arXiv subjects

S. Das Sarma

Publications and source records attributed to S. Das Sarma.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Velocity renormalization and anomalous quasiparticle dispersion in extrinsic graphene

Using many-body diagrammatic perturbation theory we consider carrier density- and substrate-dependent many-body renormalization of doped or gated graphene induced by Coulombic electron-electron interaction effects. We quantitatively calculate the many-body spectral function, the renormalized quasiparticle energy dispersion, and the renormalized graphene velocity using the leading-order self-energy in the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction within the ring diagram approximation. We predict experimentally detectable many-body signatures, which are enhanced as the carrier density and the substrate dielectric constant are reduced, finding an intriguing instability in the graphene excitation spectrum at low wave vectors where interaction completely destroys all particle-like features of the noninteracting linear dispersion. We also make experimentally relevant quantitative predictions about the carrier density and wave-vector dependence of graphene velocity renormalization induced by electron-electron interaction. We compare on-shell and off-shell self-energy approximations within the ring diagram approximation, finding a substantial quantitative difference between their predicted velocity renormalization corrections in spite of the generally weak-coupling nature of interaction in graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Finite temperature inelastic mean free path and quasiparticle lifetime in graphene

We adopt the GW approximation and random phase approximation to study finite temperature effects on the inelastic mean free path and quasiparticle lifetime by directly calculating the imaginary part of the finite temperature self-energy induced by electron-electron interaction in extrinsic and intrinsic graphene. In particular, we provide the density-dependent leading order temperature correction to the inelastic scattering rate for both single-layer and double-layer graphene systems. We find that the inelastic mean free path is strongly influenced by finite-temperature effects. We present the similarity and the difference between graphene with linear chiral band dispersion and conventional two dimensional electron systems with parabolic band dispersion. We also compare the calculated finite temperature inelastic scattering length with the elastic scattering length due to Coulomb disorder, and comment on the prospects for quantum interference effects showing up in low density graphene transport. We also carry out inelastic scattering calculation for electron-phonon interaction, which by itself gives rather long carrier mean free paths and lifetimes since the deformation potential coupling is weak in graphene, and therefore electron-phonon interaction contributes significantly to the inelastic scattering only at relatively high temperatures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

2D compressibility of surface states on 3D topological insulators

We develop a theory for the compressibility of the surface states of 3D topological insulators and propose that surface probes of the compressibility via scanning single electron transistor microscopy will be a straightforward way to access the topological states without interference from the bulk states. We describe the single-particle nature of the surface states taking into account an accurate Hamiltonian for the bands and then include the contribution from electron--electron interactions and discuss the implications of the ultra-violet cutoff, including the universality of the exchange contribution when expressed in dimensionless units. We also compare the theory with experimentally obtained dμ/dn as extracted from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements. Finally, we point out that interaction-driven renormalization of the Fermi velocity may be discernible via this technique.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Surface polar optical phonon interaction induced many-body effects and hot-electron relaxation in graphene

We theoretically study various aspects of the electron-surface optical phonon interaction effects in graphene on a substrate made of polar materials. We calculate the electron self-energy in the presence of the surface phonon-mediated electron-electron interaction focusing on how the linear chiral graphene dispersion is renormalized by the surface phonons. The electron self-energy as well as the quasiparticle spectral function in graphene are calculated, taking into account electron-polar optical phonon interaction by using a many body perturbative formalism. The scattering rate of free electrons due to polar interaction with surface optical phonons in a dielectric substrate is calculated as a function of the electron energy, temperatures, and carrier density. Effects of screening on the self-energy and scattering rate are discussed. Our theory provides a comprehensive quantitative (and qualitative) picture for surface phonon interaction induced many-body effects and hot electron relaxation in Dirac materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Density dependent electrical conductivity in suspended graphene: Approaching the Dirac point in transport

We theoretically consider, comparing with the existing experimental literature, the electrical conductivity of gated monolayer graphene as a function of carrier density, temperature, and disorder in order to assess the prospects of accessing the Dirac point using transport studies in high-quality suspended graphene. We show that the temperature dependence of graphene conductivity around the charge neutrality point provides information about how close the system can approach the Dirac point although competition between long-range and short-range disorder as well as between diffusive and ballistic transport may considerably complicate the picture. We also find that acoustic phonon scattering contribution to the graphene resistivity is always relevant at the Dirac point in contrast to higher density situations where the acoustic phonon contribution to the resistivity is strongly suppressed at the low temperature Bloch-Grüneisen regime. We provide detailed numerical results for temperature and density dependent conductivity for suspended graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions in hybrid structures involving cuprate high-T_c superconductors

The possibility of inducing topological superconductivity with cuprate high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) is studied for various heterostructures. We first consider a ballistic planar junction between a HTSC and a metallic ferromagnet. We assume that inversion symmetry breaking at the tunnel barrier gives rise to Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the barrier and allows equal-spin triplet superconductivity to exist in the ferromagnet. Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations are obtained by explicitly modeling the barrier, and taking account of the transport anisotropy in the HTSC. By making use of the self-consistent boundary conditions and solutions for the barrier and HTSC regions, an effective equation of motion for the ferromagnet is obtained where Andreev scattering at the barrier is incorporated as a boundary condition for the ferromagnetic region. For a ferromagnet layer deposited on a (100) facet of the HTSC, triplet p-wave superconductivity is induced. For the layer deposited on a (110) facet, the induced gap does not have the p-wave orbital character, but has an even orbital symmetry and an odd dependence on energy. For the layer on the (001) facet, an exotic f-wave superconductivity is induced. We also consider the induced triplet gap in a one-dimensional half-metallic nanowire deposited on a (001) facet of a HTSC. We find that for a wire axis along the a-axis, a robust triplet p-wave gap is induced. For a wire oriented 45 degrees away from the a-axis the induced triplet p-wave gap vanishes. For the appropriately oriented wire, the induced p-wave gap should give rise to Majorana fermions at the ends of the half-metallic wire. Based on our result, topological superconductivity in a semi-conductor nanowire may also be possible given that it is oriented along the a-axis of the HTSC.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

To close or not to close: the fate of the superconducting gap across the topological quantum phase transition in Majorana-carrying semiconductor nanowires

We investigate theoretically the low energy physics of semiconductor Majorana wires in the vicinity of a magnetic field-driven topological quantum phase transition (TQPT). The local density of states (LDOS) at the end of the wire, which is directly related to the differential conductance in the limit of point-contact tunneling, is calculated numerically. We find that the dependence of the end-of-wire LDOS on the magnetic field is non-universal and that the signatures associated with the closing of the superconducting gap at the Majorana TQPT are essentially invisible within a significant range of experimentally relevant parameters. Our results provide an explanation for the recent observation of the apparent non-closure of the gap at the Majorana TQPT in semiconductor nanowires.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Loop Structure Stability of a Double-Well-Lattice BEC

In this work, we consider excited many-body mean-field states of bosons in a double-well optical lattice by investigating stationary Bloch solutions to the non-linear equations of motion. We show that, for any positive interaction strength, a loop structure emerges at the edge of the band structure whose existence is entirely due to interactions. This can be contrasted to the case of a conventional optical (Bravais) lattice where a loop appears only above a critical repulsive interaction strength. Motivated by the possibility of realizing such non-linear Bloch states experimentally, we analyze the collective excitations about these non-linear stationary states and thereby establish conditions for the system's energetic and dynamical stability. We find that there are regimes that are dynamically stable and thus apt to be realized experimentally.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Topological flat band models with arbitrary Chern numbers

We report the theoretical discovery of a systematic scheme to produce topological flat bands (TFBs) with arbitrary Chern numbers. We find that generically a multi-orbital high Chern number TFB model can be constructed by considering multi-layer Chern number C=1 TFB models with enhanced translational symmetry. A series of models are presented as examples, including a two-band model on a triangular lattice with a Chern number C=3 and an $N$-band square lattice model with $C=N$ for an arbitrary integer $N$. In all these models, the flatness ratio for the TFBs is larger than 30 and increases with increasing Chern number. In the presence of appropriate inter-particle interactions, these models are likely to lead to the formation of novel Abelian and Non-Abelian fractional Chern insulators. As a simple example, we test the C=2 model with hardcore bosons at 1/3 filling and an intriguing fractional quantum Hall state is observed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Two-dimensional electronic transport on the surface of 3D topological insulators

We present a theoretical approach to describe the 2D transport properties of the surfaces of three dimensional topological insulators (3DTIs) including disorder and phonon scattering effects. The method that we present is able to take into account the effects of the strong disorder-induced carrier density inhomogeneities that characterize the ground state of the surface of 3DTIs, especially at low doping, as recently shown experimentally. Due to the inhomogeneous nature of the carrier density landscape, standard theoretical techniques based on ensemble averaging over disorder assuming a spatially uniform average carrier density are inadequate. Moreover the presence of strong spatial potential and density fluctuations greatly enhance the effect of thermally activated processes on the transport properties. The theory presented is able to take into account all the effects due to the disorder-induced inhomogeneities, momentum scattering by disorder, and the effect of electron-phonon scattering processes. As a result the developed theory is able to accurately describe the transport properties of the surfaces of 3DTIs both at zero and finite temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Gate tunable quantum transport in double layer graphene

We analyze the effect of screening provided by the additional graphene layer in double layer graphene heterostructures (DLGs) on transport characteristics of DLG devices in the metallic regime. The effect of gate-tunable charge density in the additional layer is two-fold: it provides screening of the long-range potential of charged defects in the system, and screens out Coulomb interactions between charge carriers. We find that the efficiency of defect charge screening is strongly dependent on the concentration and location of defects within the DLG. In particular, only a moderate suppression of electron-hole puddles around the Dirac point induced by the high concentration of remote impurities in the silicon oxide substrate could be achieved. A stronger effect is found on the elastic relaxation rate due to charged defects resulting in mobility strongly dependent on the electron denisty in the additional layer of DLG. We find that the quantum interference correction to the resistivity of graphene is also strongly affected by screening in DLG. In particular, the dephasing rate is strongly suppressed by the additional screening that supresses the amplitude of electron-electron interaction and reduces the diffusion time that electrons spend in proximity of each other. The latter effect combined with screening of elastic relaxation rates results in a peculiar gate tunable weak-localization magnetoresistance and quantum correction to resistivity. We propose suitable experiments to test our theory and discuss the possible relevance of our results to exisiting data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Zero bias conductance peak in Majorana wires made of semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures

Motivated by a recent experimental report[1] claiming the likely observation of the Majorana mode in a semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structure[2,3,4,5], we study theoretically the dependence of the zero bias conductance peak associated with the zero-energy Majorana mode in the topological superconducting phase as a function of temperature, tunnel barrier potential, and a magnetic field tilted from the direction of the wire for realistic wires of finite lengths. We find that higher temperatures and tunnel barriers as well as a large magnetic field in the direction transverse to the wire length could very strongly suppress the zero-bias conductance peak as observed in Ref.[1]. We also show that a strong magnetic field along the wire could eventually lead to the splitting of the zero bias peak into a doublet with the doublet energy splitting oscillating as a function of increasing magnetic field. Our results based on the standard theory of topological superconductivity in a semiconductor hybrid structure in the presence of proximity-induced superconductivity, spin-orbit coupling, and Zeeman splitting show that the recently reported experimental data are generally consistent with the existing theory that led to the predictions for the existence of the Majorana modes in the semiconductor hybrid structures in spite of some apparent anomalies in the experimental observations at first sight. We also make several concrete new predictions for future observations regarding Majorana splitting in finite wires used in the experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Electronic transport in two dimensional Si:P $δ$-doped layers

We investigate theoretically 2D electronic transport in Si:P $δ$-doped layers limited by charged-dopant scattering. Since the carrier density is approximately equal to the dopant impurity density, the density dependent transport shows qualitatively different behavior from that of the well-studied 2D Si-MOSFETs where the carrier density is independent of the impurity density. We find that the density dependent mobility of the Si:P system shows non-monotonic behavior which is exactly opposite of the non-monotonicity observed in Si-MOSFETs --- in the Si:P system the mobility first decreases with increasing density and then it increases slowly with increasing density above a typical density $10^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$ (in contrast to Si MOSFETs where the mobility typically increases with density first and then slowly decreases at high density as surface roughness scattering dominates). In the low density limit (or strong screening limit) mobility decreases inversely with increasing density, but in the high density limit (or weak screening limit) it slowly increases due to the finite width effects of the 2D layer. In the intermediate density regime ($1/a < 2 k_F < q_{TF}$, where $a$, $k_F$, and $q_{TF}$ are the confinement width of the $δ$-layer, Fermi wave vector, and Thomas-Fermi screening wave vector, respectively) the density dependent mobility is approximately a constant at the minimum value. However, the calculated mean free path increase monotonically with density. We also compare the transport scattering time relevant to the mobility and the single particle relaxation time relevant the quantum level broadening, finding that the transport scattering time could be much larger than the single-particle scattering time unlike in Si MOSFETs where they are approximately equal.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Inhomogeneity and nonlinear screening in gapped bilayer graphene

We demonstrate that for gapped bilayer graphene, the nonlinear nature of the screening of an external disorder potential and the resulting inhomogeneity of the electron liquid are crucial for describing the electronic compressibility. In particular, traditional diagrammatic methods of many-body theory do not include this inhomogeneity and therefore fail to reproduce experimental data accurately, particularly at low carrier densities. In contrast, a direct calculation of the charge landscape via a numerical Thomas-Fermi energy functional method along with the appropriate bulk averaging procedure captures all the essential physics, including the interplay between the band gap and the inhomogeneity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Density fluctuation effects on the exciton condensate in double layer graphene

We describe the robustness of an excitonic condensate in double layer graphene against layer density fluctuations and the associated charge inhomogeneity, and discuss the implications for observing the condensate under current experimental conditions. We solve the mean-field equations for a finite imbalance in the Fermi energies in each layer and utilize the results in two phenomenological models for inhomogeneity. We find that the stability of the excitonic condensate against density fluctuations is strongly dependent on the size of the excitonic gap, and that transport experiments (such as Coulomb drag) which rely on percolation of the exciton current through the inhomogeneous sample are promising methods for observing the condensate.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

A Majorana smoking gun for the superconductor-semiconductor hybrid topological system

Recent observations of a zero bias conductance peak in tunneling transport measurements in superconductor--semiconductor nanowire devices provide evidence for the predicted zero--energy Majorana modes, but not the conclusive proof for their existence. We establish that direct observation of a splitting of the zero bias conductance peak can serve as the smoking gun evidence for the existence of the Majorana mode. We show that the splitting has an oscillatory dependence on the Zeeman field (chemical potential) at fixed chemical potential (Zeeman field). By contrast, when the density is constant rather than the chemical potential -- the likely situation in the current experimental set-ups -- the splitting oscillations are generically suppressed. Our theory predicts the conditions under which the splitting oscillations can serve as the smoking gun for the experimental confirmation of the elusive Majorana mode.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Intrinsic Electron-Phonon Resistivity in Bi2Se3 in the Topological Regime

We measure the temperature-dependent carrier density and resistivity of the topological surface state of thin exfoliated Bi2Se3 in the absence of bulk conduction. When the gate-tuned chemical potential is near or below the Dirac point the carrier density is strongly temperature dependent reflecting thermal activation from the nearby bulk valence band, while above the Dirac point, unipolar n-type surface conduction is observed with negligible thermal activation of bulk carriers. In this regime linear resistivity vs. temperature reflects intrinsic electron-acoustic phonon scattering. Quantitative comparison with a theoretical transport calculation including both phonon and disorder effects gives the ratio of deformation potential to Fermi velocity D/\hbarvF = 4.7 Å-1. This strong phonon scattering in the Bi2Se3 surface state gives intrinsic limits for the conductivity and charge carrier mobility at room temperature of ~550 μS per surface and ~10,000 cm2/Vs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Valley-dependent 2D transport in Si-MOSFETs

Motivated by interesting recent experimental results, we consider theoretically charged-impurity scattering-limited 2D electronic transport in (100), (110), and (111)-Si inversion layers at low temperatures and carrier densities, where screening effects are important. We show conclusively that, given the same bare Coulomb disorder, the 2D mobility for a given system increases monotonically with increasing valley degeneracy. We also show that the temperature and the parallel magnetic field dependence of the 2D conductivity is strongly enhanced by increasing valley degeneracy. We analytically consider the low temperature limit of 2D transport, particularly its theoretical dependence on valley degeneracy, comparing with our full numerical results and with the available experimental results. We make qualitative and quantitative predictions for the parallel magnetic field induced 2D magnetoresistance in recently fabricated high-mobility 6-valley Si(111)-on-vacuum inversion layers. We also provide a theory for 2D transport in ultrahigh mobility Si(111) structures recently fabricated in the laboratory, discussing the possibility of observing the fractional quantum Hall effect in such Si(111) structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗