Narrow Results

We present the metal–insulator transition study of a quantum site percolation model on simple cubic lattice. Transfer matrix method is used to calculate transport properties — Landauer conductance — for the binary distribution of energies. We calculate the mobility edge in disorder (ratio of insulating sites) — energy plane in detail and we find the extremal critical disorder somewhat closer to the classical percolation threshold than formerly reported. We calculate the critical exponent ν along the mobility edge and find it constant and equal to the one of 3D Anderson model, confirming common universality class. Possible exception is the center of the conduction band, where either the single-parameter scaling is not valid anymore, or finite size effects are immense. One of the reasons for such statement is the difference between results from arithmetic and geometric averaging of conductance at special energies. Only the geometric mean yields zero critical disorder in band center, which was theoretically predicted.

Results of experimental studies of photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation (PLE) spectra of MBE grown single quantum wells (QWs) formed by insertion of few CdSe monolayers in the ZnSe matrix are reviewed. PL spectra of such quantum objects originate from the luminescence of CdSe-rich nanoislands. Two types of island emitting states, namely ground and metastable ones, contribute to the low- and high-energy parts of the PL band, respectively. An interplay between these contributions is responsible for the anomalous temperature dependence of the maximum position of the PL band. The optical orientation and optical alignment experiments at resonant excitations allow to elucidate the nature of the two types of the emitting states. PLE spectra of ground and metastable states have strongly differing characters at excitation below some characteristic energy E_ME which is identified as the exciton percolation threshold. A theoretical model of the absorption spectra of emitting island states is presented, and practical applications of the model for the characterization of the island lateral concentration profiles are reported.