arXiv subjects

Allan H. MacDonald

Publications and source records attributed to Allan H. MacDonald.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Manipulating Anomalous Hall Antiferromagnets with Magnetic Fields

The symmetry considerations that imply a non-zero anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in certain non-collinear antiferromagnets also imply both non-zero orbital magnetization and a net spin magnetization. We have explicitly evaluated the orbital magnetizations of several anomalous Hall effect antiferromagnets and find that they tend to dominate over spin magnetizations, especially so when spin-orbit interactions are weak. Because of the greater relative importance of orbital magnetization the coupling between magnetic order and an external magnetic field is unusual. We explain how magnetic fields can be used to manipulate magnetic configurations in these systems, pointing in particular to the important role played by the response of orbital magnetization to the Zeeman-like spin exchange fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Superconductors, Orbital Magnets, and Correlated States in Magic Angle Bilayer Graphene

Superconductivity often occurs close to broken-symmetry parent states and is especially common in doped magnetic insulators. When twisted close to a magic relative orientation angle near 1 degree, bilayer graphene has flat moire superlattice minibands that have emerged as a rich and highly tunable source of strong correlation physics, notably the appearance of superconductivity close to interaction-induced insulating states. Here we report on the fabrication of bilayer graphene devices with exceptionally uniform twist angles. We show that the reduction in twist angle disorder reveals insulating states at all integer occupancies of the four-fold spin/valley degenerate flat conduction and valence bands, i.e. at moire band filling factors nu = 0, +(-) 1, +(-) 2, +(-) 3, and superconductivity below critical temperatures as high as 3 K close to - 2 filling. We also observe three new superconducting domes at much lower temperatures close to the nu = 0 and nu = +(-) 1 insulating states. Interestingly, at nu = +(-) 1 we find states with non-zero Chern numbers. For nu = - 1 the insulating state exhibits a sharp hysteretic resistance enhancement when a perpendicular magnetic field above 3.6 tesla is applied, consistent with a field driven phase transition. Our study shows that symmetry-broken states, interaction driven insulators, and superconducting domes are common across the entire moire flat bands, including near charge neutrality.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Anomalous Drag in Double Bilayer Graphene Quantum-Hall Superfluids

Semiconductor double-layers in the quantum Hall regime tend to have superfluid exciton condensate ground states when the total filling factor is an odd integer, provided that the Landau orbitals at the Fermi level in the two layers have the same orbital character. Since the $N=0$ Landau level of bilayer graphene contains states with both $n=0$ and $n=1$ orbital character, the physics of double bilayers falls outside previously studied cases. We show that the superfluid phase stiffness vanishes in double bilayer graphene when $n=0$ and $n=1$ orbitals states are degenerate in one of the layers, even though the gap for charged excitations remain large, and speculate that this property is behind the recent discovery of strong anomalous drag near a $n=0/1$ degeneracy point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect through Canted Antiferromagnetism

Most canted antiferromagnets are also anomalous Hall antiferromagnets (AHE AFMs), i.e. they have an anomalous Hall response and other responses with the same symmetry requirements. We suggest that AHE AFMs are promising materials as hosts for high-temperature quantum anomalous Hall effects. By considering models of two-dimensional (001) perovskite layers with strong spin-orbit coupling that isolates an effective total angular momentum $\tilde{j}= \frac{1}{2}$ subspace of the $t_{2g}$ manifold, we propose a strategy to engineering quantum anomalous Hall antiferromagnets.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Energy-resolved Photoconductivity Mapping in a Monolayer-bilayer WSe2 Lateral Heterostructure

Vertical and lateral heterostructures of van der Waals materials provide tremendous flexibility for band structure engineering. Since electronic bands are sensitively affected by defects, strain, and interlayer coupling, the edge and heterojunction of these two-dimensional (2D) systems may exhibit novel physical properties, which can be fully revealed only by spatially resolved probes. Here, we report the spatial mapping of photoconductivity in a monolayer-bilayer WSe2 lateral heterostructure under multiple excitation lasers. As the photon energy increases, the light-induced conductivity detected by microwave impedance microscopy first appears along the hetero-interface and bilayer edge, then along the monolayer edge, inside the bilayer area, and finally in the interior of the monolayer region. The sequential emergence of mobile carriers in different sections of the sample is consistent with the theoretical calculation of local energy gaps. Quantitative analysis of the microscopy and transport data also reveals the linear dependence of photoconductivity on the laser intensity and the influence of interlayer coupling on carrier recombination. Combining theoretical modeling, atomic scale imaging, mesoscale impedance microscopy, and device-level characterization, our work suggests an exciting perspective to control the intrinsic band-gap variation in 2D heterostructures down to the few-nanometer regime.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Accurate Gap Determination in Monolayer and Bilayer Graphene/h-BN Moire Superlattices

High mobility single and few-layer graphene sheets are in many ways attractive as nanoelectronic circuit hosts but lack energy gaps, which are essential to the operation of field-effect transistors. One of the methods used to create gaps in the spectrum of graphene systems is to form long period moire patterns by aligning the graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrate lattices. Here, we use planar tunneling devices with thin h-BN barriers to obtain direct and accurate tunneling spectroscopy measurements of the energy gaps in single- and bi-layer graphene-h-BN superlattice structures at charge neutrality (first Dirac point) and at integer moire band occupancies (second Dirac point, SDP) as a function of external electric and magnetic fields and the interface twist angle. In single-layer graphene we find, in agreement with previous work, that gaps are formed at neutrality and at the hole-doped SDP, but not at the electron-doped SDP. Both primary and secondary gaps can be determined accurately by extrapolating Landau fan patterns to zero magnetic field and are as large as $\simeq$ 17 meV for devices in near perfect alignment. For bilayer graphene, we find that gaps occur only at charge neutrality where they can be modified by an external electric field. Tunneling signatures of in-gap states around neutrality suggest the development of edge modes related to topologically non-trivial valley projected bands due to the combination of an external electric field and moire superlattice patterns.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Electrical Reservoirs for Bilayer Excitons

The ground state of two-dimensional (2D) electron systems with equal low densities of electrons and holes in nearby layers is an exciton fluid. We show that a reservoir for excitons can be established by contacting the two layers separately and maintaining the chemical potential difference at a value less than the spatially indirect band gap. Equilibration between the exciton fluid and the contacts proceeds via a process involving virtual intermediate states in which an unpaired electron or hole occupies a free carrier state in one of the 2D layers. We derive an approximate relationship between the exciton-contact equilibration rate and the electrical conductances between the contacts and individual 2D layers when the contact chemical potentials align with the free-carrier bands, and explain how electrical measurements can be used to measure thermodynamic properties of the exciton fluid.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Anatomy of magnetic anisotropy induced by Rashba spin-orbit interactions

Magnetic anisotropy controls the orientational stability and switching properties of magnetic states, and therefore plays a central role in spintronics. First-principles density-functional-theory calculations are able, in most cases, to provide a satisfactory description of bulk and interface contributions to the magnetic anisotropy of particular film/substrate combinations. In this paper we focus on achieving a simplified understanding of some trends in interfacial magnetic anisotropy based on a simple tight-binding model for quasiparticle states in a heavy-metal/ferromagnetic-metal bilayer film. We explain how to calculate the magnetic anisotropy energy of this model from the quasiparticle spin-susceptibility, compare with more conventional approaches using either a perturbative treatment of spin-orbit interactions or a direct calculation of the dependence of the energy on the orientation of the magnetization, and show that the magnetic anisotropy can be interpreted as a competition between a Fermi-sea term favoring perpendicular anisotropy and a Fermi-surface term favoring in-plane anisotropy. Based on this finding, we conclude that perpendicular magnetic anisotropy should be expected in an itinerant electron thin film when the spin magnetization density is larger than the product of the band exchange splitting and the Fermi level density-of-states of the magnetic state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Ultrathin Films of Superconducting Metals as a Platform for Topological Superconductivity

The ingredients normally required to achieve topological superconductivity (TSC) are Cooper pairing, broken inversion symmetry, and broken time-reversal symmetry. We present a theoretical exploration of the possibility of using ultra-thin films of superconducting metals as a platform for TSC. Because they necessarily break inversion symmetry when prepared on a substrate and have intrinsic Cooper pairing, they can be TSCs when time-reversal symmetry is broken by an external magnetic field. Using microscopic density functional theory calculations we show that for ultrathin Pb and $β$-Sn superconductors the position of the Fermi level can be tuned to quasi-2D band extrema energies using strain, and that the $g$-factors of these Bloch states can be extremely large enhancing the influence of external magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Topologically Protected Helical States in Minimally Twisted Bilayer Graphene

In minimally twisted bilayer graphene, a moir{é} pattern consisting of AB and BA stacking regions separated by domain walls forms. These domain walls are predicted to support counterpropogating topologically protected helical (TPH) edge states when the AB and BA regions are gapped. We fabricate designer moir{é} crystals with wavelengths longer than 50 nm and demonstrate the emergence of TPH states on the domain wall network by scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements. We observe a double-line profile of the TPH states on the domain walls, only occurring when the AB and BA regions are gapped. Our results demonstrate a practical and flexible method for TPH state network construction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Moiré Excitons in Van der Waals Heterostructures

In van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures formed by stacking two monolayer semiconductors, lattice mismatch or rotational misalignment introduces an in-plane moiré superlattice. While it is widely recognized that a moiré superlattice can modulate the electronic band structure and lead to novel transport properties including unconventional superconductivity and insulating behavior driven by correlations, its influence on optical properties has not been investigated experimentally. We present spectroscopic evidence that interlayer excitons are confined by the moiré potential in a high-quality MoSe2/WSe2 heterobilayer with small rotational twist. A series of interlayer exciton resonances with either positive or negative circularly polarized emission is observed in photoluminescence, consistent with multiple exciton states confined within the moiré potential. The recombination dynamics and temperature dependence of these interlayer exciton resonances are consistent with this interpretation. These results demonstrate the feasibility of engineering artificial excitonic crystals using vdW heterostructures for nanophotonics and quantum information applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Valley-Dependent Magnetoresistance in Two-Dimensional Semiconductors

We show theoretically that two-dimensional direct-gap semiconductors with a valley degree of freedom, including monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides and gapped bilayer graphene, have a longitudinal magnetoconductivity contribution that is odd in valley and odd in the magnetic field applied perpendicular to the system. Using a quantum kinetic theory we show how this valley-dependent magnetoconductivity arises from the interplay between the momentum-space Berry curvature of Bloch electrons, the presence of a magnetic field, and disorder scattering. We discuss how the effect can be measured experimentally and used as a detector of valley polarization.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Ferroelectric quantum Hall phase revealed by visualizing Landau level wavefunction interference

Novel broken symmetry states can spontaneously form due to Coulomb interactions in electronic systems with multiple internal degrees of freedom. Multi-valley materials offer an especially rich setting for the emergence of such states, which have potential electronic and optical applications. To date, identification of these broken symmetry phases has mostly relied on the examination of macroscopic transport or optical properties. Here we demonstrate a powerful direct approach by visualizing the wave functions of bismuth surface states with a scanning tunneling microscope. Strong spin-orbit coupling on the surface of bismuth leads to six degenerate teardrop-shaped hole pockets. Our spectroscopic measurements reveal that this degeneracy is fully lifted at high magnetic field as a result of exchange interactions, and we are able to determine the nature of valley ordering by imaging the broken symmetry Landau level (LL) wave functions. The remarkable spatial features of singly degenerate LL wave functions near isolated defects contain unique signatures of interference between spin-textured valleys, which identify the electronic ground state as a quantum Hall ferroelectric. Our observations confirm the recent prediction that interactions in strongly anisotropic valley systems favor the occupation of a single valley, giving rise to emergent ferroelectricity in the surface state of bismuth.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Time-Reversal Symmetry-Breaking Nematic Insulators near Quantum Spin Hall Phase Transitions

We study the phase diagram of a model quantum spin Hall system as a function of band inversion and band-coupling strength, demonstrating that when band hybridization is weak, an interaction-induced nematic insulator state emerges over a wide range of band inversion. This property is a consequence of the long-range Coulomb interaction, which favors interband phase coherence that is weakly dependent on momentum and therefore frustrated by the single-particle Hamiltonian at the band inversion point. For weak band hybridization, interactions convert the continuous gap closing topological phase transition at inversion into a pair of continuous phase transitions bounding a state with broken time-reversal and rotational symmetries. At intermediate band hybridization, the topological phase transition proceeds instead via a quantum anomalous Hall insulator state, whereas at strong hybridization interactions play no role. We comment on the implications of our findings for InAs/GaSb and HgTe/CdTe quantum spin Hall systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Strongly enhanced tunneling at total charge neutrality in double bilayer graphene-WSe$_2$ heterostructures

We report the experimental observation of strongly enhanced tunneling between graphene bilayers through a WSe$_2$ barrier when the graphene bilayers are populated with carriers of opposite polarity and equal density. The enhanced tunneling increases sharply in strength with decreasing temperature, and the tunneling current exhibits a vertical onset as a function of interlayer voltage at a temperature of 1.5 K. The strongly enhanced tunneling at overall neutrality departs markedly from single-particle model calculations that otherwise match the measured tunneling current-voltage characteristics well, and suggests the emergence of a many-body state with condensed interbilayer excitons when electrons and holes of equal densities populate the two layers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Exciton-polarons in doped semiconductors in a strong magnetic field

In previous work we have argued that the optical properties of moderately doped two-dimensional semiconductors can be described in terms of excitons dressed by their interactions with a degenerate Fermi sea of additional charge carriers. These interactions split the bare exciton into attractive and repulsive exciton-polaron branches. The collective excitations of the coupled system are many-body generalizations of the bound trion and unbound states of a single electron interacting with an exciton. In this article we consider exciton-polarons in the presence of an external magnetic field that quantizes the kinetic energy of the electrons in the Fermi sea. Our theoretical approach is based on a transformation to new basis that respects the underlying symmetry of magnetic translations. We find that the attractive exciton-polaron branch is only weakly influenced by the magnetic field, whereas the repulsive branch exhibits magnetic oscillations and splits into discrete peaks that reflect combined exciton-cyclotron resonance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Electronic properties of thin films of tensile strained HgTe

Tensile strained bulk HgTe is a three-dimensional topological insulator. Because of the energetic position of its surface state Dirac points relative to its small bulk gap, the electronic properties of the relatively thin MBE-grown films used to study this material experimentally are quite sensitive to details of its electrostatic band-bending physics. We have used an 8-band $\mathbf{k} \cdot \mathbf{p}$ model to evaluate the gate voltage dependence of its thin-film two-dimensional subbands and related thermodynamic and transport properties in films with thicknesses between 30 and 70nm, accounting self-consistently for gate field screening by the topologically protected surface states and bulk state response. We comment on the effective dielectric constant that is appropriate in calculations of this type, arguing for a smaller value $\varepsilon_r$ $\approx$ 6.5 than is commonly used. Comparing with recent experiments, we find that our fully microscopic model of gate field screening alters the interpretation of some observations that have been used to characterize strained HgTe thin films.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Helical Network Model for Twisted Bilayer Graphene

In the presence of a finite interlayer displacement field bilayer graphene has an energy gap that is dependent on stacking and largest for the stable AB and BA stacking arrangements. When the relative orientations between layers are twisted through a small angle to form a moir$\mathrm{\acute{e}}$ pattern, the local stacking arrangement changes slowly. We show that for non-zero displacement fields the low-energy physics of twisted bilayers is captured by a phenomenological helical network model that describes electrons localized on domain walls separating regions with approximate AB and BA stacking. The network band structure is gapless and has of a series of two-dimensional bands with Dirac band-touching points and a density-of-states that is periodic in energy with one zero and one divergence per period.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗