arXiv subjects

Malte Rösner

Publications and source records attributed to Malte Rösner.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Inducing a many-body topological state of matter through Coulomb-engineered local interactions

The engineering of artificial systems hosting topological excitations is at the heart of current condensed matter research. Most of these efforts focus on single-particle properties neglecting possible engineering routes via the modifications of the fundamental many-body interactions. Interestingly, recent experimental breakthroughs have shown that Coulomb interactions can be efficiently controlled by substrate screening engineering. Inspired by this success } we propose a simple platform in which topologically non-trivial many-body excitations emerge solely from dielectrically-engineered Coulomb interactions in an otherwise topologically trivial single-particle band structure. Furthermore, by performing a realistic microscopic modeling of screening engineering, we demonstrate how our proposal can be realized in one-dimensional systems such as quantum-dot chains. Our results put forward Coulomb engineering as a powerful tool to create topological excitations, with potential applications in a variety of solid-state platforms.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Plasmonic Waveguides from Coulomb-Engineered Two-Dimensional Metals

Coulomb interactions play an essential role in atomically-thin materials. On one hand, they are strong and long-ranged in layered systems due to the lack of environmental screening. On the other hand, they can be efficiently tuned by means of surrounding dielectric materials. Thus all physical properties which decisively depend on the exact structure of the electronic interactions can be in principle efficiently controlled and manipulated from the outside via Coulomb engineering. Here, we show how this concept can be used to create fundamentally new plasmonic waveguides in metallic layered materials. We discuss in detail how dielectrically structured environments can be utilized to non-invasively confine plasmonic excitations in an otherwise homogeneous metallic 2D system by modification of its many-body interactions. We define optimal energy ranges for this mechanism and demonstrate plasmonic confinement within several nanometers. In contrast to conventional functionalization mechanisms, this scheme relies on a purely many-body concept and does not involve any direct modifications to the active material itself.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Coulomb-Engineered Heterojunctions and Dynamical Screening in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers

The manipulation of two-dimensional materials via their dielectric environment offers novel opportunities to control electronic as well as optical properties and allows to imprint nanostructures in a non-invasive way. Here we asses the potential of monolayer semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) for Coulomb engineering in a material realistic and quantitative manner. We compare the response of different TMDC materials to modifications of their dielectric surrounding, analyze effects of dynamic substrate screening, i.e. frequency dependencies in the dielectric functions, and discuss inherent length scales of Coulomb-engineered heterojunctions. We find symmetric and rigid-shift-like quasi-particle band-gap modulations for both, instantaneous and dynamic substrate screening. From this we derive short-ranged self energies for an effective multi-scale modeling of Coulomb engineered heterojunctions composed of an homogeneous monolayer placed on a spatially structured substrate. For these heterojunctions, we show that band gap modulations on the length scale of a few lattice constants are possible rendering external limitations of the substrate structuring more important than internal effects. We find that all semiconducting TMDCs are similarly well suited for these external and non-invasive modifications.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Nature of symmetry breaking at the excitonic insulator transition: Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$

Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ is one of the most promising materials for hosting an excitonic insulator ground state. While a number of experimental observations have been interpreted in this way, the precise nature of the symmetry breaking occurring in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$, the electronic order parameter, and a realistic microscopic description of the transition mechanism are, however, missing. By a symmetry analysis based on first-principles calculations, we uncover the \emph{discrete} lattice symmetries which are broken at the transition. We identify a purely electronic order parameter of excitonic nature that breaks these discrete crystal symmetries and contributes to the experimentally observed lattice distortion from an orthorombic to a monoclinic phase. Our results provide a theoretical framework to understand and analyze the excitonic transition in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ and settle the fundamental questions about symmetry breaking governing the spontaneous formation of excitonic insulating phases in solid-state materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Localized Plasmons in Topological Insulators

We investigate in a fully quantum-mechanical manner how the many-body excitation spectrum of topological insulators is affected by the presence of long-range Coulomb interactions. In the one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and its mirror-symmetric variant strongly localized plasmonic excitations are observed which originate from topologically non-trivial single-particle states. These \textit{"topological plasmons"} inherit some of the characteristics of their constituent topological single-particle states, but they are not equally well protected against disorder due to the admixture of non-topological bulk single-particle states in the polarization function. The strength of the effective Coulomb interactions is also shown to have strong effects on the plasmonic modes. Furthermore, we show how external modifications via dielectric screening and applied electric fields with distinct symmetries can be used to study topological plasmons, thus allowing for experimental verification of our atomistic predictions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Rigid band shifts in two-dimensional semiconductors through environmental screening

We investigate the effects of environmental dielectric screening on the electronic dispersion and the band gap in the atomically-thin, quasi two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor WS$_2$ using correlative angle-resolved photoemission and optical spectroscopies, along with first-principles calculations. We find the main effect of increased environmental screening to be a reduction of the band gap, with little change to the electronic dispersion of the band structure. These essentially rigid shifts of the bands results from the special spatial structure of the changes in the Coulomb potential induced by the dielectric environment in the 2D limit. Our results suggest dielectric engineering as a non-invasive method of tailoring the band structure of 2D semiconductors and provide guidance for understanding the electronic properties of 2D materials embedded in multilayer heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Excitons versus electron-hole plasma in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors

When electron-hole pairs are excited in a semiconductor, it is a priori not clear if they form a fermionic plasma of unbound particles or a bosonic exciton gas. Usually, the exciton phase is associated with low temperatures. In atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors, excitons are particularly important even at room temperature due to strong Coulomb interaction and a large exciton density of states. Using state-of-the-art many-body theory including dynamical screening, we show that the exciton-to-plasma ratio can be efficiently tuned by dielectric substrate screening as well as charge carrier doping. Moreover, we predict a Mott transition from the exciton-dominated regime to a fully ionized electron-hole plasma at excitation densities between $3\times10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $1\times10^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$ depending on temperature, carrier doping and dielectric environment. We propose the observation of these effects by studying excitonic satellites in photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Non-invasive control of excitons in two-dimensional materials

We investigate how external screening shapes excitons in two-dimensional (2d) semiconductors embedded in laterally structured dielectric environments. An atomic scale view of these elementary excitations is developed using models which apply to a variety of materials including transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). We find that structured dielectrics imprint a peculiar potential energy landscape on excitons in these systems: While the ground-state exciton is least influenced, higher excitations are attracted towards regions with high dielectric constant of the environment. This landscape is "inverted" in the sense that low energy excitons are less strongly affected than their higher energy counterparts. Corresponding energy variations emerge on length scales of the order of a few unit cells. This opens the prospect of trapping and guiding of higher excitons by means of tailor-made dielectric substrates on ultimately small spatial scales.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Electric-field switchable second-harmonic generation in bilayer MoS$_{2}$ by inversion symmetry breaking

We demonstrate pronounced electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation in naturally inversion symmetric 2H stacked bilayer MoS$_{2}$ embedded into microcapacitor devices. By applying strong external electric field perturbations ($|F| = \pm 2.6 MVcm^{-1}$) perpendicular to the basal plane of the crystal we control the inversion symmetry breaking and, hereby, tune the nonlinear conversion efficiency. Strong tunability of the nonlinear response is observed throughout the energy range ($E_ω \sim 1.25 eV - 1.47 eV$) probed by measuring the second-harmonic response at $E_{2ω}$, spectrally detuned from both the A- and B-exciton resonances. A 60-fold enhancement of the second-order nonlinear signal is obtained for emission at $E_{2ω} = 2.49 eV$, energetically detuned by $ΔE = E_{2ω} - E_C = -0.26 eV$ from the C-resonance ($E_{C} = 2.75 eV$). The pronounced spectral dependence of the electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation signal reflects the bandstructure and wave function admixture and exhibits particularly strong tunability below the C-resonance, in good agreement with Density Functional Theory calculations. Moreover, we show that the field-induced second-harmonic generation relies on the interlayer coupling in the bilayer. Our findings strongly suggest that the strong tunability of the electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation signal in bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides may find applications in miniaturized electrically switchable nonlinear devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Nonequilibrium Carrier Dynamics in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Semiconductors

When exploring new materials for their potential in (opto)electronic device applications, it is important to understand the role of various carrier interaction and scattering processes. Research on transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors has recently progressed towards the realisation of working devices, which involve light-emitting diodes, nanocavity lasers, and single-photon emitters. In these two-dimensional atomically thin semiconductors, the Coulomb interaction is known to be much stronger than in quantum wells of conventional semiconductors like GaAs, as witnessed by the 50 times larger exciton binding energy. The question arises, whether this directly translates into equivalently faster carrier-carrier Coulomb scattering of excited carriers. Here we show that a combination of ab-initio band-structure and many-body theory predicts carrier relaxation on a 50-fs time scale, which is less than an order of magnitude faster than in quantum wells. These scattering times compete with the recently reported sub-ps exciton recombination times, thus making it harder to achieve population inversion and lasing.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Electronic Transport in Graphene with Aggregated Hydrogen Adatoms

Hydrogen adatoms and other species covalently bound to graphene act as resonant scattering centers affecting the electronic transport properties and inducing Anderson localization. We show that attractive interactions between adatoms on graphene and their diffusion mobility strongly modify the spatial distribution, thus fully eliminating isolated adatoms and increasing the population of larger size adatom aggregates. Our scaling analysis shows that such aggregation of adatoms increases conductance by up to several orders of magnitude and results in significant extension of the Anderson localization length in the strong localization regime. We introduce a simple definition of the effective adatom concentration $x^\star$ , which describes the transport properties of both random and correlated distributions of hydrogen adatoms on graphene across a broad range of concentrations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗