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Li Lu

Publications and source records attributed to Li Lu.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

Gate-tunable h/e-period magnetoresistance oscillations in Bi2O2Se nanowires

We report on the successful synthesis and low-temperature electron transport investigations of a new form of material - Bi2O2Se semiconducting nanowires. Gate-tunable 0- and $π$-h/e (h is the Planck constant and e the elementary charge) periodic resistance oscillations in longitudinal magnetic field were observed unexpectedly, demonstrating novel quasi-ballistic, phase-coherent surface states in Bi2O2Se nanowires. By reaching a very good agreement between the calculated density of states and the experimental data, we clarified the mechanism to be the one dimensional subbands formed along the circumference of the nanowire rather than the usually considered Aharonov-Bohm interference. A qualitative physical picture based on downward band bending associated with the complex band structure is proposed to describe the formation of the surface states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2019

Probing the minigap in topological insulator-based Josephson junctions under radio frequency irradiation

Recently, a contact-resistance-measurement method was developed to detect the minigap, hence the Andreev bound states (ABSs), in Josephson junctions constructed on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TIs). In this work, we further generalize that method to the circumstance with radio frequency (rf) irradiation. We find that with the increase of rf power, the measured minigap becomes broadened and extends to higher energies, in a way similar to the rf power dependence of the outer border of the Shapiro step region. We show that the corresponding data of contact resistance under rf irradiation can be well interpreted by using the resistively shunted Josephson junction model (RSJ model) and the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) theory. Our findings could be useful when using the contact-resistance-measurement method to study the Majorana-related physics in topological insulator-based Josephson junctions under rf irradiation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2019

Phase evolution and superconductivity enhancement in Se-substituted MoTe$_2$ thin films

The strong spin$-$orbit coupling (SOC) and numerous crystal phases in few$-$layer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) MX$_2$ (M$=$W, Mo, and X$=$Te, Se, S) has led to a variety of novel physics, such as Ising superconductivity and quantum spin Hall effect realized in monolayer 2H$-$ and Td$-$MX$_2$, respectively. Consecutive tailoring of the MX$_2$ structure from 2H to Td phase may realize the long$-$sought topological superconductivity in one material system by incorporating superconductivity and quantum spin Hall effect together. In this work, by combing Raman spectrum, X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS), scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging (STEM) as well as electrical transport measurements, we demonstrate that a consecutively structural phase transitions from Td to 1T$'$ to 2H polytype can be realized as the Se-substitution concentration increases. More importantly, the Se$-$substitution has been found to notably enhance the superconductivity of the MoTe$_2$ thin film, which is interpreted as the introduction of the two$-$band superconductivity. The chemical constituent induced phase transition offers a new strategy to study the s$_{+-}$ superconductivity and the possible topological superconductivity as well as to develop phase$-$sensitive devices based on MX$_2$ materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2019

Evidence of Majorana Zero Modes in Josephson Trijunctions

In search of fault-tolerant topological quantum computation (TQC), zero-bias conductance peak as a necessary signature of Majorana zero modes (MZMs) has been observed in a number of solid-state systems. Here, we present the signature of MZMs from a phase-sensitive experiment on Josephson trijunctions constructed on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulators. We observed that the minigap at the center of the trijunction is protected to close over extended regions in phase space, supporting in principle the Majorana phase diagram proposed by Fu and Kane in 2008. Our study paves the way for further braiding MZMs and exploring TQC on a scalable two-dimensional platform.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2019

Superconductivity in the WP single crystal

We report the discovery of superconductivity on high-quality single crystals of transition-metal pnictides WP grown by chemical vapor transport (CVT) method. Bulk superconductivity is observed at Tc = 0.84 K under ambient pressure by electrical resistivity and AC magnetic susceptibility measurements. The effects of magnetic field on the superconducting transitions are studied, leading to a large anisotropy parameter around 2 with the in-plane and out-of-plane upper critical fields of Hc2=172 Oe and Hc2\=85 Oe, respectively. Our finding demonstrates that WP is the first superconductor in 5d transition-metal at ambient pressure in MnP-type, which will help to search for new superconductors in transition-metal pnictides.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2018

Inter-diffusion of Plasmonic Metals and Phase Change Materials

This work investigates the problematic diffusion of metal atoms into phase change chalcogenides, which can destroy resonances in photonic devices. Interfaces between Ge2Sb2Te5 and metal layers were studied using X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and reflectometry of metal-Ge2Sb2Te5 layered stacks. The diffusion of metal atoms influences the crystallisation temperature and optical properties of phase change materials. When Au, Ag, Al, W structures are directly deposited on Ge2Sb2Te5 inter-diffusion occurs. Indeed, Au forms AuTe2 layers at the interface. Diffusion barrier layers, such as Si3N4 or stable diffusionless plasmonic materials, such as TiN, can prevent the interfacial damage. This work shows that the interfacial diffusion must be considered when designing phase change material tuned photonic devices, and that TiN is the most suitable plasmonic material to interface directly with Ge2Sb2Te5.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2018

Transport evidence of asymmetric spin-orbit coupling in few$-$layer superconducting 1Td$-$MoTe$_2$

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) MX2 (M=W, Mo, Nb, and X=Te, Se, S) with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) possess plenty of novel physics including superconductivity. Due to the Ising SOC, monolayer NbSe$_2$ and gated MoS$_2$ of 2H structure can realize the Ising superconductivity phase, which manifests itself with in-plane upper critical field far exceeding Pauli paramagnetic limit. Surprisingly, we find that a few-layer 1Td structure MoTe$_2$ also exhibits an in-plane upper critical field ($H_{c2,//}$) which goes beyond the Pauli paramagnetic limit. Importantly, the in-plane upper critical field shows an emergent two-fold symmetry which is different from the isotropic $H_{c2,//}$ in 2H structure TMDCs. We show that this is a result of an asymmetric SOC in 1Td structure TMDCs. The asymmetric SOC is very strong and estimated to be on the order of tens of meV. Our work provides the first transport evidence of a new type of asymmetric SOC in TMDCs which may give rise to novel superconducting and spin transport properties. Moreover, our findings mostly depend on the symmetry of the crystal and apply to a whole class of 1Td TMDCs such as 1Td-WTe$_2$ which is under intense study due to its topological properties.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2018

Protected gap closing in Josephson junctions constructed on Bi$_2$Te$_3$ surface

On the road of searching for Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in topological insulator-based Josephson junctions, a highly-sought signature is the protected full transparency of electron transport through the junctions due to the existence of the MZMs, associated with complete gap closing between the electron-like and hole-like Andreev bound states (ABSs). Here, we present direct experimental evidence of gap closing and full transparency in single Josephson junctions constructed on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulator (3D TI) Bi$_2$Te$_3$. Our results demonstrate that the 2D surface of 3D TIs provides a promising platform for hosting and manipulating MZMs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2018

Wide band gap phase change material tuned visible photonics

Light strongly interacts with structures that are of a similar scale to its wavelength; typically nanoscale features for light in the visible spectrum. However, the optical response of these nanostructures is usually fixed during the fabrication. Phase change materials offer a way to tune the properties of these structures in nanoseconds. Until now, phase change active photonics use materials that strongly absorb visible light, which limits their application in the visible spectrum. In contrast, Stibnite (Sb2S3) is an under-explored phase change material with a band gap that can be tuned in the visible spectrum from 2.0 to 1.7 eV. We deliberately couple this tuneable band gap to an optical resonator such that it responds dramatically in the visible spectrum to Sb2S3 reversible structural phase transitions. We show that this optical response can be triggered both optically and electrically. High speed reprogrammable Sb2S3 based photonic devices, such as those reported here, are likely to have wide applications in future intelligent photonic systems, holographic displays, and micro-spectrometers.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2017

Heavy fermion behavior in the quasi-one-dimensional Kondo lattice CeCo2Ga8

Dimensionality plays an essential role in determining the anomalous non-Fermi liquid properties in heavy fermion systems. So far most heavy fermion compounds are quasi-two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Here we report the synthesis and systematic investigations of the single crystals of the quasi-one-dimensional Kondo lattice CeCo$_2$Ga$_8$. Resistivity measurements at ambient pressure reveal the onset of coherence at $T^*\approx 20\,$K and non-Fermi liquid behavior with linear temperature dependence over a decade in temperature from 2 K to 0.1 K. The specific heat increases logarithmically with lowering temperature between 10 K and 2 K and reaches 800 mJ/mol K$^2$ at 1 K, suggesting that CeCo$_2$Ga$_8$ is a heavy fermion compound in the close vicinity of a quantum critical point. Resistivity measurements under pressure further confirm the non-Fermi liquid behavior in a large temperature-pressure range. The magnetic susceptibility is found to follow the typical behavior for a one-dimensional (1D) spin chain from 300 K down to $T^*$, and first-principles calculations predict flat Fermi surfaces for the itinerant $f$-electron bands. These suggest that CeCo$_2$Ga$_8$ is a rare example of the quasi-1D Kondo lattice, but its non-Fermi liquid behaviors resemble those of the quasi-two-dimensional YbRh$_2$Si$_2$ family. The study of the quasi-one-dimensional CeCo$_2$Ga$_8$ family may therefore help us to understand the role of dimensionality on heavy fermion physics and quantum criticality.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2017

Solving Systems of Linear Equations with a Superconducting Quantum Processor

Superconducting quantum circuits are promising candidate for building scalable quantum computers. Here, we use a four-qubit superconducting quantum processor to solve a two-dimensional system of linear equations based on a quantum algorithm proposed by Harrow, Hassidim, and Lloyd [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{103}, 150502 (2009)], which promises an exponential speedup over classical algorithms under certain circumstances. We benchmark the solver with quantum inputs and outputs, and characterize it by non-trace-preserving quantum process tomography, which yields a process fidelity of $0.837\pm0.006$. Our results highlight the potential of superconducting quantum circuits for applications in solving large-scale linear systems, a ubiquitous task in science and engineering.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Observation of Anomalous Magnetic Moments in Superconducting Bi/Ni Bilayer

There have been continuous efforts in searching for unconventional superconductivity over the past five decades. Compared to the well-established d-wave superconductivity in cuprates, the existence of superconductivity with other high-angular-momentum pairing symmetries is less conclusive. Bi/Ni epitaxial bilayer is a potential unconventional superconductor with broken time reversal symmetry (TRS), for that it demonstrates superconductivity and ferromagnetism simultaneously at low temperatures. We employ a specially designed superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) to detect, on the Bi/Ni bilayer, the orbital magnetic moment which is expected if the TRS is broken. An anomalous hysteretic magnetic response has been observed in the superconducting state, providing the evidence for the existence of chiral superconducting domains in the material.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2016

Large-area and high-quality 2D transition metal telluride

Atomically thin transitional metal ditellurides like WTe2 and MoTe2 have triggered tremendous research interests because of their intrinsic nontrivial band structure. They are also predicted to be 2D topological insulators and type-II Weyl semimetals. However, most of the studies on ditelluride atomic layers so far rely on the low-yield and time-consuming mechanical exfoliation method. Direct synthesis of large-scale monolayer ditellurides has not yet been achieved. Here, using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, we demonstrate controlled synthesis of high-quality and atom-thin tellurides with lateral size over 300 μm. We found that the as-grown WTe2 maintains two different stacking sequences in the bilayer, where the atomic structure of the stacking boundary is revealed by scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). The low-temperature transport measurements revealed a novel semimetal-to-insulator transition in WTe2 layers and an enhanced superconductivity in few-layer MoTe2. This work paves the way to the synthesis of atom-thin tellurides and also quantum spin Hall devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2016

Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator

The quantized version of the anomalous Hall effect has been predicted to occur in magnetic topological insulators, but the experimental realization has been challenging. Here, we report the observation of the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect in thin films of Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3, a magnetic topological insulator. At zero magnetic field, the gate-tuned anomalous Hall resistance reaches the predicted quantized value of h/e^2,accompanied by a considerable drop of the longitudinal resistance. Under a strong magnetic field, the longitudinal resistance vanishes whereas the Hall resistance remains at the quantized value. The realization of the QAH effect may lead to the development of low-power-consumption electronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2016

An efficient and compact quantum switch for quantum circuits

The engineering of quantum devices has reached the stage where we now have small scale quantum processors containing multiple interacting qubits within them. Simple quantum circuits have been demonstrated and scaling up to larger numbers is underway. However as the number of qubits in these processors increases, it becomes challenging to implement switchable or tunable coherent coupling among them. The typical approach has been to detune each qubit from others or the quantum bus it connected to, but as the number of qubits increases this becomes problematic to achieve in practice due to frequency crowding issues. Here, we demonstrate that by applying a fast longitudinal control field to the target qubit, we can turn off its couplings to other qubits or buses (in principle on/off ratio higher than 100 dB). This has important implementations in superconducting circuits as it means we can keep the qubits at their optimal points, where the coherence properties are greatest, during coupling/decoupling processing. Our approach suggests a new way to control coupling among qubits and data buses that can be naturally scaled up to large quantum processors without the need for auxiliary circuits and yet be free of the frequency crowding problems.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Majorana fermions in a superconducting Mobius strip

Recently, much attention has been paid to search for Majorana fermions in solid-state systems. Among various proposals there is one based on radio-frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs), in which the appearance of 4$π$-period energy-phase relations is regarded as smoking-gun evidence of Majorana fermion states. Here we report the observation of truncated 4$π$-period (i.e., 2$π$-period but fully skewed) oscillatory patterns of contact resistance on rf-SQUIDs constructed on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulator Bi$_2$Te$_3$. The results reveal the existence of 1/2 fractional modes of Cooper pairs and the occurrence of parity switchings, both of which are necessary signatures accompanied with the formation of Majorana fermion states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2014

Large linear magnetoresistance in Dirac semi-metal Cd3As2 with Fermi surfaces close to the Dirac points

We have investigated the magnetoresistive behavior of Dirac semi-metal Cd3As2 down to low temperatures and in high magnetic fields. A positive and linear magnetoresistance (LMR) as large as 3100% is observed in a magnetic field of 14 T, on high-quality single crystals of Cd3As2 with ultra-low electron density and large Lande g factor. Such a large LMR occurs when the magnetic field is applied perpendicular to both the current and the (100) surface, and when the temperature is low such that the thermal energy is smaller than the Zeeman splitting energy. Tilting the magnetic field or raising the temperature all degrade the LMR, leading to a less pronounced quadratic behavior. We propose that the phenomenon of LMR is related to the peculiar field-induced shifting/distortion of the helical electrons' Fermi surfaces in momentum space.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗