(a), i.e. $`(A_8B_8)`$; $`(A_4B_{12})`$; $`(A_{12}B_4)`$, and calculated the electronic states $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{i,𝐤}(𝐫)`$ with band energy $`E_{i,𝐤}`$. Here, $`i`$ and k are band index and wave vector of the superlattice along its axis. Because of flat superlattice bands, we considered only the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$point in the superlattice Brillouin zone. Figure 3 illustrates the local (or cell) density of states, $`(E,j)=_{i,𝐤}_j𝑑𝐫|\mathrm{\Psi }_{i,𝐤}(𝐫)|^2\delta (EE_{i,𝐤})`$ and the state density $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_{i,𝐤}(j)|^2=_j𝑑𝐫|\mathrm{\Psi }_{i,𝐤}(𝐫)|^2`$ both integrated at each cell $`j`$ in the supercell. $`(E,j)`$ with higher density near the band edges of $`B`$ (i.e. small gap region) is due to quantum well states and hence is consistent with the discussion presented at the beginning. Second peak of $`(E,j)`$ in the conduction band occurs in $`A`$, and becomes well separated from the first peak in the superlattice $`(A_4B_{12})`$. The well known behavior of MQWS is apparent with the confinement of states at the band edges. The first states at the band edges of $`B`$, i.e. $`c_1`$ and $`v_1`$ are confined in B suggesting a normal band offset. The confinement of the second state in the valence band, $`v_2`$ is rather weak. On the other hand, the second state of the conduction band, $`c_2`$ is not confined in the well of $`B`$, but is localized at the barrier of $`A`$. It appears that the energy of $`c_2`$ occurs above the well in $`B`$, and $`c_2`$ cannot match with the next higher energy state of $`B`$. Similar to that observed in short periodicity AlGaAs superlattices, this situation demonstrates that the description of the superlattice electronic structure in terms of 1D multiple square well states obtained within the simple EMA can fail owing to the band structure effects. The confinement of $`c_1`$ and $`v_1`$ states increases with $`n`$, i.e. with the length of the barrier region. This is an expected result, since the longer barrier prevents the tunneling of these states through $`A`$. Also the energy of $`c_1`$ raises with decreasing $`m`$. This is a direct consequence of the uncertainty principle.

Figure 4 shows the MQWS behavior of the superlattice described in Fig. 2(b), where $`B`$ is strongly deformed. The state density and local density of states indicate that the confined states $`c_1`$ and $`v_1`$ display relatively higher localization at the interface. This situation originates from the interface atomic structure connecting $`A`$ to strongly deformed $`B`$. Different band offsets can also be realized by setting up different level of deformations at both $`A`$ and $`B`$. Again, depending on the level of the deformation $`E_g(B;a/b>1)`$ can even be zero that makes a metal-semiconductor superlattice structure. Furthermore, from the junction of two metalized SWNT’s having different $`D(E_F)`$ one can form a metal-metal superlattice.

In MQWS, the truly 1D states are normally propagating with the wave vector $`𝐤`$, and form a band structure. The bands become flatter with increasing $`n`$, and eventually the band picture breaks down and states become totally localized in the quantum well (or in $`B`$). This way the superlattice is expected to experience a Mott metal-insulator transition. Furthermore, a randomly deformed SWNT can be an interesting system to investigate electron localization in 1D. The modulating or $`\delta `$ doping of a MQWS or QWS (also quantum dot) may exhibit interesting effects on the transport properties. It is interesting to note that the resonance condition of a RTDBS with $`A_n^{}B_m^{}A_n^{}`$ having contacts to metal reservoirs from both ends shall be monitored by the deformation and size of $`B`$. Strain or pressure nanogauges or variable nanoresistors can be developed based on the fact that the metalization and hence the conductance of a (7,0) nanotube can be changed with the applied deformation. Also a junction $`A_n^{}B_m^{}`$ with metallic $`B`$ is expected to show a rectifying behavior. We also note that a 3D grid of MQWS can be constructed by periodic stacking of tubes where quantum wells occur at crossing points. The electronic properties of this system can be varied with the stacking sequence and applied pressure. Finally, we point out that the recent experimental work which showed that the controlled local deformation can be achieved.

In conclusion, we showed that the electronic properties of a semiconducting SWNT can be modified by introducing radial deformation which can be used to produce interesting quantum structures and devices on a single tube, such as MQWS, RTDBS, rectifying junction, and variable nanoresistor with continuously tunable electronic properties.

This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. INT97-31014 and TÜBİTAK under Grant No. TBAG-1668(197 T 116).