arXiv subjects

Saikat Banerjee

Publications and source records attributed to Saikat Banerjee.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Inverse Faraday effect in Mott insulators

The inverse Faraday effect (IFE), where a static magnetization is induced by circularly polarized light, offers a promising route to ultrafast control of spin states. Here we study the IFE in Mott insulators using the Floquet theory. We find two distinct IFE behavior governed by the inversion symmetry. In the Mott insulators with inversion symmetry, we find that the effective magnetic field induced by the IFE couples ferromagnetically to the neighboring spins. While for the Mott insulators without inversion symmetry, the effective magnetic field due to IFE couples antiferromagnetically to the neighboring spins. We apply the theory to the spin-orbit coupled single- and multi-orbital Hubbard model that is relevant for the Kitaev quantum spin liquid material and demonstrate that the magnetic interactions can be tuned by light.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Floquet engineering of Kitaev quantum magnets

In recent years, there has been an intense search for materials realizing the Kitaev quantum spin liquid model. A number of edge-shared compounds with strong spin-orbit coupling, such as RuCl$_3$ and iridates, have been proposed to realize this model. Nevertheless, an effective spin Hamiltonian derived from the microscopic model relevant to these compounds generally contains terms that are antagonistic toward the quantum spin liquid. This is consistent with the fact the zero magnetic field ground state of these materials is generally magnetically ordered. It is a pressing issue to identify protocols to drive the system to the limit of the Kitaev quantum spin model. In this work, we propose Floquet engineering of these Kitaev quantum magnets by coupling materials to a circularly polarized laser. We demonstrate that all the magnetic interactions can be tuned in situ by the amplitude and frequency of the laser, hence providing a route to stabilize the Kitaev quantum spin liquid phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Higher Chern numbers in multilayer ($\mathcal{N} \ge 2$) Lieb lattices: Topological transitions and quadratic band crossing lines

We consider a hitherto unexplored setting of stacked multilayer ($\mathcal{N}$) Lieb lattice which undergoes an unusual topological transition in the presence of intra-layer spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The specific stacking configuration induces an effective non-symmorphic 2D lattice structure, even though the constituent monolayer Lieb lattice is characterized by a symmorphic space group. This emergent non-symmorphicity leads to multiple doubly-degenerate bands extending over the edge of the Brillouin zone (i.e. Quadratic Band Crossing Lines). In the presence of intra-layer SOC, these doubly-degenerate bands typically form three $\mathcal{N}$-band subspaces, mutually separated by two band gaps. We analyze the topological properties of these multi-band subspaces, using specially devised Wilson loop operators to compute non-abelian Berry phases, in order to show that they carry a higher Chern number $\mathcal{N}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Dirac magnons in honeycomb ferromagnets

The discovery of the Dirac electron dispersion in graphene led to the question of the Dirac cone stability with respect to interactions. Coulomb interactions between electrons were shown to induce a logarithmic renormalization of the Dirac dispersion. With a rapid expansion of the list of compounds and quasiparticle bands with linear band touching, the concept of bosonic Dirac materials has emerged. We consider a specific case of ferromagnets consisting of the Van der Waals-bonded stacks of honeycomb layers, e.g chromium trihalides CrX3 (X = F, Cl, Br and I), that display two spin wave modes with energy dispersion similar to that for the electrons in graphene. At the single particle level, these materials resemble their fermionic counterparts. However, how different particle statistics and interactions affect the stability of Dirac cones has yet to be determined. To address the role of interacting Dirac magnons, we expand the theory of ferromagnets beyond the standard Dyson theory to a case of non-Bravais honeycomb layers. We demonstrate that magnon-magnon interactions lead to a significant momentum-dependent renormalization of the bare band structure in addition to strongly momentum-dependent magnon lifetimes. We show that our theory qualitatively accounts for hitherto unexplained anomalies in a nearly half century old magnetic neutron scattering data for CrBr3. We also show that honeycomb ferromagnets display dispersive surface and edge states, unlike their electronic analogs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Crossover behavior in the distance dependence of hydrophobic force law

Understanding about both the range and the strength of the effective force between two hydrophobic surfaces suspended in water is important in many areas of natural science but unfortunately has remained imperfect. Even the experimental observations have not been explained quantitatively. Here we find by varying distance (d) between two hydrophobic walls in computer simulations of water that the force exhibits a bi-exponential distance dependence. The long range part of the force can be fitted to an exponential force law with correlation length of 2 nm while the short range part displays a correlation length of only 0.5 nm. The crossover from shorter range to longer range force law is rather sharp. We show that the distance dependence of the tetrahedrality order parameter provides a reliable marker of the force law, and exhibits similar distance dependence.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Landau-like states in neutral particles

We show the emergence of a new type of dispersion relation for neutral atoms with an interesting similarity with the spectrum of 2-dimensional electrons in an applied perpendicular constant magnetic field. These neutral atoms can be confined in toroidal optical traps and give quasi Landau spectra. In strong contrast to the equi-distant infinitely degenerate Landau levels for charged particles, the spectral gap for such 2-dimensional neutral particles increases in particular electric field configurations. The idea in the paper is motivated by the development in cold atom experiments and builds on the seminal paper of Aharonov and Casher.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Granular Superconductor in a honeycomb lattice as a realization of Bosonic Dirac Material

We examine the low energy effective theory of phase oscillations in a two-dimensional granular superconducting sheet where the grains are arranged in honeycomb lattice structure. Using the example of graphene we present the evidence for the engineered Dirac nodes in the bosonic excitations: the spectra of the collective bosonic modes cross at the K and K points in the Brillouin zone and form Dirac nodes. We show how two different types of collective phase oscillations are obtained and that they are analogous to the Leggett and the Bogoliubov-Anderson-Gorkov modes in a two-band superconductor. We show that the Dirac node is preserved in the presence of an inter-grain interaction, despite induced changes of the qualitative features of the two collective modes. Finally, breaking the sublattice symmetry by choosing different on-site potentials for the two sublattices leads to a gap opening near the Dirac node, in analogy with Fermionic Dirac materials. Dirac node dispersion of bosonic excitations is thus expanding the discussion of the conventional Dirac cone excitations to the case of bosons. We call this case as a representative of Bosonic Dirac Materials (BDM), similar to the case of Fermionic Dirac materials extensively discussed in the literature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Orientational order as the origin of the long-range hydrophobic effect

The long range attractive force between two hydrophobic surfaces immersed in water is observed to decrease exponentially with their separation -- this distance-dependence of effective force is known as the hydrophobic force law (HFL). We explore the microscopic origin of HFL by studying distance-dependent attraction between two parallel rods immersed in 2D Mercedes Benz model of water. This model is found to exhibit a well-defined HFL. Although the phenomenon is conventionally explained by density-dependent theories, we identify orientation, rather than density, as the relevant order parameter. The range of density variation is noticeably shorter than that of orientational heterogeneity. The latter is comparable to the observed distances of hydrophobic force. At large separation, attraction between the rods arises primarily from a destructive interference among the inwardly propagating oppositely oriented heterogeneity generated in water by the two rods. As the rods are brought closer, the interference increases leading to a decrease in heterogeneity and concomitant decrease in free energy of the system, giving rise to the effective attraction. We notice formation of hexagonal ice-like structures at the onset of attractive region which suggests that metastable free energy minimum may play a role in the origin of HFL.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2014

Diffusion in a rough potential revisited

Rugged energy landscapes find wide applications in diverse fields ranging from astrophysics to protein folding. We study the dependence of diffusion coefficient $(D)$ of a Brownian particle on the distribution width $(\varepsilon)$ of randomness in a Gaussian random landscape by simulations and theoretical analysis. We first show that the elegant expression of Zwanzig [PNAS, 85, 2029 (1988)] for $D(\varepsilon)$ can be reproduced exactly by using the Rosenfeld diffusion-entropy scaling relation. Our simulations show that Zwanzig's expression overestimates $D$ in an uncorrelated Gaussian random lattice - differing by almost an order of magnitude at moderately high ruggedness. The disparity originates from the presence of "three-site traps" (TST) on the landscape -- which are formed by the presence of deep minima flanked by high barriers on either side. Using mean first passage time formalism, we derive a general expression for the effective diffusion coefficient in the presence of TST, that quantitatively reproduces the simulation results and which reduces to Zwanzig's form only in the limit of infinite spatial correlation. We construct a continuous Gaussian field with inherent correlation to establish the effect of spatial correlation on random walk. The presence of TSTs at large ruggedness $(\varepsilon \gg k_{B}T)$ give rise to an apparent breakdown of ergodicity of the type often encountered in glassy liquids.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2014

Fluctuating micro-heterogeneity in water - tert-butyl alcohol mixtures and lambda-type divergence of the mean cluster size with phase transition-like multiple anomalies

Water - tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) binary mixture exhibits a large number of thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies. These anomalies are observed at surprisingly low TBA mole fraction, with $x_{\text{TBA}} \approx 0.03 - 0.07$. We demonstrate here that the origin of the anomalies lies in the local structural changes that occur due to self-aggregation of TBA molecules. We observe a percolation transition of the TBA molecules at $x_{\text{TBA}} \approx 0.05$. We note that "islands" of TBA clusters form even below this mole fraction, while a large spanning cluster emerges above that mole fraction. At this percolation threshold, we observe a lambda-type divergence in the fluctuation of the size of the largest TBA cluster, reminiscent of a critical point. Alongside, the structure of water is also perturbed, albeit weakly, by the aggregation of TBA molecules. There is a monotonic decrease in the tetrahedral order parameter of water, while the dipole moment correlation shows a weak non-linearity. Interestingly, water molecules themselves exhibit a reverse percolation transition at higher TBA concentration, $x_{\text{TBA}} \approx 0.45$, where large spanning water clusters now break-up into small clusters. This is accompanied by significant divergence of the fluctuations in the size of largest water cluster. This second transition gives rise to another set of anomalies around. Both the percolation transitions can be regarded as manifestations of Janus effect at small molecular level.

cond-mat.soft↗