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Jin-Hua Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Jin-Hua Sun.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

$σ$ bands driven high-temperature superconductivity in hydrogenated hexagonal BC$_3$ monolayer

Material with metallic $σ$-bonding bands is expected to be a high-temperature superconductor, due to the sensitivity of $σ$ electrons to lattice vibration. Based on the first-principles calculations, electronic structures of hydrogenated BC$_3$ monolayers (H$_n$-B$_2$C$_6$ with $n$=1-8) are systematically investigated. At high coverage of hydrogen, the monolayer stabilizes in chair-like $sp^3$-hybridized configurations, leading to the metallization of $σ$ bands, especially in H$_7$-B$_2$C$_6$ and H$_8$-B$_2$C$_6$. This metallicity originates from the electron deficiency of boron, compared with insulating graphane. Utilizing Wannier interpolation, the electron-phonon coupling strengths for metallic phases of H$_n$-B$_2$C$_6$ are determined. As expected, strong couplings are identified between the conducting $σ$ electrons and low-frequency phonon modes. By solving the anisotropic Eliashberg equations, we confirm that H$_7$-B$_2$C$_6$ and H$_8$-B$_2$C$_6$ are single-gap superconductors with critical temperature being 87 K, exceeding the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Considering that monolayer BC$_3$ has been synthesized in experiment, our results demonstrate that hydrogenation of two-dimensional BC$_3$ provides a viable pathway to achieve high-temperature superconductivity at ambient pressure.

cond-mat.supr-con

Strain-triggered high-temperature superconducting transition in two-dimensional carbon allotrope

Driving non-superconducting materials into a superconducting state through specific modulation is a key focus in the field of superconductivity. Pressure is a powerful method that can switch a three-dimensional (3D) material between non-superconducting and superconducting states. In the two-dimensional (2D) case, strain engineering plays a similar role to pressure. However, purely strain-induced superconductivity in 2D systems remains exceedingly scarce. Using first-principles calculations, we demonstrate that a superconducting transition can be induced solely by applying biaxial tensile strain in a 2D carbon allotrope, THO-graphene, which is composed of triangles, hexagons, and octagons. Free-standing THO-graphene is non-superconducting. Surprisingly, the electron-phonon coupling in strained THO-graphene is enhanced strong enough to pair electrons and realize superconductivity, with the highest superconducting transition temperature reaching 45 K. This work not only provides a notable example of controlling metal-superconductor transition in 2D system just via strain, but also sets a new record of superconducting transition temperature for 2D elemental superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con

Spin-Orbital Altermagnetism

Altermagnet is a newly discovered magnetic phase, characterized by non-relativistic spin-splitting that has been experimentally observed. Here, we introduce a framework dubbed {\it spin-orbital altermagnetism} to achieve spin-orbital textures in altermagnetic materials. We identify two distinct classes of spin-orbital altermagnetism: intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic type emerges from symmetry-compensated magnetic orders with spontaneously broken parity-time symmetry, while the extrinsic type stems from translational-symmetry breaking between sublattices, as exemplified by the Jahn-Teller-driven structural phase transition. In addition to directly measuring the spin-orbital texture, we propose spin conductivity and spin-resolved orbital polarization as effective methods for detecting these altermagnets. Additionally, a symmetry-breaking mechanism induces weak spin magnetization, further revealing the peculiar feature of spin-orbital altermagnetism. We also utilize the staggered susceptibility to illustrate a potential realization of this phase in a two-orbital interacting system. Our work provides a new platform to explore spin-orbital locked physics, extending the materials classes that may display complex spin textures from the standard $4d-5d$ compounds to $3d$ compounds.

cond-mat.str-el

Exotic d-wave Cooper Pair Bose Metal in two dimensions

The study of non-Fermi liquids sheds light on unconventional phenomena in condensed matter systems that lie beyond the scope of Landau Fermi liquid theory. One intriguing example is the Bose metal, characterized by an uncondensed bosonic ground state. However, constructing a Bose metal phase in two dimensions (2D) remains a significant challenge.} Utilizing constraint path quantum Monte Carlo and functional renormalization group methods on a fermionic system with spin anisotropy in a 2D lattice, we reveal the emergence of a Cooper pair Bose metal (CPBM) phase in a highly anisotropic regime ($α< 0.30$) with wide range of filling, as proposed in [A. E. Feiguin and M. P. A. Fisher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 025303 (2009)]. Our findings exhibit a visible nonzero momentum Bose surface in the Cooper-pair distribution function, accompanied by a distinct signal of $d_{xy}$ correlation between pairs. Our results highlight that spin-dependent anisotropy in the Fermi surface leads to versatile pairing forms. Platforms such as ultracold atoms in optical lattices and recently proposed altermagnets hold promise for realizing this intriguing phase.

cond-mat.supr-con

Floquet Weyl semimetal phases in light-irradiated higher-order topological Dirac semimetals

Floquet engineering, the concept of tailoring a system by a periodic drive, is increasingly exploited to design and manipulate topological phases of matter. In this work, we study periodically driven higher-order topological Dirac semimetals associated with a $k$-dependent quantized quadrupole moment by applying circularly polarized light. The undriven Dirac semimetals feature gapless higher-order hinge Fermi arc states which are the consequence of the higher-order topology of the Dirac nodes. Floquet Weyl semimetal phases with hybrid-order topology, characterized by both a $k$-dependent quantized quadrupole moment and a $k$-dependent Chern number, emerge when illumining circularly polarized light. Such Floquet Weyl semimetals support both hinge Fermi arc states and topological surface Fermi arc states. In addition, Floquet Weyl semimetals with tilted Weyl cones in higher-order topological Dirac semimetals are also discussed. Considering numerous higher-order topological Dirac semimetal materials were recently proposed, our findings can be testable soon.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Tunable correlation effects of magnetic impurities by the cubic Rashba spin-orbit couplings

We theoretically study the influence of the $k$-cubic Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on the correlation effects of magnetic impurities by combining the variational method and the Hirsch-Fye quantum Monte Carlo (HFQMC) simulations. Markedly different from the normal $k$-linear Rashba SOC, even a small cubic Rashba term can greatly alter the band structure and induce a Van Hove singularity in a wide range of energy, thus the single impurity local moment becomes largely tunable. The cubic Rashba SOC adopted in this work breaks the rotational symmetry, but the host material is still invariant under the operations $\mathcal{R}^z(π)$, $\mathcal{IR}^z(π/2)$, $\mathcal{M}_{xz}$, $\mathcal{M}_{yz}$, where $\mathcal{R}^z(θ)$ is the rotation of angle $θ$ about the $z$-axis, $\mathcal{I}$ is the inversion operator and $\mathcal{M}_{xz}$ ($\mathcal{M}_{yz}$) is the mirror reflection about the $x$-$z$ ($y$-$z$) principal plane. Saliently, various components of spin-spin correlation between the single magnetic impurity and the conduction electrons show three- or six-fold rotational symmetry. This unique feature is due to the triple winding of the spins with a $2π$ rotation of $\mathbf{k}$, which is a hallmark of the cubic Rashba effect and can possibly be an identifier to distinguish the cubic Rashba SOC from the normal $k$-linear Rashba term in experiments. Although the cubic Rashba term drastically alters the electronic properties of the host, we find that the spatial decay rate of the spin-spin correlation function remains essentially unchanged. Moreover, the carrier-mediated Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interactions between two magnetic impurities show twisted features, the ferromagnetic diagonal terms dominate when two magnetic impurities are very close, but the off-diagonal terms become important at long distances.

cond-mat.str-el

Magnon corner states in twisted bilayer honeycomb magnets

Search for higher-order topological insulators, characterized by topologically protected gapless boundary states of codimension higher than one, in bosonic systems has attracted growing interest. Here, we establish twisted bilayer honeycomb magnets as a new platform for hosting second-order topological magnon insulators (SOTMIs) without fine-tuning. We employ a simple, minimal Heisenberg spin model to describe misaligned bilayer sheets of honeycomb ferromagnetic magnets with a large commensurate twist angle. We found that the higher-order topology in this bilayer system shows a significant dependence on the interlayer exchange coupling. The SOTMI, featuring topologically protected magnon corner states, appears for ferromagnetic interlayer couplings, while the twisted bilayer exhibits a nodal phase in the case of antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling.

cond-mat.str-el

Topological phases in N-layer ABC-graphene boron-nitride moire superlattices

Rhombohedral $N = 3$ trilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride (TLG/BN) hosts gate-tunable, valley-contrasting, nearly flat topological bands that can trigger spontaneous quantum Hall phases under appropriate conditions of the valley and spin polarization. Recent experiments have shown signatures of C = 2 valley Chern bands at 1/4 hole filling, in contrast to the predicted value of C = 3. We discuss the low-energy model for rhombohedral N-layer graphene (N = 1, 2, 3) aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) subject to off-diagonal moire vector potential terms that can alter the valley Chern numbers. Our analysis suggests that topological phase transitions of the flat bands can be triggered by pseudomagnetic vector field potentials associated to moire strain patterns, and that a nematic order with broken rotational symmetry can lead to valley Chern numbers that are in agreement with recent Hall conductivity observations.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Lifshitz phase transitions in one-dimensional Gamma model

In this paper, we study quantum phase transitions and magnetic properties of a one-dimensional spin-1/2 Gamma model, which describes the off-diagonal exchange interactions between edge-shared octahedra with strong spin-orbit couplings along the sawtooth chain. The competing exchange interactions between the nearest neighbors and the second neighbors stabilize semimetallic ground state in terms of spinless fermions, and give rise to a rich phase diagram, which consists of three gapless phases. We find distinct phases are characterized by the number of Weyl nodes in the momentum space, and such changes in the topology of the Fermi surface without symmetry breaking produce a variety of Lifshitz transitions, in which the Weyl nodes situating at $k=π$ interchange from type I to type II. A coexistence of type-I and type-II Weyl nodes is found in phase II. The information measures including concurrence, entanglement entropy and relative entropy can effectively signal the second-order transitions. The results indicate that the Gamma model can act as an exactly solvable model to describe Lifshitz phase transitions in correlated electron systems.

cond-mat.str-el

Spatial anisotropy of Kondo screening cloud in a type-II Weyl semimetal

We theoretically study the Kondo screening of a spin-1/2 magnetic impurity in the bulk of a type-II Weyl semimetal (WSM) by use of the variational wave function method. We consider a type-II WSM model with two Weyl nodes located on the $k_z$-axis, and the tilting of the Weyl cones are along the $k_x$ direction. Due to co-existing electron and hole pockets, the density of states at the Fermi energy becomes finite, leading to a significant enhancement of Kondo effect. Consequently, the magnetic impurity and the conduction electrons always form a bound state, this behavior is distinct from that in the type-I WSMs, where the bound state is only formed when the hybridization exceeds a critical value. Meanwhile, the spin-orbit coupling and unique geometry of the Fermi surface lead to strongly anisotropic Kondo screening cloud in coordinate space. The tilting terms break the rotational symmetry of the type-II WSM about the $k_z$-axis, but the system remains invariant under a combined transformation $\mathcal{T}R^{y}(π)$, where $\mathcal{T}$ is the time-reversal operation and $R^{y}(π)$ is the rotation about the $y$-axis by $π$. Largely modified diagonal and off-diagonal components of the spin-spin correlation function on three principal planes reflect this change in band symmetry. Most saliently, the tilting terms trigger the emergence of non-zero off-diagonal components of spin-spin correlation function on the $x$-$z$ principal plane.

cond-mat.str-el

Phase diagrams of Weyl semimetals with competing intraorbital and interorbital disorders

A Weyl semimetal (WSM) is a topological material that hosts Weyl fermions as quasiparticles in the bulk. We study the combined effect of intra- and interorbital disorders on WSMs by adopting a tight-binding model that supports the WSM, three-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall insulator (3D QAHI), and normal insulator (NI) phases in the clean limit. Based on the calculation of the localization length and the Hall conductivity, we present rich phase diagrams due to the interplay of intra- and interorbital disorders. We find that the WSM with well-separated Weyl nodes is stable to both weak intra- and interorbital disorders. However, weak intraorbital disorder can gap out a WSM close to the 3D QAHI phase in the clean phase diagram, forming a 3D QAHI, and it can also drive a NI near the WSM phase to a WSM. By contrast, weak interorbital disorder can cause a 3D QAHI-WSM transition for a 3D QAHI in proximity to the WSM phase in the clean limit, and it can annihilate a WSM near the NI phase, bringing about a WSM-NI transition. We observe a diffusive anomalous Hall metal (DAHM) phase at moderate disorder strength. The DAHM appears in a wide range of the phase diagram when the intraorbital disorder dominates over the interorbital disorder, while the DAHM is found to exist in a narrow region or be missing in the phase diagram when the interorbital disorder dominates.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Single Magnetic Impurity in Tilted Dirac Surface States

We utilize variational method to investigate the Kondo screening of a spin-1/2 magnetic impurity in tilted Dirac surface states with the Dirac cone tilted along the $k_y$-axis. We mainly study about the effect of the tilting term on the binding energy and the spin-spin correlation between magnetic impurity and conduction electrons, and compare the results with the counterparts in a two dimensional helical metal. The binding energy has a critical value while the Dirac cone is slightly tilted. However, as the tilting term increases, the density of states around the Fermi surface becomes significant, such that the impurity and the host material always favor a bound state. The diagonal and the off-diagonal terms of the spin-spin correlation between the magnetic impurity and conduction electrons are also studied. Due to the spin-orbit coupling and the tilting of the spectra, various components of spin-spin correlation show very strong anisotropy in coordinate space, and are of power-law decay with respect to the spatial displacements.

cond-mat.str-el

A magnetic Impurity in a Weyl semimetal

We utilize the variational method to study the Kondo screening of a spin-$1/2$ magnetic impurity in a three-dimensional (3D) Weyl semimetal with two Weyl nodes along the $k_z$-axis. The model reduces to a 3D Dirac semimetal when the separation of the two Weyl nodes vanishes. When the chemical potential lies at the nodal point, $μ=0$, the impurity spin is screened only if the coupling between the impurity and the conduction electron exceeds a critical value. For finite but small $μ$, the impurity spin is weakly bound due to the low density of state, which is proportional to $μ^2$, contrary to that in a 2D Dirac metal such as graphene and 2D helical metal where the density of states is proportional to $|μ|$. The spin-spin correlation function $J_{uv}(\mathbf{r})$ between the spin $v$-component of the magnetic impurity at the origin and the spin $u$-component of a conduction electron at spatial point $\mathbf{r}$, is found to be strongly anisotropic due to the spin-orbit coupling, and it decays in the power-law. The main difference of the Kondo screening in 3D Weyl semimetals and in Dirac semimetals is in the spin $x$- ($y$-) component of the correlation function in the spatial direction of the $z$-axis.

cond-mat.str-el

Localized States and Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Si-Doped InAs/GaSb Quantum Wells

We study localized in-gap states and quantum spin Hall effect in Si-doped InAs/GaSb quantum wells. We propose a model describing donor and/or acceptor impurities to describe Si dopants. This model shows in-gap bound states and wide conductance plateau with the quantized value $2e^2/h$ in light dopant concentration, consistent with recent experiments by Du et al. We predict a conductance dip structure due to backward scattering in the region where the localization length $ξ$ is comparable with the sample width $L_y$ but much smaller than the sample length $L_x$.

cond-mat.mes-hall