arXiv subjects

Hengyi Xu

Publications and source records attributed to Hengyi Xu.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2016

Topological phases and Majorana states in screened interacting quantum wires

We study theoretically the effects of long-range and on-site Coulomb interactions on the topological phases and transport properties of spin-orbit-coupled quasi-one-dimensional quantum wires imposed on an s-wave superconductor. The electrostatic potential and charge density distributions are computed self-consistently within the Hartree approximation. Due to the finite width of the wires and the charge repulsion, the potential and density distribute inhomogeneously in the transverse direction and tend to accumulate along the lateral edges where the hard-wall confinement is assumed. This result has profound effects on the topological phases and the differential conductance of the interacting quantum wires and their hybrid junctions with superconductors. Coulomb interactions renormalize the chemical potential, and alter the topological phases strongly by enhancing the topological regimes and producing jagged boundaries. Moreover, the multicritical points connecting different topological phases from high-index subbands are modified remarkably in striking contrast to the predictions of the two-band model. We further suggest the possible non-magnetic topological phase transitions manipulated externally with the aid of long-range interactions. Finally, the transport properties of normal-superconductor junctions are also examined and interaction impacts on the emergence of Majorana fermions and the strength of Majorana zero-bias peaks are revealed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Observation of quantum states without a semiclassical equivalence bound by a magnetic field gradient

Resonant transmission through electronic quantum states that exist at the zero points of a magnetic field gradient inside a ballistic quantum wire is reported. Since the semiclassical motion along such a line of zero magnetic field takes place in form of unidirectional snake trajectories, these states have no classical equivalence. The existence of such quantum states has been predicted more than a decade ago by theoretical considerations of Reijniers and coworkers [1]. We further show how their properties depend on the amplitude of the magnetic field profile as well as on the Fermi energy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Andreev reflection tuned by magnetic barriers in superconductor contacted graphene

The Andreev reflection of the normal state-superconductor junction both in monolayer and bilayer graphene with a single magnetic barrier is investigated by means of the Green's function formalism. Within the tight-binding model, we study the direction-dependent Andreev reflection of two-dimensional graphene-superconductor junctions in the specular and retro-reflection regimes. The presence of a magnetic barrier close to the superconducting hybrid junction introduces a rich phenomenology. Such a barrier is capable of tuning the preferred angles of incidence for the Andreev reflection. In particular, it can enhance the specular reflection probability for certain angles of incidence in bilayer-based hybrid structures. When transmission is permitted, the Andreev reflection manifests itself in isolated peaks and asymmetric resonances associated with offsets and Fano-type oscillations in the transmission, respectively. Moreover, Fabry-Pérot oscillations in the Andreev reflection due to the interior scattering inside the magnetic barrier may appear. The impacts of magnetic barriers on the monolayer and bilayer hybrid interfaces are furthermore studied by calculating the differential conductances within the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk formula.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Impurity and edge roughness scattering in armchair graphene nanoribbons: Boltzmann approach

The conductivity of armchair graphene nanoribbons in the presence of short-range impurities and edge roughness is studied theoretically using the Boltzmann transport equation for quasi-one-dimensional systems. As the number of occupied subbands increases, the conductivity due to short-range impurities converges towards the two-dimensional case. Calculations of the magnetoconductivity confirm the edge-roughness-induced dips at cyclotron radii close to the ribbon width suggested by the recent quantum simulations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Geometric magnetoconductance dips by edge roughness in graphene nanoribbons

The magnetoconductance of graphene nanoribbons with rough zigzag and armchair edges is studied by numerical simulations. nanoribbons with sufficiently small bulk disorder show a pronounced magnetoconductance minimum at cyclotron radii close to the ribbon width, in close analogy to the wire peak observed in conventional semiconductor quantum wires. In zigzag nanoribbons, this feature becomes visible only above a threshold amplitude of the edge roughness, as a consequence of the reduced current density close to the edges.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Conductivity and scattering in graphene bilayers: numerically exact results vs. Boltzmann approach

We derive analytical expressions for the conductivity of bilayer graphene (BLG) using the Boltzmann approach within the the Born approximation for a model of Gaussian disorders describing both short- and long-range impurity scattering. The range of validity of the Born approximation is established by comparing the analytical results to exact tight-binding numerical calculations. A comparison of the obtained density dependencies of the conductivity with experimental data shows that the BLG samples investigated experimentally so far are in the quantum scattering regime where the Fermi wavelength exceeds the effective impurity range. In this regime both short- and long-range scattering lead to the same linear density dependence of the conductivity. Our calculations imply that bilayer and single layer graphene have the same scattering mechanisms. We also provide an upper limit for the effective, density dependent spatial extension of the scatterers present in the experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Electronic properties of quantum dots formed by magnetic double barriers in quantum wires

The transport through a quantum wire exposed to two magnetic spikes in series is modeled. We demonstrate that quantum dots can be formed this way which couple to the leads via magnetic barriers. Conceptually, all quantum dot states are accessible by transport experiments. The simulations show Breit-Wigner resonances in the closed regime, while Fano resonances appear as soon as one open transmission channel is present. The system allows to tune the dot's confinement potential from sub-parabolic to superparabolic by experimentally accessible parameters.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Interactions and screening in gated bilayer graphene nanoribbons

The effects of Coulomb interactions on the electronic properties of bilayer graphene nanoribbons (BGNs) covered by a gate electrode are studied theoretically. The electron density distribution and the potential profile are calculated self-consistently within the Hartree approximation. A comparison to their single-particle counterparts reveals the effects of interactions and screening. Due to the finite width of the nanoribbon in combination with electronic repulsion, the gate-induced electrons tend to accumulate along the BGN edges where the potential assumes a sharp triangular shape. This has a profound effect on the energy gap between electron and hole bands, which depends nonmonotonously on the gate voltage and collapses at intermediate electric fields. We interpret this behavior in terms of interaction-induced warping of the energy dispersion.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Transition from ballistic to diffusive behavior of graphene ribbons in the presence of warping and charged impurities

We study the effects of the long-range disorder potential and warping on the conductivity and mobility of graphene ribbons using the Landauer formalism and the tight-binding p-orbital Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that as the length of the structure increases the system undergoes a transition from the ballistic to the diffusive regime. This is reflected in the calculated electron density dependencies of the conductivity and the mobility. In particular, we show that the mobility of graphene ribbons varies as mu(n) n^(-lambda), with 0<lambda<0.5. The exponent lambda depends on the length of the system with lambda=0.5 corresponding to short structures in the ballistic regime, whereas the diffusive regime lambda=0 (when the mobility is independent on the electron density) is reached for sufficiently long structures. Our results can be used for the interpretation of experimental data when the value of lambda can be used to distinguish the transport regime of the system (i.e. ballistic, quasi-ballistic or diffusive). Based on our findings we discuss available experimental results.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Quantized magnetic confinement in quantum wires

Ballistic quantum wires are exposed to longitudinal profiles of perpendicular magnetic fields composed of a spike (magnetic barrier) and a homogeneous part. An asymmetric magnetoconductance peak as a function of the homogeneous magnetic field is found, comprising quantized conductance steps in the interval where the homogeneous magnetic field and the magnetic barrier have identical polarities, and a characteristic shoulder with several resonances in the interval of opposite polarities. The observations are interpreted in terms of inhomogeneous diamagnetic shifts of the quantum wire modes leading to magnetic confinement.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Edge disorder and localization regimes in bilayer graphene nanoribbons

A theoretical study of the magnetoelectronic properties of zigzag and armchair bilayer graphene nanoribbons (BGNs) is presented. Using the recursive Green's function method, we study the band structure of BGNs in uniform perpendicular magnetic fields and discuss the zero-temperature conductance for the corresponding clean systems. The conductance quantized as 2(n+1)G_ for the zigzag edges and nG_0 for the armchair edges with G_{0}=2e^2/h being the conductance unit and $n$ an integer. Special attention is paid to the effects of edge disorder. As in the case of monolayer graphene nanoribbons (GNR), a small degree of edge disorder is already sufficient to induce a transport gap around the neutrality point. We further perform comparative studies of the transport gap E_g and the localization length in bilayer and monolayer nanoribbons. While for the GNRs E_{g}^{GNR}is proportional to 1/W, the corresponding transport gap E_{g}^{BGN} for the bilayer ribbons shows a more rapid decrease as the ribbon width W is increased. We also demonstrate that the evolution of localization lengths with the Fermi energy shows two distinct regimes. Inside the transport gap, xi is essentially independent on energy and the states in the BGNs are significantly less localized than those in the corresponding GNRs. Outside the transport gap ξgrows rapidly as the Fermi energy increases and becomes very similar for BGNs and GNRs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Magnetic barriers in graphene nanoribbons

A theoretical study of the transport properties of zigzag and armchair graphene nanoribbons with a magnetic barrier on top is presented. The magnetic barrier modifies the energy spectrum of the nanoribbons locally, which results in an energy shift of the conductance steps towards higher energies. The magnetic barrier also induces Fabry-Perot type oscillations, provided the edges of the barrier are sufficiently sharp. The lowest propagating state present in zigzag and metallic armchair nanoribbons prevent confinement of the charge carriers by the magnetic barrier. Disordered edges in nanoribbons tend to localize the lowest propagating state, which get delocalized in the magnetic barrier region. Thus, in sharp contrast to the case of two-dimensional graphene, the charge carriers in graphene nanoribbons cannot be confined by magnetic barriers. We also present a novel method based on the Green's function technique for the calculation of the magnetosubband structure, Bloch states and magnetoconductance of the graphene nanoribbons in a perpendicular magnetic field. Utilization of this method greatly facilitates the conductance calculations, because, in contrast to excising methods, the present method does not require self-consistent calculations for the surface Green's function.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Magnetic barrier induced conductance fluctuations in quantum wires

Quasi-ballistic semiconductor quantum wires are exposed to localized perpendicular magnetic fields, also known as magnetic barriers. Pronounced, reproducible conductance fluctuations as a function of the magnetic barrier amplitude are observed. The fluctuations are strongly temperature dependent and remain visible up to temperatures of about 10 K. Simulations based on recursive Green functions suggest that the conductance fluctuations originate from parametric interferences of the electronic wave functions which experience scattering between the magnetic barrier and the electrostatic potential landscape.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Edge disorder induced Anderson localization and conduction gap in graphene nanoribbons

We study the effect of the edge disorder on the conductance of the graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). We find that only very modest edge disorder is sufficient to induce the conduction energy gap in the otherwise metallic GNRs and to lift any difference in the conductance between nanoribbons of different edge geometry. We relate the formation of the conduction gap to the pronounced edge disorder induced Anderson-type localization which leads to the strongly enhanced density of states at the edges, formation of surface-like states and to blocking of conductive paths through the ribbons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Magnetoresistance of antidot lattices with grain boundaries

The magnetotransport properties of antidot lattices containing artificially designed grain boundaries have been measured. We find that the grain boundaries broaden the commensurability resonances and displace them anisotropically. These phenomena are unexpectedly weak but differ characteristically from isotropic, Gaussian disorder in the antidot positions. The observations are interpreted in terms of semiclassical trajectories which tend to localize along the grain boundaries within certain magnetic field intervals. Furthermore, our results indicate how the transport through superlattices generated by self-organizing templates may get influenced by grain boundaries.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Resonant reflection at magnetic barriers in quantum wires

The conductance of a quantum wire containing a single magnetic barrier is studied numerically by means of the recursive Greens function technique. For sufficiently strong and localized barriers, Fano - type reflection resonances are observed close to the pinch-off regime. They are attributed to a magnetoelectric vortex-type quasibound state inside the magnetic barrier that interferes with an extended mode outside. We furthermore show that disorder can substantially modify the residual conductance around the pinch-off regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗