arXiv subjects

Ilya Vekhter

Publications and source records attributed to Ilya Vekhter.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Interface symmetry and spin control in topological insulator-semiconductor heterostructures

Heterostructures combining topological and non-topological materials constitute the next frontier in the effort to incorporate topological insulators (TIs) into functional electronic devices. We show that the properties of the interface states appearing at the planar boundary between a topologically-trivial semiconductor (SE) and a TI are controlled by the symmetry of the interface. In contrast to the well-studied helical Dirac surface states, SE-TI interface states exhibit elliptical contours of constant energy and complex spin textures with broken helicity. We derive a general effective Hamiltonian for SE-TI junctions, and propose experimental signatures such as an out of plane spin accumulation under a transport current and the opening of a spectral gap that depends on the direction of an applied in-plane magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Manipulation of a two-photon pump in superconductor - semiconductor heterostructures

We investigate the photon statistics, entanglement and squeezing of a pn-junction sandwiched between two superconducting leads, and show that such an electrically-driven photon pump generates correlated and entangled pairs of photons. In particular, we demonstrate that the squeezing of the fluctuations in the quadrature amplitudes of the emitted light can be manipulated by changing the relative phase of the order parameters of the superconductors. This reveals how macroscopic coherence of the superconducting state can be used to tailor the properties of a two-photon state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Magnetic Intragap States and Mixed Parity Pairing at the Edge of Spin-Triplet Superconductors

We show that a spontaneous magnetic moment may appear at the edge of a spin-triplet superconductor if the system allows for pairing in a subdominant channel. To unveil the microscopic mechanism behind such effect we combine numerical solution of the Bogoliubov-De Gennes equations for a tight-binding model with nearest-neighbor attraction, and the symmetry based Ginzburg-Landau approach. We find that a potential barrier modulating the electronic density near the edge of the system leads to a non-unitary superconducting state close to the boundary where spin-singlet pairing coexists with the dominant triplet superconducting order. We demonstrate that the spin polarization at the edge appears due to the inhomogeneity of the non-unitary state and originates in the lifting of the spin-degeneracy of the Andreev bound-states.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Role of Fermi surface anisotropy in the study of gap anisotropy using magnetic-field-angle dependence of thermal oscillations in AyFe2-xSe2 superconductors

We present a numerical study of the field-angle resolved oscillations of the thermal conductivity and specific heat under rotated magnetic field in the $A_y$Fe$_{2-x}$Se$_2$ [$A$=K,Rb,Cs,(Tl,K)] superconductors, using realistic two-band Fermi surface parameterization. Our key finding is that even for isotropic pairing on an anisotropic Fermi surface, the thermodynamic quantities exhibit substantial oscillatory behavior in the superconducting state, even much below the upper critical field. Furthermore, in multiband systems the competition of anisotropies between two Fermi surfaces can cause a double sign reversal of oscillations as a function of temperature, irrespective of gap anisotropy. Our findings put severe constraints on simple interpretations of field-angle resolved measurements widely used to identify the angular structure of the superconducting gap.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Physical properties of the non-centrosymmetric superconductor Nb0.18Re0.82

We report the synthesis and measurements of magnetic, transport, and thermal properties of polycrystalline Nb0.18Re0.82, which has a superconducting transition at Tc ~ 8.8 K. The non-centrosymmetric alpha-Mn structure of the compound is confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Using the measured values for the lower critical field Hc1, upper critical field Hc2, and the specific heat C, we estimate the thermodynamic critical field Hc(0), coherence length ξ(0), penetration depth λ(0), and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ(0). The specific heat jump at Tc, ΔC/γTc = 1.86, suggests that Nb0.18Re0.82 is moderately coupled superconductor. Below Tc the electronic specific heat decays exponentially, suggesting that the gap is isotropic. Our data suggests that the triplet admixture is weak in the polycrystalline form of compound. However, the estimated value of the upper critical field Hc2(0) is close to the calculated Pauli limit indicating the need for single crystal measurements.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Thermal and magnetic properties of a low-temperature antiferromagnet Ce$_4$Pt$_{12}$Sn$_{25}$

We report specific heat ($C$) and magnetization ($M$) of single crystalline Ce$_4$Pt$_{12}$Sn$_{25}$ at temperature down to $\sim$50mK and in fields up to 3T. $C/T$ exhibits a sharp anomaly at 180mK, with a large $ΔC/T\sim$30J/molK$^2$-Ce, which, together with the corresponding cusp-like magnetization anomaly, indicates an antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state with a Néel temperature $T_N$=180mK. Numerical calculations based on a Heisenberg model reproduce both zero-field $C$ and $M$ data, thus placing Ce$_4$Pt$_{12}$Sn$_{25}$ in the weak exchange coupling $J<J_c$ limit of the Doniach diagram, with a very small Kondo scale $T_K\ll T_N$. Magnetic field suppresses the AFM state at $H^*\approx$0.7T, much more effectively than expected from the Heisenberg model, indicating additional effects possibly due to frustration or residual Kondo screening.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Pauli-Limited Superconductivity with Classical Magnetic Fluctuations

We examine the effect of classical magnetic fluctuations on the phase diagram of paramagneticallylimited two-dimensional superconductors under a Zeeman magnetic field. We derive the free energy expansion in powers of the superconducting order parameter and analyze the character of the normalsuperconducting transition. While the transition is of the second order for all temperatures in the absence of magnetic fluctuations, we find that proximity to magnetism drives both the transition into the uniform state and that into the modulated (Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov, FFLO) state to first order at intermediate temperatures. We compute the thermodynamic signatures of the normal-superconducting transition along the upper critical field.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Non-uniform glassy electronic phases from competing local orders

We study non-uniform states and possible glassiness triggered by a competition between distinct local orders in disorder free systems. Both in Ginzburg-Landau theories and in simple field theories, such inhomogeneous states arise from negative gradient terms between the competing order parameters. We discuss applications of these ideas to a variety of strongly correlated systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Kondo effect in an Antiferromagnetic metal

We study the fate of a spin-1/2 impurity in the itinerant antiferromagnetic metallic phase via a renormalization group analysis and a variational calculation. The local moment - conduction electron interaction hamiltonian in an antiferromagnetic metal is spin non-conserving. We show that for a general location of the impurity, the Kondo singularities still occur, but the ground state has a partially unscreened moment. We calculate the magnitude of this residual moment and the variation of the spin polarization with energy for a substitutional impurity as a function of the staggered magnetization. The usual Kondo effect only occurs if the impurity is placed at points where the magnetization is zero.

cond-mat.str-el↗