arXiv subjects

Junren Shi

Publications and source records attributed to Junren Shi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Determining the Superconducting Transition Temperatures of Liquids

We develop a non-perturbative approach for calculating the superconducting transition temperatures ($T_{c}$) of liquids. The electron-electron scattering amplitude induced by electron-phonon coupling (EPC), from which the effective pairing interaction can be inferred, is related to the fluctuation of the $T$-matrix of electron scattering induced by ions. By applying the relation, EPC parameters can be extracted from a path-integral molecular dynamics simulation. For determining $T_{c}$, the linearized Eliashberg equations are re-established in the non-perturbative context. We apply the approach to estimate $T_{c}$ of metallic hydrogen liquids. It indicates that metallic hydrogen liquids in the pressure regime from $0.5$ to $1.5\mathrm{\,TPa}$ have $T_{c}$ well above their melting temperatures, therefore are superconducting liquids.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Density Functional Theory of Composite Fermions

We construct a density functional theory for two-dimension electron (hole) gases subjected to both strong magnetic fields and external potentials. In particular, we are focused on regimes near even-denominator filling factors, in which the systems form composite fermion liquids. Our theory provides a systematic and rigorous approach to determine the properties of ground states in fractional quantum Hall regime modified by artificial structures. We also propose a practical way to construct approximated functional.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Circular phonon dichroism in Weyl semimetals

We derive the phonon dynamics of magnetic metals in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. We show that both a dissipationless viscosity and a dissipative viscosity arise in the dynamics. While the dissipationless viscosity splits the dispersion of left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized phonons, the dissipative viscosity damps them differently, inducing circular phonon dichroism. The effect offers a new degree of manipulation of phonons, i.e., the control of the phonon polarization. We investigate the effect in Weyl semimetals. We find that there exists strong circular phonon dichroism in Weyl semimetals breaking both the time-reversal and the inversion symmetry, making them potential materials for realizing the acoustic circular polarizer.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Evolution of the optimal trial wave function with interactions in fractional Chern insulators

We show that the optimal trial wave function of a fractional Chern insulator depends on the form of its electron-electron interaction. The gauge of single particle Bloch bases for constructing the optimal trail wave function is obtained by applying the variational principle proposed by Zhang et al. [Phys. Rev. B 93, 165129 (2016)]. We consider a short-range interaction, the Coulomb interaction, and an interpolation between them, and determine the evolution of the optimal gauge with the different interactions. We compare the optimal gauge with those proposed by Qi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 126803 (2011)] and Wu et al. [Phys. Rev. B 86, 085129 (2012)], and find that Wu et al.'s gauge is close to the optimal gauge when the interaction is a certain mixture of the Coulomb interaction and the short-range interaction, while Qi's gauge is qualitatively different from the optimal gauge in all the cases. Both the gauges deviate significantly from the optimal gauge when the short-range component of the interaction becomes more prominent.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Dynamics of the Wigner Crystal of Composite Particles

Conventional wisdom had long held that a composite particle behaves just like an ordinary Newtonian particle. In this paper, we derive the effective dynamics of a type-I Wigner crystal of composite particles directly from its microscopic wave function. It indicates that the composite particles are subjected to a Berry curvature in the momentum space as well as an emergent dissipationless viscosity. Therefore, contrary to the general belief, composite particles follow the more general Sundaram-Niu dynamics instead of the ordinary Newtonian one. We show that the presence of the Berry curvature is an inevitable feature for a dynamics consistent with the dipole picture of composite particles and Kohn's theorem. Based on the dynamics, we determine the dispersions of magneto-phonon excitations numerically. We find an emergent magneto-roton mode which signifies the composite-particle nature of the Wigner crystal. It occurs at frequencies much lower than the magnetic cyclotron frequency and has a vanishing oscillator strength in the long wavelength limit.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Low-Frequency Microwave Induced Quantum Oscillations in A Two-Dimensional Electron System

We study the magnetoresistance of an ultrahigh mobility GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron sample in a weak magnetic field under low-frequency (f < 20 GHz) microwave (MW) irradiation. We observe that with decreasing MW frequency, microwave induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) damp and multi-photon processes become dominant. At very low MW frequency (f < 4 GHz), MIRO disappears gradually and a new SdH-like oscillation develops. The analysis indicates that the new oscillation may originate from alternating Hall-field induced resistance oscillations (ac-HIRO), or can be viewed as a multi-photon process of MIRO in low MW frequency limit. Our findings bridge the non-equilibrium states of MIRO and HIRO, which can be brought into a frame of quantum tunneling junction model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Chern-Simons Theory and Dynamics of Composite Fermions

We propose a (4+1) dimensional Chern-Simons field theoretical description of the fractional quantum Hall effect. It suggests that composite fermions reside on a momentum manifold with a nonzero Chern number. Based on derivations from microscopic wave functions, we further show that the momentum manifold has a uniformly distributed Berry curvature. As a result, composite fermions do not follow the ordinary Newtonian dynamics as commonly believed, but the more general symplectic one. For a Landau level with the particle-hole symmetry, the theory correctly predicts its Hall conductance at half-filling as well as the symmetry between an electron filling fraction and its hole counterpart.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Topological Phonon Modes in A Two-Dimensional Wigner Crystal

We investigate the spin-orbit coupling effect in a two-dimensional Wigner crystal. We show that sufficiently strong spin-orbit coupling and an appropriate sign of g-factor could transform the Wigner crystal to a topological phonon system. We demonstrate the existence of chiral phonon edge modes in finite size samples, as well as the robustness of the modes in the topological phase. We explore the possibility of realizing the topological phonon system in two-dimensional Wigner crystals confined in semiconductor quantum wells/heterostructure. We find that the spin-orbit coupling is too weak for driving a topological phase transition in these systems. We argue that one may look for the topological phonon system in correlated Wigner crystals with emergent effective spin-orbit coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Radiation induced oscillating gap states of nonequilibrium two-dimensional superconductors

We study effects of infrared radiations on a two-dimensional BCS superconductor coupled with a normal metal substrate through a tunneling barrier. The phase transition conditions are analyzed by inspecting stability of the system against perturbations of pairing potentials. We find an oscillating gap phase with a frequency not directly related to the radiation frequency but resulting from the asymmetry of electron density of states of the system as well as the tunneling amplitude. When such a superconductor is in contact with another superconductor, it will give rise to an unusual alternating Josephson current.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Mapping a fractional quantum Hall state to a fractional Chern insulator

We establish a variational principle for properly mapping a fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state to a fractional Chern insulator (FCI). We find that the mapping has a gauge freedom which could generate a class of FCI ground state wave functions appropriate for different forms of interactions. Therefore, the gauge should be fixed by a variational principle that minimizes the interaction energy of the FCI model. For a soft and isotropic electron-electron interaction, the principle leads to a gauge coinciding with that for maximally localized \emph{two-dimensional} projected Wannier functions of a Landau level.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator of Composite Fermions

We show that a weak hexagonal periodic potential could transform a two-dimensional electron gas with an even-denominator magnetic filling factor to a quantum anomalous Hall insulator of composite fermions, giving rise to fractionally quantized Hall effect. The system provides a realization of the Haldane honeycomb-net model, albeit in a composite fermion system. We further propose a trial wave function for the state, and numerically evaluate its relative stability against the competing Hofstadter state. Possible sets of experimental parameters are proposed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Magnetic control of the valley degree of freedom of massive Dirac fermions with application to transition metal dichalcogenides

We study the valley-dependent magnetic and transport properties of massive Dirac fermions in multivalley systems such as the transition metal dichalcogenides. The asymmetry of the zeroth Landau level between valleys and the enhanced magnetic susceptibility can be attributed to the different orbital magnetic moment tied with each valley. This allows the valley polarization to be controlled by tuning the external magnetic field and the doping level. As a result of this magnetic field induced valley polarization, there exists an extra contribution to the ordinary Hall effect. All these effects can be captured by a low energy effective theory with a valley-orbit coupling term.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Intra-valley Spin-triplet $p+ip$ Superconducting Pairing in Lightly Doped Graphene

We analyze various possible superconducting pairing states and their relative stabilities in lightly doped graphene. We show that, when inter-sublattice electron-electron attractive interaction dominates and Fermi level is close to Dirac points, the system will favor intra-valley spin-triplet $p+\mathrm{i}p$ pairing state. Based on the novel pairing state, we further propose a scheme for doing topological quantum computation in graphene by engineering local strain fields and external magnetic fields.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Heat Superconductivity

Electrons/atoms can flow without dissipation at low temperature in superconductors/superfluids. The phenomenon known as superconductivity/superfluidity is one of the most important discoveries of modern physics, and is not only fundamentally important, but also essential for many real applications. An interesting question is: can we have a superconductor for heat current, in which energy can flow without dissipation? Here we show that heat superconductivity is indeed possible. We will show how the possibility of the heat superconductivity emerges in theory, and how the heat superconductor can be constructed using recently proposed time crystals. The underlying simple physics is also illustrated. If the possibility could be realized, it would not be difficult to speculate various potential applications, from energy tele-transportation to cooling of information devices.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2012

Coupling the valley degree of freedom to antiferromagnetic order

Conventional electronics are based invariably on the intrinsic degrees of freedom of an electron, namely, its charge and spin. The exploration of novel electronic degrees of freedom has important implications in both basic quantum physics and advanced information technology. Valley as a new electronic degree of freedom has received considerable attention in recent years. In this paper, we develop the theory of spin and valley physics of an antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice. We show that by coupling the valley degree of freedom to antiferromagnetic order, there is an emergent electronic degree of freedom characterized by the product of spin and valley indices, which leads to spin-valley dependent optical selection rule and Berry curvature-induced topological quantum transport. These properties will enable optical polarization in the spin-valley space, and electrical detection/manipulation through the induced spin, valley and charge fluxes. The domain walls of an antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice harbors valley-protected edge states that support spin-dependent transport. Finally, we employ first principles calculations to show that the proposed optoelectronic properties can be realized in antiferromagnetic manganese chalcogenophosphates (MnPX_3, X = S, Se) in monolayer form.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Topological Invariants of Metals and Related Physical Effects

The total reciprocal space magnetic flux threading through a closed Fermi surface is a topological invariant for a three-dimensional metal. For a Weyl metal, the invariant is non-zero for each of its Fermi surfaces. We show that such an invariant can be related to magneto-valley-transport effect, in which an external magnetic field can induce a valley current. We further show that a strain field can drive an electric current, and the effect is dictated by a second class Chern invariant. These connections open the pathway to observe the hidden topological invariants in metallic systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Berry Curvature and Phonon Hall Effect

We establish the general phonon dynamics of magnetic solids by incorporating the Mead-Truhlar correction in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The effective magnetic-field acting on the phonons naturally emerges, giving rise to the phonon Hall effect. A general formula of the intrinsic phonon Hall conductivity is obtained by using the corrected Kubo formula with the energy magnetization contribution incorporated properly. The resulting phonon Hall conductivity is fully determined by the phonon Berry curvature and the dispersions. Based on the formula, the topological phonon system could be rigorously defined. In the low temperature regime, we predict that the phonon Hall conductivity is proportional to $T^{3}$ for the ordinary phonon systems, while that for the topological phonon systems has the linear $T$ dependence with the quantized temperature coefficient.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Stabilizing topological phases in graphene via random adsorption

We study the possibility of realizing topological phases in graphene with randomly distributed adsorbates. When graphene is subjected to periodically distributed adatoms, the enhanced spin-orbit couplings can result in various topological phases. However, at certain adatom coverages, the intervalley scattering renders the system a trivial insulator. By employing a finite-size scaling approach and Landauer-Büttiker formula, we show that the randomization of adatom distribution greatly weakens the intervalley scattering, but plays a negligible role in spin-orbit couplings. Consequently, such a randomization turns graphene from a trivial insulator into a topological state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗