arXiv subjects

Fengcheng Wu

Publications and source records attributed to Fengcheng Wu.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Spin-valley locked instabilities in moire transition metal dichalcogenides with conventional and higher-order Van Hove singularities

Recent experiments have observed correlated insulating and possible superconducting phases in twisted homobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Besides the spin-valley locked moire bands due to the intrinsic Ising spin-orbit coupling, homobilayer moire TMDs also possess either logarithmic or power-law divergent Van Hove singularities (VHS) near the Fermi surface, controllable by an external displacement field. The former and the latter are dubbed conventional and higher-order VHS, respectively. Here, we perform a perturbative renormalization group (RG) analysis to unbiasedly study the dominant instabilities in homobilayer TMDs for both the conventional and higher-order VHS cases. We find that the spin-valley locking largely alters the RG flows and leads to instabilities unexpected in the corresponding extensively-studied graphene-based moire systems, such as spin- and valley-polarized ferromagnetism and topological superconductivity with mixed parity. In particular, for the case with two higher-order VHS, we find a spin-valley-locking-driven metallic state with no symmetry breaking in the TMDs despite the diverging bare susceptibility. Our results show how the spin-valley locking significantly affects the RG analysis and demonstrate that moire TMDs are suitable platforms to realize various interaction-induced spin-valley locked phases, highlighting physics fundamentally different from the well-studied graphene-based moire systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Correlation-induced triplet pairing superconductivity in graphene-based moiré systems

Motivated by the possible non-spin-singlet superconductivity in the magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene experiment, we investigate the triplet-pairing superconductivity arising from a correlation-induced spin-fermion model on a honeycomb lattice. We find that the $f$-wave pairing is favored due to the valley-sublattice structure, and the superconducting state is time-reversal symmetric, fully gapped, and non-topological. With a small in-plane magnetic field, the superconducting state becomes partially polarized, and the transition temperature can be slightly enhanced. Our results apply qualitatively for the triplet-pairing superconductivity in graphene-based moiré systems, which is fundamentally distinct from triplet superconductivity in $^3$He and ferromagnetic superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Van der Waals Heterostructure Polaritons with moiré-Induced Nonlinearity

Controlling matter-light interactions with cavities is of fundamental importance in modern science and technology. It is exemplified in the strong-coupling regime, where matter-light hybrid modes form, with properties controllable via the photon component on the optical-wavelength scale. In contrast, matter excitations on the nanometer scale are harder to access. In two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures, a tunable moiré lattice potential for electronic excitations may form, enabling correlated electron gases in lattice potentials. Excitons confined in moiré lattices have also been reported, but cooperative effects have been elusive and interactions with light have remained perturbative. Here, integrating MoSe$_{2}$-WS$_{2}$ heterobilayers in a microcavity, we establish cooperative coupling between moiré-lattice excitons and microcavity photons up to liquid-nitrogen temperature, thereby integrating into one platform versatile control over both matter and light. The density dependence of the moiré polaritons reveals strong nonlinearity due to exciton blockade, suppressed exciton energy shift, and suppressed excitation-induced dephasing, all of which are consistent with the quantum-confined nature of the moiré excitons. Such a moiré polariton system combines strong nonlinearity and microscopic-scale tuning of matter excitations with the power of cavity engineering and long range coherence of light, providing a new platform for collective phenomena from tunable arrays of quantum emitters.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Acoustic-phonon-mediated superconductivity in rhombohedral trilayer graphene

Motivated by the observation of two distinct superconducting phases in the moiréless ABC-stacked rhombohedral trilayer graphene, we investigate the electron-acoustic-phonon coupling as a possible pairing mechanism. We predict the existence of superconductivity with the highest $T_c\sim 3$K near the Van Hove singularity. Away from the Van Hove singularity, $T_c$ remains finite in a wide range of doping. In our model, the $s$-wave spin-singlet and $f$-wave spin-triplet pairings yield the same $T_c$, while other pairing states have negligible $T_c$. Our theory provides a simple explanation for the two distinct superconducting phases in the experiment and suggests that superconductivity and other interaction-driven phases (e.g., ferromagnetism) can have different origins.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Charge density wave and finite-temperature transport in minimally twisted bilayer graphene

We study phenomena driven by electron-electron interactions in the minimally twisted bilayer graphene (mTBLG) with a perpendicular electric field. The low-energy degrees of freedom in mTBLG are governed by a network of one-dimensional domain-wall states, described by two channels of one-dimensional linearly dispersing spin-1/2 fermions. We show that the interaction can realize a spin-gapped inter-channel charge density wave (CDW) state at low temperatures, forming a "Coulomb drag" between the channels and leaving only one charge conducting mode. For sufficiently high temperatures, power-law-in-temperature resistivity emerges from the charge umklapp scatterings within a domain wall. Remarkably, the presence of the CDW states can strengthen the charge umklapp scattering and induce a resistivity minimum at an intermediate temperature corresponding to the CDW correlation energy. We further discuss the conditions that resistivity of the network is dominated by the domain walls. In particular, the power-law-in-temperature resistivity results can apply to other systems that manifest topological domain-wall structures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Phase Diagram of a Moiré-Hubbard Model

We theoretically study a generalized Hubbard model on moiré superlattices of twisted bilayers, and find very rich filling-factor-dependent quantum phase diagrams tuned by interaction strength and twist angle. Strong long-range Coulomb interaction in the moiré-Hubbard model induces Wigner crystals at a series of fractional filling factors. The effective lattice of the Wigner crystal is controlled by the filling factor, and can be triangle, rectangle, honeycomb, kagome, etc, providing a single platform to realize many different spin models on various lattices by simply tuning carrier density. In addition to Wigner crystals that are topologically trivial, interaction-induced Chern insulators emerge in the phase diagram. This finding paves a way for engineering interaction-induced quantum anomalous Hall effect in moiré-Hubbard systems where the corresponding single-particle moiré band is topologically trivial.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Geometry and Stability of Moiré Flatband Ferromagnetism

Several moiré systems created by various twisted bilayers have manifested magnetism under flatband conditions leading to enhanced interaction effects. We theoretically study stability of moiré flatband ferromagnetism against collective excitations, with a focus on the effects of Bloch band quantum geometry. The spin magnon spectrum is calculated using different approaches, including Bethe-Salpeter equation, single mode approximation, and an analytical theory. One of our main results is an analytical expression for the spin stiffness in terms of the Coulomb interaction potential, the Berry curvatures, and the quantum metric tensor, where the last two quantities characterize the quantum geometry of moiré bands. This analytical theory shows that Berry curvatures play an important role in stiffening the spin magnons. Furthermore, we construct an effective field theory for the magnetization fluctuations, and show explicitly that skyrmion excitations bind an integer number of electrons that is proportional to the Bloch band Chern number and the skyrmion winding number.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Higgs modes in two-dimensional spatially-indirect exciton condensates

Higgs modes in condensed matter physics have drawn attention because of analogies to the Higgs bosons of particle physics. Here we use a microscopic time-dependent mean-field theory to study the collective mode spectra of two-dimensional spatially indirect exciton (electron-hole pair) condensates, focusing on the Higgs modes, i.e., those that have a large weight in electron-hole pair amplitude response functions. We find that in the low exciton density (BEC) limit, the dominant Higgs modes of spatially indirect exciton condensates correspond to adding electron-hole pairs that are orthogonal to the condensed pair state. We comment on the previously studied Higgs-like collective excitations of superconductors in light of this finding.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Hofstadter butterfly and Floquet topological insulators in minimally twisted bilayer graphene

We theoretically study the Hofstadter butterfly of a triangular network model in minimally twisted bilayer graphene (mTBLG). The band structure manifests periodicity in energy, mimicking that of Floquet systems. The butterfly diagrams provide fingerprints of the model parameters and reveal the hidden band topology. In a strong magnetic field, we establish that mTBLG realizes low-energy Floquet topological insulators (FTIs) carrying zero Chern number, while hosting chiral edge states in bulk gaps. We identify the FTIs by analyzing the nontrivial spectral flow in the Hofstadter butterfly, and by explicitly computing the chiral edge states. Our theory paves the way for an effective practical realization of FTIs in equilibrium solid state systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Topological superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and valley-polarized phases in moire systems: Renormalization group analysis for twisted double bilayer graphene

Recent experiments have observed possible spin- and valley-polarized insulators and spin-triplet superconductivity in twisted double bilayer graphene, a moire structure consisting of a pair of Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene. Besides the continuously tunable band widths controlled by an applied displacement field and twist angle, these moire bands also possess van Hove singularities near the Fermi surface and a field-dependent nesting which is far from perfect. Here we carry out a perturbative renormalization group analysis to unbiasedly study the competition among all possible instabilities in twisted double bilayer graphene and related systems with a similar van Hove fermiology in the presence of weak but finite repulsive interactions. Our key finding is that there are several competing magnetic, valley, charge, and superconducting instabilities arising from interactions in twisted double bilayer graphene, which can be tuned by controlling the displacement field and the twist angle. In particular, we show that spin- or valley-polarized uniform instabilities generically dominate under moderate interactions smaller than the band width, whereas $p$-wave spin-triplet topological superconductivity and exotic spin-singlet modulated paired state become important as the interactions decrease. Realization of our findings in general moire systems with a similar van Hove fermiology should open up new opportunities for manipulating topological superconductivity and spin- or valley-polarized states in highly tunable platforms.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Band topology, Hubbard model, Heisenberg model, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in twisted bilayer WSe$_2$

We present a theoretical study of single-particle and many-body properties of twisted bilayer WSe$_2$. For single-particle physics, we calculate the band topological phase diagram and electron local density of states (LDOS), which are found to be correlated. By comparing our theoretical LDOS with those measured by scanning tunneling microscopy, we comment on the possible topological nature of the first moiré valence band. For many-body physics, we construct a generalized Hubbard model on a triangular lattice based on the calculated single-particle moiré bands. We show that a layer potential difference, arising, for example, from an applied electric field, can drastically change the non-interacting moiré bands, tune the spin-orbit coupling in the Hubbard model, control the charge excitation gap of the Mott insulator at half filling, and generate an effective Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the effective Heisenberg model for the Mott insulator. Our theoretical results agree with transport experiments on the same system in several key aspects, and establish twisted bilayer WSe$_2$ as a highly tunable system for studying and simulating strongly correlated phenomena in the Hubbard model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Phonon scattering induced carrier resistivity in twisted double bilayer graphene

In this work we carry out a theoretical study of the phonon-induced resistivity in twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG), in which two Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene devices are rotated relative to each other by a small angle $θ$. We show that at small twist angles ($θ\sim 1^\circ$) the effective mass of the TDBG system is greatly enhanced, leading to a drastically increased phonon-induced resistivity in the high-temperature limit where phonon scattering leads to a linearly increasing resistivity with increasing temperature. We also discuss possible implications of our theory on superconductivity in such a system, and provide an order of magnitude estimation of the superconducting transition temperature.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Giant anomalous Hall effect in quasi-two-dimensional layered antiferromagnet Co$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$

The discovery of the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in bulk metallic antiferromagnets (AFMs) motivates the search of the same phenomenon in two-dimensional (2D) systems, where a quantized anomalous Hall conductance can in principle be observed. Here, we present experiments on micro-fabricated devices based on Co$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$, a layered AFM that was recently found to exhibit AHE in bulk crystals below the Néel temperature T$_N$ = 29 K. Transport measurements reveal a pronounced resistivity anisotropy, indicating that upon lowering temperature the electronic coupling between individual atomic layers is increasingly suppressed. The experiments also show an extremely large anomalous Hall conductivity of approximately 400 S/cm, more than one order of magnitude larger than in the bulk, which demonstrates the importance of studying the AHE in small exfoliated crystals, less affected by crystalline defects. Interestingly, the corresponding anomalous Hall conductance, when normalized to the number of contributing atomic planes, is $\sim \, 0.6 \; e^2/h$ per layer, approaching the value expected for the quantized anomalous Hall effect. The observed strong anisotropy of transport and the very large anomalous Hall conductance per layer make the properties of Co$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$ compatible with the presence of partially filled topologically non-trivial 2D bands originating from the magnetic superstructure of the antiferromagnetic state. Isolating atomically thin layers of this material and controlling their charge density may therefore provide a viable route to reveal the occurrence of the quantized AHE in a 2D AFM.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Electron-phonon and electron-electron interaction effects in twisted bilayer graphene

By comparing with recently available experimental data from several groups, we critically discuss the manifestation of continuum many body interaction effects in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) with small twist angles and low carrier densities, which arise naturally within the Dirac cone approximation for the non-interacting band structure. We provide two specific examples of such continuum many body theories: one involving electron-phonon interaction and one involving electron-electron interaction. In both cases, the experimental findings are only partially quantitatively consistent with rather clear-cut leading-order theoretical predictions based on well-established continuum many body theories. We provide a critical discussion, based mainly on the currently available tBLG experimental data, on possible future directions for understanding many body renormalization involving electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions in the system. One definitive conclusion based on the comparison between theory and experiment is that the leading order 1-loop perturbative renormalization group theory completely fails to account for the electron-electron interaction effects in the strong-coupling limit of flatband moiré tBLG system near the magic twist angle even at low doping where the Dirac cone approximation should apply. By contrast, approximate nonperturbative theoretical results based on Borel-Padé resummation or $1/N$ expansion seems to work well compared with experiments, indicating rather small interaction corrections to Fermi velocity or carrier effective mass. For electron-phonon interactions, however, the leading-order continuum theory works well except when van Hove singularities in the density of states come into play.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Three-Dimensional Topological Twistronics

We introduce a theoretical framework for the new concept of three-dimensional (3D) twistronics by developing a generalized Bloch band theory for 3D layered systems with a constant twist angle $θ$ between successive layers. Our theory employs a nonsymmorphic symmetry that enables a precise definition of an effective out-of-plane crystal momentum, and also captures the in-plane moiré pattern formed between neighboring twisted layers. To demonstrate the novel topological physics that can be achieved through 3D twistronics, we present two examples. In the first example of chiral twisted graphite, Weyl nodes arise because of inversion-symmetry breaking, with $θ$-tuned transitions between type-I and type-II Weyl fermions, as well as magic angles at which the in-plane velocity vanishes. In the second example of twisted Weyl semimetal, the twist in the lattice structure induces a chiral gauge field $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{A}}$ that has a vortex-antivortex lattice configuration. Line modes bound to the vortex cores of the $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{A}}$ field give rise to 3D Weyl physics in the moiré scale. We also discuss possible experimental realizations of 3D twistronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Ferromagnetism and superconductivity in twisted double bilayer graphene

We present a theory of competing ferromagnetic and superconducting orders in twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG). In our theory, ferromagnetism is induced by Coulomb repulsion, while superconductivity with intervalley equal-spin pairing can be mediated by electron-acoustic phonon interactions. We calculate the transition temperatures for ferromagnetism and superconductivity as a function of moiré band filling factor, and find that superconducting domes can appear on both the electron and hole sides of the ferromagnetic insulator at half filling. We show that the ferromagnetic insulating gap has a dome shape dependence on the layer potential difference, which provides an explanation to the experimental observation that the ferromagnetic insulator only develops over a finite range of external displacement field. We also verify the stability of the half-filled ferromagnetic insulator against two types of collective excitations, i.e., spin magnons and valley magnons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Moiré lattice-induced formation and tuning of hybrid dipolar excitons in twisted WS$_2$/MoSe$_2$ heterobilayers

Moiré superlattices formed in van der Waals bilayers have enabled the creation and manipulation of new quantum states, as is exemplified by the discovery of superconducting and correlated insulating states in twisted bilayer graphene near the magic angle. Twisted bilayer semiconductors may lead to tunable exciton lattices and topological states, yet signatures of moiré excitons have been reported only in closely angularly-aligned bilayers. Here we report tuning of moiré lattice in WS$_{2}$ /MoSe$_{2}$ bilayers over a wide range of twist angles, leading to the continuous tuning of moiré lattice induced interlayer excitons and their hybridization with optically bright intralayer excitons. A pronounced revival of the hybrid excitons takes place near commensurate twist angles, 21.8°and 38.2°, due to interlayer tunneling between states connected by a moiré reciprocal lattice vector. From the angle dependence, we obtain the effective mass of the interlayer excitons and the electron inter-layer tunneling strength. These findings pave the way for understanding and engineering rich moiré-lattice induced phenomena in angle-twisted semiconductor van dar Waals heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Collective Excitations of Quantum Anomalous Hall Ferromagnets in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

We present a microscopic theory for collective excitations of quantum anomalous Hall ferromagnets (QAHF) in twisted bilayer graphene. We calculate the spin magnon and valley magnon spectra by solving Bethe-Salpeter equations, and verify the stability of QAHF. We extract the spin stiffness from the gapless spin wave dispersion, and estimate the energy cost of a skyrmion-antiskyrmion pair, which is found to be comparable in energy with the Hartree-Fock gap. The valley wave mode is gapped, implying that the valley polarized state is more favorable compared to the valley coherent state. Using a nonlinear sigma model, we estimate the valley ordering temperature, which is considerably reduced from the mean-field transition temperature due to thermal excitations of valley waves.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗