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Andrew J. Millis

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew J. Millis.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Theory of intervalley-coherent AFM order and topological superconductivity in tWSe$_2$

The recent observation of superconductivity in the vicinity of Fermi surface reconstructed insulating or metallic states has established twisted bilayers of WSe\textsubscript{2} as an exciting platform to study the interplay of strong electron-electron interactions, broken symmetries and topology. In this work, we use a first-principles, material-specific theoretical treatment that is unbiased with respect to electronic instabilities to study the emergence of electronic ordering in twisted WSe\textsubscript{2} driven by gate-screened Coulomb interactions. We construct exponentially localized moiré Wannier orbitals that faithfully capture the bandstructure and topology of the system, project the gate-screened Coulomb interaction onto them and use unbiased functional renormalization group techniques to resolve the momentum and orbital structure of the leading instabilities and the relevant energy scales. We find an interplay between intervalley-coherent antiferromagnetic (IVC-AFM) order and chiral, mixed-parity $d/p$-wave superconductivity for carrier concentrations near a displacement field and twist-angle-tunable van-Hove singularity. Our microscopic approach establishes incommensurate IVC-AFM spin fluctuations as the dominant electronic mechanism driving the formation of superconductivity in $θ= 5.08^{\circ}$ twisted WSe\textsubscript{2} and explains key aspects of recent experiments including the asymmetric density dependence of the spin ordering with respect to the van-Hove line, the single and double-peak structure of the DOS in the ordered (hole-doped) IVC-AFM phase, the emergence of superconductivity as the density is varied across the van-Hove line and the evolution of the displacement field-density phase diagram with twist angles between $3.7^{\circ} \dots 5^{\circ}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Cavity-altered superconductivity

Is it feasible to alter the ground state properties of a material by engineering its electromagnetic environment? Inspired by theoretical predictions, experimental realizations of such cavity-controlled properties without optical excitation are beginning to emerge. Here, we devised and implemented a novel platform to realize cavity-altered materials. Single crystals of hyperbolic van der Waals (vdW) compounds provide a resonant electromagnetic environment with enhanced density of photonic states and prominent mode confinement. We interfaced hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with the molecular superconductor $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Br ($κ$-ET). The frequencies of infrared (IR) hyperbolic modes of hBN match the IR-active carbon-carbon stretching molecular resonance of ($κ$-ET) implicated in superconductivity. Nano-optical data supported by first-principles molecular Langevin dynamics simulations confirm the presence of resonant coupling between the hBN hyperbolic cavity modes and the carbon-carbon stretching mode in ($κ$-ET). Meissner effect measurements via magnetic force microscopy demonstrate a strong suppression of superfluid density near the hBN/($κ$-ET) interface. Non-resonant control heterostructures, including RuCl$_3$/($κ$-ET) and hBN/$\text{Bi}_2\text{Sr}_2\text{CaCu}_2\text{O}_{8+x}$, do not display the superfluid suppression. These observations suggest that hBN/($κ$-ET) realizes a cavity-altered superconducting ground state. Our work highlights the potential of dark cavities devoid of external photons for engineering electronic ground state properties of complex quantum materials.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Twist-angle evolution of the intervalley-coherent antiferromagnet in twisted WSe$_2$

Recent experimental reports of correlated physics in twisted homobilayer WSe$_2$ have spurred interest in the interplay of electronic interactions and topology in this system. Here, we explore its phase diagram using the Hartree-Fock approximation within a three-orbital Wannier model of the bilayer. Our analysis reveals a dominant intervalley-coherent antiferromagnetic instability, whose stability in the space of twist angle, interaction strength, out-of-plane displacement field, and hole density is primarily set by nesting and commensurability. At large angles or low interaction-to-bandwidth ratios, the instability arises at hole densities above half filling near a van-Hove line where the strong Fermi surface nesting occurs due to the flatness of the band in a region enclosing the van-Hove and $κ$ points. Increasing interaction strength or decreasing the twist angle gradually shifts the ordered phase toward half filling, where the strongest antiferromagnetic order gets pinned due to commensurability effects that enable a full gap opening. The antiferromagnetic order parameter strongly couples to the layer polarization, which makes its transition to the normal state sharp in the strong-coupling limit and carries implications for collective modes. Our Hartree-Fock phase diagram reproduces key aspects of recent experiments and the reconstructed Fermi surfaces and DOS in the antiferromagnetic phase account for subtle transport signatures observed in these studies.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Anyon Superconductivity from Topological Criticality in a Hofstadter-Hubbard Model

We argue that the combination of strong repulsive interactions and high magnetic fields can generate electron pairing and superconductivity. Inspired by the large lattice constants of moiré materials, which make large flux per unit cell accessible at laboratory fields, we study the triangular lattice Hofstadter-Hubbard model at one-quarter flux quantum per plaquette, where previous literature has argued that a chiral spin liquid separates a weak-coupling integer quantum Hall phase and a strong-coupling topologically-trivial antiferromagnetic insulator at a density of one electron per site. We argue that topological superconductivity emerges upon doping in the vicinity of the integer quantum Hall to chiral spin liquid transition. We employ exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods to examine this theoretical scenario and find that electronic pairing indeed occurs on both sides of criticality over a remarkably broad range of interaction strengths. On the chiral spin liquid side, our results provide a concrete model realization of the long-hypothesized mechanism of anyon superconductivity. Our study thus establishes a beyond-BCS mechanism for electron pairing in a well-controlled limit, relying crucially on the interplay between electron correlations and band topology.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Enhancing Plasmonic Superconductivity in Layered Materials via Dynamical Coulomb Engineering

Conventional Coulomb engineering, through controlled manipulation of the environment, offers an effective route to tune the correlation properties of atomically thin van der Waals materials via static screening. Here we present tunable dynamical screening as a method for precisely tailoring bosonic modes to optimize many-body properties. We show that ``bosonic engineering'' of plasmon modes can be used to enhance plasmon-induced superconducting critical temperatures of layered superconductors in metallic environments by up to an order of magnitude, due to the formation of interlayer hybridized plasmon modes with enhanced superconducting pairing strength. We determine optimal properties of the screening environment to maximize critical temperatures. We show how bosonic engineering can aid the search for experimental verification of plasmon mediated superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Superfluid stiffness bounds in time-reversal symmetric superconductors

Quantum geometry has been shown to make an important contribution to the superfluid stiffness of superconductors, especially for flat-band systems such as moiré materials. In this work we use mean-field theory to derive an expression for the superfluid stiffness of time-reversal symmetric superconductors at zero temperature by computing the energy of the mean-field ground state as a function of pairing momentum. We show that the quantum geometric contribution to superfluid stiffness is a consequence of broken Galilean invariance in the interaction Hamiltonian, arising from momentum-dependent form factors related to the momentum dependence of Bloch states. The effects of broken Galilean invariance are not fully parametrized by the quantum metric considered in previous work. We obtain general lower and upper bounds that apply to both continuum and lattice models and present numerical calculations of the precise value in several important cases. The superfluid stiffness of superconductivity in a Landau level saturates the lower bound and the superfluid stiffness of the other cases we consider is close to the general lower bound we derive. In multilayer rhombohedral graphene the geometric contribution is shown not to be the dominant contribution to the superfluid stiffness, despite the flat band behavior in the vicinity of the Fermi level. Finally, assuming contact interaction and uniform pairing, we show that the superfluid stiffness is proportional to the ``minimal quantum metric" introduced in previous work. We provide a continuum version of the minimal quantum metric and explain its physical origin.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Berry Phase Dynamics of Sliding Electron Crystals

Systems such as Wigner crystals and incommensurate charge density waves that spontaneously break a continuous translation symmetry have unusual transport properties arising from their ability to slide coherently in space. Recent experimental and theoretical studies suggest that spontaneous translation symmetry breaking in some two-dimensional materials with nontrivial quantum geometry (e.g., rhombohedral pentalayer graphene) leads to a topologically nontrivial electron crystal state called the anomalous Hall crystal and characterized by a vanishing linear-response dc longitudinal conductivity and a non-vanishing Hall conductivity. In this work we present a theoretical investigation of the sliding dynamics of this new type of electron crystal, taking into account the system's nontrivial quantum geometry. We find that when accelerated by an external electric field, the crystal acquires a transverse anomalous velocity that stems from not only the Berry curvature of the parent band but also the Galilean non-invariance of the crystal state (i.e., crystal states with different momenta are not related by simple momentum boosts). We further show that acceleration of the crystal modifies its internal current from the static crystal value that is determined by the Chern number of the crystal state. The net Hall conductance including contributions from center-of-mass motion and internal current is in general not quantized. As an experimentally relevant example, we present numerical results in rhombohedral pentalayer graphene and discuss possible experimental implications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Space-time duality in polariton dynamics

The spatial and temporal dynamics of wave propagation are intertwined. A common manifestation of this duality emerges in the spatial and temporal decay of waves as they propagate through a lossy medium. A complete description of the non-Hermitian wave dynamics in such a lossy system, capturing temporal and spatial decays, necessitates the use of complex-valued frequency and/or wavenumber Eigen-values. Here, we demonstrate that the propagation of polaritons - hybrid light-matter quasiparticles - can be broadly controlled in space and time by temporally shaping their photonic excitation. Using time-domain terahertz near-field nanoscopy, we study plasmon polaritons in bilayer graphene at sub-picosecond time scales. Suppressed spatial decay of polaritons is implemented by temporally engineering the excitation waveform. Polaritonic space-time metrology data agree with our dynamic model. Through the experimental realization and visualization of polaritonic space-time duality, we uncover the effects of the spatio-temporal engineering of wave dynamics; these are applicable to acoustic, photonic, plasmonic, and electronic systems.

physics.optics↗

Site-polarized Mott phases competing with a correlated metal in twisted WSe$_2$

Twisted WSe$_2$ hosts superconductivity, metal-insulator phase transitions, and field-controllable Fermi-liquid to non-Fermi-liquid transport properties. In this work, we use dynamical mean-field theory to provide a coherent understanding of the electronic correlations shaping the twisted WSe$_2$ phase diagram. We find a correlated metal competing with three distinct site-polarized correlated insulators; the competition is controlled by interlayer potential difference and interaction strength. The insulators are characterized by a strong differentiation between orbitals with respect to carrier concentration and effective correlation strength. Upon doping, a strong particle-hole asymmetry emerges, resulting from a Zaanen-Sawatzky-Allen-type charge-transfer mechanism. The associated charge-transfer physics and proximity to a van Hove singularity in the correlated metal sandwiched between two site-polarized insulators naturally explains the interlayer potential-driven metal-to-insulator transition, particle-hole asymmetry in transport, and the coherence-incoherence crossover in $3.65^\circ$ twisted WSe$_2$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Charge Density Wave and Ferromagnetism in Intercalated CrSBr

In materials with one-dimensional electronic bands, electron-electron interactions can produce intriguing quantum phenomena, including spin-charge separation and charge density waves (CDW). Most of these systems, however, are non-magnetic, motivating a search for anisotropic materials where the coupling of charge and spin may affect emergent quantum states. Here, chemical intercalation of the van der Waals magnetic semiconductor CrSBr yields $Li_{0.17(2)} (tetrahydrofuran)_{0.26(3)} CrSBr$, which possess an electronically driven quasi-1D CDW with an onset temperature above room temperature. Concurrently, electron doping increases the magnetic ordering temperature from 132 K to 200 K and switches its interlayer magnetic coupling from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic. The spin-polarized nature of the anisotropic bands that give rise to this CDW enforces an intrinsic coupling of charge and spin. The coexistence and interplay of ferromagnetism and charge modulation in this exfoliatable material provides a promising platform for studying tunable quantum phenomena across a range of temperatures and thicknesses.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Theory of interaction-induced charge order in CrSBr

CrSBr is a layered van der Waals insulator with a quasi one-dimensional electronic structure and in-plane ferromagnetic order. Recent experimental work on Li-doped CrSBr reveals quasi-1D charge modulated states. In this study, we develop ab initio effective models for CrSBr to investigate these states and solve them using mean-field theory and density matrix embedding theory. The models are parametrized using density functional theory, the constrained random phase approximation, and the Rytova-Keldysh form of the long-range Coulomb interaction. Our simulations indicate the emergence of a charge density wave state characterized by cosine-like intra-chain density modulations and inter-chain phase shifts that minimize the Coulomb repulsion. Notably, at a doping level corresponding to $1/n$ electron per CrSBr unit, the most stable pattern exhibits a periodicity of $n$ cells, in agreement with experimental observations and Peierls' instability arguments. Moreover, we demonstrate that the inter-chain order is sensitive to the range of Coulomb interactions. If the interaction is hard-truncated to a short-ranged form, some localized stripe-like states are computationally favored. This work provides an ab initio framework for understanding the interplay of competing electronic and magnetic phases in CrSBr and related materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Stabilization of Fermi-liquid behavior by interactions in disordered metals

We study the interplay of electron-electron and electron-disorder scattering in correlated Fermi liquids by the disordered Hubbard model using dynamical mean-field theory with an IPT-CPA solver. We find significant violations of Matthiessen's rule (additivity of scattering mechanisms) which we explain in terms of the screening of the disorder potential by interactions, leading to a protection of the electron-electron inelastic scattering rate against disorder. We also show that large disorder can lead to a surprising enhancement of the electron-electron scattering that contrasts with the competition seen in the elastic channel. Our results compare positively with available resistivity data in the disordered Fermi liquid phase of the correlated organic metals $κ$-(ET)$_{2}$X, and rationalize the strong sample dependence of the $T^2$ coefficients observed in the resistivity of correlated perovskite oxides such as SrVO$_3$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Charge transfer spin-polarons and ferromagnetism in weakly doped AB-stacked TMD heterobilayers

We study the formation of ferromagnetic and magnetic polaron states in weakly doped heterobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides in the ``heavy fermion'' limit in which one layer hosts a dense set of local moments and the other hosts a low density of itinerant holes. We show that interactions among the carriers in the itinerant layer induces a ferromagnetic exchange. We characterize the ground state finding a competition, controlled by the carrier concentration and interlayer exchange, between a layer decoupled phase of itinerant carriers in a background of local moments, a fully polarized ferromagnet and a canted antiferromagnet. In the canted antiferromagnet phase the combination of the in-plane 120$^{\circ}$ Néel order and Ising spin orbit couplings induces winding in the electronic wavefunction giving rise to a topologically non-trivial spin texture and an observable anomalous Hall effect. At larger carrier density the ferromagnetically ordered phase transitions into a paramagnetic heavy Fermi liquid state. This theory enables a comprehensive understanding of the existing experimental observations while also making predictions including experimental signatures enabling direct imaging of spin polaron bound states with scanning tunneling microscopy. Our work shows that the prevailing paradigm of the (Doniach) phase diagram of heavy fermion metals is fundamentally modified in the low doping regime of heterobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Optical signatures of dynamical excitonic condensates

We theoretically study dynamical excitonic condensates occurring in bilayers with an imposed chemical potential difference and in photodoped semiconductors. We show that optical spectroscopy can experimentally identify phase-trapped and phase-delocalized dynamical regimes of condensation. In the weak-bias regime, the trapped dynamics of the order parameter's phase lead to an in-gap absorption line at a frequency almost independent of the bias voltage, while for larger biases, the frequency of the spectral feature increases approximately linearly with bias. In both cases there is a pronounced second harmonic response. Close to the transition between the trapped and freely oscillating states, we find a strong response upon application of a weak electric probe field and compare the results to those found in a minimal model description for the dynamics of the order parameter's phase and analyze the limitations of the latter.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Compressing the two-particle Green's function using wavelets: Theory and application to the Hubbard atom

Precise algorithms capable of providing controlled solutions in the presence of strong interactions are transforming the landscape of quantum many-body physics. Particularly exciting breakthroughs are enabling the computation of non-zero temperature correlation functions. However, computational challenges arise due to constraints in resources and memory limitations, especially in scenarios involving complex Green's functions and lattice effects. Leveraging the principles of signal processing and data compression, this paper explores the wavelet decomposition as a versatile and efficient method for obtaining compact and resource-efficient representations of the many-body theory of interacting systems. The effectiveness of the wavelet decomposition is illustrated through its application to the representation of generalized susceptibilities and self-energies in a prototypical interacting fermionic system, namely the Hubbard model at half-filling in its atomic limit. These results are the first proof-of-principle application of the wavelet compression within the realm of many-body physics and demonstrate the potential of this wavelet-based compression scheme for understanding the physics of correlated electron systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Topological superconductivity from repulsive interactions in twisted WSe$_2$

The recent observation of superconductivity in twisted bilayer WSe$_2$ raises intriguing questions concerning the origin and the properties of superconducting states realized in bands with non-trivial topological properties and repulsive electron-electron interactions. Using a continuum band structure model, we analyze a mechanism for Coulomb interaction-driven superconductivity in twisted bilayers of WSe$_2$. We discuss the symmetries and the phenomenological properties of the resulting superconducting phases and their evolution with interlayer potential difference, tunable via an out of plane electric field. The pairing strength is a non-monotonic function of interlayer potential, being larger at intermediate values due to mixing of singlet and triplet pairing. In contrast, at larger interlayer potential, the pairing tendency is suppressed due to enhanced Coulomb repulsion. The superconducting state is chiral in a large regime of parameters and undergoes a transition to a nodal nematic superconductor at a critical potential difference. The chiral state, characterized by an intervalley-symmetric superposition of triplet and singlet pairs, is classified as a topological superconductor within the Altland-Zirnbauer class C. At zero interlayer potential difference, the superconducting state is instead of class D, which hosts Majorana zero modes, making it a promising candidate for applications in quantum computation.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Topological Kondo semimetal and insulator in AB-stacked heterobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides

Recent experiments reported the realization of a heavy Fermi liquid in AB-stacked MoTe$_2$/WSe$_2$ heterobilayers. In this paper we show that the AB-stacked heterobilayer configuration is particularly suited to realize topological Kondo semimetal and topological Kondo insulator ground states at a doping of two holes per moiré unit cell. The small lattice mismatch between the MoTe$_2$ and WSe$_2$ monolayers and the different bandwidths of their highest lying moiré valence bands means that, in the experimentally relevant range of hole dopings, the MoTe$_2$ layer is effectively a Mott insulator with only low-lying magnetic excitations Kondo-coupled to more itinerant electrons in the WSe$_2$. The crucial consequence of the AB-stacking configuration is that the interlayer tunnelling connects orbitals of opposite parity in the two layers, leading to a chiral Kondo coupling. We show that the chiral Kondo coupling favors a topological Kondo semimetal at filling $ν=1+1$, with a non-quantized spin Hall conductance arising from edge modes, whose spectrum and overlap with bulk states we determine. We further show that a spatially random strain field that locally breaks the rotation symmetry can convert the Kondo semimetal to a narrow gap topological Kondo insulator featuring a quantized spin Hall conductance.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Electronic interactions in Dirac fluids visualized by nano-terahertz spacetime interference of electron-photon quasiparticles

Ultraclean graphene at charge neutrality hosts a quantum critical Dirac fluid of interacting electrons and holes. Interactions profoundly affect the charge dynamics of graphene, which is encoded in the properties of its electron-photon collective modes: surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Here we show that polaritonic interference patterns are particularly well suited to unveil the interactions in Dirac fluids by tracking polaritonic interference in time at temporal scales commensurate with the electronic scattering. Spacetime SPP interference patterns recorded in tera-hertz (THz) frequency range provided unobstructed readouts of the group velocity and lifetime of polariton that can be directly mapped onto the electronic spectral weight and the relaxation rate. Our data uncovered prominent departures of the electron dynamics from the predictions of the conventional Fermi-liquid theory. The deviations are particularly strong when the densities of electrons and holes are approximately equal. The proposed spacetime imaging methodology can be broadly applied to probe the electrodynamics of quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗