arXiv subjects

Chung-Yu Mou

Publications and source records attributed to Chung-Yu Mou.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Topological electronic structures of non-collinear magnetic phases in a multi-orbital Hubbard model with spin-orbit interactions

We explore topological electronic structure of magnetic phases in a multi-orbital Hubbard model with spin-orbit interactions. To account for more general antiferromagnetic orders that go beyond the collinear N\'eel order, two different spin-orbit interactions, Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit interactions, are considered. By performing the canonical transformation, we derive the corresponding generalized t-J model. At half filling, employing self-consistent magnetic order calculations, we find distinctive spin arrangements under Dresselhaus or Rashba spin-orbit interactions. For the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction, the spin configuration exhibits collinear antiferromagnetic order. On the other hand, Rashba interaction results in spins antiferromagnetically aligning in xy-plane and a small interaction controlled by hopping parameter induces spin tilting, causing antiferromagnetic alignment in xy-plane but ferromagnetic alignment in z-direction. We categorize topological properties of these phases for low doping in the generalized t-J model.: for 3D collinear antiferromagnetic order, the system possesses a modified time-reversal symmetry, characterized by the Z2 index. In contrast, for systems with tilted antiferromagnetic orders, it is protected by inversion symmetry and characterized by the Z4 index. We further examine the bulk-edge correspondence for non-collinear magnetic phases, revealing that the surface state becomes gapless when the surface is parallel to the ferromagnetic component of tilted antiferromagnetic order; otherwise, the surface state exhibits a gap. Our findings offer a comprehensive topological characterization for doped and canted antiferromagnetic insulators with spin-orbit interactions, providing valuable insights into the interplay between spin arrangements, symmetries, and topological properties in systems governed by the multi-orbital Hubbard model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Spin Liquid phases in Kitaev Materials

We develop a gauge-invariant renormalized mean-field theory (RMFT) to reliably find the quantum spin liquid (QSL) states and their field response for realistic Kitaev materials under strong magnetic fields and described by the generalized Kitaev $J$-$K$-$\Gamma$-$\Gamma'$ model. Remarkably, while our RMFT reproduces previous results based on using more complicated numerical methods, it also predicts several new stable QSL states. In particular, since Kitaev spin liquid (KSL) is no longer a saddle point solution, a new exotic 2-cone state distinct from the KSL, is found to describe experimental observations well, and hence should be the candidate state realized in the Kitaev material, $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. We further explore the mechanism for the suppression of the observed thermal Hall conductivity at low temperatures within the fermionic framework, and show that the polar-angle dependence of the fermionic gap can distinguish the found 2-cone state from the KSL state in further experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Proximity-Induced Nodal Metal in an Extremely Underdoped CuO$_2$ Plane in Triple-Layer Cuprates

ARPES studies have established that the high-$T_c$ cuprates with single and double CuO$_2$ layers evolve from the Mott insulator to the pseudogap state with a Fermi arc, on which the superconducting (SC) gap opens. In four- to six-layer cuprates, on the other hand, small hole Fermi pockets are formed in the innermost CuO$_2$ planes, indicating antiferromagnetism. Here, we performed ARPES studies on the triple-layer Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+\delta}$ over a wide doping range, and found that, although the doping level of the inner CuO$_2$ plane was extremely low in underdoped samples, the $d$-wave SC gap was enhanced to the unprecedentedly large value of $\Delta_0\sim$100 meV at the antinode and persisted well above $T_{{c}}$ without the appearance of a Fermi arc, indicating a robust ``nodal metal''. We attribute the nodal metallic behavior to the unique local environment of the inner clean CuO$_2$ plane in the triple-layer cuprates, sandwiched by nearly optimally-doped two outer CuO$_2$ planes and hence subject to strong proximity effect from both sides. In the nodal metal, quasiparticle peaks showed electron-hole symmetry, suggesting $d$-wave pairing fluctuations. Thus the proximity effect on the innermost CuO${_2}$ plane is the strongest in the triple-layer cuprates, which explains why the $T_c$ reaches the maximum at the layer number of three in every multi-layer cuprate family.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Giant X-ray circular dichroism in a time-reversal invariant altermagnet

X-ray circular dichroism, arising from the contrast in X-ray absorption between opposite photon helicities, serves as a spectroscopic tool to measure the magnetization of ferromagnetic materials and identify the handedness of chiral crystals. Antiferromagnets with crystallographic chirality typically lack X-ray magnetic circular dichroism because of time-reversal symmetry, yet exhibit weak X-ray natural circular dichroism. Here, we report the observation of giant natural circular dichroism in the Ni $L_3$-edge X-ray absorption of Ni$_3$TeO$_6$, a polar and chiral antiferromagnet with effective time-reversal symmetry. To unravel this intriguing phenomenon, we propose a phenomenological model that classifies the movement of photons in a chiral crystal within the same symmetry class as that of a magnetic field. The coupling of X-ray polarization with the induced magnetization yields giant X-ray natural circular dichroism, revealing the altermagnetism of Ni$_3$TeO$_6$. Our findings provide evidence for the interplay between magnetism and crystal chirality in natural optical activity. Additionally, we establish the first example of a new class of magnetic materials exhibiting circular dichroism with time-reversal symmetry.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Manifestation of chiral magnetic current in Floquet-Weyl semimetals

Materials that can host macroscopic persistent current are important because they are useful for energy storage. However, there are very few examples of such materials in nature. Superconductors are known as an example in which flow of supercurrent can persist up to 100,000 years. The chiral magnetic current is possibly the second example predicted by the chiral magnetic effect. It was proposed to be realized in recently discovered Weyl semimetals. However, a no-go theorem negates the chiral magnetic effect and shows that the chiral magnetic current is generally absent in any equilibrium condensed-matter system. Here we show how to break the no-go theorem by resorting to dynamical transitions in time-frequency space. By driving an insulator using a time-periodic potential and coupling it to a phonon heat bath that provides suitable dissipation, we show that a Floquet-Weyl semi-metallic phase with Fermi-Dirac-like distribution emerges. Furthermore, we show that even in the presence of a static magnetic field, the resulting steady Floquet-Weyl semimetal supports non-vanishing chiral magnetic current. Our dynamical model provides a systematic way to fully realize the chiral magnetic effect in condensed matter systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Electrically Sign-Reversible Topological Hall Effect in a Top-Gated Topological Insulator (Bi,Sb)2Te3 on a Ferrimagnetic Insulator Europium Iron Garnet

Topological Hall effect (THE), an electrical transport signature of systems with chiral spin textures like skyrmions, has been observed recently in topological insulator (TI)-based magnetic heterostructures. However, the intriguing interplay between the topological surface state and THE is yet to be fully understood. In this work, we report a large THE of ~10 ohm (~4 micro-ohm*cm) at 2 K with an electrically reversible sign in a top-gated 4 nm TI (Bi0.3Sb0.7)2Te3 (BST) grown on a ferrimagnetic insulator (FI) europium iron garnet (EuIG). Temperature, external magnetic field angle, and top gate bias dependences of magnetotransport properties were investigated and consistent with a skyrmion-driven THE. Most importantly, a sign change in THE was discovered as the Fermi level was tuned from the upper to the lower parts of the gapped Dirac cone and vice versa. This discovery is anticipated to impact technological applications in ultralow power skyrmion-based spintronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Topological Kondo Superconductors

Spin-triplet $p$-wave superconductors are promising candidates for topological superconductors. They have been proposed in various heterostructures where a material with strong spin-orbit interaction is coupled to a conventional $s$-wave superconductor by proximity effect. However, topological superconductors existing in nature and driven purely by strong electron correlations are yet to be studied. Here we propose a realization of such a system in a class of Kondo lattice materials in the absence of spin-orbit coupling and proximity effect. Therein, the odd-parity Kondo hybridization mediates ferromagnetic spin-spin coupling and leads to spin-triplet resonant-valence-bond ($t$-RVB) pairing between local moments. Spin-triplet $p\pm i p^\prime$-wave topological superconductivity is reached when Kondo effect co-exists with $t$-RVB. We identify the topological nature by the non-trivial topological invariant and the Majorana fermions at edges. Our results offer a comprehensive understanding of experimental observations on UTe$_2$, a U-based ferromagnetic heavy-electron superconductor.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Quantum oscillations of Kondo screening phases in strong magnetic fields

We generalize the iterative diagonalization procedure adopted in method of numerical renormalization group to analyze the Kondo effect in strong magnetic fields, where the density of states for itinerary electrons at the chemical potential varies discontinuously as the magnetic field changes. We first examine phases of many-body ground states in the presence of single impurity. By investigating change of $z$-component of total spin, $ΔS_z$, and spin-spin correlation between the impurity and conduction electrons, we find that there are three states competing for the ground state when Zeeman splitting is present. One of the states is doublet in which the impurity spin is unscreened. The other two states are Kondo screening states with $ΔS_z=1/2$ and $ΔS_z=1$, in which the impurity spin is partially screened and completely screened respectively. For Kondo systems with two-impurities in strong magnetic fields, we find that the interplay between the Kondo screening effect, RKKY interaction, and quantum oscillations due to Landau levels determines the ground state of the system. Combination of these three factors results in different screening scenarios for different phases in which spins of two impurities can form spin-0 or spin-1 states, while impurity spins in these phases can be either screened, partially screened, or unscreened by conduction electrons. The emergence of the ground state from these competing states oscillates with the change of magnetic field, chemical potential or inter-impurity distance. This leads to quantum oscillations in magnetization and conductivity. In particular, we find extra peak structures in longitudinal conductivity that reflect changes of Kondo screening phases and are important features to be observed in experiments. Our results provide a complete characterization of phases for Kondo effect in strong magnetic fields.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Geometry-induced topological superconductivity

Intrinsic topological superconductors with p-wave pairing are rare in nature. Its underlying reason is due to the fact that it is usually difficult to change the relative strength between the singlet and triplet channels for the electron-electron interaction in material. Here we show that by considering superconductivity occurring on surfaces of topological insulators (TIs), the relative strength between the singlet and triplet channels can be changed by geometry and sizes of TIs. Specifically, we show that pairing of electrons at different locations on the surface of a topological insulator generally tends to favor the triplet pairing and can induce topological superconductivity by controlling the surface curvature and size of the topological insulator. We illustrate the effects in two configurations, thin film geometry and the spherical geometry with a sphere or a hemisphere, and find that topological superconductivity arises with the $p \pm ip$ pairing symmetry dominated in nanoscale size of the TI. As a consequence, vortices can spontaneously form on surfaces of topological insulators with roughness of appropriate curvature. These vortices support a Majorana zero mode inside each core and can be used as a platform to host Majorana zero modes without invoking real magnetic fields. Our theoretical discovery opens a new route to realize topological superconductivity in material.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Superfluid weight and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature of strained graphene

We obtain the superfluid weight and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature for highly unconventional superconducting states with the coexistence of chiral d-wave superconductivity, charge density waves and pair density waves in the strained graphene. Our results show that the strain-induced flat bands can promote the superconducting transition temperature approximately $50\%$ compared to that of the original doped graphene, which suggests that the flat-band superconductivity is a potential route to get superconductivity with higher critical temperatures. In particular, we obtain the superfluid weight for the pure superconducting pair-density-wave states from which the deduced superconducting transition temperature is shown to be much lower than the gap-opening temperature of the pair density wave, which is helpful to understand the phenomenon of the pseudogap state in high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors. Finally, we show that the BKT transition temperature versus doping for strained graphene exhibits a dome-like shape and it depends linearly on the spin-spin interaction strength.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Enhanced quantum oscillations in Kondo insulators

Quantum oscillations have long been regarded as the manifestation of the Fermi surface in metals. However, they were recently observed in Kondo insulators. We examine the Kondo screening due to Landau levels in Kondo insulators. It is shown that even for large Kondo insulating gaps, appreciable amplitudes of quantum oscillations that are consistent with experimental observations are present both in magnetization and resistivity. Specifically, we show that due to the periodic alignment between the Landau levels in the conduction and the f-orbit electrons, the Kondo screening itself undergoes oscillations so that the electronic structure oscillates with the magnetic field. Our results explain main features of quantum oscillations observed in experiments. They indicate that the non-rigidity of the electronic structure results in observable quantum oscillations Kondo insulators. This new effect provides a new way to probe the Fermi surface geometry of insulators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Quantum phase transition in a two-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model: a Schwinger-boson large-N approach

Strange metal behavior arises in heavy fermion metals close to antiferromagnetic transitions. An increasing amount of experiments indicates a link of such behavior to a Kondo breakdown quantum critical point. To shed light on this intriguing problem, we study the 2D Kondo-Heisenberg model using a dynamical large-N multichannel Schwinger boson approach. We identify and characterize the quantum phase transition from an antiferromagnetically ordered ground state to a Kondo-dominated paramagnetic state, and attribute a jump in certain phase shift to Kondo breakdown. In addition, we calculate transport and thermodynamic quantities and discuss them in the context of the experimental observations in quantum critical heavy fermion systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Tunable topological semi-metallic phases in Kondo lattice systems

We exploit topological semi-metallic phases resulting from the Kondo screening in Anderson lattice models. It is shown that by including spin-orbit interactions both in the bulk electrons and in the hybridization between the conduction electrons and electrons in $f$ orbit, all types of topological semi-metallic phases can be realized in Anderson lattice models. Specifically, upon either time-reversal symmetry broken or inversion symmetry broken, we find that either Weyl semi-metallic phase, Dirac semi-metallic phase or nodal-ring semi-metallic phases always emerge between insulating phases and can be accessed by tuning either temperature or spin-orbit interaction. For Anderson lattice models with general 3D spin-orbit hybridization between the conduction electrons and electrons in $f$ orbit, we find that Weyl nodal-ring semi-metallic phases emerges between strong and weak topological insulating phases. Furthermore, in the presence of an exchange field, Weyl semi-metallic phases forms after two Weyl points of charge $\pm1$ split off from a Dirac point at time-reversal momenta. On the other hand, when the spin-orbit interaction is included in the conduction electron, we find that upon the rotation symmetry being broken with anisotropic hopping amplitudes, Weyl semi-metallic phase emerges with double Weyl node of charges of $\pm2$. Furthermore, the Weyl semi-metallic phases with charges of $\pm2$ can be tuned into Weyl semi-metallic phases with charges of $\pm1$ through the inclusion of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Our analyses indicate that Anderson lattices with appropriate spin-orbit interactions provide a platform for realizing all types of topological semi-metallic phase

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Strain induced superconducting pair-density-wave states in graphene

Graphene is known to be non-superconducting. However, surprising superconductivity is recently discovered in a flat-band in a twisted bi-layer graphene. Here we show that superconductivity can be more easily realized in topological flat-bands induced by strain in graphene through periodic ripples. Specifically, it is shown that by including correlation effects, the chiral d-wave superconductivity can be stabilized under strain even for slightly doped graphene. The chiral d-wave superconductivity generally coexists with charge density waves (CDW) and pair density waves (PDW) of the same period. Remarkably, a pure PDW state with doubled period that coexists with the CDW state is found to emerge at a finite temperature region under reasonable strain strength. The emergent PDW state is shown to be superconducting with non-vanishing superfluid density, and it realizes the long searched superconducting states with non-vanishing center of mass momentum for Cooper pairs.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Scaling of the chiral magnetic effect in quantum diffusive Weyl semimetals

We investigate the effect of short-range spin-independent disorder on the chiral magnetic effect (CME) in Weyl semimetals. Based on a minimum two-band model, the disorder effect is examined in the quantum diffusion limit by including the Drude correction and the correction due to the Cooperon channel. It is shown that the Drude correction renormalizes the CME coefficient by a factor to a finite value that is independent of the system size. Furthemore, due to an additional momentum expansion involved in deriving the CME coefficient, the contribution of Cooperon to the CME coefficient is governed by the quartic momentum term. As a result, in contrast to the weak localization and weak anti-localization effects observed in the measurement of conductivity of Dirac fermions, we find that in the limit of zero magnetic field, the CME coefficients of finite systems manifest the same scaling of localization even in three dimension. Our results indicate that while the chiral magnetic current due to slowly oscillating magnetic fields can exist in clean systems, its observability will be limited by suppression due to short-range disorder in condensed matters.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Andreev reflection in 2D relativistic materials with realistic tunneling transparency in normal-metal-superconductor junctions

The Andreev conductance across 2d normal metal (N)/superconductor (SC) junctions with relativistic Dirac spectrum is investigated theoretically in the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formalism. It is shown that for relativistic materials, due to the Klein tunneling instead of impurity potentials, the local strain in the junction is the key factor that determines the transparency of the junction. The local strain is shown to generate an effective Dirac $δ$-gauge field. A remarkable suppression of the conductance are observed as the strength of the gauge field increases. The behaviors of the conductance are in well agreement with the results obtained in the case of 1d N/SC junction. We also study the Andreev reflection in a topological material near the chiral-to-helical phase transition in the presence of a local strain. The N side of the N/SC junction is modeled by the doped Kane-Mele (KM) model. The SC region is a doped correlated KM t-J (KMtJ) model, which has been shown to feature d+id'-wave spin-singlet pairing. With increasing intrinsic spin-orbit (SO) coupling, the doped KMtJ system undergoes a topological phase transition from the chiral d-wave superconductivity to the spin-Chern superconducting phase with helical Majorana fermions at edges. We explore the Andreev conductance at the two inequivalent Dirac points, respectively and predict the distinctive behaviors for the Andreev conductance across the topological phase transition. Relevance of our results for the adatom-doped graphene is discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Magnetic phases and unusual topological electronic structures of Weyl semimetals in strong interaction limit

The interplay of electronic band structures and electron-electron interactions is known to brew new phases in condensed matter. In this paper, we investigate thermodynamic phases and corresponding electronic structures of the Weyl semimetal in the strong onsite Coulomb interaction limit. Based on a minimum model of the Weyl semimetal with two linear Weyl nodes, it is shown that generically the Weyl semimetal becomes magnetic in the presence of interactions. In particular, it is shown that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange interaction is generally induced so that the A-type antiferromagnetic (A-AFM) phase and the spiral spin density wave (SSDW) states are two generic phases. Furthermore, we find that Weyl nodes proliferate and it is possible to doubly enhance the unusual properties of non-interacting Weyl semimetals through the realization of double-Weyl nodes in strong correlation limit. Specifically, it is shown that in the SSDW phase, linear Weyl nodes are tuned into double-Weyl nodes with the corresponding charges being $\pm 2$. As the spin-orbit coupling increases, a quantum phase transition occurs with the SSDW phase being turned into an A-AFM phase and at the same time, double-Weyl nodes are disintegrated into two pairs of linear Weyl nodes. Our results reveal the unusual interplay between the topology of electronic structures and magnetism in strongly correlated phases of Weyl semimetals.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Emergence of fermionic finite-temperature critical point in a Kondo lattice

The underlying Dirac point is central to the profound physics manifested in a wide class of materials. However, it is often difficult to drive a system with Dirac points across the massless fermionic critical point. Here by exploiting screening of local moments under spin-orbit interactions in a Kondo lattice, we show that below the Kondo temperature, the Kondo lattice undergoes a topological transition from a strong topological insulator to a weak topological insulator at a finite temperature $T_D$. At $T_D$, massless Dirac points emerge and the Kondo lattice becomes a Dirac semimetal. Our analysis indicates that the emergent relativistic symmetry dictates non-trivial thermal responses over large parameter and temperature regimes. In particular, it yields critical scaling behaviors both in magnetic and transport responses near $T_D$.

cond-mat.str-el↗