arXiv subjects

Mingliang Tian

Publications and source records attributed to Mingliang Tian.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Magnetic Skyrmion Bundles and Their Current-Driven Dynamics

Quantization of topological charges determines the various topological spin textures that are expected to play a key role in future spintronic devices. While the magnetic skyrmion with a unit topological charge Q has been extensively studied, spin textures with other integer valued have not been verified well so far. Here, we report the real-space image, creation, and manipulation of a type of multi Q three-dimensional skyrmionic texture, where a circular spin spiral ties a bunch of skyrmion tubes. We define these objects as skyrmion bundles, and show they have arbitrarily integer values Q from negative up to at least 55 in our experiment. These textures behave as quasiparticles in dynamics for the collective motions driven by electric pulses. Similar to the skyrmion, skyrmion bundles with non zero Q exhibit the skyrmion Hall effects with a Hall angle of 62 degree. Of particular interest, the skyrmion bundle with Q = 0 propagates collinearly with respect to the current flow without the skyrmion Hall effect. Our results open a new perspective for possible applications of multi Q magnetic objects in future spintronic devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Tailoring Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in a transition metal dichalcogenide by dual-intercalation

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is vital to form various chiral spin textures, novel behaviors of magnons and permits their potential applications in energy-efficient spintronic devices. Here, we realize a sizable bulk DMI in a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) 2H-TaS2 by intercalating Fe atoms, which form the chiral supercells with broken spatial inversion symmetry and also act as the source of magnetic orderings. Using a newly developed protonic gate technology, gate-controlled protons intercalation could further change the carrier density and intensely tune DMI via the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida mechanism. The resultant giant topological Hall resistivity of 1.4 uohm.cm at -5.2V (about 460% of the zero-bias value) is larger than most of the known magnetic materials. Theoretical analysis indicates that such a large topological Hall effect originates from the two-dimensional Bloch-type chiral spin textures stabilized by DMI, while the large anomalous Hall effect comes from the gapped Dirac nodal lines by spin-orbit interaction. Dual-intercalation in 2HTaS2 provides a model system to reveal the nature of DMI in the large family of TMDs and a promising way of gate tuning of DMI, which further enables an electrical control of the chiral spin textures and related electromagnetic phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Gate-controlled magnetic phase transition in a van der Waals magnet Fe$_5$GeTe$_2$

Magnetic van der Waals (vdW) materials, including ferromagnets (FM) and antiferromagnets (AFM), have given access to the investigation of magnetism in two-dimensional (2D) limit and attracted broad interests recently. However, most of them are semiconducting or insulating and the vdW itinerant magnets, especially vdW itinerant AFM, are very rare. Here, we studied the anomalous Hall effect of a vdW itinerant magnet Fe$_5$GeTe$_2$ (F5GT) with various thicknesses down to 6.8 nm (two unit cells). Despite the robust ferromagnetic ground state in thin-layer F5GT, however, we show that the electron doping implemented by a protonic gate can eventually induce a magnetic phase transition from FM to AFM. Realization of an antiferromagnetic phase in F5GT highlights its promising applications in high-temperature antiferromagnetic vdW devices and heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Gate-Tuned Interlayer Coupling in van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$ Nanoflakes

The weak interlayer coupling in van der Waals (vdW) magnets has confined their application to two dimensional (2D) spintronic devices. Here, we demonstrate that the interlayer coupling in a vdW magnet Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$ (FGT) can be largely modulated by a protonic gate.With the increase of the protons intercalated among vdW layers,interlayer magnetic coupling increases.Because of the existence of antiferromagnetic layers in FGT nanoflakes, the increasing interlayer magnetic coupling induces exchange bias in protonated FGT nanoflakes. Most strikingly, a rarely seen zero-field cooled (ZFC) exchange bias with very large values (maximally up to 1.2 kOe) has been observed when higher positive voltages (Vg>4.36 V) are applied to the protonic gate, which clearly demonstrates that a strong interlayer coupling is realized by proton intercalation. Such strong interlayer coupling will enable a wider range of applications for vdW magnets.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Three-dimensional topological semimetal phase in layered TaNiTe5 probed by de Haas-van Alphen effect

Layered three-dimensional (3D) topological semimetals have attracted intensively attention due to the exotic phenomena and abundantly tunable properties. Here we report the experimental evidence for the 3D topological semimetal phase in layered material TaNiTe5 single crystals through quantum oscillations. Strong quantum oscillations have been observed with diamagnetism background in TaNiTe5. By analyzing the de Haas-van Alphen oscillations, multi-periodic oscillations were extracted, in content with magnetotransport measurements. Moreover, nontrivial "π" Berry phase with 3D Fermi surface is identified, indicating the topologically nontrivial feature in TaNiTe5. Additionally, we demonstrated the thin-layer of TaNiTe5 crystals is highly feasible by the mechanical exfoliation, which offers a platform to explore exotic properties in low dimensional topological semimetal and paves the way for potential applications in nanodevices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Angle-dependent magnetoresistance and its implications for Lifshitz transition in W2As3

Lifshitz transition represents a sudden reconstruction of Fermi surface structure, giving rise to anomalies in electronic properties of materials. Such a transition does not necessarily rely on symmetry-breaking and thus is topological. It holds a key to understand the origin of many exotic quantum phenomena, for example the mechanism of extremely large magnetoresistance (MR) in topological Dirac/Weyl semimetals. Here, we report studies of the angle-dependent MR (ADMR) and the thermoelectric effect in W2As3 single crystal. The compound shows a large unsaturated MR (of about 70000% at 4.2 K and 53 T). The most striking finding is that the ADMR significantly deforms from the horizontal dumbbell-like shape above 40 K to the vertical lotus-like pattern below 30 K. The window of 30-40 K also corresponds substantial changes in Hall effect, thermopower and Nernst coefficient, implying an abrupt change of Fermi surface topology. Such a temperature-induced Lifshitz transition results in a compensation of electron-hole transport and the large MR as well. We thus suggest that the similar method can be applicable in detecting a Fermi-surface change of a variety of quantum states when a direct Fermi-surface measurement is not possible.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Antisymmetric magnetoresistance in van der Waals Fe3GeTe2/graphite/Fe3GeTe2 tri-layer heterostructures

Van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnetic materials are rapidly establishing themselves as effective building blocks for next generation spintronic devices. When layered with non-magnetic vdW materials, such as graphene and/or topological insulators, vdW heterostructures can be assembled (with no requirement for lattice matching) to provide otherwise unattainable device structures and functionalities. We report a hitherto rarely seen antisymmetric magnetoresistance (MR) effect in van der Waals heterostructured Fe3GeTe2/graphite/Fe3GeTe2 devices. Unlike conventional giant magnetoresistance (GMR) which is characterized by two resistance states, the MR in these vdW heterostructures features distinct high, intermediate and low resistance states. This unique characteristic is suggestive of underlying physical mechanisms that differ from those observed before. After theoretical calculations, the three resistance behavior was attributed to a spin momentum locking induced spin polarized current at the graphite/FGT interface. Our work reveals that ferromagnetic heterostructures assembled from vdW materials can exhibit substantially different properties to those exhibited by similar heterostructures grown in vacuum. Hence, it highlights the potential for new physics and new spintronic applications to be discovered using vdW heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Thermal tuning of the carrier density in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanoplates

The tunable carrier density plays a key role in the investigation of novel transport properties in three-dimensional topological semimetals. Here we demonstrate that the carrier density as well as the mobility of Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanoplates can be effectively tuned by the in-situ thermal treatment at 350 K for one hour, both showing a non-monotonic evolution with the thermal cycling treatments. The upward shift of Fermi level relative to the Dirac nodes blurs the surface Fermi-arc states, accompanying with an anomalous phase shift of oscillations of bulk states due to the change of topology of electrons. Meanwhile, the peaks of oscillations of bulk longitudinal magnetoresistivity shift at high fields due to their coupling to the oscillations of the surface Fermi-arc states. Our work provides a thermal control knob for manipulations of the quantum states through the carrier density in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 at high temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Giant anomalous Nernst effect in the magnetic Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2

In ferromagnetic solids, even in absence of magnetic field, a transverse voltage can be generated by a longitudinal temperature gradient. This thermoelectric counterpart of the Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) is dubbed the Anomalous Nernst effect (ANE). Expected to scale with spontaneous magnetization, both these effects arise because of the Berry curvature at the Fermi energy. Here, we report the observation of a giant ANE in a newly-discovered magnetic Weyl semimetal Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ crystal. Hall resistivity and Nernst signal both show sharp jumps at a threshold field and exhibit a clear hysteresis loop below the ferromagnetic transition temperature. The ANE signal peaks a maximum value of about 5 miuV/K which is comparable to the largest seen in any magnetic material. Moreover, the anomalous transverse thermoelectric conductivity becomes as large as about 10 A/K.m at 70 K, the largest in known semimetals. The observed ANE signal is much larger than what is expected according to the magnetization.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Log-periodic quantum magneto-oscillations and discrete scale invariance in topological material HfTe5

Discrete scale invariance (DSI) is a phenomenon featuring intriguing log-periodicity which can be rarely observed in quantum systems. Here we report the log-periodic quantum oscillations in the magnetoresistance (MR) and the Hall traces of HfTe5 crystals, which reveals the appearance of DSI. The oscillations show the same logB-periodicity in the behavior of MR and Hall, indicating an overall effect of the DSI on the transport properties. Moreover, the DSI feature in the Hall resistance signals its close relation to the carriers. Combined with theoretical simulations, we further clarify the origin of the log-periodic oscillations and the DSI in the topological materials. Our work evidences the universality of the DSI in the Dirac materials and paves way for the full understanding of the novel phenomenon.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

de Haas-van Alphen study on three-dimensional topological semimetal pyrite PtBi2

We present the systematic de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) quantum oscillations studies on the recently discovered topological Dirac semimetal pyrite PtBi2 single crystals. Remarkable dHvA oscillations were observed at field as low as 1.5 T. From the analyses of dHvA oscillations, we have extracted high quantum mobility, light effective mass and phase shift factor for Dirac fermions in pyrite PtBi2. From the angular dependence of dHvA oscillations, we have mapped out the topology of the Fermi surface and identified additional oscillation frequencies which were not probed by SdH oscillations.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Interface induced Zeeman-protected superconductivity in ultrathin crystalline lead films

Two dimensional (2D) superconducting systems are of great importance to exploring exotic quantum physics. Recent development of fabrication techniques stimulates the studies of high quality single crystalline 2D superconductors, where intrinsic properties give rise to unprecedented physical phenomena. Here we report the observation of Zeeman-type spin-orbit interaction protected superconductivity (Zeeman-protected superconductivity) in 4 monolayer (ML) to 6 ML crystalline Pb films grown on striped incommensurate (SIC) Pb layers on Si(111) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Anomalous large in-plane critical field far beyond the Pauli limit is detected, which can be attributed to the Zeeman-protected superconductivity due to the in-plane inversion symmetry breaking at the interface. Our work demonstrates that in superconducting heterostructures the interface can induce Zeeman-type spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and modulate the superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Existence of electron and hole pockets and partial gap opening in the correlated semimetal Ca3Ru2O7

The electronic band structure of correlated Ca3Ru2O7 featuring an antiferromagnetic as well as a structural transition has been determined theoretically at high temperatures, which has led to the understanding of the remarkable properties of Ca3Ru2O7 such as the bulk spin valve effects. However, its band structure and Fermi surface (FS) below the structural transition have not been resolved even though a FS consisting of electron pockets was found experimentally. Here we report magneto electrical transport and thermoelectric measurements with the electric current and temper- ature gradient directed along a and b axes of an untwined single crystal of Ca3Ru2O7 respectively. The thermopower obtained along the two crystal axes were found to show opposite signs at low temperatures, demonstrating the presence of both electron and hole pockets on the FS. In addition, how the FS evolves across T* = 30 K at which a distinct transition from coherent to incoherent behavior occurs was also inferred - the Hall and Nernst coefficient results suggest a temperature and momentum dependent partial gap opening in Ca3Ru2O7 below the structural transition, with a pos- sible Lifshitz transition occurring at T*. The experimental demonstration of a correlated semimetal ground state in Ca3Ru2O7 calls for further theoretical studies of this remarkable material.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Recognition of Fermi-arc states through the magnetoresistance quantum oscillations in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanoplates

The disjointed Fermi-arcs in Weyl semimetals can intertwine with chiral bulk modes and participate in unusual closed magnetic orbits in the presence of a vertical magnetic field. Here we carry out the quantum oscillation study of such unusual Weyl magnetic orbits in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2, a close cousin of Weyl semimetals. We find that extra two-dimensional (2D) quantum oscillations emerge at high field, which superimpose on 3D bulk background and can be attributed to the Weyl magnetic orbits, when the thickness of nanoplates is smaller than the mean free path of the electrons. Further evidence of the 2D quantum oscillations from the Weyl magnetic orbits is provided by the nonlocal detection, which demonstrates an alternative way to study the quantum transport properties of Fermi-arcs under magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Probing the Chiral Anomaly by Planar Hall Effect in Three-dimensional Dirac Semimetal Cd3As2 Nanoplates

Searching for exotic transport properties in new topological state of matters is an active topic. One of the most fascinating achievements is the chiral anomaly in recently discovered Weyl semimetals (WSMs), which is manifested as a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) in the presence of a magnetic field B parallel to an electric field E. Another predicted key effect closely related to the chiral anomaly is the planar Hall effect (PHE), which has not been identified in WSMs so far. Here we carried out the planar Hall measurements on Cd3As2 nanoplates, and found that, accompanied by the large negative LMR, a PHE with non-zero transverse voltage can be developed while tilting the in-plane magnetic field B away from the electric field E. Further experiments reveal that both the PHE and the negative LMR can be suppressed synchronously by increasing the temperature, but still visible at room temperature, indicating the same origin of these two effects. The observation of PHE in Cd3As2 nanoplates gives another transport evidence for the chiral anomaly and provides a deep insight into the chiral charge pumping in Weyl Fermions system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Field induced topological phase transition from a three-dimensional Weyl semimetal to a two-dimensional massive Dirac metal in ZrTe5

Symmetry protected Dirac semimetals can be transformed into Weyl semimetals by breaking the protecting symmetry, leading to many exotic quantum phenomena such as chiral anomaly and anomalous Hall effect. Here we show that, due to the large Zeeman g factor and small band width along b-axis in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5, a magnetic field of about 8 T along b-axis direction may annihilate the Weyl points and open up a two-dimensional (2D) Dirac mass gap, when the Zeeman splitting exceeds the band width along b-axis. This is manifested by a sharp drop of magnetoresistance (MR) above 8 T, which is probably due to additional carriers induced by the orbital splitting of the zeroth Landau level associated with the 2D Dirac point, which is descendant of the original Weyl points. Further evidence of the additional carriers is provided by the Hall effect and different anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in low and high field regions. Our experiment reveals a probable topological quantum phase transition of field induced Weyl points annihilation in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5 and gives an alternative explanation for the drop of MR at high field.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Ising Superconductivity and Quantum Phase Transition in Macro-Size Monolayer NbSe2

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have a range of unique physics properties and could be used in the development of electronics, photonics, spintronics and quantum computing devices. The mechanical exfoliation technique of micro-size TMD flakes has attracted particular interest due to its simplicity and cost effectiveness. However, for most applications, large area and high quality films are preferred. Furthermore, when the thickness of crystalline films is down to the 2D limit (monolayer), exotic properties can be expected due to the quantum confinement and symmetry breaking. In this paper, we have successfully prepared macro-size atomically flat monolayer NbSe2 films on bilayer graphene terminated surface of 6H-SiC(0001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method. The films exhibit an onset superconducting critical transition temperature above 6 K, 2 times higher than that of mechanical exfoliated NbSe2 flakes. Simultaneously, the transport measurements at high magnetic fields reveal that the parallel characteristic field Bc// is at least 4.5 times higher than the paramagnetic limiting field, consistent with Zeeman-protected Ising superconductivity mechanism. Besides, by ultralow temperature electrical transport measurements, the monolayer NbSe2 film shows the signature of quantum Griffiths singularity when approaching the zero-temperature quantum critical point.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Direct imaging of a zero-field target skyrmion and its polarity switch in a chiral magnetic nanodisk

A target skyrmion is a flux-closed spin texture that has two-fold degeneracy and is promising as a binary state in next generation universal memories. Although its formation in nanopatterned chiral magnets has been predicted, its observation has remained challenging. Here, we use off-axis electron holography to record images of target skyrmions in a 160-nm-diameter nanodisk of the chiral magnet FeGe. We compare experimental measurements with numerical simulations, demonstrate switching between two stable degenerate target skyrmion ground states that have opposite polarities and rotation senses and discuss the observed switching mechanism.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗