arXiv subjects

Sankar Das Sarma

Publications and source records attributed to Sankar Das Sarma.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Electronic sound modes and plasmons in hydrodynamic two-dimensional metals

Using an analytically tractable kinetic model of a two dimensional Fermi liquid of electrons, we characterize the crossovers between zero sound, first sound and plasmons. For experimentally realized Fermi liquids in a hydrodynamic limit, both zero and first sound waves are essentially replaced by plasmons. The plasmon dispersion relation is robust against hydrodynamic effects, up to acquiring the viscous-limited decay rate of a first sound wave in the hydrodynamic limit. We discuss implications for experiments in clean two dimensional electron gases.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Building topological quantum circuits: Majorana nanowire junctions

Topological quantum computation using non-Abelian Majorana zero modes localized in proximitized semiconductor nanowires requires careful electrostatic control of wire-junctions so as to manipulate and braid the zero modes enabling anyonic fault-tolerant gate operations. We theoretically investigate the topological superconducting properties of such elementary wire-junctions, the so-called T junctions, finding that the existence of the junction may nonperturbatively affect the Majorana behavior by introducing spurious non-topological subgap states mimicking zero-modes. We propose a possible solution to this potentially serious problem by showing that junctions made lithographically from two-dimensional (2D) electron gas systems may manifest robust subgap topological properties without any spurious zero modes. We propose a 2D structure that enables multiprobe tunneling experiments providing position-dependent spectroscopy, which can decisively settle outstanding open questions related to the origin of the zero-bias conductance peaks observed experimentally. We also find that junctions with trivial superconductors may result in local perturbations that induce extrinsic low-energy states similar to those associated with wire junctions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Probability and (Braiding) Statistics in Majorana nanowires

Given recent progress in the realization of Majorana zero modes in semiconducting nanowires with proximity-induced superconductivity, a crucial next step is to attempt an experimental demonstration of the predicted braiding statistics associated with the Majorana mode. Such a demonstration should, in principle, confirm that observed zero-bias anomalies are indeed indicative of the presence of anyonic Majorana zero modes. Moreover, such a demonstration would be a breakthrough at the level of fundamental physics: the first clear demonstration of a non-Abelian excitation. It is therefore important to clarify the expected signals of Majorana physics in the braiding context, and to differentiate these signals from those that might also arise in non-topological variants of the same system. A definitive and critical distinction between signals expected in topological (i.e. anyonic) and non-topological (i.e. trivial) situations is therefore essential for future progress in the field. In this manuscript, we carefully examine the expected signals of braiding and fusion experiments in topological and non-topological variants of the experimental nanowire systems in which Majoranas are predicted to occur. We point out situations where `trivial' and `anyonic' signatures may be similar experimentally, necessitating a certain level of caution in the interpretation of various proposed fusion and braiding experiments. We find in particular that braiding experiments consisting of full braids (two Majorana exchanges) are better at distinguishing between topological and non-topological systems than fusion experiments or experiments with an odd number of Majorana exchanges.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Competing orders and topology in the global phase diagram of pyrochlore iridates

Strong electronic interactions and spin orbit coupling can be conducive for realizing novel broken symmetry phases supporting quasiparticles with nontrivial band topology. 227 pyrochlore iridates provide a suitable material platform for studying such emergent phenomena where both topology and competing orders play important roles. In contrast to the most members of this material class, which are thought to display "all-in all-out" (AIAO) type magnetically ordered low-temperature insulating ground states, Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ remains metallic while exhibiting "spin ice" (SI) correlations at low temperatures. Additionally, this is the only 227 iridate compound, which exhibits a large anomalous Hall effect (AHE) along [1,1,1] direction below 1.5 K, without possessing any measurable magnetic moment. By focusing on the normal state of 227 iridates, described by a parabolic semimetal with quadratic band touching, we use renormalization group analysis, mean-field theory, and phenomenological Landau theory as three complementary methods to construct a global phase diagram in the presence of generic local interactions among itinerant electrons of Ir ions. While the global phase diagram supports several competing multipolar orders, motivated by the phenomenology of 227 iridates we particularly emphasize the competition between AIAO and SI orders and how it can cause a mixed phase with "three-in one-out" (3I1O) spin configurations. In terms of topological properties of Weyl quasiparticles of the 3I1O state, we provide an explanation for the magnitude and the direction of the observed AHE in Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$. We propose a strain induced enhancement of the onset temperature for AHE in thin films of Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ and additional experiments for studying competing orders in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Proximity-induced low-energy renormalization in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor Majorana structures

A minimal model for the hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire Majorana platform is developed that fully captures the effects of the low-energy renormalization of the nanowire modes arising from the presence of the parent superconductor. In this model, the parent superconductor is an active component that participates explicitly in the low-energy physics, not just a passive partner that only provides proximity-induced Cooper pairs for the nanowire. This treatment on an equal footing of the superconductor and the semiconductor has become necessary in view of recent experiments, which do not allow a consistent interpretation based just on the bare semiconductor properties. The general theory involves the evaluation of the exact semiconductor Green function that includes a dynamical self-energy correction arising from the tunnel-coupled superconductor. General conditions for the emergence of topological superconductivity are worked out for single-band as well as multi-band nanowires and detailed numerical results are given for both infinite and finite wire cases. The topological quantum phase diagrams are provided numerically and the Majorana bound states are obtained along with their oscillatory energy splitting behaviors due to wavefunction overlap in finite wires. Renormalization effects are shown to be both qualitatively and quantitatively important in modifying the low-energy spectrum of the nanowire. The results of the theory are found to be in good qualitative agreement with Majorana nanowire experiments, leading to the conclusion that the proximity-induced low-energy renormalization of the nanowire modes by the parent superconductor is of fundamental importance in superconductor-semiconductor hybrid structures. Implications of the general theory for obtaining true zero energy topological Majorana modes are pointed out.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Quantum phases of interacting electrons in three-dimensional dirty Dirac semimetals

We theoretically study the stability of three dimensional Dirac semimetals against short-range electron-electron interaction and quenched time-reversal symmetric disorder (but excluding mass disorder). First we focus on the clean interacting and the noninteracting dirty Dirac semimetal separately, and show that they support two distinct quantum critical points. Using renormalization group techniques, we find that while interaction driven quantum critical points are \emph{Gaussian} (mean-field) in nature, describing quantum phase transitions into various broken symmetry phases, the ones controlled by disorder are \emph{non-Gaussian}, capturing the transition to a metallic phase. We classify such diffusive quantum critical points based on the transformation of disorder vertices under a \emph{continuous} chiral rotation. Our wek coupling renormalization group analysis suggests that two distinct quantum critical points are stable in an interacting dirty Dirac semimetal (with chiral symmetric randomness), and a multicritical point (at finite interaction and disorder) results from their interplay. By contrast, the chiral symmetry breaking disorder driven critical point is unstable against weak interactions. Effects of weak disorder on the ordering tendencies in Dirac semimetal are analyzed. The clean interacting critical points, however, satisfy the \emph{Harris criterion}, and are therefore expected to be unstable against bond disorder. Although our weak coupling analysis is inadequate to establish the ultimate stability of these fixed points in the strong coupling regime (when both interaction and disorder are strong), they can still govern crossover behaviors in Dirac semimetals over a large length scale, when either interaction or randomness is sufficiently weak.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Universal optical conductivity of a disordered Weyl semimetal

Topological Weyl semimetals, besides manifesting chiral anomaly, can also accommodate a disorder-driven unconventional quantum phase transition into a metallic phase. A fundamentally and practically important question in this regard concerns an experimentally measurable quantity that can clearly distinguish these two phases. We show that the optical conductivity while serving this purpose can also play the role of a bonafide order parameter across such disorder-driven semimetal-metal quantum phase transition by virtue of displaying distinct scaling behavior in semimetallic and metallic phases, as well as inside the quantum critical fan supporting a non-Fermi liquid. We demonstrate that the correction to dielectric constant and optical conductivity in a dirty Weyl semimetal due to weak disorder is independent of the actual nature of point-like impurity scatterers. Therefore, optical conductivity can be used as an experimentally measurable quantity to study the critical properties and to pin the universality class of the disorder-driven quantum phase transition in Weyl semimetals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

The enigmatic 12/5 fractional quantum Hall effect

We numerically study the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling factors $ν=12/5$ and 13/5 (the particle-hole conjugate of 12/5) in high-quality two-dimensional GaAs heterostructures via exact diagonalization including finite well width and Landau level mixing. We find that Landau level mixing suppresses $ν=13/5$ fractional quantum Hall effect relative to $ν=12/5$. By contrast, we find both $ν=2/5$ and (its particle-hole conjugate) $ν=3/5$ fractional quantum Hall effects in the lowest Landau level to be robust under Landau level mixing and finite well-width corrections. Our results provide a possible explanation for the experimental absence of the 13/5 fractional quantum Hall state as caused by Landau level mixing effects.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Surface plasmon polaritons in topological Weyl semimetals

We consider theoretically surface plasmon polaritons in Weyl semimetals. These materials contain pairs of band touching points - Weyl nodes - with a chiral topological charge, which induces an optical anisotropy and anomalous transport through the chiral anomaly. We show that these effects, which are not present in ordinary metals, have a direct fundamental manifestation in the surface plasmon dispersion. The retarded Weyl surface plasmon dispersion depends on the separation of the Weyl nodes in energy and momentum space. For Weyl semimetals with broken time-reversal symmetry, the distance between the nodes acts as an effective applied magnetic field in momentum space, and the Weyl surface plasmon polariton dispersion is strikingly similar to magnetoplasmons in ordinary metals. In particular, this implies the existence of nonreciprocal surface modes. In addition, we obtain the nonretarded Weyl magnetoplasmon modes, which acquire an additional longitudinal magnetic-field dependence. These predicted surface plasmon results are observable manifestations of the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals and might have technological applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Optical evidence for a Weyl semimetal state in pyrochlore Eu2Ir2O7

A Weyl semimetallic state with pairs of nondegenerate Dirac cones in three dimensions was recently predicted to occur in the antiferromagnetic state of the pyrochlore iridates. Here, we show that the THz optical conductivity and temperature dependence of free carriers in the pyrochlore Eu2Ir2O7 match the predictions for a Weyl semimetal and suggest novel Dirac liquid behavior. The interband optical conductivity vanishes continuously at low frequencies signifying a semimetal. The metal-insulator transition at T_N = 110 K is manifested in the Drude spectral weight, which is independent of temperature in the metallic phase, and which decreases smoothly in the ordered phase. The temperature dependence of the free carrier weight below T_N is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for a Dirac material. The data yield a Fermi velocity v_F=4x10^7 cm/s, a logarithmic renormalization scale Lambda_L=600 K, and require a Fermi temperature of T_F=100 K associated with residual unintentional doping to account for the low temperature optical response and dc resistivity.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

A practical phase gate for producing Bell violations in Majorana wires

The Gottesman-Knill theorem holds that operations from the Clifford group, when combined with preparation and detection of qubit states in the computational basis, are insufficient for universal quantum computation. Indeed, any measurement results in such a system could be reproduced within a local hidden variable theory, so that there is no need for a quantum mechanical explanation and therefore no possibility of quantum speedup. Unfortunately, Clifford operations are precisely the ones available through braiding and measurement in systems supporting non-Abelian Majorana zero modes, which are otherwise an excellent candidate for topologically protected quantum computation. In order to move beyond the classically simulable subspace, an additional phase gate is required. This phase gate allows the system to violate the Bell-like CHSH inequality that would constrain a local hidden variable theory. In this article, we both demonstrate the procedure for measuring Bell violations in Majorana systems and introduce a new type of phase gate for the already existing semiconductor-based Majorana wire systems. We conclude with an experimentally feasible schematic combining the two, which should potentially lead to the demonstration of Bell violation in a Majorana experiment in the near future. Our work also naturally leads to a well-defined platform for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation using Majorana zero modes, which we describe.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Abelian and Non-Abelian States in $ν=2/3$ Bilayer Fractional Quantum Hall Systems

There are several possible theoretically allowed non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states that could potentially be realized in one- and two- component FQH systems at total filling fraction $ν= n+ 2/3$, for integer $n$. Some of these states even possess quasiparticles with non-Abelian statistics that are powerful enough for universal topological quantum computation, and are thus of particular interest. Here, we initiate a systematic numerical study, using both exact diagonalization and variational Monte Carlo, to investigate the phase diagram of FQH systems at total filling fraction $ν= n+2/3$, including in particular the possibility of the non-Abelian $Z_4$ parafermion state. In $ν= 2/3$ bilayers, we determine the phase diagram as a function of interlayer tunneling and repulsion, finding only three competing Abelian states, without the $Z_4$ state. On the other hand, in single-component systems at $ν= 8/3$, we find that the $Z_4$ parafermion state has significantly higher overlap with the exact ground state than the Laughlin state, together with a larger gap, suggesting that the experimentally observed $ν= 8/3$ state may be non-Abelian. Our results from the two complementary numerical techniques agree well with each other qualitatively.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Majorana Zero Modes and Topological Quantum Computation

We provide a current perspective on the rapidly developing field of Majorana zero modes in solid state systems. We emphasize the theoretical prediction, experimental realization, and potential use of Majorana zero modes in future information processing devices through braiding-based topological quantum computation. Well-separated Majorana zero modes should manifest non-Abelian braiding statistics suitable for unitary gate operations for topological quantum computation. Recent experimental work, following earlier theoretical predictions, has shown specific signatures consistent with the existence of Majorana modes localized at the ends of semiconductor nanowires in the presence of superconducting proximity effect. We discuss the experimental findings and their theoretical analyses, and provide a perspective on the extent to which the observations indicate the existence of anyonic Majorana zero modes in solid state systems. We also discuss fractional quantum Hall systems (the 5/2 state) in this context. We describe proposed schemes for carrying out braiding with Majorana zero modes as well as the necessary steps for implementing topological quantum computation.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Noise-compensating pulses for electrostatically controlled silicon spin qubits

We study the performance of SUPCODE---a family of dynamically correcting pulses designed to cancel simultaneously both Overhauser and charge noise for singlet-triplet spin qubits---adapted to silicon devices with electrostatic control. We consider both natural Si and isotope-enriched Si systems, and in each case we investigate the behavior of individual gates under static noise and perform randomized benchmarking to obtain the average gate error under realistic 1/f noise. We find that in most cases SUPCODE pulses offer roughly an order of magnitude reduction in gate error, and especially in the case of isotope-enriched Si, SUPCODE yields gate operations of very high fidelity. We also develop a version of SUPCODE that cancels the charge noise only, "$δJ$-SUPCODE", which is particularly beneficial for isotope-enriched Si devices where charge noise dominates Overhauser noise, offering a level of error reduction comparable to the original SUPCODE while yielding gate times that are 30% to 50% shorter. Our results show that the SUPCODE noise-compensating pulses provide a fast, simple, and effective approach to error suppression, bringing gate errors well below the quantum error correction threshold in principle.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Converting a real quantum bath to an effective classical noise

We present a cluster expansion method for approximating quantum spin-bath dynamics in terms of a classical Gaussian stochastic process. The cluster expansion produces the two-point correlation function of the approximate classical bath, permitting rapid evaluation of noise-mitigating quantum control strategies without resorting to computationally intensive dynamical decoupling models. Our approximation is valid for the wide class of models possessing negligible back-action and nearly-Gaussian noise. We study several instances of the central spin decoherence problem in which the central spin and randomly-located bath spins are alike and dipolarly coupled. For various pulse sequences, we compare the coherence echo decay computed explicitly quantum mechanically versus those computed using our approximate classical model, and obtain agreement in most, but not all, cases. We demonstrate the utility of these classical noise models by efficiently searching for the 4-pulse sequences that maximally mitigate decoherence in each of these cases, a computationally expensive task in the explicit quantum model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Ferromagnetic response of a "high-temperature" quantum antiferromagnet

We study the finite temperature antiferromagnetic phase of the ionic Hubbard model in the strongly interacting limit using quantum Monte Carlo based dynamical mean field theory. We find that the ionic potential plays a dual role in determining the antiferromagnetic order. A small ionic potential (compared to Hubbard repulsion) increases the super-exchange coupling in the projected sector of the model, leading to an increase in the Neel temperature of the system. A large ionic potential leads to resonance between projected antiferromagnetically ordered configurations and density ordered configurations with double occupancies, thereby killing antiferromagnetism in the system. This novel way of degrading antiferromagnetism leads to spin polarization of the low energy single particle density of states. The dynamic response of the system thus mimics ferromagnetic behaviour, although the system is still an antiferromagnet in terms of the static spin order.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Non-adiabatic Effects in the Braiding of Non-Abelian Anyons in Topological Superconductors

Qubits in topological quantum computation are built from non-Abelian anyons. Adiabatic braiding of anyons is exploited as topologically protected logical gate operations. Thus, the adiabaticity upon which the notion of quantum statistics is defined, plays a fundamental role in defining the non-Abelian anyons. We study the non-adiabatic effects in braidings of Ising-type anyons, namely Majorana fermions in topological superconductors, using the formalism of time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Using this formalism, we consider non-adiabatic corrections to non-Abelian statistics from: (1) tunneling splitting of anyons imposing an additional dynamical phase to the transformation of ground states; (2) transitions to excited states that are potentially destructive to non-Abelian statistics since the non-local fermion occupation can be spoiled by such processes. However, if the bound states are localized and being braided together with the anyons, non-Abelian statistics can be recovered once the definition of Majorana operators is appropriately generalized taking into account the fermion parity in these states. On the other hand, if the excited states are extended over the whole system and form a continuum, the notion of local fermion parity no longer holds. We then quantitatively characterize the errors introduced in this situation.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Bogoliubov theory of interacting bosons on a lattice in a synthetic magnetic field

We consider theoretically the problem of an artificial gauge potential applied to a cold atomic system of interacting neutral bosons in a tight-binding optical lattice. Using the Bose-Hubbard model, we show that an effective magnetic field leads to superfluid phases with simultaneous spatial order, which we analyze using Bogoliubov theory. This gives a consistent expansion in terms of quantum and thermal fluctuations, in which the lowest order gives a Gross-Pitaevskii equation determining the condensate configuration. We apply an analysis based on the magnetic symmetry group to show how the spatial structure of this configuration depends on commensuration between the magnetic field and the lattice. Higher orders describe the quasiparticle excitations, whose spectrum combines the intricacy the Hofstadter butterfly with the characteristic features of the superfluid phase. We use the depletion of the condensate to determine the range of validity of our approximations and also to find an estimate for the onset of the Mott insulator phase. Our theory provides concrete experimental predictions, for both time-of-flight imagery and Bragg spectroscopy.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗