arXiv subjects

Fan Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Fan Zhang.

At least 919 records · Page 51Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Observation of Valley Zeeman and Quantum Hall Effects at Q Valley of Few-Layer Transition Metal Disulfides

In few-layer (FL) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC), the conduction bands along the Gamma-K directions shift downward energetically in the presence of interlayer interactions, forming six Q valleys related by three-fold rotational symmetry and time reversal symmetry. In even-layers the extra inversion symmetry requires all states to be Kramers degenerate, whereas in odd-layers the intrinsic inversion asymmetry dictates the Q valleys to be spin-valley coupled. In this Letter, we report the transport characterization of prominent Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH) oscillations for the Q valley electrons in FL transition metal disulfide (TMDs), as well as the first quantum Hall effect (QHE) in TMDCs. Our devices exhibit ultrahigh field-effect mobilities (~16,000 cm2V-1s-1 for FL WS2 and ~10,500 cm2V-1s-1 for FL MoS2) at cryogenic temperatures. Universally in the SdH oscillations, we observe a valley Zeeman effect in all odd-layer TMD devices and a spin Zeeman effect in all even-layer TMD devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Reply to "On the branching of quasinormal resonances of near-extremal Kerr black holes" by Shahar Hod

In a study of the quasinormal mode frequencies of nearly extremal black holes, we pointed out a bifurcation of the mode spectrum into modes with finite decay and modes with vanishing decay in the extremal limit. We provided analytic and semi-analytic results identifying which families of modes bifurcated, and when modes with finite decay rates exist when approaching the extremal limit. In a recent note (arXiv:1510.05604), Hod suggests that additional modes asymptote to finite decay at extremely high spin parameter, based on past work by Detweiler. We search for these suggested modes and find no evidence of their existence. In addition, we point out an inconsistency in the derivation of the proposed modes, which further indicates that these damped modes do not exist.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Weak Topological Insulators and Composite Weyl Semimetals: $β$-Bi$_{4}$X$_{4}$ (X=Br, I)

While strong topological insulators (STI) have been experimentally realized soon after their theoretical predictions, a weak topological insulator (WTI) has yet to be unambiguously confirmed. A major obstacle is the lack of distinct natural cleavage surfaces to test the surface selective hallmark of WTI. With a new scheme, we discover that Bi$_{4}$X$_{4}$ (X=Br, I), stable or synthesized before, can be WTI with two natural cleavage surfaces, where two anisotropic Dirac cones stabilize and annihilate, respectively. We further find four surface state Lifshitz transitions under charge doping and two bulk topological phase transitions under uniaxial strain. Near the WTI-STI transition, there emerges a novel Weyl semimetal phase, in which the Fermi arcs generically appear at both cleavage surfaces whereas the Fermi circle only appears at one selected surface.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Critical Behavior of Four-Terminal Conductance of Bilayer Graphene Domain Walls

Bilayer graphene in a perpendicular electric field can host domain walls between regions of reversed field direction or interlayer stacking. The gapless modes propagating along these domain walls, while not strictly topological, nevertheless have interesting physical properties, including valley-momentum locking. A junction where two domain walls intersect forms the analogue of a quantum point contact. We study theoretically the critical behavior of this junction near the pinch-off transition, which is controlled by two separate classes of non-trivial quantum critical points. For strong interactions, the junction can host phases of unique charge and valley conductances. For weaker interactions, the low-temperature charge conductance can undergo one of two possible quantum phase transitions, each characterized by a specific critical exponent and a collapse to a universal scaling function, which we compute.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Stability of exact force-free electrodynamic solutions and scattering from spacetime curvature

Recently, a family of exact force-free electrodynamic (FFE) solutions was given by Brennan, Gralla and Jacobson, which generalizes earlier solutions by Michel, Menon and Dermer, and other authors. These solutions have been proposed as useful models for describing the outer magnetosphere of conducting stars. As with any exact analytical solution that aspires to describe actual physical systems, it is vitally important that the solution possess the necessary stability. In this paper, we show via fully nonlinear numerical simulations that the aforementioned FFE solutions, despite being highly special in their properties, are nonetheless stable under small perturbations. Through this study, we also introduce a three-dimensional pseudospectral relativistic FFE code that achieves exponential convergence for smooth test cases, as well as two additional well-posed FFE evolution systems in the appendix that have desirable mathematical properties. Furthermore, we provide an explicit analysis that demonstrates how propagation along degenerate principal null directions of the spacetime curvature tensor simplifies scattering, thereby providing an intuitive understanding of why these exact solutions are tractable, i.e. why they are not backscattered by spacetime curvature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

SU(3) Quantum Hall Ferromagnetism in SnTe

The (111) surface of SnTe hosts one isotropic $\barΓ$-centered and three degenerate anisotropic $\bar{M}$- centered Dirac surface states. We predict that a nematic phase with spontaneously broken $C_3$ symmetry will occur in the presence of an external magnetic field when the $N=0$ $\bar{M}$ Landau levels are $1/3$ or $2/3$ filled. The nematic state phase boundary is controlled by a competition between intravalley Coulomb interactions that favor a valley-polarized state, and weaker intervalley scattering processes that increase in relative strength with magnetic field. An in-plane Zeeman field alters the phase diagram by lifting the three-fold $\bar{M}$ Landau level degeneracy, yielding a ground state energy with $2π/3$ periodicity as a function of Zeeman-field orientation angle.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Magnetosphere of a Kerr black hole immersed in magnetized plasma and its perturbative mode structure

This work studies jet-like electromagnetic configurations surrounding a slowly-spinning black-hole immersed in a uniformly magnetized force-free plasma. In the first part of this work, we present a family of stationary solutions that are jet-capable. While these solutions all satisfy the force-free equations and the appropriate boundary conditions, our numerical experiments show a unique relaxed state starting from different initial data, and so one member of the family is likely preferred over the others. In the second part of this work, we analyze the perturbations of this family of jet-like solutions, and show that the perturbative modes exhibit a similar split into the trapped and traveling categories previously found for perturbed Blandford-Znajek solutions. In the eikonal limit, the trapped modes can be identified with the fast magnetosonic waves in the force-free plasma and the traveling waves are essentially the Alfven waves. Moreover, within the scope of our analysis, we have not seen signs of unstable modes at the light-crossing timescale of the system, within which the numerical relaxation process occurs. This observation disfavors mode instability as the selection mechanism for picking out a preferred solution. Consequently, our analytical study is unable to definitively select a particular solution out of the family to serve as the aforementioned preferred final state. This remains an interesting open problem.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Spin-orbit-free Weyl-loop and Weyl-point semimetals in a stable three-dimensional carbon allotrope

Topological band theory has revolutionized our understanding of electronic structure of materials, in particular, a novel state - Weyl semimetal - has been predicted for systems with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Here, a new class of Weyl semimetals, solely made of light elements with negligible SOC, is proposed. Our first-principles calculations show that conjugated p orbital interactions in a three-dimensional pure carbon network, termed interpenetrated graphene network, is sufficient to produce the same Weyl physics. This carbon allotrope has an exceptionally good structural stability. Its Fermi surface consists of two symmetry-protected Weyl loops with linear dispersion along perpendicular directions. Upon the breaking of inversion symmetry, each Weyl loop is reduced to a pair of Weyl points. The surface band of the network is nearly flat with a very large density of states at the Fermi level. It is reduced to Fermi arcs upon the symmetry breaking, as expected.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Dynamic Power Control for Delay-Aware Device-to-Device Communications

In this paper, we consider the dynamic power control for delay-aware D2D communications. The stochastic optimization problem is formulated as an infinite horizon average cost Markov decision process. To deal with the curse of dimensionality, we utilize the interference filtering property of the CSMA-like MAC protocol and derive a closed-form approximate priority function and the associated error bound using perturbation analysis. Based on the closed-form approximate priority function, we propose a low-complexity power control algorithm solving the per-stage optimization problem. The proposed solution is further shown to be asymptotically optimal for a sufficiently large carrier sensing distance. Finally, the proposed power control scheme is compared with various baselines through simulations, and it is shown that significant performance gain can be achieved.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2015

Coupled Oscillator Model for Nonlinear Gravitational Perturbations

Motivated by the gravity/fluid correspondence, we introduce a new method for characterizing nonlinear gravitational interactions. Namely we map the nonlinear perturbative form of the Einstein equation to the equations of motion of a collection of nonlinearly-coupled harmonic oscillators. These oscillators correspond to the quasinormal or normal modes of the background spacetime. We demonstrate the mechanics and the utility of this formalism within the context of perturbed asymptotically anti-de Sitter black brane spacetimes. We confirm in this case that the boundary fluid dynamics are equivalent to those of the hydrodynamic quasinormal modes of the bulk spacetime. We expect this formalism to remain valid in more general spacetimes, including those without a fluid dual. In other words, although borne out of the gravity/fluid correspondence, the formalism is fully independent and it has a much wider range of applicability. In particular, as this formalism inspires an especially transparent physical intuition, we expect its introduction to simplify the often highly technical analytical exploration of nonlinear gravitational dynamics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Chirality Hall Effect in Weyl Semimetals

We generalize a semiclassical theory and use the argument of angular momentum conservation to examine the ballistic transport in lightly-doped Weyl semimetals, taking into account various phase-space Berry curvatures. We predict universal transverse shifts of the wave-packet center in transmission and reflection, perpendicular to the direction in which the Fermi energy or velocities change adiabatically. The anomalous shifts are opposite for electrons with different chirality, and can be made imbalanced by breaking inversion symmetry. We discuss how to utilize local gates, strain effects, and circularly polarized lights to generate and probe such a chirality Hall effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Perfect Valley Filter in Topological Domain Wall

We propose a realization of perfect valley filters based on the chiral domain-wall channels between a quantum anomalous Hall insulator and a quantum valley Hall insulator. Uniquely, all these channels reside in the same valley and propagate unidirectionally, $100\%$ valley-polarizing passing-by carriers without backscattering. The valley index, the chirality, and the number of the channels are protected by topological charges, controllable by external fields, and detectable by circular dichroism.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

$(111)$ surface states of SnTe

The characterization and applications of topological insulators depend critically on their protected surface states, which, however, can be obscured by the presence of trivial dangling bond states. Our first principle calculations show that this is the case for the pristine $(111)$ surface of SnTe. Yet, the predicted surface states unfold when the dangling bond states are passivated in proper chemisorption. We further extract the anisotropic Fermi velocities, penetration lengths and anisotropic spin textures of the unfolded $\barΓ$- and $\bar M$-surface states, which are consistent with the theory in http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.081303 Phys. Rev. B 86, 081303 (R). More importantly, this chemisorption scheme provides an external control of the relative energies of different Dirac nodes, which is particularly desirable in multi-valley transport.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Stability of Force-Free Magnetospheres

We analyze the dynamical evolution of a perturbed force-free magnetosphere of a rotating black hole, which is described by the Blandford-Znajek solution in the stationary limit. We find that the electromagnetic field perturbations can be classified into two categories: "trapped modes" and "traveling waves". The trapped modes are analogous to the vacuum (without plasma) electromagnetic quasinormal modes in rotating black hole spacetimes, but with different eigenfrequencies and wave functions, due to their coupling with the background electromagnetic field and current. The traveling waves propagate freely to infinity or the black hole horizon along specific null directions, and they are closely related to the no-scattering Poynting flux solutions discovered by Brennan, Gralla and Jacobson. Our results suggest that the Blandford-Znajek solution is mode stable, and more importantly we expect this study to illuminate the dynamical behavior of force-free magnetospheres as well as to shed light on the path to new exact solutions.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Buckled honeycomb lattice and unconventional magnetic response

We study the magnetic response of buckled honeycomb-lattice materials. The buckling breaks the sublattice symmetry, enhances the spin-orbit coupling, and allows the tuning of a topological quantum phase transition. As a result, there are two doubly degenerate spin-valley coupled massive Dirac bands, which exhibit an unconventional Hall plateau sequence under strong magnetic fields. We show how to externally control the splitting of anomalous zeroth Landau levels, the prominent Landau level crossing effects, and the polarizations of spin, valley, and sublattice degrees of freedom. In particular, we reveal that in a p-n junction, spin-resolved fractionally quantized conductance appears in a two-terminal measurement with a spin-polarized current propagating along the interface. In the low-field regime where the Landau quantization is not applicable, we provide a semiclassical description for the anomalous Hall transport. We comment briefly on the effects of electron-electron interactions and Zeeman couplings to electron spins and to atomic orbitals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Closed-Form Delay-Optimal Power Control for Energy Harvesting Wireless System with Finite Energy Storage

In this paper, we consider delay-optimal power control for an energy harvesting wireless system with finite energy storage. The wireless system is powered solely by a renewable energy source with bursty data arrivals, and is characterized by a data queue and an energy queue. We consider a delay-optimal power control problem and formulate an infinite horizon average cost Markov Decision Process (MDP). To deal with the curse of dimensionality, we introduce a virtual continuous time system and derive closed-form approximate priority functions for the discrete time MDP at various operating regimes. Based on the approximation, we obtain an online power control solution which is adaptive to the channel state information as well as the data and energy queue state information. The derived power control solution has a multi-level water-filling structure, where the water level is determined jointly by the data and energy queue lengths. We show through simulations that the proposed scheme has significant performance gain compared with various baselines.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2014

Atomic Scale Investigation of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells_Interface Structure and Dynamics

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC), built upon organic/inorganic hybrid materials, are promising third generation solar cells, which attract wide attentions due to their low-cost, flexibility and environment-friendly properties. We review recent progresses in DSC research, focusing on atomic-scale investigations of the interface electronic structures and dynamical processes, including dye adsorption structure onto TiO2, ultrafast electron injection, hot-electron injection, multiple-exciton generation and electron-hole recombination. We briefly summarize advanced experimental techniques and theoretical approaches investigating these interface electronic properties and dynamics, and then introduce progressive achievements in the photovoltaic device optimization based on insights obtained from atomic scale investigations. Finally, some challenges and opportunities for further improvement of dye solar cells are presented.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Real-time Decolorization using Dominant Colors

Decolorization is the process to convert a color image or video to its grayscale version, and it has received great attention in recent years. An ideal decolorization algorithm should preserve the original color contrast as much as possible. Meanwhile, it should provide the final decolorized result as fast as possible. However, most of the current methods are suffering from either unsatisfied color information preservation or high computational cost, limiting their application value. In this paper, a simple but effective technique is proposed for real-time decolorization. Based on the typical rgb2gray() color conversion model, which produces a grayscale image by linearly combining R, G, and B channels, we propose a dominant color hypothesis and a corresponding distance measurement metric to evaluate the quality of grayscale conversion. The local optimum scheme provides several "good" candidates in a confidence interval, from which the "best" result can be extracted. Experimental results demonstrate that remarkable simplicity of the proposed method facilitates the process of high resolution images and videos in real-time using a common CPU.

cs.GR↗