arXiv subjects

Benjamin M. Fregoso

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin M. Fregoso.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Intrinsic surface dipole in topological insulators

We calculate the local density of states of two prototypical topological insulators (Bi$_2$Se$_3$ and Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se) as a function of distance from the surface within density functional theory. We find that, in the absence of disorder or doping, there is a 2 nm thick surface dipole the origin of which is the occupation of the topological surface states above the Dirac point. As a consequence, the bottom of the conduction band is bent upward by about 75 meV near the surface, and there is a hump-like feature associated with the top of the valence band. We expect that band bending will occur in all pristine topological insulators as long as the Fermi level does not cross the Dirac point. Our results show that topological insulators are intrinsic Schottky barrier solar cells.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Gigantic surface life-time of an intrinsic topological insulator revealed via time-resolved (pump-probe) ARPES

The interaction between light and novel two-dimensional electronic states holds promise to realize new fundamental physics and optical devices. Here, we use pump-probe photoemission spectroscopy to study the optically-excited Dirac surface states in the bulk-insulating topological insulator Bi2Te2Se, and reveal optical properties that are in sharp contrast to those of bulk-metallic topological insulators. We observe a gigantic optical life-time exceeding 4 micro-sec for the surface states in Bi2Te2Se, whereas the life-time in most topological insulators such as Bi2Se3 has been limited to a few picoseconds. Moreover, we discover a surface photo-voltage in topological materials, a shift of the chemical potential of the Dirac surface states, as large as 100 mV. Our results demonstrate a rare platform to study charge excitation and relaxation in energy and momentum space in a two dimensional quantum system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Magnetization signatures of light-induced quantum Hall edge states

Circularly polarised light opens a gap in the Dirac spectrum of graphene and topological insulator (TI) surfaces, thereby inducing a quantum Hall-like phase. We propose to detect the accompanying edge states and their current by the magnetic field they produce. The topological nature of the edge states is reflected in the mean orbital magnetization of the sample, which shows a universal linear dependence as a function of a generalized chemical potential - independent of the driving details and the properties of the material. The proposed protocol overcomes several typically encountered problems in the realization and measurement of Floquet phases, including the destructive effects of phonons and coupled electron baths and provides a way to occupy the induced edge states selectively. We estimate practical experimental parameters and conclude that the magnetization signature of the Floquet topological phase may be detectable with current techniques.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Dynamics of tunneling into nonequilibrium edge states

Time-dependent perturbations can drive a trivial two-dimensional band insulator into a quantum Hall-like phase, with protected nonequilibrium states bound to its edges. We propose an experiment to probe the existence of these topological edge states which consists of passing a tunneling current through a small two-dimensional sample out of equilibrium. The signature is a nonquantized metallic conductance near the edges of the sample and, in contrast, an excitation gap in the bulk. This proposal is demonstrated for the case of a two-dimensional lattice model of Dirac electrons with tunable mass in a strong electromagnetic field. In addition, we also study the tunneling conductance of the driven resonant level model and find a phenomenon similar to dynamic localization in which certain transport channels are suppressed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Soft Superconducting Gap in Semiconductor Majorana Nanowires

We theoretically consider the ubiquitous soft gap measured in the tunneling conductance of semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures, in which recently observed signatures of elusive Majorana bound states have created much excitement. We systematically study the effects of magnetic and non-magnetic disorder, temperature, dissipative Cooper pair breaking, and interface inhomogeneity, which could lead to a soft gap. We find that interface inhomogeneity with moderate dissipation is the only viable mechanism that is consistent with the experimental observations. Our work indicates that improving the quality of the superconductor-semiconductor interface should result in a harder induced gap.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Electrical detection of topological quantum phase transitions in disordered Majorana nanowires

We study a disordered superconducting nanowire, with broken time-reversal and spin-rotational symmetry, which can be driven into a topological phase with end Majorana bound states by an externally applied magnetic field. As a function of disorder strength, it is known that the Majorana nanowire has a delocalization quantum phase transition from a topologically nontrivial phase, which supports Majorana bound states, to a nontopological insulating phase without them. On both sides of the transition, the system is localized at zero energy albeit with very different topological properties. We exploit this deep connection between topology and localization properties to propose an electrical transport measurement to detect the localization-delocalization transition occurring in the bulk of the nanowire. The basic idea consists of measuring the difference of conductance at one end of the wire obtained at different values of the coupling to the opposite lead. We show that this measurement reveals the nonlocal correlations emergent only at the topological transition. Hence, while the proposed experiment does not directly probe the end Majorana bound states, it can provide direct evidence for the bulk topological quantum phase transition itself.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Driven Electronic States at the Surface of a Topological Insulator

Motivated by recent photoemission experiments on the surface of topological insulators we compute the spectrum of driven topological surface excitations in the presence of an external light source. We completely characterize the spectral function of these non-equilibrium electron excitations for both linear and circular polarizations of the incident light. We find that in the latter case, the circularly polarized light gaps out the surface states, whereas linear polarization gives rise to an anisotropic metal with multiple Dirac cones. We compare the sizes of the gaps with recent pump-probe photoemission measurements and find good agreement. We also identify theoretically several new features in the time-dependent spectral function, such as shadow Dirac cones.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Wigner Crystallization in Two Dimensions: Evolution from Long- to Short-Ranged Forces

We study fermions in two dimensions interacting via a long-ranged 1/r potential for small particle separations and a short-ranged 1/r^3 potential for larger separations in comparison to a length scale ξ. We compute the energy of the Wigner crystal and of the homogeneous Fermi liquid phases using a variational approach, and determined the phase diagram as a function of density and ξat zero temperature. We discuss the collective modes in the Fermi liquid phase, finite temperature effects on the phase diagram, and possible experimental realizations of this model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions in hybrid structures involving cuprate high-T_c superconductors

The possibility of inducing topological superconductivity with cuprate high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) is studied for various heterostructures. We first consider a ballistic planar junction between a HTSC and a metallic ferromagnet. We assume that inversion symmetry breaking at the tunnel barrier gives rise to Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the barrier and allows equal-spin triplet superconductivity to exist in the ferromagnet. Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations are obtained by explicitly modeling the barrier, and taking account of the transport anisotropy in the HTSC. By making use of the self-consistent boundary conditions and solutions for the barrier and HTSC regions, an effective equation of motion for the ferromagnet is obtained where Andreev scattering at the barrier is incorporated as a boundary condition for the ferromagnetic region. For a ferromagnet layer deposited on a (100) facet of the HTSC, triplet p-wave superconductivity is induced. For the layer deposited on a (110) facet, the induced gap does not have the p-wave orbital character, but has an even orbital symmetry and an odd dependence on energy. For the layer on the (001) facet, an exotic f-wave superconductivity is induced. We also consider the induced triplet gap in a one-dimensional half-metallic nanowire deposited on a (001) facet of a HTSC. We find that for a wire axis along the a-axis, a robust triplet p-wave gap is induced. For a wire oriented 45 degrees away from the a-axis the induced triplet p-wave gap vanishes. For the appropriately oriented wire, the induced p-wave gap should give rise to Majorana fermions at the ends of the half-metallic wire. Based on our result, topological superconductivity in a semi-conductor nanowire may also be possible given that it is oriented along the a-axis of the HTSC.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Entanglement dynamics in a non-Markovian environment: an exactly solvable model

We study the non-Markovian effects on the dynamics of entanglement in an exactly-solvable model that involves two independent oscillators each coupled to its own stochastic noise source. First, we develop Lie algebraic and functional integral methods to find an exact solution to the single-oscillator problem which includes an analytic expression for the density matrix and the complete statistics, i.e., the probability distribution functions for observables. For long bath time-correlations, we see non-monotonic evolution of the uncertainties in observables. Further, we extend this exact solution to the two-particle problem and find the dynamics of entanglement in a subspace. We find the phenomena of `sudden death' and `rebirth' of entanglement. Interestingly, all memory effects enter via the functional form of the energy and hence the time of death and rebirth is controlled by the amount of noisy energy added into each oscillator. If this energy increases above (decreases below) a threshold, we obtain sudden death (rebirth) of entanglement.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Conductivity in Pseudogapped Superconductors: The Role of the Fermi Arcs

We calculate the dc conductivity $σ$ in a pseudogapped high $T_c$ superconductor within a theory which is consistent with gauge invariance. Our results contain additional terms beyond those identified previously. Although it has been thought that lifetime effects dominate the $T$ dependence of transport, here we show (consistent with growing experimental support) that the temperature dependence of the effective carrier number $(n/m(T))_{\rm{eff}}$ plays a critical role and thereby leads to the contrasting behavior between over and under-doped regimes. The role of Fermi arcs is secondary.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Unconventional magnetism in imbalanced Fermi systems with magnetic dipolar interactions

We study the magnetic structure of the ground state of an itinerant Fermi system of spin-\nicefrac{1}{2} particles with magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. We show that, quite generally, the spin state of particles depend on its momentum, i.e., spin and orbital degrees of freedom are entangled and taken separately are not ``good'' quantum numbers. Specifically, we consider a uniform system with non-zero magnetization at zero temperature. Assuming the magnetization is along $z$-axis, the quantum spin states are $ǩ$-dependent linear combinations of eigenstates of the $σ_z$ Pauli matrix. This leads to novel spin structures in \textit{momentum space} and to the fact that the Fermi surfaces for ``up'' and ``down'' spins are not well defined. The system still has a cylindrical axis of symmetry along the magnetization axis. We also show that the self energy has a universal structure which we determine based on the symmetries of the dipolar interaction and we explicitly calculated it in the Hartree-Fock approximation. We show that the bare magnetic moment of particles is renormalized due to particle-particle interactions and we give order of magnitude estimates of this renormalization effect. We estimate that the above mentioned dipolar effects are small but we discuss possible scenarios where this physics may be realized in future experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Ferro-Nematic ground state of the dilute dipolar Fermi gas

It is shown that a homogeneous two-component Fermi gas with (long range) dipolar and short-range isotropic interactions has a {\em ferro-nematic} phase for suitable values of the dipolar and short-range coupling constants. The ferro-nematic phase is characterized by having a non-zero magnetization and long range orientational uniaxial order. The Fermi surface of spin up (down) component is elongated (compressed) along the direction of the magnetization.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Fluctuating Stripes in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems and the Nematic-Smectic Quantum Phase Transition

We discuss the quantum phase transition between a quantum nematic metallic state to an electron metallic smectic state in terms of an order-parameter theory coupled to fermionic quasiparticles. Both commensurate and incommensurate smectic (or stripe) cases are studied. Close to the quantum critical point (QCP), the spectrum of fluctuations of the nematic phase has low-energy ``fluctuating stripes''. We study the quantum critical behavior and find evidence that, contrary to the classical case, the gauge-type of coupling between the nematic and smectic is irrelevant at this QCP. The collective modes of the electron smectic (or stripe) phase are also investigated. The effects of the low-energy bosonic modes on the fermionic quasiparticles are studied perturbatively, for both a model with full rotational symmetry and for a system with an underlying lattice, which has a discrete point group symmetry. We find that at the nematic-smectic critical point, due to the critical smectic fluctuations, the dynamics of the fermionic quasiparticles near several points on the Fermi surface, around which it is reconstructed, are not governed by a Landau Fermi liquid theory. On the other hand, the quasiparticles in the smectic phase exhibit Fermi liquid behavior. We also present a detailed analysis of the dynamical susceptibilities in the electron nematic phase close to this QCP (the fluctuating stripe regime) and in the electronic smectic phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Biaxial nematic phases in ultracold dipolar Fermi gases

Ultracold dipolar Fermi gases represent relatively unexplored, strongly correlated systems arising from long-range and anisotropic interactions. We demonstrate the possibility of a spontaneous symmetry breaking biaxial phase in these systems, which may be realized in, e.g., gases of ultracold polar molecules or strongly magnetic atoms. This biaxial nematic phase is manifest in a spontaneous distortion of the Fermi surface perpendicular to the axis of polarization. We describe these dipolar interaction induced phases using Landau Fermi liquid theory.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Stability of trapped fermionic gases with attractive interactions

We present a unified overview, from the mean-field to the unitarity regime, of the stability of a trapped Fermi gas with short range attractive interactions. Unlike in a system of bosons, a Fermi gas is always stable in these regimes, no matter how large the particle number. However, when the interparticle spacing becomes comparable to the range of the interatomic interactions, instability is not precluded.

cond-mat.other↗