arXiv subjects

Chao Cao

Publications and source records attributed to Chao Cao.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Electronic structures of transition metal dipnictides $XPn_2$ ($X$=Ta, Nb; $Pn$=P, As, Sb)

The electronic structures and topological properties of transition metal dipnictides $XPn_2$ ($X$=Ta, Nb; $Pn$=P, As, Sb) have been systematically studied using first-principles calculations. In addition to small bulk Fermi surfaces, the band anticrossing features near the Fermi level can be identified from band structures without spin-orbit coupling, leading to nodal lines in all these compounds. Inclusion of spin-orbit coupling gaps out these nodal lines leaving only a pair of disentangled electron/hole bands crossing the Fermi level. Therefore, the low energy physics can be in general captured by the corresponding two band model with several isolated small Fermi pockets. Detailed analysis of the Fermi surfaces suggests that the arsenides and NbSb$_2$ are nearly compensated semimetals while the phosphorides and TaSb$_2$ are not. Based on the calculated band parities, the electron and hole bands are found to be weakly topological non-trivial giving rise to surface states. As an example, we presented the surface-direction-dependent band structure of the surfaces states in TaSb$_2$.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

DoraPicker: An Autonomous Picking System for General Objects

Robots that autonomously manipulate objects within warehouses have the potential to shorten the package delivery time and improve the efficiency of the e-commerce industry. In this paper, we present a robotic system that is capable of both picking and placing general objects in warehouse scenarios. Given a target object, the robot autonomously detects it from a shelf or a table and estimates its full 6D pose. With this pose information, the robot picks the object using its gripper, and then places it into a container or at a specified location. We describe our pick-and-place system in detail while highlighting our design principles for the warehouse settings, including the perception method that leverages knowledge about its workspace, three grippers designed to handle a large variety of different objects in terms of shape, weight and material, and grasp planning in cluttered scenarios. We also present extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of our picking system and demonstrate that the robot is competent to accomplish various tasks in warehouse settings, such as picking a target item from a tight space, grasping different objects from the shelf, and performing pick-and-place tasks on the table.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2016

Field-induced resistivity plateau and unsaturated negative magnetoresistance in topological semimetal TaSb2

Several prominent transport properties have been identified as key signatures of topologicalmaterials. One is the resistivity plateau at low temperatures as observed in several topological insulators (TIs), another is the negative magnetoresistance (MR) when the applied magnetic field is parallel to the current direction as observed in several topological semimetals (TSMs) including Dirac semimetals (DSMs) and Weyl semimetals (WSMs). Usually, these two exotic phenomena emerge in distinct materials with or without time reversal symmetry (TRS), respectively. Here we report the discovery of a new member in TSMs, TaSb2, which clearly exhibits both of these phenomena in a single material. This compound crystallizes in a base-centered monoclinic, centrosymmetric structure, and is metallic with a low carrier density in the zero field. While applying magnetic field it exhibits insulating behavior before appearance of a resistivity plateau below Tc =13 K. In the plateau regime, the ultrahigh carrier mobility and extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) for the field perpendicular to the current are observed as in DSMs and WSMs, in addition to a quantum oscillation behavior with non-trivial Berry phases. In contrast to the most known DSMs and WSMs, the negative MR in TaSb2 does not saturate up to 9 T, which, together with the almost linear Hall resistivity, manifests itself an electron-hole non-compensated TMS. These findings indicate that the resistivity plateau could be a generic feature of topology-protected metallic states even in the absence of TRS and compatible with the negative MR depending on the field direction. Our experiment extends a materials basis represented by TaSb2 as a new platform for future theoretical investigations and device applications of topological materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Analyzing the Utility of a Support Pin in Sequential Robotic Manipulation

Pick-and-place regrasp is an important manipulation skill for a robot. It helps a robot accomplish tasks that cannot be achieved within a single grasp, due to constraints such as kinematics or collisions between the robot and the environment. Previous work on pick-and-place regrasp only leveraged flat surfaces for intermediate placements, and thus is limited in the capability to reorient an object. In this paper, we extend the reorientation capability of a pick-and-place regrasp by adding a vertical pin on the working surface and using it as the intermediate location for regrasping. In particular, our method automatically computes the stable placements of an object leaning against a vertical pin, finds several force-closure grasps, generates a graph of regrasp actions, and searches for the regrasp sequence. To compare the regrasping performance with and without using pins, we evaluate the success rate and the length of regrasp sequences while performing tasks on various models. Experiments on reorientation and assembly tasks validate the benefit of using support pins for regrasping.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2015

Electronic structure of quasi-one-dimensional superconductor K$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ from first-principles calculations

The electronic structure of quasi-one-dimensional superconductor K$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ is studied through systematic first-principles calculations. The ground state of K$_2$Cr$_3$As$_3$ is paramagnetic but very close to a ferromagnetic instability. Close to the Fermi level, the Cr-3d$_{z^2}$, d$_{xy}$, and d$_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals dominate the electronic states, and three bands cross $E_F$ to form one 3D Fermi surface sheet and two quasi-1D sheets. The electron DOS at $E_F$ is less than 1/3 of the experimental value, indicating an intermediate electron renormalization factor around $E_F$. Despite of the relatively small atomic numbers, the antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling splitting is sizable ($\approx$ 60 meV) on the 3D Fermi surface sheet as well as on one of the quasi-1D sheets. Finally, the imaginary part of bare electron susceptibility shows large peaks at $Γ$, suggesting the existence of large ferromagnetic spin fluctuation in the compound.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Superconductivity in a new layered nickel-selenide CsNi2Se2

The physical properties of CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ were characterized by electrical resistivity, magnetization and specific heat measurements. We found that the stoichiometric CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ compound is a superconductor with a transition temperature \textit{T$_{c}$}=2.7K. A large Sommerfeld coefficient $γ$$_{n}$ ($\sim$77.90 mJ/mol$\cdot$K$^{-2}$), was obtained from the normal state electronic specific heat. However, the Kadowaki-Woods ratio of CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ was estimated to be about 0.041$\times$10$^{-5}$ $μΩ$$\cdot$cm(mol$\cdot$K/mJ)$^{2}$, indicating the absence of strong electron-electron correlations in this compound. In the superconducting state, we found that the zero-field electronic specific heat data, $C_{es}(T)$ (0.5K $\leq$ T $<$ 2.6K), can be well fitted with a two-gap BCS model. The comparison with the results of the density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggested that the large $γ$$_{n}$ in the nickel-selenide superconductors may be related to the large Density of States (DOS) at the fermi surface.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Reduced Dimensionality and Magnetic Frustration in KCr$_3$As$_3$

We study the electronic and magnetic structures of the newly-discovered compound KCr$_3$As$_3$. The non-magnetic state has five Fermi surface sheets involving respectively three quasi-one-dimensional and two three-dimensional energy bands. However, the ground state is magnetic, exhibiting a novel interlayer antiferromagnetic order where the basic block-spin state of a unit Cr triangle retains a high spin magnitude. Moreover, its Fermi surface involves three one-dimensional sheets only, providing evidence for local moments in this compound due to the reduced dimensionality. By fitting a twisted spin tube model the magnetic frustrations caused by local moments are found to be relaxed, leading to gapless spin excitations. A frustration-induced transition to the disordered low block-spin state is expected upon increasing the intralayer exchange interaction.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Controllable spin-orbit coupling and its influence on the upper critical field in the chemically doped quasi-one-dimensional Nb$_2$PdS$_5$ superconductor

By systematic chemical substitution of Pt and Ni in the newly-discovered superconductor Nb$_2$PdS$_5$ ($T_c\sim$6 K), we study the evolution of its superconducting properties with doping, focussing on the behavior of the upper critical field $H_{c2}$. In contrast to the previous results of Se doping on S sites, superconductivity is found to be rather robust against the Pt and Ni dopants on the one-dimensional Pd chains. Most strikingly, the reduced $H_{c2}$, i.e., the ratio of $H_{c2}/T_c$, is seen to be significantly enhanced by the heavier Pt doping but suppressed in the Ni-doped counterparts, distinct from the nearly constant value in the Se doped samples. Our findings therefore suggest that the upper critical field of this system can be modified in a tunable fashion by chemical doping on the Pd chains with elements of varying mass numbers. The spin-orbit coupling on the Pd sites, by inference, should play an important role in the observed superconductivity and on the large upper critical field beyond the Pauli pair-breaking field.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Correlation-induced self-doping in intercalated iron-pnictide superconductor Ba2Ti2Fe2As4O

The electronic structure of the intercalated iron-based superconductor Ba2Ti2Fe2As4O (Tc - 21.5 K) has been investigated by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and combined local density approximation and dynamical mean field theory calculations. The electronic states near the Fermi level are dominated by both the Fe 3d and Ti 3d orbitals, indicating that the spacing layers separating different FeAs layers are also metallic. By counting the enclosed volumes of the Fermi surface sheets, we observe a large self-doping effect, i.e. 0.25 electrons per unit cell are transferred from the FeAs layer to the Ti2As2O layer, leaving the FeAs layer in a hole-doped state. This exotic behavior is successfully reproduced by our dynamical mean field calculations, in which the self-doping effect is attributed to the electronic correlations in the Fe 3d shell. Our work provides an alternative route of effective doping without element substitution for iron-based superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Electronic phase diagram in the new BiS2-based Sr1-xLaxFBiS2 system

In this paper, we systematically study the electron doping effect in a new BiS2-based system Sr1-xLaxFBiS2(0 0.3, reaching its maximal superconducting transition temperature Tc=3.5 K at x=0.55. In the normal state of superconducting samples, it is clearly seen that there exists a crossover from metallic to semiconducting state below a temperature Tmin, which shifts to lower temperatures with increasing La content. Based on these measurements, the associated electronic phase diagram of Sr1-xLaxFBiS2 system has thus been established.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

K and Mn co-doped BaCd2As2: a hexagonal structured bulk diluted magnetic semiconductor with large magnetoresistance

A bulk diluted magnetic semiconductor was found in the K and Mn co-doped BaCd2As2 system. Different from recently reported tetragonal ThCr2Si2-structured II-II-V based(Ba,K)(Zn,Mn)2As2, the Ba1-yKyCd2-xMnxAs2 system has a hexagonal CaAl2Si2-type structure with the Cd2As2 layer forming a honeycomb-like network. The Mn concentration reaches up to its x ? 0.4. Magnetization measurements show that the samples undergo ferromagnetic transitions with Curie temperature up to 16 K. With low coercive field less than 10 Oe and large magnetoresistence of about -70%, the hexagonal structured Ba1-yKyCd2-xMnxAs2 can be served as a promising candidate for spin manipulations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Effect of Selenium doping on the superconductivity of Nb$_2$Pd(S$_{1-x}$Se$_x$)$_5$

We study the isovalent substitution effect by partially introducing Se on S site in the newly discovered superconductor Nb$_2$PdS$_5$ ($T_c\sim$6 K) whose upper critical field is found to be far above its Pauli paramagnetic limit. In this Nb$_2$Pd(S$_{1-x}$Se$_x$)$_5$ (0$\leq$$x$$\leq$0.8) system, superconductivity is systematically suppressed by the Se concentration and ultimately disappears when $x\geq$ 0.5, after which a semiconducting-like ground state emerges. In spite of the considerably reduced $T_c$ with Se doping, the ratio of the upper critical field $H_{c2}$ to $T_c$, remains unaffected. Moreover, the size of the heat capacity jump at $T_c$ is smaller than that expected for a BCS superconductor, implying that a strong-coupling theory cannot be the origin of this large upper critical field. In addition, the low-lying quasiparticle excitations are consistent with a nodeless gap opening over the Fermi surface. These results combined impose severe constraints on any theory of exotic superconductivity in this system.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Li$_2$RhO$_3$: A spin-glassy relativistic Mott insulator

Motivated by the rich interplay among electronic correlation, spin-orbit coupling (SOC), crystal-field splitting, and geometric frustrations in the honeycomb-like lattice, we systematically investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of Li$_2$RhO$_3$. The material is semiconducting with a narrow band gap of $Δ\sim$78 meV, and its temperature dependence of resistivity conforms to 3D variable range hopping mechanism. No long-range magnetic ordering was found down to 0.5 K, due to the geometric frustrations. Instead, single atomic spin-glass behavior below the spin-freezing temperature ($\sim$6 K) was observed and its spin dynamics obeys the universal critical slowing down scaling law. First principle calculations suggested it to be a relativistic Mott insulator mediated by both electronic correlation and SOC. With moderate strength of electronic correlation and SOC, our results shed new light to the research of Heisenberg-Kitaev model in realistic materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Electronic structure of vacancy-ordered iron-selenide K$_{0.5}$Fe$_{1.75}$Se$_2$

The electronic structure of the vacancy-ordered K$_{0.5}$Fe$_{1.75}$Se$_2$ iron-selenide compound (278 phase) is studied using the first-principles density functional method. The ground state of the 278 phase is stripe-like antiferromagnetic, and its bare electron susceptibility shows a large peak around $(π, π)$ in the folded Brillouin zone. Near Fermi level, the density of states are dominated by the Fe-3d orbitals, and both electron-like and hole-like Fermi surfaces appear in the Brillouin zone. Unfolded band structure shows limited similarities to a hole doped 122 phase. With 0.1e electron doping, the susceptibility peak is quickly suppressed and broadened; while the two-dimensionality of the electron-like Fermi surfaces are greatly enhanced, resulting in a better nesting behavior. Our study should be relevant to the recently reported superconducting phase K$_{0.5+x}$Fe$_{1.75+y}$Se$_2$ with both $x$ and $y$ very tiny.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Electronic structure of relativistic Mott insulator Li$_2$RhO$_3$

Motivated by studies of coexisting electron correlation and spin-orbit coupling effect in Na$_2$IrO$_3$ and a recent experiment of its 4d analogue Li$_2$RhO$_3$, we performed first-principles calculations of the rhodium oxide compound. The experimentally observed ground state of Li$_2$RhO$_3$ can be recovered only if both spin-orbit coupling and on-site Coulomb interaction are taken into consideration. Within the proper $U$ range for 4d-orbitals ($2\leqslant U\leqslant 4$ eV), the ground state of Li$_2$RhO$_3$ could be either zigzag-AFM or stripy-AFM, both yielding energy gap close to experimental observation. Furthermore, the total energy differences between the competing magnetic phases are $\leqslant 3$ meV/Rh within $2\leqslant U\leqslant 4$ eV, manifesting strong magnetic frustration in the compound. Finally, the phase energy of Li$_2$RhO$_3$ cannot be fitted with the two-dimensional Heisenberg-Kitaev model involving only the nearest neighbor interactions, and we propose that inter-layer interactions may be responsible for the discrepancy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Superconductivity, charge- or spin-density wave, and metal-nonmetal transition in BaTi$_{2}$(Sb$_{1-x}$Bi$_{x}$)$_{2}$O

We have performed an isovalent substitution study in a layered titanium oxypnictide system BaTi$_{2}$(Sb$_{1-x}$Bi$_{x}$)$_{2}$O (0$\leq x\leq$ 0.40) by the measurements of x-ray diffraction, electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility. The parent compound BaTi$_{2}$Sb$_{2}$O is confirmed to exhibit superconductivity at 1.5 K as well as charge- or spin-density wave (CDW/SDW) ordering below 55 K. With the partial substitution of Sb by Bi, the lattice parameters $a$, $c$ and $c/a$ all increase monotonically, indicating negative chemical pressure and lattice distortion on the (super)conducting Ti$_2$Sb$_2$O-layers. The Bi doping elevates the superconducting transition temperature to its maximum $T_c$=3.7 K at $x=$0.17, and then $T_c$ decreases gradually with additional Bi doping. A metal-to-nonmetal transition takes place around $x$=0.3, and superconductivity at $\sim$1K exists at the nonmetal side. The CDW/SDW anomaly, in comparison, is rapidly suppressed by the Bi doping, and vanishes for $x\geq$0.17. The results are discussed in terms of negative chemical pressure and disorder effect.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Charge Density Wave Instability and Soft Phonon in $A$Pt$_3$P ($A$=Ca, Sr, and La)

The electronic and phonon properties of the platinum pnictide superconductors $A$Pt$_3$P ($A$=Ca, Sr, and La) were studied using first-principles calculations. The spin-orbit coupling effect is significant in LaPt$_3$P but negligible in CaPt$_3$P and SrPt$_3$P, although they all share the same anti-pevroskite structure. Moreover, SrPt$_3$P has been demonstrated to exhibit an unexpected weak charge-density-wave(CDW) instability which is neither simply related to the Fermi-surface nesting nor to the momentum-dependent electron-phonon coupling alone. The instability is absent in CaPt$_3$P and can be quickly suppressed by the external pressure, accompanied with gradual decreases in the phonon softening and BCS $T_c$. Our results suggest SrPt$_3$P as a rare example where superconductivity is enhanced by the CDW fluctuations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Self-doping effect and possible antiferromagnetism at titanium-layers in the iron-based superconductor Ba$_2$Ti$_2$Fe$_2$As$_4$O

The electronic structure of Ba$_2$Ti$_2$Fe$_2$As$_4$O, a newly discovered superconductor, is investigated using first-principles calculations based on local density approximations. Multiple Fermi surface sheets originating from Ti-3$d$ and Fe-3$d$ states are present corresponding to the conducting Ti$_2$As$_2$O and Fe$_2$As$_2$ layers respectively. Compared with BaFe$_2$As$_2$, sizeable changes in the related Fermi surface sheets indicate significant electron transfer (about 0.12$e$) from Ti to Fe, which suppresses the stripe-like antiferromagnetism at the Fe sites and simultaneously induces superconductivity. Our calculations also suggest that an additional Néel-type antiferromagnetic instability at the Ti sites is relatively robust against the electron transfer, which accounts for the anomaly at 125 K in the superconducting Ba$_2$Ti$_2$Fe$_2$As$_4$O.

cond-mat.supr-con↗