arXiv subjects

Luis Brey

Publications and source records attributed to Luis Brey.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Optical properties of magnetically doped ultra-thin topological insulator slabs

Starting from a three dimensional Hamiltonian, we study the optical properties of ultra-thin topological insulator slabs for which the coupling between Dirac fermions on opposite surfaces results in two degenerated gapped hyperbolic bands. The gap is a threshold for the optical absorption and translates in a peak in the imaginary part of the optical conductivity. An exchange field applied perpendicular to the slab splits the degenerated hyperbolic bands and a double step structure come out in the optical absorption, whereas a double peak structure appears in the imaginary part of the longitudinal optical conductivity. The exchange field breaks time-reversal symmetry and for exchange fields larger than the surfaces coupling gap, the zero frequency Hall conductivity is quantized to $e^2/h$. This result implies large values of the Kerr and Faraday rotation angles. In ultra-thin slabs, the absence of light multiple scattering and bulk conductivity, makes the Kerr and Faradays angles to remain rather large in a wide range of frequencies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Coherent tunneling and negative differential conductivity in graphene-hBN-graphene heterostructure

We address the tunneling current in a graphene-hBN-graphene heterostructure as function of the twisting between the crystals. The twisting induces a modulation of the hopping amplitude between the graphene layers, that provides the extra momentum necessary to satisfy momentum and energy conservation and to activate coherent tunneling between the graphene electrodes. Conservation rules limit the tunneling to states with wavevectors lying at the conic curves defined by the intersection of two Dirac cones shifted in momentum and energy. There is a critical voltage where the intersection is a straight line, and the joint density of states presents a maximum. This reflects in a peak in the tunneling current and in a negative differential conductivity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Dielectric screening and plasmons in AA-stacked bilayer graphene

The screening properties and collective excitations (plasmons) in AA-stacked bilayer graphene are studied within the random phase approximation (RPA). Whereas long lived plasmons in single layer graphene and in AB-stacked bilayer graphene can exist only in doped samples, we find that coherent plasmons can disperse in AA-stacked bilayer graphene {\it even in the absence of doping}. Moreover, we show that the characteristic low energy dispersion relation is unaffected by changes in the number of carriers, unless the chemical potential of the doped sample exceeds the inter-layer hopping energy. We further consider the effect of an external electric field applied perpendicular to the layers, and show how the dispersion of the modes can be tuned by the application of a gate voltage.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Optical conductivity, Drude weight and plasmons in twisted graphene bilayers

We numerically calculate the optical conductivity of twisted graphene bilayers within the continuum model. To obtain the imaginary part, we employ the regularized Kramers-Kronig relation allowing us to discuss arbitrary twist angles, chemical potential and temperature. We find that the Drude weight $D$ as function of the chemical potential $μ$ closely follows the shell structure of twisted bilayer displayed by the density of states. For certain angles, this results in a transport gap D=0 at finite $μ$. We also discuss the loss function which, for low doping, is characterized by acoustic interband "plasmons" and transitions close to the van Hove singularities. For larger doping, the plasmon mode of decoupled graphene bilayer is recovered that is damped especially for small wave numbers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Electronic transport of folded graphene nanoribbons

We investigate the electronic transport properties of a folded graphene nanoribbon with monolayer nanoribbon contacts. We consider two possible foldings: either the nanoribbon can be folded onto itself in the shape of a hairpin with the nanoribbon leads at a $0^\circ$ angle, or the monolayer contacts have different directions, forming a $60^\circ$ angle. The system is described by a single $π$-band nearest-neighbor tight-binding Hamiltonian taking into account curvature effects. We have found that for the case of a nanoribbon folded over itself the conductance oscillates from almost zero and a finite value depending on the coupling between contacts, whereas in the $60^\circ$ angle folding the conductance is only slightly perturbed, allowing for the connection of graphene nanoelectronic components in a variety of geometries.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Temperature Induced Spin Density Wave in Magnetic Doped Topological Insulators

We study the magnetic properties of topological insulators doped with isoelectronic magnetic impurities. We obtain that at zero temperature the impurities order ferromagnetically, but when raising the temperature the topological insulator undergoes a first order phase transition to a spin density wave phase before the system reaches the paramagnetic phase. The origin of this phase is the non-trivial dependence of the topological insulator spin susceptibility on the momentum. We analyze the coupling of the non-uniform magnetic phase with the Dirac electronic system that occurs at the surfaces of the topological insulators.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Zener tunneling isospin Hall effect in HgTe quantum wells and graphene multilayers

A Zener diode is a paradigmatic device in semiconductor-based electronics that consists of a pn junction where an external electric field induces a switching behavior in the current-voltage characteristics. We study Zener tunneling in HgTe quantum wells and graphene multilayers. We find that the tunneling transition probability depends asymmetrically on the parallel momentum of the carriers to the barrier. In HgTe quantum wells the asymmetry is the opposite for each spin, whereas for graphene multilayers it is the opposite for each valley degree of freedom. In both cases, a spin/valley current flowing in the perpendicular direction to the applied field is produced. We relate the origin of this Zener tunneling spin/valley Hall effect to the Berry phase acquired by the carriers when they are adiabatically reflected from the gapped region.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Zero Landau level in folded graphene nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons can be folded into a double layer system keeping the two layers decoupled. In the Quantum Hall regime folds behave as a new type of Hall bar edge. We show that the symmetry properties of the zero Landau level in metallic nanoribbons dictate that the zero energy edge states traversing a fold are perfectly transmitted onto the opposite layer. This result is valid irrespective of fold geometry, magnetic field strength and crystallographic orientation of the nanoribbon. Backscattering suppression on the N=0 Hall plateau is ultimately due to the orthogonality of forward and backward channels, much like in the Klein paradox.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Electronic Phase Separation in Manganite/Insulator Interfaces

By using a realist microscopic model, we study the electric and magnetic properties of the interface between a half metallic manganite and an insulator. We find that the lack of carriers at the interface debilitates the double exchange mechanism, weakening the ferromagnetic coupling between the Mn ions. In this situation the ferromagnetic order of the Mn spins near the interface is unstable against antiferromagnetic CE correlations, and a separation between ferromagnetic/metallic and antiferromagnetic/insulator phases at the interfaces can occur. We obtain that the insertion of extra layers of undoped manganite at the interface introduces extra carriers which reinforce the double exchange mechanism and suppress antiferromagnetic instabilities.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2006

Luttinger Liquid at the Edge of a Graphene Vacuum

We demonstrate that an undoped two-dimensional carbon plane (graphene) whose bulk is in the integer quantum Hall regime supports a non-chiral Luttinger liquid at an armchair edge. This behavior arises due to the unusual dispersion of the non-interacting edges states, causing a crossing of bands with different valley and spin indices at the edge. We demonstrate that this stabilizes a domain wall structure with a spontaneously ordered phase degree of freedom. This coherent domain wall supports gapless charged excitations, and has a power law tunneling $I-V$ with a non-integral exponent. In proximity to a bulk lead, the edge may undergo a quantum phase transition between the Luttinger liquid phase and a metallic state when the edge confinement is sufficiently strong relative to the interaction energy scale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Edge States and the Quantized Hall Effect in Graphene

We study edges states of graphene ribbons in the quantized Hall regime, and show that they can be described within a continuum model (the Dirac equation) when appropriate boundary conditions are adopted. The two simplest terminations, zigzag and armchair edges, are studied in detail. For zigzag edges, we find that the lowest Landau level states terminate in two types of edge states, dispersionless and current-carrying surface states. The latter involve components on different sublattices that may be separated by distances far greater than the magnetic length. For armchair edges, the boundary conditions are met by admixing states from different valleys, and we show that this leads to a single set of edges states for the lowest Landau level and two sets for all higher Landau levels. In both cases, the resulting Hall conductance step for the lowest Landau level is half that between higher Landau levels, as observed in experiment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Solitonic Phase in Manganites

Whenever a symmetry in the ground state of a system is broken, topological defects will exist. These defects are essential for understanding phase transitions in low dimensional systems[1]. Excitingly in some unique condensed matter systems the defects are also the low energy electric charge excitations. This is the case of skyrmions in quantum Hall ferromagnets[2] and solitons in polymers[3]. Orbital order present in several transitions metal compounds[4-6] could give rise to topological defects. Here we argue that the topological defects in orbital ordered half doped manganites are orbital solitons. Surprisingly, these solitons carry a fractional charge of $\pm$e/2, and whenever extra charge is added to the system an array of solitons is formed and an incommensurate solitonic phase occurs. The striking experimental asymmetry in the phase diagram as electrons or holes are added to half doped manganites[7-12], is explained by the energy difference between positive and negative charged solitons. Contrary to existent models that explain coexistence between phases in manganites as an extrinsic effect[13-14], the presence of inhomogeneities is naturally explained by the existence of solitonic phases. The occurrence and relevance of orbital solitons might be a general phenomena in strongly correlated systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2005

Phase Diagram of Half Doped Manganites

An analysis of the properties of half-doped manganites is presented. We build up the phase diagram of the system combining a realistic calculation of the electronic properties and a mean field treatment of the temperature effects. The electronic structure of the manganites are described with a double exchange model with cooperative Jahn-Teller phonons and antiferromagnetic coupling between the $Mn$ core spins. At zero temperature a variety of electronic phases as ferromagnetic (FM) charge ordered (CO) orbital ordered (OO), CE-CO-OO and FM metallic, are obtained. By raising the temperature the CE-CO-OO phase becomes paramagnetic (PM), but depending on the electron-phonon coupling and the exchange coupling the transition can be direct or trough intermediate states: a FM disorder metallic, a PM-CO-OO or a FM-CO-OO. We also discus the nature of the high temperature PM phase in the regime of finite electron phonon coupling. In this regime half of the oxygen octahedra surrounding the $Mn$ ions are distorted. In the weak coupling regime the octahedra are slightly deformed and only trap a small amount of electronic charge, rendering the system metallic consequentially. However in the strong coupling regime the octahedra are strongly distorted, the charge is fully localized in polarons and the system is insulator.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

Continuous Charge Modulated Diagonal Phase in Manganites

We present a novel ground state that explain the continuous modulated charge diagonal order recently observed in manganese oxides, at hole densities $x$ larger than one half. In this diagonal phase the charge is modulated with a predominant Fourier component inversely proportional to $1-x$. Magnetically this state consist of antiferromagnetic coupled zig-zag chains. For a wide range of relevant physical parameters as electron-phonon coupling, antiferromagnetic interaction between Mn ions and on-site Coulomb repulsion, the diagonal phase is the ground state of the system. The diagonal phase is favored by the modulation of the hopping amplitude along the zig-zag chains, and it is stabilized with respect to the one dimensional straight chain by the electron phonon coupling. For realistic estimation of the physical parameters, the diagonal modulation of the electron density is only a small fraction of the average charge, a modulation much smaller than the obtained by distributing Mn$^{+3}$ and Mn$^{+4}$ ions. We discuss also the spin and orbital structure properties of this new diagonal phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Effect of the Equivalence Between Topological and Electric Charge on the Magnetization of the Hall Ferromagnet

The dependence on temperature of the spin magnetization of a two-dimensional electron gas at filling factor unity is studied. Using classical Monte Carlo simulations we analyze the effect that the equivalence between topological and electrical charge has on the the behavior of the magnetization. We find that at intermediate temperatures the spin polarization increases in a thirty per cent due to the Hartree interaction between charge fluctuations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Magnetic Domain Walls in Double Exchange Materials

We study magnetic domain walls in double exchange materials. The domain wall width is proportional to the square root of the stiffness. In the double exchange model the stiffness has two terms: the kinetic energy and the Hartree term. The kinetic energy term comes from the decrease of the tunneling amplitude in the domain wall region. The Hartree term appears only in double exchange materials and it comes from the connection between band-width and magnetization. We also calculate the low-field magnetoresistance associated with the existence of magnetic domains. We find a magnetoresistance of 1-2%. The magnetoresistance c an be considerably larger in magnetically constrained nanocontacts.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv1998

Interlayer Magnetic Coupling and the Quantum Hall Effect in Multilayer Electron Systems

We study the effect that the electron-electron interaction has on the properties of a multilayer electron system. We consider the case corresponding to filling factor unity in each layer. We find that as a function of the sample parameters the system has ferromagnetic, canted antiferromagnetic or paramagnetic interlayer spin correlations. These three ground states are QHE phases, because of the existence of a finite activation energy. In the ferromagnetic phase the gap is due to the intrawell exchange energy, whereas in the paramagnetic phase the gap appears due to the spatial modulation of the interwell coherence.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1997

Collective Excitations, NMR, and Phase Transitions in Skyrme Crystals

At Landau level filling factors near nu =1, quantum Hall ferromagnets form a Skyrme crystal state with quasi-long-range translational and non-collinear magnetic order. We develop an effective low energy theory which explains the presence in these systems of magnetic excitations at low energies below the Larmor gap (Delta) and which predicts a dramatic enhancement of the nuclear spin relaxation rate by a factor of 1000. The effective theory predicts a rich set of quantum and classical phase transitions. Based in part on accurate time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations of the ordered state collective excitation spectrum, we discuss aspects of the T-nu-Delta crystal phase diagram.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗