arXiv subjects

Derek Y. H. Ho

Publications and source records attributed to Derek Y. H. Ho.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Dissipation-enabled hydrodynamic conductivity in a tunable bandgap semiconductor

Electronic transport in the regime where carrier-carrier collisions are the dominant scattering mechanism has taken on new relevance with the advent of ultraclean two-dimensional materials. Here we present a combined theoretical and experimental study of ambipolar hydrodynamic transport in bilayer graphene demonstrating that the conductivity is given by the sum of two Drude-like terms that describe relative motion between electrons and holes, and the collective motion of the electron-hole plasma. As predicted, the measured conductivity of gapless, charge-neutral bilayer graphene is sample- and temperature-independent over a wide range. Away from neutrality, the electron-hole conductivity collapses to a single curve, and a set of just four fitting parameters provides quantitative agreement between theory and experiment at all densities, temperatures, and gaps measured. This work validates recent theories for dissipation-enabled hydrodynamic conductivity and creates a link between semiconductor physics and the emerging field of viscous electronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Geometric control of universal hydrodynamic flow in a two dimensional electron fluid

Fluid dynamics is one of the cornerstones of modern physics and has recently found applications in the transport of electrons in solids. In most solids electron transport is dominated by extrinsic factors, such as sample geometry and scattering from impurities. However in the hydrodynamic regime Coulomb interactions transform the electron motion from independent particles to the collective motion of a viscous `electron fluid'. The fluid viscosity is an intrinsic property of the electron system, determined solely by the electron-electron interactions. Resolving the universal intrinsic viscosity is challenging, as it only affects the resistance through interactions with the sample boundaries, whose roughness is not only unknown but also varies from device to device. Here we eliminate all unknown parameters by fabricating samples with smooth sidewalls to achieve the perfect slip boundary condition, which has been elusive both in molecular fluids and electronic systems. We engineer the device geometry to create viscous dissipation and reveal the true intrinsic hydrodynamic properties of a 2D system. We observe a clear transition from ballistic to hydrodynamic electron motion, driven by both temperature and magnetic field. We directly measure the viscosity and electron-electron scattering lifetime (the Fermi quasiparticle lifetime) over a wide temperature range without fitting parameters, and show they have a strong dependence on electron density that cannot be explained by conventional theories based on the Random Phase Approximation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Carrier transport theory for twisted bilayer graphene in the metallic regime

Understanding the normal-metal state transport in twisted bilayer graphene near magic angle is of fundamental importance as it provides insights into the mechanisms responsible for the observed strongly correlated insulating and superconducting phases. Here we provide a rigorous theory for phonon-dominated transport in twisted bilayer graphene describing its unusual signatures in the resistivity (including the variation with electron density, temperature, and twist angle) showing good quantitative agreement with recent experiments. We contrast this with the alternative Planckian dissipation mechanism that we show is incompatible with available experimental data. An accurate treatment of the electron-phonon scattering requires us to go well beyond the usual treatment, including both interband and intraband processes, considering the finite-temperature dynamical screening of the electron-phonon matrix element, and going beyond the linear Dirac dispersion. In addition to explaining the observations in currently available experimental data, we make concrete predictions that can be tested in ongoing experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

First-principles quantum corrections for carrier correlations in double-layer two-dimensional heterostructures

We present systematic ab initio calculations of the charge carrier correlations between adjacent layers of two-dimensional materials in the presence of both charged impurity and strain disorder potentials using the examples of monolayer and bilayer graphene. For the first time, our analysis yields unambiguous first-principles quantum corrections to the Thomas--Fermi densities for interacting two-dimensional systems described by orbital-free density functional theory. Specifically, using density-potential functional theory, we find that quantum corrections to the quasi-classical Thomas-Fermi approximation have to be taken into account even for heterostructures of mesoscopic size. In order for the disorder-induced puddles of electrons and holes to be anti-correlated at zero average carrier density for both layers, the strength of the strain potential has to exceed that of the impurity potential by at least a factor of ten, with this number increasing for smaller impurity densities. Furthermore, our results show that quantum corrections have a larger impact on puddle correlations than exchange does, and they are necessary for properly predicting the experimentally observed Gaussian energy distribution at charge neutrality.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Microscopic theory for electron hydrodynamics in monolayer and bilayer graphene

Electrons behave like a classical fluid with a momentum distribution function that varies slowly in space and time when the quantum mechanical carrier-carrier scattering dominates over all other scattering processes. Recent experiments in monolayer and bilayer graphene have reported signatures of such hydrodynamic electron behavior in ultra-clean devices. In this theoretical work, starting from a microscopic treatment of electron-electron, electron-phonon and electron-impurity interactions within the Random Phase Approximation, we demonstrate that monolayer and bilayer graphene both host two different hydrodynamic regimes. We predict that the hydrodynamic window in bilayer graphene is stronger than in monolayer graphene, and has a characteristic `v-shape' as opposed to a `lung-shape'. Finally, we collapse experimental data onto a universal disorder-limited theory, thereby proving that the observed violation of Wiedemann-Franz law in monolayers occurs in a regime dominated by impurity-induced electron-hole puddles.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Theory of Coulomb Drag in Spatially Inhomogeneous Materials

Coulomb drag between parallel two-dimensional electronic layers is an excellent tool for the study of electron-electron interactions. In actual experiments, the layers display spatial charge density fluctuations due to imperfections such as external charged impurities. However, at present a systematic way of taking these inhomogeneities into account in drag calculations has been lacking, making the interpretation of experimental data problematic. On the other hand, there exists a highly successful and widely accepted formalism describing transport within single inhomogeneous layers known as effective medium theory. In this work, we generalize the standard effective medium theory to the case of Coulomb drag between two inhomogeneous sheets and demonstrate that inhomogeneity in the layers has a strong impact on drag transport. In the case of exciton condensation between the layers, we show that drag resistivity takes on a value determined by the amplitude of density fluctuation. Next we consider drag between graphene sheets, in which the existence of spatial charge density fluctuations is well-known. We show that these inhomogeneities play a crucial role in explaining existing experimental data. In particular, the temperature dependence of the experimentally observed peaks in drag resistivity can only be explained by taking the layer density fluctuations into account. We also propose a method of extracting information on the correlations between the inhomogeneities of the layers. The effective medium theory of Coulomb drag derived here is general and applies to all two-dimensional materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Topological Effects in Chiral Symmetric Driven Systems

Recent years have seen a strong interest in topological effects within periodically driven systems. In this work, we explore topological effects in two closely related 2-dimensional driven systems described by Floquet operators possessing chiral symmetry (CS). Our numerical and analytical results suggest the following. Firstly, the CS is associated with the existence of the anomalous counter-propagating (ACP) modes reported recently. Specifically, we show that a particular form of CS protects the ACP modes occurring at quasienergies of $\pm π$. We also find that these modes are only present along selected boundaries, suggesting that they are a weak topological effect. Secondly, we find that CS can give rise to protected $0$ and $π$ quasienergy modes, and that the number of these modes may increase without bound as we tune up certain system parameters. Like the ACP modes, these $0$ and $π$ modes also appear only along selected boundaries and thus appear to be a weak topological effect. To our knowledge, this work represents the first detailed study of weak topological effects in periodically driven systems. Our findings add to the still-growing knowledge on driven topological systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Aspects of Floquet Bands and Topological Phase Transitions in a Continuously Driven Superlattice

Recently the creation of novel topological states of matter by a periodic driving field has attracted great attention. To motivate further experimental and theoretical studies, we investigate interesting aspects of Floquet bands and topological phase transitions in a continuously driven Harper model. In such a continuously driven system with an odd number of Floquet bands, the bands are found to have nonzero Chern numbers in general and topological phase transitions take place as we tune various system parameters, such as the amplitude or the period of the driving field. The nontrivial Floquet band topology results in a quantized transport of Wannier states in the lattice space. For certain parameter choices, very flat yet topologically nontrivial Floquet bands may also emerge, a feature that is potentially useful for the simulation of physics of strongly correlated systems. Some cases with an even number of Floquet bands may also have intriguing Dirac cones in the spectrum. Under open boundary conditions, anomalous counter-propagating chiral edge modes and degenerate zero modes are also found as the system parameters are tuned. These results should be of experimental interest because a continuously driven system is easier to realize than a periodically kicked system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Kicked-Harper model vs On-Resonance Double Kicked Rotor Model: From Spectral Difference to Topological Equivalence

Recent studies have established that, in addition to the well-known kicked Harper model (KHM), an on-resonance double kicked rotor model (ORDKR) also has Hofstadter's butterfly Floquet spectrum, with strong resemblance to the standard Hofstadter's spectrum that is a paradigm in studies of the integer quantum Hall effect. Earlier it was shown that the quasi-energy spectra of these two dynamical models (i) can exactly overlap with each other if an effective Planck constant takes irrational multiples of 2*pi and (ii) will be different if the same parameter takes rational multiples of 2*pi. This work makes some detailed comparisons between these two models, with an effective Planck constant given by 2*pi M/N, where M and N are coprime and odd integers. It is found that the ORDKR spectrum (with two periodic kicking sequences having the same kick strength) has one flat band and $N-1$ non-flat bands whose largest width decays in power law as K to the power of N+2, where K is a kicking strength parameter. The existence of a flat band is strictly proven and the power law scaling, numerically checked for a number of cases, is also analytically proven for a three-band case. By contrast, the KHM does not have any flat band and its band width scales linearly with K. This is shown to result in dramatic differences in dynamical behavior, such as transient (but extremely long) dynamical localization in ORDKR, which is absent in KHM. Finally, we show that despite these differences, there exist simple extensions of KHM and ORDKR (upon introducing an additional periodic phase parameter) such that the resulting extended KHM and ORDKR are actually topologically equivalent, i.e., they yield exactly the same Floquet-band Chern numbers and display topological phase transitions at the same kick strengths. A theoretical derivation of this topological equivalence is provided.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2012

Quantized Adiabatic Transport in Momentum Space

Though topological aspects of energy bands are known to play a key role in quantum transport in solid-state systems, the implications of Floquet band topology for transport in momentum space (i.e., acceleration) are not explored so far. Using a ratchet accelerator model inspired by existing cold-atom experiments, here we characterize a class of extended Floquet bands of one-dimensional driven quantum systems by Chern numbers, reveal topological phase transitions therein, and theoretically predict the quantization of adiabatic transport in momentum space. Numerical results confirm our theory and indicate the feasibility of experimental studies.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗