arXiv subjects

Jérôme Cayssol

Publications and source records attributed to Jérôme Cayssol.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Robust flat bands of the honeycomb wire network

We show that periodic honeycomb networks of ballistic conducting channels generically host exact flat bands spanning the entire Brillouin zone. These flat bands are independent of microscopic vertex scattering, persist for any number of transverse modes, and occur in a universal $1\colon 2$ ratio with dispersive bands. Their existence is enforced by local $D_3$ vertex symmetry and lattice translations. We construct compact localized states obeying a Bohr-Sommerfeld-type quantization condition and demonstrate that flat bands survive in realistic antidot lattices, establishing honeycomb wire networks as a robust flat band platform relevant to gated high-mobility 2D electron gases and molecule-patterned metallic surfaces.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Anderson-Higgs amplitude mode in Josephson junctions

The Anderson-Higgs mode in a superconductor corresponds to a collective and coherent oscillation of the order parameter amplitude. We propose to detect this mode in a tunnel Josephson junction between two singlet s-wave diffusive superconductors. We find a strong enhancement of the tunneling current when the junction is pumped at the equilibrium gap frequency, corresponding to the activation of the Anderson-Higgs mode. By solving the Keldysh-Usadel equations, we obtain current peaks at specific bias voltages that can serve as signatures of the Anderson-Higgs mode.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Higgs amplitude mode in ballistic superconducting hybrid junctions

In superconductors (SC), the Higgs amplitude mode is a coherent oscillation of the order parameter typically generated by THz laser irradiation. In this paper we propose to probe the Higgs mode using electronic transport in ballistic superconducting hybrid devices. We first confirm the existence of a non-zero amplitude mode in the clean case using the Keldysh-Eilenberger formalism. We then investigate two different geometries, respectively a normal-insulating-superconductor (NIS) tunnel junction and a NSN junction with transparent interfaces, the superconductor being irradiated in both situations. In the NIS case, the Higgs manifests itself in the second-order AC current response which is resonant at the Higgs frequency. In the NSN case, the DC differential conductance allows to probe the gaps generated by the Higgs mode in the Floquet spectrum.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Three-dimensional chiral Veselago lensing

The effect by which light focuses upon entering a medium with a negative refractive index, known as Veselago lensing, may enable optical imaging below the diffraction limit. Similarly, focusing electrons across a $pn$-junction could realize a technologically promising electronic Veselago lens. However, its scope remains limited by the lack of three-dimensional platforms and its insensitivity to computational degrees of freedom, like spin or chirality. Here we propose a single-material three-dimensional electronic Veselago lens that selectively focuses electrons of a given chirality. Using the chiral anomaly of topological semimetals it is possible to create a sharp $pn$-junction for a single chirality, a chiral Veselago lens, and tune it with a magnetic field to an ideal lensing condition. We estimate that chiral Veselago lensing is observable in non-local transport and spectroscopy experiments. In particular we show that the chiral Veselago lens leads to giant non-local magnetoresistance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Conservation of chirality at a junction between two Weyl semimetals

In Weyl semimetals the location of linear band crossings, the Weyl cones, is not bound to any high symmetry point of the Brillouin zone, unlike the Dirac nodes in graphene. This flexibility is advantageous for valleytronics, where information is encoded in the valleys of the band structure when intervalley scattering is weak. However, if numerous Weyl cones coexist the encoded information can decohere rapidly because of band mixing. Here, we investigate how the helical iso-spin texture of Weyl cones affects valleytronics in heterojunctions of Weyl materials, and show how the chirality of this iso-spin texture can serve to encode information.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Photocurrent and photoconductance of an helical edge state

We consider the helical edge state of a Quantum Spin Hall insulator, connected between two leads, and irradiated by a monochromatic and circularly polarized electromagnetic wave. The photocurrent generated within the helical edge state is studied as function of the characteristics of the electromagnetic radiation and electronic doping of the edge state. We focus on the effect of the leads on the photocurrent. We also investigate the photoconductance of the helical edge state in presence of a voltage bias between the leads.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Dynamical response of dissipative helical edge states

Quantum spin Hall insulators are characterized by topologically protected counterpropagating edge states. Here we study the dynamical response of these helical edge states under a time-dependent flux biasing, in the presence of a heat bath. It is shown that the relaxation time of the edge carriers can be determined from a measurement of the dissipative response of topological insulator disks. The effects of various perturbations, including Zeeman coupling and disorder, are also discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

From fractionally charged solitons to Majorana bound states in a one-dimensional interacting model

We consider one-dimensional topological insulators hosting fractionally charged midgap states in the presence and absence of induced superconductivity pairing. Under the protection of a discrete symmetry, relating positive and negative energy states, the solitonic midgap states remain pinned at zero energy when superconducting correlations are induced by proximity effect. When the superconducting pairing dominates the initial insulating gap, Majorana fermion phases develop for a class of insulators. As a concrete example, we study the Creutz model with induced s-wave superconductivity and repulsive Hubbard-type interactions. For a finite wire, without interactions, the solitonic modes originating from the nonsuperconducting model survive at zero energy, revealing a fourfold-degenerate ground state. However, interactions break the aforementioned discrete symmetry and completely remove this degeneracy, thereby producing a unique ground state which ischaracterized by a topological bulk invariant with respect to the product of fermion parity and bond inversion. In contrast, the Majorana edge modes are globally robust to interactions. Moreover, the parameter range for which a topological Majorana phase is stabilized expands when increasing the repulsive Hubbard interaction. The topological phase diagram of the interacting model is obtained using a combination of mean-field theory and density matrix renormalization group techniques.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Persistent currents in Dirac fermion rings

The persistent current in strictly one-dimensional Dirac systems is investigated within two different models, defined in the continuum and on a lattice, respectively. The object of the study is the effect of a single magnetic or nonmagnetic impurity in the two systems. In the continuum Dirac model, an analytical expression for the persistent current flowing along a ring with a single delta-like magnetic impurity is obtained after regularization of the unbounded negative energy states. The predicted decay of the persistent agrees with the lattice simulations. The results are generalized to finite temperatures. To realize a single Dirac massless fermion, the lattice model breaks the time-reversal symmetry, and, in contrast with the continuum model, a pointlike nonmagnetic impurity can lead to a decay in the persistent current.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Floquet topological insulators

Topological insulators represent unique phases of matter with insulating bulk and conducting edge or surface states, immune to small perturbations such as backscattering due to disorder. This stems from their peculiar band structure, which provides topological protections. While conventional tools (pressure, doping etc.) to modify the band structure are available, time periodic perturbations can provide tunability by adding time as an extra dimension enhanced to the problem. In this short review, we outline the recent research on topological insulators in non equilibrium situations. Firstly, we introduce briefly the Floquet formalism that allows to describe steady states of the electronic system with an effective time-independent Hamiltonian. Secondly, we summarize recent theoretical work on how light irradiation drives semi-metallic graphene or a trivial semiconducting system into a topological phase. Finally, we show how photons can be used to probe topological edge or surface states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Non-Equilibrium Transport Through a Gate-Controlled Barrier on the Quantum Spin Hall Edge

The Quantum Spin Hall insulator is characterized by the presence of gapless helical edge states where the spin of the charge carriers is locked to their direction of motion. In order to probe the properties of the edge modes, we propose a design of a tunable quantum impurity realized by a local gate under an external magnetic field. Using the integrability of the impurity model, the conductance is computed for arbitrary interactions, temperatures and voltages, including the effect of Fermi liquid leads. The result can be used to infer the strength of interactions from transport experiments

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Diffusion at the Surface of Topological Insulators

We consider the transport properties of topological insulators surface states in the presence of uncorrelated point-like disorder, both in the classical and quantum regimes. The transport properties of those two-dimensional surface states depend strongly on the amplitude of the hexagonal warping of their Fermi surface. It is shown that a perturbative analysis of the warping fails to describe the transport in experimentally available topological insulators, such as Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3. Hence we develop a fully non-perturbative description of these effects. In particular, we find that the dependence of the warping amplitude on the Fermi energy manifests itself in a strong dependence of the diffusion constant on this Fermi energy, leading to several important experimental consequences. Moreover, the combination of a strong warping with an in plane Zeeman effect leads to an attenuation of conductance fluctuations in contrast to the situation of unwarped Dirac surface states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Optically engineering the topological properties of a spin Hall insulator

Time-periodic perturbations can be used to engineer topological properties of matter by altering the Floquet band structure. This is demonstrated for a spin Hall insulator in the presence of monochromatic circularly polarized light. The inherent spin structure of the edge state is influenced by the Zeeman coupling and not by the orbital effect. The photocurrent (and the magnetization along the edge) develops a finite, helicity dependent expectation value and turns from dissipationless to dissipative with increasing radiation frequency, signalling a change in the topological properties. The connection with Thouless' charge pumping and non-equilibrium Zitterbewegung is discussed, together with possible experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Mesoscopic spin Hall effect along a potential step in graphene

We consider a straight one-dimensional potential step created across a graphene flake. Charge and spin transport through such a potential step are studied in the presence of both intrinsic and extrinsic (Rashba) spin-orbit coupling (SOC). At normal incidence electrons are completely reflected when the Rashba interaction (with strength $λ_R$) is dominant whereas they are perfectly transmitted if the two types of SOC are exactly balanced. At normal incidence, the transmission probability of the step is thus controlled continuously from 0 to 1 by tuning the ratio of the two types of SOC. Besides the transport of charge in the direction normal to the barrier, we show the existence of a spin transport along the barrier. The magnitude of the spin Hall current is determined by a subtle interplay between the height of the potential step and the position of Fermi energy. It is demonstrated that contributions from inter-band matrix elements and evanescent modes are dominant in spin transport. Moreover, in the case of vanishing extrinsic SOC ($λ_R =0$), each channel carries a conserved spin current, in contrast to the general case of a finite $λ_R$, in which only integrated spin current is a conserved quantity. Finally, we provide a quasi-classical picture of the charge and spin transport by imaging flow lines over the entire sample and Veselago lensing (negative refraction) in the case of a $p-n$ junction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Oscillations of magnetization and conductivity in anisotropic Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superconductors

We derive the fluctuational magnetization and the paraconductivity of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductors in their normal state. The FFLO superconducting fluctuations induce oscillations of the magnetization between diamagnetism and unusual paramagnetism which originates from the competition between paramagnetic and orbital effects. We also predict a strong anisotropy of the paraconductivity when the FFLO transition is approached in contrast with the case of a uniform BCS state. Finally building a Ginzburg-Levanyuk argument, we demonstrate that these fluctuation effects can be safely treated within the Gaussian approximation since the critical fluctuations are proeminent only within an experimentally inaccessible temperature interval.

cond-mat.supr-con↗