arXiv subjects

Hai-Zhou Lu

Publications and source records attributed to Hai-Zhou Lu.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Spin Hall effect in spin-valley coupled monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides

We study both the intrinsic and extrinsic spin Hall effect in spin-valley coupled monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides. We find that whereas the skew-scattering contribution is suppressed by the large band gap, the side-jump contribution is comparable to the intrinsic one with opposite sign in the presence of scalar and magnetic scattering. Intervalley scattering tends to suppress the side-jump contribution due to the loss of coherence. By tuning the ratio of intra- to intervalley scattering, the spin Hall conductivity shows a sign change in hole-doped samples. Multiband effect in other doping regime is considered, and it is found that the sign change exists in the heavily hole-doped regime, but not in the electron-doped regime.

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arXiv2013

Extrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity of a topologically nontrivial conduction band

A key step towards dissipationless transport devices is the quantum anomalous Hall effect, which is characterized by an integer quantized Hall conductance in a ferromagnetic insulator with strong spin-orbit coupling. In this work, the anomalous Hall effect due to the impurity scattering, namely the extrinsic anomalous Hall effect, is studied when the Fermi energy crosses with the topologically nontrivial conduction band of a quantum anomalous Hall system. Two major extrinsic contributions, the side-jump and skew-scattering Hall conductivities, are calculated using the diagrammatic techniques in which both nonmagnetic and magnetic scattering are taken into account simultaneously. The side-jump Hall conductivity changes its sign at a critical sheet carrier density for the nontrivial phase, while it remains sign unchanged for the trivial phase. The critical sheet carrier densities estimated with realistic parameters lie in an experimentally accessible range. The results imply that a quantum anomalous Hall system could be identified in the good-metal regime.

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arXiv2013

Quantum impurity in the bulk of topological insulator

We investigate physical properties of an Anderson impurity embedded in the bulk of a topological insulator. The slave-boson mean-field approximation is used to account for the strong electron correlation at the impurity. Different from the results of a quantum impurity on the surface of a topological insulator, we find for the band-inverted case, a Kondo resonant peak and in-gap bound states can be produced simultaneously. However, only one type of them appears for the normal case. It is shown that the mixed-valence regime is much broader in the band-inverted case, while it shrinks to a very narrow regime in the normal case. Furthermore, a self-screening of the Kondo effect may appear when the interaction between the bound-state spin and impurity spin is taken into account.

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arXiv2013

Intervalley Scattering and Localization Behaviors of Spin-Valley Coupled Dirac Fermions

We study the quantum diffusive transport of multivalley massive Dirac cones, where time-reversal symmetry requires opposite spin orientations in inequivalent valleys. We show that the intervalley scattering and intravalley scattering can be distinguished from the quantum conductivity that corrects the semiclassical Drude conductivity, due to their distinct symmetries and localization trends. In immediate practice, it allows transport measurements to estimate the intervalley scattering rate in hole-doped monolayers of group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides (e.g., molybdenum dichalcogenides and tungsten dichalcogenides), an ideal class of materials for valleytronics applications. The results can be generalized to a large class of multivalley massive Dirac systems with spin-valley coupling and time-reversal symmetry.

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arXiv2012

Nonlocal noise cross-correlation mediated by entangled Majorana fermions

Due to their nonlocality, qubits nested in Majorana bound states may be the key to realize decoherence-free quantum computation. Majorana bound states could be achieved at the ends of a one-dimensional topological superconductor. However, when the bound states couple directly to electron reservoirs their nonlocal correlation is quenched by local Andreev reflections. Here we propose a scheme to generate nonlocal noise cross correlation between two well-separated quantum dots, mediated by a pair of Majorana bound states. Both positive and negative cross correlations can be obtained by tuning the gate voltages applied to the dots. Within a limited range of finite temperatures, the cross correlation is not suppressed by thermal fluctuations. Furthermore, we show how the local Andreev reflections suppress the noise cross correlation when multiple dot energy levels are coupled to the Majorana bound states. The measurable cross correlation is expected to serve as a sensitive indicator for the generation of Majorana fermions.

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arXiv2012

Topological insulator and the Dirac equation

We present a general description of topological insulators from the point of view of Dirac equations. The Z_{2} index for the Dirac equation is always zero, and thus the Dirac equation is topologically trivial. After the quadratic B term in momentum is introduced to correct the mass term m or the band gap of the Dirac equation, the Z_{2} index is modified as 1 for mB>0 and 0 for mB<0. For a fixed B there exists a topological quantum phase transition from a topologically trivial system to a non-trivial one system when the sign of mass m changes. A series of solutions near the boundary in the modified Dirac equation are obtained, which is characteristic of topological insulator. From the solutions of the bound states and the Z_{2} index we establish a relation between the Dirac equation and topological insulators.

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arXiv2012

Spin-orbit scattering in quantum diffusion of massive Dirac fermions

Effect of spin-orbit scattering on quantum diffusive transport of two-dimensional massive Dirac fermions is studied by the diagrammatic technique. The quantum diffusion of massive Dirac fermions can be viewed as a singlet Cooperon in the massless limit and a triplet Cooperon in the large-mass limit. The spin-orbit scattering behaves like random magnetic fields only to the triplet Cooperon, and suppresses the weak localization of Dirac fermions in the large-mass regime. This behavior suggests an experiment to detect the weak localization of bulk subbands in topological insulator thin films, in which a narrowing of the cusp of the negative magnetoconductivity is expected after doping heavy-element impurities. Finally, a detailed comparison between the conventional two-dimensional electrons and Dirac fermions is presented for impurities of orthogonal, symplectic, and unitary symmetries.

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arXiv2011

Weak localization of bulk channels in topological insulator thin film

Weak antilocalization (WAL) is expected whenever strong spin-orbit coupling or scattering comes into play. Spin-orbit coupling in the bulk states of a topological insulator is very strong, enough to result in the topological phase transition. However, the recently observed WAL in topological insulators seems to have an ambiguous origin from the bulk states. Starting from the effective model for three-dimensional topological insulators, we find that the lowest two-dimensional (2D) bulk subbands of a topological insulator thin film can be described by the modified massive Dirac model. We derive the magnetoconductivity formula for both the 2D bulk subbands and surface bands. Because with Relatively large gap, the 2D bulk subbands may lie in the regimes where the unitary behavior or even weak localization (WL) is also expected, instead of always WAL. As a result, the bulk states may contribute small magnetoconductivity or even compensate the WAL from the surface states. Inflection in magnetoconductivity curves may appear when the bulk WL channels outnumber the surface WAL channels, providing a signature of the weak localization from the bulk states.

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arXiv2011

Competition between weak localization and antilocalization in topological surface states

A magnetoconductivity formula is presented for the surface states of a magnetically doped topological insulator. It reveals a competing effect of weak localization and weak antilocalization in quantum transport when an energy gap is opened at the Dirac point by magnetic doping. It is found that, while random magnetic scattering always drives the system from the symplectic to the unitary class, the gap could induce a crossover from weak antilocalization to weak localization, tunable by the Fermi energy or the gap. This crossover presents a unique feature characterizing the surface states of a topological insulator with the gap opened at the Dirac point in the quantum diffusion regime.

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arXiv2011

Impurity effect on weak anti-localization in the topological insulator Bi2Te3

We study weak anti-localization (WAL) effect in topological insulator Bi2Te3 thin films at low temperatures. Two-dimensional WAL effect associated with surface carriers is revealed in the tilted magnetic field dependence of magneto-conductance. Our data demonstrates that the observed WAL is robust against deposition of non-magnetic Au impurities on the surface of the thin films. But it is quenched by deposition of magnetic Fe impurities which destroy the pi Berry's phase of the topological surface states. The magneto-conductance data of a 5 nm Bi2Te3 film suggests that a crossover from symplectic to unitary classes is observed with the deposition of Fe impurities.

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arXiv2011

Theory of magnetoelectric photocurrent generated by direct interband transitions in semiconductor quantum well

A linearly polarized light normally incident on a semiconductor quantum well with spin-orbit coupling may generate pure spin current via direct interband optical transition. An electric photocurrent can be extracted from the pure spin current when an in-plane magnetic field is applied, which has been recently observed in the InGaAs/InAlAs quantum well [Dai et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 246601 (2010)]. Here we present a theoretical study of this magnetoelectric photocurrent effect associated with the interband transition. By employing the density matrix formalism, we show that the photoexcited carrier density has an anisotropic distribution in k space, strongly dependent on the orientation of the electron wavevector and the polarization of the light. This anisotropy provides an intuitive picture of the observed dependence of the photocurrent on the magnetic field and the polarization of the light. We also show that the ratio of the pure spin photocurrent to the magnetoelectric photocurrent is approximately equal to the ratio of the kinetic energy to the Zeeman energy, which enables us to estimate the magnitude of the pure spin photocurrent. The photocurrent density calculated with the help of an anisotropic Rashba model and the Kohn-Luttinger model can produce all three terms in the fitting formula for measured current, with comparable order of magnitude, but discrepancies are still present and further investigation is needed.

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arXiv2010

Z2 invariant protected bound states in topological insulators

We present an exact solution of a modifed Dirac equation for topological insulator in the presence of a hole or vacancy to demonstrate that vacancies may induce bound states in the band gap of topological insulators. They arise due to the Z_2 classification of time-reversal invariant insulators, thus are also topologically-protected like the edge states in the quantum spin Hall effect and the surface states in three-dimensional topological insulators. Coexistence of the in-gap bound states and the edge or surface states in topological insulators suggests that imperfections may affect transport properties of topological insulators via additional bound states near the system boundary.

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arXiv2010

Magneto-electric photocurrent generated by direct inter-band transitions in InGaAs/InAlAs two-dimensional electron gas

We report observation of magneto-electric photocurrent generated via direct inter-band transitions in an InGaAs/InAlAs two-dimensional electron gas excited by a linearly polarized incident light.The electric current is proportional to the in-plane magnetic field which unbalances the velocities of the photoexcited carriers with opposite spins and consequently generates electric current from a spin photocurrent. The observed light polarization dependence of the electric current is explained microscopically by taking into account of the anisotropy of the photoexcited carrier density in wave vector space. The spin photocurrent can be extracted from the measured current and the conversion coefficient of spin photocurrent to electric current is estimated to be $10^{-3}$$\sim$$10^{-2}$ per Tesla.

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arXiv2010

Effective continuous model for surface states and thin films of three dimensional topological insulators

Two-dimensional effective continuous models are derived for the surface states and thin films of the three-dimensional topological insulator (3DTI). Starting from an effective model for 3DTI based on the first principles calculation [Zhang \emph{et al}, Nat. Phys. 5, 438 (2009)], we present solutions for both the surface states in a semi-infinite boundary condition and in the thin film with finite thickness. An effective continuous model was derived for surface states and the thin film 3DTI. The coupling between opposite topological surfaces and structure inversion asymmetry (SIA) give rise to gapped Dirac hyperbolas with Rashba-like splittings in energy spectrum. Besides, the SIA leads to asymmetric distributions of wavefunctions along the film growth direction, making some branches in the energy spectra much harder than others to be probed by light. These features agree well with the recent angle-resolved photoemission spectra of Bi$_{2}$Se $_{3}$ films grown on SiC substrate [Zhang et al, arXiv: 0911.3706]. More importantly, we use the effective model to fit the experimental data and determine the model parameters. The result indicates that the thin film Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ lies in quantum spin Hall region based on the calculation of the Chern number and the $Z_{2}$ invariant. In addition, strong SIA always intends to destroy the quantum spin Hall state.

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arXiv2010

Massive Dirac fermions and spin physics in an ultrathin film of topological insulator

We study transport and optical properties of the surface states which lie in the bulk energy gap of a thin-film topological insulator. When the film thickness is comparable with the surface state decay length into the bulk, the tunneling between the top and bottom surfaces opens an energy gap and form two degenerate massive Dirac hyperbolas. Spin dependent physics emerges in the surface bands which are vastly different from the bulk behavior. These include the surface spin Hall effects, spin dependent orbital magnetic moment, and spin dependent optical transition selection rule which allows optical spin injection. We show a topological quantum phase transition where the Chern number of the surface bands changes when varying the thickness of the thin film.

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arXiv2009

Detecting and Switching Magnetization of Stoner Nanograin in Non-local Spin Valve

The magnetization detection and switching of an ultrasmall Stoner nanograin in a non-local spin valve (NLSV) device is studied theoretically. With the help of the rate equations, a unified description can be presented on the same footing for the NLSV signal that reads out the magnetization, and for the switching process. The setup can be viewed as that the grain is connected to two non-magnetic leads via sequential tunneling. In one lead, the chemical potentials for spin-up and -down electrons are split due to the spin injection in the NLSV. This splitting (or the spin bias) is crucial to the NLSV signal and the critical condition to the magnetization switching. By using the standard spin diffusion equation and parameters from recent NLSV device, the magnitude of the spin bias is estimated, and found large enough to drive the magnetization switching of the cobalt nanograin reported in earlier experiments. A microscopic interpretation of NLSV signal in the sequential tunneling regime is thereby raised, which show properties due to the ultrasmall size of the grain. The dynamics at the reversal point shows that there may be a spin-polarized current instead of the anticipated pure spin current flowing during the reversal due to the electron accumulation in the floating lead used for the readout of NLSV signal.

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arXiv2009

Spin-bias driven magnetization reversal and nondestructive detection in a single molecular magnet

The magnetization reversal in a single molecular magnet (SMM) weakly coupled to an electrode with spin-dependent splitting of chemical potentials (spin bias) is theoretically investigated by means of the rate equation. A microscopic mechanism for the reversal is demonstrated by the avalanche dynamics at the reversal point. The magnetization as a function of the spin bias shows hysteresis loops tunable by the gate voltage and varying with temperature. The nondestructive measurement to the orientation of giant spin in SMM is presented by measuring the fully polarized electric current in the response to a small spin bias. For Mn$_{12}$ac molecule, its small transverse anisotropy only slightly violates the results above. The situation when there is an angle between the easy axis of the SMM and the spin quantization direction of the electrode is also studied.

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arXiv2009

Quantum blockade and loop current induced by a single lattice defect in graphene nanoribbons

We investigate theoretically the electronic transport properties in narrow graphene ribbons with an adatom-induced defect. It is found that the lowest conductance step of a metallic graphene nanoribbon may develop a dip even down to zero at certain values of the Fermi energy due to the defect. Accompanying the occurrence of the conductance dip, a loop current develops around the defect. We show how the properties of the conductance dip depend on the parameters of the defect, such as the relative position and severity of the defect as well as the width and edges of the graphene ribbons. In particular, for metallic armchair-edges graphene nanoribbons, whether the conductance dip appears or not, they can be controlled by choosing the position of the single defect.

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