arXiv subjects

Giovanni Viola

Publications and source records attributed to Giovanni Viola.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

Graphene plasmons: impurities and nonlocal effects

This work analyses how impurities and vacancies on the surface of a graphene sample affect its optical conductivity and plasmon excitations. The disorder is analysed in the self-consistent Green's function formulation and nonlocal effects are fully taken into account. It is shown that impurities modify the linear spectrum and give rise to an impurity band whose position and width depend on the two parameters of our model, the density and the strength of impurities. The presence of the impurity band strongly influences the electromagnetic response and the plasmon losses. Furthermore, we discuss how the impurity-band position can be obtained experimentally from the plasmon dispersion relation and discuss this in the context of sensing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Current-controlled light scattering and asymmetric plasmon propagation in graphene

We demonstrate that plasmons in graphene can be manipulated using a DC current. A source-drain current lifts the forward/backward degeneracy of the plasmons, creating two modes with different propagation properties parallel and antiparallel to the current. We show that the propagation length of the plasmon propagating parallel to the drift current is enhanced, while the propagation length for the antiparallel plasmon is suppressed. We also investigate the scattering of light off graphene due to the plasmons in a periodic dielectric environment and we find that the plasmon resonance separates in two peaks corresponding to the forward and backward plasmon modes. The narrower linewidth of the forward propagating plasmon may be of interest for refractive index sensing and the DC current control could be used for the modulation of mid-infrared electromagnetic radiation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

High-sensitivity plasmonic refractive index sensing using graphene

We theoretically demonstrate a high-sensitivity, graphene-plasmon based refractive index sensor working in the mid-infrared at room temperature. The bulk figure of merit of our sensor reaches values above $10$, but the key aspect of our proposed plasmonic sensor is its surface sensitivity which we examine in detail. We have used realistic values regarding doping level and electron relaxation time, which is the limiting factor for the sensor performance. Our results show quantitatively the high performance of graphene-plasmon based refractive index sensors working in the mid-infrared.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Optical signatures of nonlocal plasmons in graphene

We theoretically investigate under which conditions nonlocal plasmon response in monolayer graphene can be detected. To this purpose, we study optical scattering off graphene plasmon resonances coupled using a subwavelength dielectric grating. We compute the graphene conductivity using the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) obtaining a nonlocal conductivity and we calculate the optical scattering of the graphene-grating structure. We then compare this with the scattering amplitudes obtained if graphene is modeled by the local RPA conductivity commonly used in the literature. We find that the graphene plasmon wavelength calculated from the local model may deviate up to $20\%$ from the more accurate nonlocal model in the small-wavelength (large-$q$) regime. We also find substantial differences in the scattering amplitudes obtained from the two models. However, these differences in response are pronounced only for small grating periods and low temperatures compared to the Fermi temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Dicke simulators with emergent collective quantum computational abilities

Using an approach inspired from Spin Glasses, we show that the multimode disordered Dicke model is equivalent to a quantum Hopfield network. We propose variational ground states for the system at zero temperature, which we conjecture to be exact in the thermodynamic limit. These ground states contain the information on the disordered qubit-photon couplings. These results lead to two intriguing physical implications. First, once the qubit-photon couplings can be engineered, it should be possible to build scalable pattern-storing systems whose dynamics is governed by quantum laws. Second, we argue with an example how such Dicke quantum simulators might be used as a solver of "hard" combinatorial optimization problems.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2014

Hall Effect Gyrators and Circulators

The electronic circulator, and its close relative the gyrator, are invaluable tools for noise management and signal routing in the current generation of low-temperature microwave systems for the implementation of new quantum technologies. The current implementation of these devices using the Faraday effect is satisfactory, but requires a bulky structure whose physical dimension is close to the microwave wavelength employed. The Hall effect is an alternative non-reciprocal effect that can also be used to produce desired device functionality. We review earlier efforts to use an ohmically-contacted four-terminal Hall bar, explaining why this approach leads to unacceptably high device loss. We find that capacitive coupling to such a Hall conductor has much greater promise for achieving good circulator and gyrator functionality. We formulate a classical Ohm-Hall analysis for calculating the properties of such a device, and show how this classical theory simplifies remarkably in the limiting case of the Hall angle approaching 90 degrees. In this limit we find that either a four-terminal or a three-terminal capacitive device can give excellent circulator behavior, with device dimensions far smaller than the a.c. wavelength. An experiment is proposed to achieve GHz-band gyration in millimetre (and smaller) scale structures employing either semiconductor heterostructure or graphene Hall conductors. An inductively coupled scheme for realising a Hall gyrator is also analysed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Thermoelectric probe for neutral edge modes in the fractional quantum Hall regime

The ν=5/2 anti-Pfaffian state and the ν=2/3 state are believed to have an edge composed of counter-propagating charge and neutral modes. This situation allows the generation of a pure thermal bias between two composite edge states across a quantum point contact (QPC) as was experimentally established in Nature 466, 585 (2010). We show that replacing the QPC by a quantum dot provides a natural way for detecting the neutral modes via the finite current generated by the thermoelectric response of the dot. We also show that the degeneracies of the dot spectrum, dictated by the conformal field theories (CFTs) describing these states, induce asymmetries in the thermoelectric current peaks. This in turn provides a direct fingerprint of the corresponding CFT.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Composite fermions description of fractional topological insulators

We propose a $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ classification of Abelian time-reversal fractional topological insulators in terms of the composite fermions picture. We consider the standard toy model where spin up and down electrons are subjected to opposite magnetic fields and only electrons of the same spin interact via a repulsive force. By applying the composite fermions approach to this time-reversal symmetric system, we are able to obtain a hierarchy of topological insulators with spin Hall conductance $σ_{s}=\frac{e}{2π}\frac{p}{2mp+1} $, being $p,m \in\mathbb{N}$. They show stable edge states only for odd $p$, as a direct consequence of the Kramer's theorem.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Partition Functions of Non-Abelian Quantum Hall States

Partition functions of edge excitations are obtained for non-Abelian Hall states in the second Landau level, such as the anti-Read-Rezayi state, the Bonderson-Slingerland hierarchy and the Wen non-Abelian fluid, as well as for the non-Abelian spin-singlet state. The derivation is straightforward and unique starting from the non-Abelian conformal field theory data and solving the modular invariance conditions. The partition functions provide a complete account of the excitation spectrum and are used to describe experiments of Coulomb blockade and thermopower.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Bogoliubov transformations and fermion condensates in lattice field theories

We apply generalized Bogoliubov transformations to the transfer matrix of relativistic field theories regularized on a lattice. We derive the conditions these transformations must satisfy to factorize the transfer matrix into two terms which propagate fermions and antifermions separately, and we solve the relative equations under some conditions. We relate these equations to the saddle point approximation of a recent bosonization method and to the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformations which separate positive from negative energy states in the Dirac Hamiltonian.

hep-lat↗