arXiv subjects

Arun Paramekanti

Publications and source records attributed to Arun Paramekanti.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Graphene: Kinks, Superlattices, Landau levels, and Magnetotransport

We review recent work on superlattices in monolayer and bilayer graphene. We highlight the role of the quasiparticle chirality in generating new Dirac fermion modes with tunable anisotropic velocities in one dimensional (1D) superlattices in both monolayer and bilayer graphene. We discuss the structure of the Landau levels and magnetotransport in such superlattices over a wide range of perpendicular (orbital) magnetic fields. In monolayer graphene, we show that an orbital magnetic field can reverse the anisotropy of the transport imposed by the superlattice potential, suggesting possible switching-type device applications. We also consider topological modes localized at a kink in an electric field applied perpendicular to bilayer graphene, and show how interactions convert these modes into a two-band Luttinger liquid with tunable Luttinger parameters. The band structures of electric field superlattices in bilayer graphene (with or without a magnetic field) are shown to arise naturally from a coupled array of such topological modes. We briefly review some bandstructure results for 2D superlattices. We conclude with a discussion of recent tunneling and transport experiments and point out open issues.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Chiral Mott insulator with staggered loop currents in the fully frustrated Bose Hubbard model

Motivated by experiments on Josephson junction arrays in a magnetic field and ultracold interacting atoms in an optical lattice in the presence of synthetic orbital magnetic fields, we study the "fully frustrated" Bose-Hubbard model and quantum XY model with half a flux quantum per lattice plaquette. Using Monte Carlo simulations and the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method, we show that the phase diagram of such kinetically frustrated bosons displays three phases on a two-leg ladder: a weakly interacting chiral superfluid phase with staggered loop currents which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry, a conventional Mott insulator at strong coupling, and a remarkable "Chiral Mott Insulator" (CMI) with staggered loop currents sandwiched between them at intermediate correlation. We discuss how the CMI state may be viewed as an exciton condensate or a vortex supersolid, propose and study a Jastrow variational wavefunction which captures its correlations, present DMRG results for the boson momentum distribution across the phase diagram, and consider various experimental implications of our phase diagram. Finally, we discuss generalizations to a staggered flux Bose-Hubbard model and a two-dimensional version of the CMI with edge currents in weakly coupled ladders.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Use of quantum quenches to probe the equilibrium current patterns of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice

Atomic bosons and fermions in an optical lattice can realize a variety of interesting condensed matter states that support equilibrium current patterns in the presence of synthetic magnetic fields or non-abelian gauge fields. As a route to probing such mass currents, we propose a nonequilibrium quantum quench of the Hamiltonian that dynamically converts the current patterns into experimentally measurable real-space density patterns. We illustrate how a specific such "unidirectional" quench of the optical lattice can be used to uncover checkerboard and stripe current orders in lattice Bose superfluids and Fermi gases, as well as chiral edge currents in an integer quantum Hall state.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Finite Momentum Pairing Instability of Band-Insulators With Multiple Bands

We show, based on microscopic models, that fermionic band insulators with multiple bands and strong interband attraction are generically unstable towards nonzero momentum Cooper pairing leading to a pair density wave (PDW) superfluid state. Our first model considers a band insulating state of fermionic atoms in a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice. We show that this insulator is unstable towards an incommensurate PDW in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance. Our second model is a two-band tight binding model relevant to electrons in solids; we show that the insulating state of this model has a PDW instability analogous to the exciton condensation instability in indirect bandgap semiconductors. We discuss relevant experimental signatures of the PDW state.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Graphene under spatially varying external potentials: Landau levels, magnetotransport, and topological modes

Superlattices (SLs) in monolayer and bilayer graphene, formed by spatially periodic potential variations, lead to a modified bandstructure with extra finite-energy and zero-energy Dirac fermions with tunable anisotropic velocities. We theoretically show that transport in a weak perpendicular (orbital) magnetic field allows one to not only probe the number of emergent Dirac points but also yields further information about their dispersion. or monolayer graphene, we find that a moderate magnetic field can lead to a strong reversal of the transport anisotropy imposed by the SL potential, an effect which arises due to the SL induced dispersion of the zero energy Landau levels. This effect may find useful applications in switching or other devices. For bilayer graphene, we discuss the structure of Landau level wave functions and local density of states in the presence of a uniform bias, as well as in the presence of a kink in the bias which leads to topologically bound `edge states'. We consider implications of these results for scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements, valley filtering, and impurity induced breakdown of the quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Bose Hubbard Models with Synthetic Spin-Orbit Coupling: Mott Insulators, Spin Textures and Superfluidity

Motivated by the experimental realization of synthetic spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms, we investigate the phase diagram of the Bose Hubbard model in a non-abelian gauge field in two dimensions. Using a strong coupling expansion in the combined presence of spin-orbit coupling and tunable interactions, we find a variety of interesting magnetic Hamiltonians in the Mott insulator (MI), which support magnetic textures such as spin spirals and vortex and Skyrmion crystals. An inhomogeneous mean field treatment shows that the superfluid (SF) phases inherit these exotic magnetic orders from the MI and display, in addition, unusual modulated current patterns. We present a slave boson theory which gives insight into such intertwined spin-charge orders in the SF, and discuss signatures of these orders in Bragg scattering, in situ microscopy, and dynamic quench experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Bose Hubbard Model in a Strong Effective Magnetic Field: Emergence of a Chiral Mott Insulator Ground State

Motivated by experiments on Josephson junction arrays, and cold atoms in an optical lattice in a synthetic magnetic field, we study the "fully frustrated" Bose-Hubbard (FFBH) model with half a magnetic flux quantum per plaquette. We obtain the phase diagram of this model on a two-leg ladder at integer filling via the density matrix renormalization group approach, complemented by Monte Carlo simulations on an effective classical XY model. The ground state at intermediate correlations is consistently shown to be a chiral Mott insulator (CMI) with a gap to all excitations and staggered loop currents which spontaneously break time reversal symmetry. We characterize the CMI state as a vortex supersolid or an indirect exciton condensate, and discuss various experimental implications.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Néel to dimer transition in spin-S antiferromagnets: Comparing bond operator theory with quantum Monte Carlo simulations for bilayer Heisenberg models

We study the Néel to dimer transition driven by interlayer exchange coupling in spin-S Heisenberg antiferromagnets on bilayer square and honeycomb lattices for S=1/2, 1, 3/2. Using exact stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations, we find that the critical value of the interlayer coupling, J_{\perp c}[S], increases with increasing S, with clear evidence that the transition is in the O(3) universality class for all S. Using bond operator mean field theory restricted to singlet and triplet states, we find J_{\perp c}[S] ~ S(S+1), in qualitative accord with QMC, but the resulting J_{\perp c} [S] is significantly smaller than the QMC value. For S=1/2, incorporating triplet-triplet interactions within a variational approach yields a critical interlayer coupling which agrees well with QMC. For higher spin, we argue that it is crucial to account for the high energy quintet modes, and show that including these within a perturbative scheme leads to reasonable agreement with QMC results for S=1,3/2. We discuss the broad implications of our results for systems such as the triangular lattice S=1 dimer compound Ba_3Mn_2O_8 and the S=3/2 bilayer honeycomb material Bi_3Mn_4O_{12}(NO_{3}).

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2011

Band structures of bilayer graphene superlattices

We formulate a low energy effective Hamiltonian to study superlattices in bilayer graphene (BLG) using a minimal model which supports quadratic band touching points. We show that a one dimensional (1D) periodic modulation of the chemical potential or the electric field perpendicular to the layers leads to the generation of zero energy anisotropic massless Dirac fermions and finite energy Dirac points with tunable velocities. The electric field superlattice maps onto a coupled chain model comprised of 'topological' edge modes. 2D superlattice modulations are shown to lead to gaps on the mini-Brillouin zone boundary but do not, for certain symmetries, gap out the quadratic band touching point. Such potential variations, induced by impurities and rippling in biased BLG, could lead to subgap modes which are argued to be relevant to understanding transport measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Electric field control of spins in bilayer graphene: Local moment formation and local moment interactions

We study local moment formation for adatoms on bilayer graphene (BLG) within a mean-field theory of the Anderson impurity model. The wavefunctions of the BLG electrons induce strong particle-hole asymmetry and band dependence of the hybridization, which is shown to result in unusual features in the impurity model phase diagram. We also study the effect of varying the chemical potential, as well as varying an electric field perpendicular to the bilayer; the latter modifies the density of states of electrons in BLG and, more significantly, shifts the impurity energy. We show that this leads to regimes in the impurity phase diagram where local moments can be turned on or off by applying modest external electric fields. Finally, we show that the RKKY interaction between local moments can be varied by tuning the chemical potential (as has also been suggested in monolayer graphene) or, more interestingly, by tuning the electric field so that it induces changes in the band structure of BLG.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Neel to staggered dimer order transition in a generalized honeycomb lattice Heisenberg model

We study a generalized honeycomb lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg model with nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic 2-spin exchange, and competing 4-spin interactions which serve to stabilize a staggered dimer state which breaks lattice rotational symmetry. Using a combination of quantum Monte Carlo numerics, spin wave theory, and bond operator theory, we show that this model undergoes a strong first-order transition between a Neel state and a staggered dimer state upon increasing the strength of the 4-spin interactions. We attribute the strong first order character of this transition to the spinless nature of the core of point-like Z(3) vortices obtained in the staggered dimer state. Unlike in the case of a columnar dimer state, disordering such vortices in the staggered dimer state does not naturally lead to magnetic order, suggesting that, in this model, the dimer and Neel order parameters should be thought of as independent fields as in conventional Landau theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Pair density wave instability and Cooper pair insulators in gapped fermion systems

By analyzing simple models of fermions in lattice potentials we argue that the zero-temperature pairing instability of any ideal band-insulator occurs at a finite momentum. The resulting supersolid state is known as "pair density wave". The pairing momentum at the onset of instability is generally incommensurate as a result of phase-space restrictions and relative strengths of interband and intraband pairing. However, commensurate pairing occurs in the strong-coupling limit and becomes a Cooper-channel analogue of the Halperin-Rice exciton condensation instability in indirect bandgap semiconductors. The exceptional sensitivity of incommensurate pairing to quantum fluctuations can lead to a strongly-correlated insulating regime and a non-BCS transition, even in the case of weak coupling as shown by an exact renormalization group analysis.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Tunable Luttinger liquid physics in biased bilayer graphene

Electronically gated bilayer graphene behaves as a tunable gap semiconductor under a uniform interlayer bias $V_{g}$. Imposing a spatially varying bias, which changes polarity from $-V_g$ to $+V_g$, leads to one dimensional (1D) chiral modes localized along the domain wall of the bias. Due to the broad transverse spread of their low-energy wavefunctions, we find that the dominant interaction between these 1D electrons is the forward scattering part of the Coulomb repulsion. Incorporating these interactions and the gate voltage dependence of the dispersion and wavefunctions, we find that these 1D modes behave as a strongly interacting Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with three distinct mode velocities and a bias dependent Luttinger parameter, and discuss its experimental signatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Supersolidity in the triangular lattice spin-1/2 XXZ model: A variational perspective

We study the spin-1/2 XXZ model on the triangular lattice with a nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic Ising coupling $J_z>0$ and unfrustrated ($J_\perp<0$) or frustrated ($J_\perp>0$) kinetic terms in zero magnetic field. Incorporating long-range Jastrow correlations over a mean field spin state, we obtain the variational phase diagram of this model on large lattices for arbitrary $J_z$ and either sign of $J_\perp$. For $J_\perp<0$, we find a $\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3}$ supersolid for $J_z/|J_\perp| \gtrsim 4.7$, in excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo data. For $J_\perp >0$, a distinct $\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3}$ supersolid is found to emerge for $J_z/J_\perp \geq 1$. Both supersolids exhibit a spontaneous density deviation from half-filling. At $J_z/J_\perp=\infty$, the crystalline order parameters of these two supersolids are nearly identical, consistent with exact results.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Competing quantum paramagnetic ground states of the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the star lattice

We investigate various competing paramagnetic ground states of the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the two dimensional star lattice which exhibits geometric frustration. Using slave particle mean field theory combined with a projective symmetry group analysis, we examine a variety of candidate spin liquid states on this lattice, including chiral spin liquids, spin liquids with Fermi surfaces of spinons, and nematic spin liquids which break lattice rotational symmetry. Motivated by connection to large-N SU(N) theory as well as numerical exact diagonalization studies, we also examine various valence bond solid (VBS) states on this lattice. Based on a study of energetics using Gutzwiller projected states, we find that a fully gapped spin liquid state is the lowest energy spin liquid candidate for this model. We also find, from a study of energetics using Gutzwiller projected wave functions and bond operator approaches, that this spin liquid is unstable towards two different VBS states -- a VBS state which respects all the Hamitonian symmetries and a VBS state which exhibits $\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3}$ order -- depending on the ratio of the Heisenberg exchange couplings on the two inequivalent bonds of the lattice. We compute the triplon dispersion in both VBS states within the bond operator approach and discuss possible implications of our work for future experiments on candidate materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Multiband superfluidity and superfluid to band-insulator transition of strongly interacting fermions in an optical lattice

We study the multiband superfluid and the superfluid (SF) to band insulator (BI) transition of strongly interacting fermionic atoms in an optical lattice at a filling of two fermions per well. We present physical arguments to show that a consistent mean field description of this problem is obtained by retaining only intraband pairing between the fermions. Using this approach we obtain a reasonable account of the experimentally observed critical lattice depth for the SF-BI transition and the modulated components of the condensate density, and make predictions for the lattice depth dependence of the quasiparticle gap which can be tested in future experiments. We also highlight some interesting features unique to cold atom superfluids within this intraband pairing approximation; for instance, the pair field is forced to be uniform in space and the Hartree field vanishes identically. These arise as a result of the fact that while the pairing interaction is cut off at the scale of the Debye frequency in conventional superconductors, or at the lattice scale in tight binding model Hamiltonians, such a cutoff is absent for cold Fermi gases.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Mott transition between a spin-liquid insulator and a metal in three dimensions

We study a bandwidth controlled Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) between a Fermi liquid metal and a quantum spin-liquid insulator at half-filling in three dimensions (3D). Using a slave rotor approach, and incorporating gauge field fluctuations, we find a continuous MIT and discuss the finite temperature crossovers around this critical point. We show that the specific heat C=T ln ln (1/T) at the MIT and argue that the electrical transport on the metallic side near the transition should exhibit a `conductivity minimum' as a function of temperature. A possible candidate to test these predictions is the 3D spin liquid insulator Na4Ir3O8 which exhibits a pressure-tuned transition into a metallic phase. We also present the electron spectral function of Na4Ir3O8 at the transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Gapless spin liquids on the three dimensional hyper-kagome lattice of Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$

Recent experiments indicate that Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$, a material in which s=1/2 iridium local moments form a three dimensional network of corner-sharing triangles, may have a quantum spin liquid ground state with gapless spin excitations. Using a combination of exact diagonalization, symmetry analysis of fermionic mean field ground states and Gutzwiller projected variational wavefunction studies, we propose a quantum spin liquid with spinon Fermi surfaces as a favorable candidate for the ground state of the Heisenberg model on the hyper-kagome lattice of Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$. We present a renormalized mean field theory of the specific heat of this spin liquid and also discuss possible low temperature instabilities of the spinon Fermi surfaces.

cond-mat.str-el↗