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Niccoló Scopigno

Publications and source records attributed to Niccoló Scopigno.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Anomalous Planar Hall Effect in Two-Dimensional Trigonal Crystals

The planar Hall effect (PHE) is the appearance of an in-plane transverse voltage in the presence of coplanar electric and magnetic fields. Its hallmark is a characteristic $π$-periodic, i.e. even under a magnetic field reversal, angular dependence with the transverse voltage that exactly vanishes when the electric and magnetic fields are aligned. Here we demonstrate that in two-dimensional trigonal crystals Zeeman-induced non-trivial Berry curvature effects yield a previously unknown anomalous PHE that is odd in the magnetic field and independent of the relative angle with the driving electric field. We further show that when an additional mirror symmetry forces the transverse voltage to vanish in the linear response regime, the anomalous PHE can occur as a second-order response at both zero and twice the frequency of the applied electric field. We demonstrate that this non-linear PHE possesses an antisymmetric quantum contribution that originates from a Zeeman-induced Berry curvature dipole.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Tuning topology in thin films of topological insulators by strain gradients

We theoretically show that the coupling of inhomogeneous strains to the Dirac fermions of three-dimensional topological insulators (3DTI) in thin film geometries results in the occurrence of phase transitions between topologically distinct insulating phases. By means of minimal k dot p models for strong 3DTI in the Bi 2 Se 3 materials class, we find that in thin films of stoichiometric materials a strain-gradient induced structure inversion asymmetry drives a phase transition from a quantum spin-Hall phase to a topologically trivial insulating phase. Interestingly, in alloys with strongly reduced bulk band gaps strain gradients have an opposite effect and promote a topologically non-trivial phase from a parent normal band insulator. These strain-gradient assisted switchings between topologically distinct phases are expected to yield a flexomagnetic coupling in magnetic topological insulator thin films.

cond-mat.mes-hall