arXiv subjects

Eduardo V. Castro

Publications and source records attributed to Eduardo V. Castro.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Temperature-driven gapless topological insulator

We investigate the phase diagram of the Haldane-Falicov-Kimball model -- a model combining topology, interactions and spontaneous disorder at finite temperatures. Using an unbiased numerical method, we map out the phase diagram on the interaction--temperature plane. Along with known phases, we unveil an \textit{insulating charge ordered state with gapless excitations }and a temperature-driven \textit{gapless topological insulating} phase. Intrinsic -- temperature generated -- disorder, is the key ingredient explaining the unexpected behavior. Our findings support the possibility of having temperature-driven topological phase transitions into gapped and gapless topological insulating phases in systems with a large mass unbalance in fermionic species.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Electronic spectral properties of incommensurate twisted trilayer graphene

Multilayered van der Waals structures often lack periodicity, which difficults their modeling. Building on previous work for bilayers, we develop a tight-binding based, momentum space formalism capable of describing incommensurate multilayered van der Waals structures for arbitrary lattice mismatch and/or misalignment between different layers. We demonstrate how the developed formalism can be used to model angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements, and scanning tunnelling spectroscopy which can probe the local and total density of states. The general method is then applied to incommensurate twisted trilayer graphene structures. It is found that the coupling between the three layers can significantly affect the low energy spectral properties, which cannot be simply attributed to the pairwise hybridization between the layers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

The Haldane model under quenched disorder

We study the half-filled Haldane model with Anderson and binary disorder and determine its phase diagram, as a function of the Haldane flux and staggered sub-lattice potential, for increasing disorder strength. We establish that disorder stabilizes topologically nontrivial phases in regions of the phase diagram where the clean limit is topologically trivial. At small disorder strength, our results agree with analytical predictions obtained using a first order self-consistent Born approximation, and extend to the intermediate and large disorder values where this perturbative approach fails. We further characterize the phases according to their gapless or gapped nature by determining the spectral weight at the Fermi level. We find that gapless topological nontrivial phases are supported for both Anderson and binary disorder. In the binary case, we find a reentrant topological phase where, starting from a trivial region, a topological transition occurs for increasing staggered potential $η$, followed by a second topological transition to the trivial phase for higher values of $η$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Symmetry Breaking and Lattice Kirigami

In this work we consider an interacting quantum field theory on a curved two-dimensional manifold that we construct by geometrically deforming a flat hexagonal lattice by the insertion of a defect. Depending on how the deformation is done, the resulting geometry acquires a locally non-vanishing curvature that can be either positive or negative. Fields propagating on this background are forced to satisfy boundary conditions modulated by the geometry and that can be assimilated by a non-dynamical gauge field. We present an explicit example where curvature and boundary conditions compete in altering the way symmetry breaking takes place, resulting in a surprising behaviour of the order parameter in the vicinity of the defect. The effect described here is expected to be generic and of relevance in a variety of situations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Valley polarized magnetic state in hole-doped mono layers of transition metal dichalcogenides

We compute the valley/magnetic phase diagram of mono layers of transition metal dichalcogenides in the hole doped region where spin-orbit effects are particularly relevant. Taking into account the moderate to high local electron-electron interactions due to the presence of transition metal atoms, we show that the system is unstable to an itinerant ferromagnetic phase where all charge carriers are spin and valley polarized. This phase shows an anomalous charge Hall and anomalous spin-Hall response, and may thus be detected experimentally.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Collapse of Landau levels in Weyl semimetals

It is known that in two dimensional relativistic Dirac systems, the Landau levels can collapse in the presence of a critical in plane electric field. We extend this mechanism to the three dimensional Weyl semimetals and analyze the physical consequences for the cases of both, real and pseudo Landau levels arising form strain induced elastic magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Strain manipulation of Majorana fermions in graphene armchair nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons with armchair edges are studied for externally enhanced, but realistic parameter values: enhanced Rashba spin-orbit coupling due to proximity to a transition metal dichalcogenide like WS$_{2}$, and enhanced Zeeman field due to exchange coupling with a magnetic insulator like EuS under applied magnetic field. The presence of s--wave superconductivity, induced either by proximity or by decoration with alkali metal atoms like Ca or Li, leads to a topological superconducting phase with Majorana end modes. The topological phase is highly sensitive to the application of uniaxial strain, with a transition to the trivial state above a critical strain well below $0.1\%$. This sensitivity allows for real space manipulation of Majorana fermions by applying non-uniform strain profiles. Similar manipulation is also possible by applying inhomogeneous Zeeman field or chemical potential.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

The Haldane model under nonuniform strain

We study the Haldane model under strain using a tight-binding approach, and compare the obtained results with the continuum-limit approximation. As in graphene, nonuniform strain leads to a time-reversal preserving pseudo-magnetic field that induces (pseudo) Landau levels. Unlike a real magnetic field, strain lifts the degeneracy of the zeroth pseudo Landau levels at different valleys. Moreover, for the zigzag edge under uniaxial strain, strain removes the degeneracy within the pseudo-Landau levels by inducing a tilt in their energy dispersion. The latter arises from next-to-leading order corrections to the continuum-limit Hamiltonian, which are absent for a real magnetic field. We show that, for the lowest pseudo-Landau levels in the Haldane model, the dominant contribution to the tilt is different from graphene. In addition, although strain does not strongly modify the dispersion of the edge states, their interplay with the pseudo-Landau levels is different for the armchair and zigzag ribbons. Finally, we study the effect of strain in the band structure of the Haldane model at the critical point of the topological transition, thus shedding light on the interplay between non-trivial topology and strain in quantum anomalous Hall systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Quantum dark soliton (qubits) in Bose Einstein condensates

We study the possibility of using dark soliton in quasi one dimensional Bose Einstein condensates to produce two level system (qubits) by exploiting the intrinsic nonlinear and the coherent nature of the matter waves. We calculate the soliton spectrum and the conditions for a qubit to exist. We also compute the coupling between the phonons and the soliton and investigate the emission rate of the qubits in that case. Remarkably, the qubit lifetime is estimated to be of the order of a few seconds, being by the dark soliton "death" due to quantum evaporation.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Raise and collapse of strain-induced pseudo-Landau levels in graphene

Lattice deformations couple to the low energy electronic excitations of graphene as vector fields similar to the electromagnetic potential \cite{SA02b,VKG10}. The suggestion that certain strain configurations would be able to induce pseudo landau levels in the spectrum of graphene \cite{GKG10,GGKN10}, and the subsequent experimental observation of these \cite{LBetal10} has been one of the most exciting events in an already fascinating field. It opened a new field of research "straintronics" linked to new applications, and had a strong influence on the physics of the new Dirac materials in two and three dimensions \cite{Amorim16}. The experimental observation of pseudo landau levels with scanning tunnel microscopy presents nevertheless some ambiguities. Similar strain patterns show different images sometimes difficult to interpret. In this work we strain the analogy of the pseudo versus real electromagnetic fields, as well as the fact that graphene has a relativistic behavior and show that, for some strain configurations, the deformation potential acts like a parallel electric field able to destabilize the Landau level structure via a mechanism identical to that described in \cite{LSB07,PC07} for real electromagnetic fields. The underlying physics is the combination of Maxwell electrodynamics and special relativity implying that different reference frames observe different electromagnetic fields \cite{LSB07}. The mechanism applies equally if the electric field has an external origin, which opens the door to an electric control of the giant pseudomagnetic fields in graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Strain induced topological phase transition at zigzag edges of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides

The effect of strain in zigzag ribbons of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides with induced superconductivity is studied using a minimal 3-band tight-binding model. The unstrained system shows a topological phase with Majorana zero modes localized at the boundaries of the one-dimensional (1D) zigzag edges. By direct inspection of the spectrum and wave functions we examine the evolution of the topological phase as an in-plane, uniaxial deformation is imposed. It is found that strain shifts the energy of 1D edge states, thus causing a topological phase transition which eliminates the Majorana modes. For realistic parameter values, we show that the effect of strain can be changed from completely destructive -- in which case a small built in strain is enough to destroy the topological phase -- to a situation where strain becomes an effective tuning parameter which can be used to manipulate Majorana zero modes. These two regimes are accessible by increasing the value of the applied Zeeman field within realistic values. We also study how strain effects are affected by the chemical potential, showing in particular how unwanted effects can be minimized. Finally, as a cross-check of the obtained results, we reveal the connection between 1D Majorana zero modes in the zigzag edge and the multi-band Berry phase, which serves as a topological invariant of this system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Anomalous Hall metals from strong disorder in class A systems on partite lattices

Topological matter is a trending topic in condensed matter: From a fundamental point of view it has introduced new phenomena and tools, and for technological applications, it holds the promise of basic stable quantum computing. Similarly, the physics of localization by disorder, an old paradigm of obvious technological importance in the field, continues revealing surprises when new properties of matter appear. This work deals with the localization behavior of electronic systems based on partite lattices with special attention to the role of topology. We find an unexpected result from the point of view of localization properties: A robust topological metallic state characterized by a non--quantized Hall conductivity arises from strong disorder in class A (time reversal symmetry broken) insulators. The key issue is the nature of the disorder realization: selective disorder in only one sublattice in systems based on bipartite lattices. The generality of the result is based on the partite nature of most recent 2D materials as graphene or transition metal dichalcogenides, and the possibility of the physical realization of the particular disorder demonstrated in ref. 1. An anomalous Hall metal arises also when the original clean insulator is topologically trivial.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Strain manipulation of Majorana fermions in graphene

The functionalized graphene with induced superconductivity, Zeeman coupling, and finite Rashba spin-orbit coupling is proposed to display topological superconducting phases with Majorana end modes. We obtain the phase diagram of bulk graphene and nanoribbon by calculating the Chern number, band structure and wavefunction. The electron doping in graphene, magnetic field and strain-induced pseudomagnetic field can result in the topological phase transition. Moreover, it is interested to note that strain has negative influence on the stability of topological nontrivial phase either uniform or nonuniform, destroying the existence of Majorana fermion, which provides a new way to transfer, create and fuse Majorana fermions. Some experimental schemes are also introduced to tailor functionalized graphene, generating various devices applied in topological quantum computation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Anderson localization and topological transition in Chern insulators

We analyse the topological transition and localization evolution of disordered two dimensional systems with non trivial topology based on bipartite lattices. Chern insulators with broken time reversal symmetry show non standard behavior for disorder realizations selectively distributed on only one of the sublattices. The Chern number survives to a much stronger disorder strength (one order of magnitude higher) than in the equally distributed disordered case and the final state in the strongly disordered case is metallic.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Chern band insulators in magnetic field

The effect of a magnetic field on a two-dimensional Chern band insulator is discussed. It is shown that, unlike the trivial insulator, an anomalous Hall insulator with Chern number $C$ becomes a metal when a magnetic field is applied at constant particle density, for any $C>0$. For a time reversal invariant topological insulator with a spin Chern resolved number, $C_\uparrow= - C_\downarrow=C$, the magnetic field induces a spin polarized spin Hall insulator. We consider also the effect of a superlattice potential and extend previous results for the quantization of the Hall conductance of filled Hofstadter bands to this problem.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Interaction driven phases in the honeycomb lattice from exact diagonalization

We investigate the fate of interaction driven phases in the half-filled honeycomb lattice for finite systems via exact diagonalization with nearest and next nearest neighbour interactions. We find evidence for a charge density wave phase, a Kekulé bond order and a sublattice charge modulated phase in agreement with previously reported mean-field phase diagrams. No clear sign of an interaction driven Chern insulator phase (Haldane phase) is found despite being predicted by the same mean-field analysis. We characterize these phases by their ground state degeneracy and by calculating charge order and bond order correlation functions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Hall conductivity as bulk signature of topological transitions in superconductors

Topological superconductors may undergo transitions between phases with different topological numbers which, like the case of topological insulators, are related to the presence of gapless (Majorana) edge states. In $\mathbb{Z}$ topological insulators the charge Hall conductivity is quantized, being proportional to the number of gapless states running at the edge. In a superconductor, however, charge is not conserved and, therefore, $σ_{xy}$ is not quantized, even in the case of a $\mathbb{Z}$ topological superconductor. Here it is shown that while the $σ_{xy}$ evolves continuously between different topological phases of a $\mathbb{Z}$ topological superconductor, its derivatives display sharp features signaling the topological transitions. We consider in detail the case of a triplet superconductor with p-wave symmetry in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and externally applied Zeeman spin splitting. Generalization to the cases where the pairing vector is not aligned with that of the SO coupling is given. We generalize also to the cases where the normal system is already topologically non-trivial.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Charge instabilities and topological phases in the extended Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice with enlarged unit cell

We study spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system of spinless fermions in the Honeycomb lattice paying special emphasis to the role of an enlarged unit cell on time reversal symmetry broken phases. We use a tight binding model with nearest neighbor hopping t and Hubbard interaction V1 and V2 and extract the phase diagram as a function of electron density and interaction within a mean field variational approach. The analysis completes the previous work done in Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 106402 (2011) where phases with non--trivial topological properties were found with only a nearest neighbor interaction V1 in the absence of charge decouplings. We see that the topological phases are suppressed by the presence of metallic charge density fluctuations. The addition of next to nearest neighbor interaction V2 restores the topological non-trivial phases.

cond-mat.str-el↗