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Arijit Mandal

Publications and source records attributed to Arijit Mandal.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Topological Hall effect due to electron-skyrmion scattering

Electron scattering from chiral spin textures such as skyrmions is fundamental to the understanding of transport in more complex systems, including skyrmion crystals. Most of the previous studies have focused on the weak-coupling regime, where the exchange interaction is small compared with the electron energy. Real materials, however, often lie in the strong-coupling regime, which exhibits qualitatively different behavior. Using the Lippmann-Schwinger equation and Green's function formalism, valid for all coupling strengths, we uncover several new features in the scattering cross section, including Ramsauer-Townsend minima, pronounced intermediate-coupling resonances, and Landau-level resonances for skyrmions with larger winding numbers. These features strongly influence the topological and spin Hall conductivities, which depend sensitively on the incident electron energy. Our work provides important insights into the Hall transport in collective chiral spin textures such as the skyrmion crystal.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Anomalous Hall Effect in Silicon-Compatible Altermagnetic alpha-MnTe Thin Films

Integrating spin-dependent functionality with mainstream semiconductor technology is a central goal of modern spintronics, yet most candidate materials remain incompatible with silicon-based platforms. Here, we report the direct epitaxial integration of alpha-MnTe thin films on Si(111) via molecular beam epitaxy and demonstrate a robust anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in this silicon-compatible altermagnetic system. Despite the absence of net magnetization, the films exhibit a pronounced hysteretic Hall response, providing clear evidence of finite Berry curvature generated by symmetry breaking in the thin-film geometry. High resolution structural and spectroscopic characterization confirms phase-pure, epitaxial growth with hexagonal NiAs-type symmetry, while magnetotransport measurements reveal correlated hysteresis in both transverse and longitudinal channels with systematic temperature evolution. First-principles calculations reveal substantial uncompensated Berry curvature arising from the spin-split band structure consistent with altermagnetic symmetry and the origin of the observed Hall response. These results establish MnTe/Si(111) as a silicon-compatible altermagnetic platform and chart a concrete pathway for embedding Berry-phase-driven functionalities into scalable semiconductor device architectures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Effect of symmetry breaking on altermagnetism in CrSb and Formation of fragmented nodal curves

Phenomena concerning altermagnets have opened up a window for unconventional analysis of the momentum space spin polarization (MSSP) of antiferromagnetic materials. Taking the example of one of the widely investigated altermagnets, CrSb, we explore the underlying mechanisms leading to the formation or breaking of altermagnetism. With the aid of DFT calculation and symmetry analysis, we study the behavior of MSSP in the altermagnetic bands of pristine CrSb, along with a few model structures designed from the pristine one by hypothetical vacancy engineering and interstitial doping. We show that the six-fold rotational symmetry of the pristine CrSb can be reduced to a two-fold rotational symmetry via vacancy and doping engineering. We discover the formation of fragmented nodal curves (FNCs) across the Brillouin zone when in an altermagnetic material when the symmetry is restricted to two-fold rotation. Unlike the typical nodal planes and axes, the location of the FNCs in the momentum space is found to be band-specific. The formation of FNCs is further validated by introducing uniaxial strain to CrSb and by examining the band structure of RbMnPO$_4$, as they both exhibit a two-fold rotational symmetry responsible for altermagnetism. We observe that, unlike the pristine case, these FNCs have the potential to manifest anomalous Hall conductivities (AHC), while the N\'eel vector orients along both in-plane and out-of-plane directions. This flexibility of the AHC will pave the way for the application of altermagnets in the futuristic quantum devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Quantum Dynamics of Electron Scattering from Skyrmions

Scattering of electrons from chiral spin textures such as the skyrmions is an emerging research area due to its richness in topological quantum transport, which is significant for spintronic devices. We study the dynamical process of scattering of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles in the form of Gaussian wavepackets from skyrmions with the aid of the non-relativistic time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. The scattering cross section shows a rich angular dependence and is deterministically influenced by the iterative flipping of the spin state inside the skyrmion. The latter leads to a set of non-trivial outcomes which include finite transmission and reflection probabilities irrespective of interaction strength, formation of secondary wavefronts associated with back-converted spin components, and a long-lived quasi-bound state at the scattering center. In addition to the rich and intriguing physics, the numerical recipe developed here can be easily adopted for any arbitrary spin texture, which will prepare a playground to explore tunable spin transport.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Unlocking Doping Effects on Altermagnetism in MnTe: Emergence of Quasi-altermagnetism

Governed by specific symmetries, altermagnetism is an emerging field in condensed matter physics, characterized by unique spin-splitting of the bands in the momentum space co-existing with the compensated magnetization as in antiferromagnets. As crystals can have tailored and unintended defects, it is important to gain insights on how altermagnets are affected by the defects-driven symmetry-breaking which, in turn, can build promising perspectives on potential applications. In this study, considering the widely investigated MnTe as a prototype altermagnet, defects are introduced through substitutional doping to create a large configuration space of spin space groups. With the aid of density functional theory calculations, symmetry analysis, and model studies in this configuration space, we demonstrate the generic presence of spin-split of the antiferromagnetic bands in the momentum space. This is indicative of a wider class of quasi-altermagnetic materials, augmenting the set of ideal altermagnetic systems. Furthermore, we show that while pristine MnTe does not show anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) with out-of-plane magnetization, suitable doping can be carried out to obtain finite and varied AHC. Our predictions of quasi-altermagnetism and doping-driven tailored AHC have the potential to open up as-yet-unexplored directions in this developing field.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Deterministic role of chemical bonding in the formation of altermagnetism: Reflection from correlated electron system NiS

Altermagnetism, a new collinear magnetic state, has gained significant attention in the last few years, and the underlying mechanisms driving this quantum phase are still evolving. Going beyond the group theoretical analyses, which focus on providing a binary description of the presence or absence of the altermagnetic state, in this work, we explore the role of crystal chemical bonding. As the latter successfully integrates the crystal and orbital symmetries and is tunable, it provides a quantitative and realistic mechanism to explain the formation of altermagnetism. From the first principles calculations and tight-binding models within the framework of the linear combination of atomic orbitals on NiS, we establish a set of selection rules for the formation of altermagnetism in the NiAs prototype compounds (e.g. CrSb, MnTe, etc.). Broadly, if single orbitals from Ni and S sites are involved in the bonding, the second neighbor interaction between the nonmagnetic atoms is a must to modulate the intra-sublattice interactions differently for the opposite spin sublattices so that the antiferromagnetic sublattice band degeneracy is lifted and momentum-dependent altermagnetic spin split (AMSS) appears. However, when multiple orbitals are involved from the Ni and S sites in the chemical bonding, altermagnetism is naturally present. Together, they amplify the AMSS. Further, we propose twelve antinodal regions in the NiAs type hexagonal crystals, where AMSS split is maximum. Specific to NiS, AMSS increases with correlation, and for the edge valence and conduction bands, it can go beyond 1eV. The present study opens up new pathways to design chemical bonding driven selection rules in addition to the existing crystal symmetry criteria to tailor tunable altermagnetism.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Tuning the band topology and topological Hall effect in skyrmion crystals via the spin-orbit coupling

The topological Hall effect is the result of spin-asymmetric deflection of charge carriers flowing through a non-collinear spin system. Effective manipulation of the topological Hall conductivity (THC) in skyrmions is currently a vigorous area of research with an eye towards potential spintronics application. Here, we show that the band topology and the THC in a skyrmion crystal can be tuned by changing the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which can be accomplished via a perpendicular electric field. This results in the change of the subband Chern numbers and a transition between ordinary insulator and Chern insulator as the Rashba SOC is varied. For partially filled subbands, the Rashba SOC can tune the THC and reverse its sign, so that the direction of the Hall current is flipped. The critical Rashba strength for this depends on the skyrmion type and the carrier density. We extend our analysis to the cases of Dresselhaus and Weyl SOC as well, and show that they can be directly mapped to the Rashba SOC case and therefore lead to similar results. Our work opens up the scope to go beyond the existing avenues for the control of charge transport in skyrmion crystals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Formation of spin-orbital entangled 2D electron gas in layer delta-doped bilayer iridate La$_δ$Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$

5$d$ transition metal oxides host a variety of exotic phases due to the comparable strength of Coulomb repulsion and spin-orbit coupling. Herein, by pursuing density-functional studies on a delta-doped quasi-two-dimensional iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$, where a single SrO layer is replaced by LaO layer, we predict the formation of a spin-orbital entangled two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) which is sharply confined on two IrO$_2$ layers close to the LaO layer. In this bilayer crystal structure, an existing potential well is further augmented with the inclusion of positively charged LaO layer which results in confining the extra valence electron made available by the La$^{3+}$ ion. The confined electron is bound along crystal $a$ direction and is highly mobile in the $bc$ plane. From the band structure point of view, now the existing half-filled $J_{eff}$ = 1/2 states are further electron doped to destroy the antiferromagnetic Mott insulating state of IrO$_2$ layers near to the delta-doped layer. This leads to partially occupied Ir upper-Hubbard subbands which host the spin-orbital entangled 2DEG. The IrO$_2$ layers far away from the interface remain insulating and preserve the collinear G-type magnetic ordering of pristine Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$. The conductivity tensors calculated using semi-classical Boltzmann theory at room temperature reveal that the 2DEG exhibits large electrical conductivity of the order of 10$^{19}$.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Lower bound of the expressibility of ansatzes for Variational Quantum Algorithms

The expressibility of an ansatz used in a variational quantum algorithm is defined as the uniformity with which it can explore the space of unitary matrices, i.e., its covering number. The expressibility of a particular ansatz has a well-defined upper bound [1]. In this work, we show that the expressibility also has a well-defined lower bound in the hypothesis space. We provide an analytical expression for the lower bound of the covering number, which is directly related to expressibility. Further, we provide numerical analysis to support our claim. By calculating the bond length of hydrogen molecule ($H_2$) using different ansatzes in a variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) setting, we study the variation of equilibrium energy error with circuit depths. We show that in each ansatz template, a plateau exists for a range of circuit depths, which we call the set of acceptable points, and the corresponding expressibility as the best expressive region. We report that the width of this best expressive region in the hypothesis space is inversely proportional to the average error. Our analysis reveals that alongside trainability, the lower bound of expressibility also plays a crucial role in selecting variational quantum ansatzes

quant-ph