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Iacopo Torre

Publications and source records attributed to Iacopo Torre.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

The stability of electronic Poiseuille flow in two-dimensional materials

Motivated by the experimental observation of electronic Poiseuille flow in graphene [J.A. Sulpizio et al. Nature 576, 75 (2019)] we analyze the linear stability of plane-Poiseuille flow of electrons in a two-dimensional material using a modified Orr-Sommerfeld equation. We calculate the critical current needed to make the flow unstable as a function of the experimental parameters and characterize the most favorable situation, that is the one needing the lowest current density, to observe flow instability. We predict the streamwise wavenumber and frequency at which the instability occurs and discuss the difficulties of an experiment aimed at probing this phenomenon.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2025

Single-photon detection enabled by negative differential conductivity in moiré superlattices

Detecting individual light quanta is essential for quantum information, space exploration, advanced machine vision, and fundamental science. Here, we introduce a novel single photon detection mechanism using highly photosensitive non-equilibrium electron phases in moiré materials. Using tunable bands in bilayer graphene/hexagonal-boron nitride superlattices, we engineer negative differential conductance and a sensitive bistable state capable of detecting single photons. Operating in this regime, we demonstrate single-photon counting at mid-infrared (11.3 microns) and visible wavelengths (675 nanometres) and temperatures up to 25 K. This detector offers new prospects for broadband, high-temperature quantum technologies with CMOS compatibility and seamless integration into photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Our analysis suggests the mechanism underlying our device operation originates from negative differential velocity, and represents an important milestone in the field of high-bias transport in two-dimensional moiré quantum materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2025

Optical detection of charge defects near a graphene transistor using the Stark shift of fluorescent molecules

Two-dimensional crystals and their heterostructures unlock access to a class of photonic devices, bringing nanophotonics from the nanometer scale down to the atomic level where quantum effects are relevant. Single-photon emitters (SPEs) are central in quantum photonics as quantum markers linked to their electrostatic, thermal, magnetic, or dielectric environment. This aspect is exciting in two-dimensional (2D) crystals and their heterostructures, where the environment can be abruptly modified through vertical stacking or lateral structuring, such as moiré or nano-patterned gates. To further develop 2D-based quantum photonic devices, there is a need for quantum markers that are capable of integration into various device geometries, and that can be read out individually, non-destructively, and without additional electrodes. Here, we show how to optically detect charge carrier accumulation using sub-GHz linewidth single-photon emitters coupled to a graphene device. We employ the single molecule Stark effect, sensitive to the electric fields generated by charge puddles, such as those at the graphene edge. The same approach enables dynamic sensing of electronic noise, and we demonstrate the optical read-out of low-frequency white noise in a biased graphene device. The approach described here can be further exploited to explore charge dynamics in 2D heterostructures using quantum emitter markers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2024

Weak Coupling Theory of Magic-Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Strong correlations occur in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) when the octet of flat moiré minibands centered on charge neutrality (CN) is partially occupied. The octet consists of a single valence band and a single conduction band for each of four degenerate spin-valley flavors. Motivated by the importance of Hartree electrostatic interactions in determining the filling-factor dependent band structure, we use a time-dependent Hartree approximation to gain insight into electronic correlations. We find that the electronic compressibility is dominated by Hartree interactions, that paramagnetic states are stable over a range of density near CN, and that the dependence of energy on flavor polarization is strongly overestimated by mean-field theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2024

Theory of intrinsic acoustic plasmons in twisted bilayer graphene

We present a theoretical study of the intrinsic plasmonic properties of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) as a function of the twist angle $θ$ (and other microscopic parameters such as temperature and filling factor). Our calculations, which rely on the random phase approximation, take into account four crucially important effects, which are treated on equal footing: i) the layer-pseudospin degree of freedom, ii) spatial non-locality of the density-density response function, iii) crystalline local field effects, and iv) Hartree self-consistency. We show that the plasmonic spectrum of TBG displays a smooth transition from a strongly-coupled regime (at twist angles $θ\lesssim 2^{\circ}$), where the low-energy spectrum is dominated by a weakly dispersive intra-band plasmon, to a weakly-coupled regime (for twist angles $θ\gtrsim 2^{\circ}$) where an acoustic plasmon clearly emerges. This crossover offers the possibility of realizing tunable mid-infrared sub-wavelength cavities, whose vacuum fluctuations may be used to manipulate the ground state of strongly correlated electron systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2024

Infrared Spectroscopy for Diagnosing Superlattice Minibands in Magic-angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) represents a highly tunable, strongly correlated electron system owed to its unique flat electronic bands. However, understanding the single-particle band structure alone has been challenging due to complex lattice reconstruction effects and a lack of spectroscopic measurements over a broad energy range. Here, we probe the band structure of TBG around the magic angle using infrared spectroscopy. Our measurements reveal spectral features originating from interband transitions whose energies are uniquely defined by the twist angle. By combining with quantum transport, we connect spectral features over a broad energy range (10 to 700 meV) spanning several superlattice minibands and track their evolution with twist angle. We compare our data with calculations of the band structures obtained via the continuum model and find good agreement only when considering a variation of interlayer/intralayer tunnelling parameters with the twist angle. Our analysis suggests that the magic angle also shifts due to lattice relaxation, and is better defined for a wide angular range from 0.9° to 1.1°. Our work provides spectroscopic insights into TBG's band structure and offers an optical fingerprint of the magic angle for screening heterostructures before nanofabrication.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2024

Amperean superconductivity cannot be induced by deep subwavelength cavities in a two-dimensional material

Amperean superconductivity is an exotic phenomenon stemming from attractive effective electron-electron interactions (EEEIs) mediated by a transverse gauge field. Originally introduced in the context of quantum spin liquids and high-Tc superconductors, Amperean superconductivity has been recently proposed to occur at temperatures on the order of 1-20 K in two-dimensional, parabolic-band, electron gases embedded inside deep sub-wavelength optical cavities. In this work, we first generalize the microscopic theory of cavity-induced Amperean superconductivity to the case of graphene and then argue that this superconducting state cannot be achieved in the deep sub-wavelength regime. In the latter regime, indeed, a cavity induces only EEEIs between density fluctuations rather than the current-current interactions which are responsible for Amperean pairing.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2023

High quality nanocavities through multimodal confinement of hyperbolic polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride

A conventional optical cavity supports modes which are confined because they are unable to leak out of the cavity. Bound state in continuum (BIC) cavities are an unconventional alternative, where light can leak out, but is confined by multimodal destructive interference. BICs are a general wave phenomenon, of particular interest to optics, but BICs and multimodal interference have never been demonstrated at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate the first nanophotonic cavities based on BIC-like multimodal interference. This novel confinement mechanism for deep sub-wavelength light shows orders of magnitude improvement in several confinement metrics. Specifically, we obtain cavity volumes below 100x100x3nm^3 with quality factors about 100, with extreme cases having 23x23x3nm^3 volumes or quality factors above 400. Key to our approach, is the use of pristine crystalline hyperbolic dispersion media (HyM) which can support large momentum excitations with relatively low losses. Making a HyM cavity is complicated by the additional modes that appear in a HyM. Ordinarily, these serve as additional channels for leakage, reducing cavity performance. But, in our experiments, we find a BIC-like cavity confinement enhancement effect, which is intimately related to the ray-like nature of HyM excitations. In fact, the quality factors of our cavities exceed the maximum that is possible in the absence of higher order modes. The alliance of HyM with BICs in our work yields a radically novel way to confine light and is expected to have far reaching consequences wherever strong optical confinement is utilized, from ultra-strong light-matter interactions, to mid-IR nonlinear optics and a range of sensing applications.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

Valley-hybridized gate-tunable 1D exciton confinement in MoSe2

Controlling excitons at the nanoscale in semiconductor materials represents a formidable challenge in the fields of quantum photonics and optoelectronics. Achieving this control holds great potential for unlocking strong exciton-exciton interaction regimes, enabling exciton-based logic operations, exploring exotic quantum phases of matter, facilitating deterministic positioning and tuning of quantum emitters, and designing advanced optoelectronic devices. Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer inherent two-dimensional confinement and possess significant binding energies, making them particularly promising candidates for achieving electric-field-based confinement of excitons without dissociation. While previous exciton engineering strategies have predominantly focused on local strain gradients, the recent emergence of electrically confined states in TMDs has paved the way for novel approaches. Exploiting the valley degree of freedom associated with these confined states further broadens the prospects for exciton engineering. Here, we show electric control of light polarization emitted from one-dimensional (1D) quantum confined states in MoSe2. By employing non-uniform in-plane electric fields, we demonstrate the in-situ tuning of the trapping potential and reveal how gate-tunable valley-hybridization gives rise to linearly polarized emission from these localized states. Remarkably, the polarization of the localized states can be entirely engineered through either the spatial geometry of the 1D confinement potential or the application of an out-of-plane magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2023

Quantitative scattering theory of near-field response for 1D polaritonic structures

Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy is a powerful imaging technique for studying materials beyond the diffraction limit. However, interpreting near-field measurements poses challenges in mapping the response of polaritonic structures to meaningful physical properties. To address this, we propose a theory based on the transfer matrix method to simulate the near-field response of 1D polaritonic structures. Our approach provides a computationally efficient and accurate analytical theory, relating the near-field response to well-defined physical properties. This work enhances the understanding of near-field images and complex polaritonic phenomena. Finally, this scattering theory can extend to other systems like atoms or nanoparticles near a waveguide.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

Engineering high quality graphene superlattices via ion milled ultra-thin etching masks

Nanofabrication research pursues the miniaturization of patterned feature size. In the current state of the art, micron scale areas can be patterned with features down to ~ 30 nm pitch using electron beam lithography. Our work demonstrates a new nanofabrication technique which allows patterning periodic structures with a pitch down to 16 nm. It is based on focused ion beam milling of suspended membranes, with minimal proximity effects typical to electron beam lithography. The membranes are then transferred and used as hard etching masks. We benchmark our technique by engineering a superlattice potential in single layer graphene using a thin graphite patterned gate electrode. Our electronic transport characterization shows high quality superlattice properties and a rich Hofstadter butterfly spectrum. Our technique opens the path towards the realization of very short period superlattices in 2D materials, comparable to those in natural moire systems, but with the ability to control lattice symmetries and strength. This can pave the way for a versatile solid-state quantum simulator platform and the study of correlated electron phases.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2023

Transition from acoustic plasmon to electronic sound in graphene

Fermi liquids respond differently to perturbations depending on whether their frequency is larger (collisionless regime) or smaller (hydrodynamic regime) than the inter-particle collision rate. This results in a different phase velocity between the collisionless zero sound and hydrodynamic first sound. We performed terahertz photocurrent nanoscopy measurements on graphene devices, with a metallic gate in close proximity to the sample, to probe the dispersion of propagating acoustic plasmons, the counterpart of sound modes in electronic Fermi liquids. We report the observation of a change in the plasmon phase velocity when the excitation frequency approaches the electron-electron collision rate. This first observation of the first sound mode in an electronic Fermi liquid is of fundamental interest and can enable novel terahertz emitter and detection implementations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2022

Transverse hypercrystals formed by periodically modulated phonon-polaritons

Photonic crystals and metamaterials are two overarching paradigms for manipulating light. Combining the two approaches leads to hypercrystals: hyperbolic dispersion metamaterials that undergo periodic modulation and mix photonic-crystal-like aspects with hyperbolic dispersion physics. So far, there has been limited experimental realization of hypercrystals due to various technical and design constraints. Here, we create nanoscale hypercrystals with lattice constants ranging from 25 nm to 160 nm and measure their collective Bloch modes and dispersion with scattering nearfield microscopy. We demonstrate for the first time dispersion features such as negative group velocity, indicative of bandfolding, and signatures of sharp density of states peaks, expected for hypercrystals (and not for ordinary polaritonic crystals). These density peaks connect our findings to the theoretical prediction of an extremely rich hypercrystal bandstructure emerging even in geometrically simple lattices. These features make hypercrystals both fundamentally interesting, as well as of potential use to engineering nanoscale light-matter interactions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2022

$WSe_2$ as transparent top gate for near-field experiments

Independent control of carrier density and out-of-plane displacement field is essential for accessing novel phenomena in two-dimensional material heterostructures. While this is achieved with independent top and bottom metallic gate electrodes in transport experiments, it remains a challenge for near-field optical studies as the top electrode interferes with the optical path. Here, we systematically characterize the requirements for a material to be used as top-gate electrode, and demonstrate experimentally that few-layer WSe_2 can be used as a transparent, ambipolar top gate electrode in infrared near-field microscopy. We perform nano-imaging of plasmons in a bilayer graphene heterostructure and tune the plasmon wavelength using a trilayer WSe_2 gate, achieving a density modulation amplitude exceeding 2 10^{12} cm^{-2}. Moreover, the observed ambipolar gate-voltage response allows to extract the energy gap of WSe_2 yielding a value of 1.05 eV. Our results will provide an additional tuning knob to cryogenic near-field experiments on emerging phenomena in two-dimensional materials and moiré material heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2022

Tunable and giant valley-selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene

Berry curvature is analogous to magnetic field but in momentum space and is commonly present in materials with non-trivial quantum geometry. It endows Bloch electrons with transverse anomalous velocities to produce Hall-like currents even in the absence of a magnetic field. We report the direct observation of in situ tunable valley-selective Hall effect (VSHE), where inversion symmetry, and thus the geometric phase of electrons, is controllable by an out-of-plane electric field. We use high-quality bilayer graphene with an intrinsic and tunable bandgap, illuminated by circularly polarized mid-infrared light and confirm that the observed Hall voltage arises from an optically-induced valley population. Compared with molybdenum disulfide, we find orders of magnitude larger VSHE, attributed to the inverse scaling of the Berry curvature with bandgap. By monitoring the valley-selective Hall conductivity, we study Berry curvature's evolution with bandgap. This in situ manipulation of VSHE paves the way for topological and quantum geometric opto-electronic devices, such as more robust switches and detectors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2022

Evolution and reflection of ray-like excitations in hyperbolic dispersion media

Light in hyperbolic dispersion media is known to exhibit an intriguing ray-like character. However, detailed understanding of ray-like excitations in hyperbolic media is surprisingly limited, mostly based on numerical simulations. In our work, we analytically describe the formation of multimodal ray-like excitations in a planar slab of hyperbolic media. We demonstrate that these rays have an approximately Lorentzian profile and that they propagate in a zig-zagged manner. These rays acquire phase in a discrete fashion at every internal reflection inside the slab and broaden at a rate which is proportional to the rate of optical absorption. Moreover, based on this description, we reveal a unique reflection mechnanism where destructive interefernce between the different modes composing the ray can improve the strength of reflection at an interface between a dielectric and a metalic substrate. This reflection mechanism is highly asymmetric, occuring only when the ray is incident from the side of the dielectric substrate to the side of the metallic substrate, and the strength of reflection is shown to be directly related to the width of the ray.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2021

Quantum Nanophotonics in Two-Dimensional Materials

The field of 2D materials-based nanophotonics has been growing at a rapid pace, triggered by the ability to design nanophotonic systems with in situ control, unprecedented degrees of freedom, and to build material heterostructures from bottom up with atomic precision. A wide palette of polaritonic classes have been identified, comprising ultra confined optical fields, even approaching characteristic length scales of a single atom. These advances have been a real boost for the emerging field of quantum nanophotonics, where the quantum mechanical nature of the electrons and-or polaritons and their interactions become relevant. Examples include, quantum nonlocal effects, ultrastrong light matter interactions, Cherenkov radiation, access to forbidden transitions, hydrodynamic effects, single plasmon nonlinearities, polaritonic quantization, topological effects etc. In addition to these intrinsic quantum nanophotonic phenomena, the 2D material system can also be used as a sensitive probe for the quantum properties of the material that carries the nanophotonics modes, or quantum materials in its vicinity. Here, polaritons act as a probe for otherwise invisible excitations, e.g. in superconductors, or as a new tool to monitor the existence of Berry curvature in topological materials and superlattice effects in twisted 2D materials.

physics.optics↗