arXiv subjects

Serguei Tchoumakov

Publications and source records attributed to Serguei Tchoumakov.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Three-dimensional chiral Veselago lensing

The effect by which light focuses upon entering a medium with a negative refractive index, known as Veselago lensing, may enable optical imaging below the diffraction limit. Similarly, focusing electrons across a $pn$-junction could realize a technologically promising electronic Veselago lens. However, its scope remains limited by the lack of three-dimensional platforms and its insensitivity to computational degrees of freedom, like spin or chirality. Here we propose a single-material three-dimensional electronic Veselago lens that selectively focuses electrons of a given chirality. Using the chiral anomaly of topological semimetals it is possible to create a sharp $pn$-junction for a single chirality, a chiral Veselago lens, and tune it with a magnetic field to an ideal lensing condition. We estimate that chiral Veselago lensing is observable in non-local transport and spectroscopy experiments. In particular we show that the chiral Veselago lens leads to giant non-local magnetoresistance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Bootstrapping Bloch bands

Bootstrap methods, initially developed for solving statistical and quantum field theories, have recently been shown to capture the discrete spectrum of quantum mechanical problems, such as the single particle Schrödinger equation with an anharmonic potential. The core of bootstrap methods builds on exact recursion relations of arbitrary moments of some quantum operator and the use of an adequate set of positivity criteria. We extend this methodology to models with continuous Bloch band spectra, by considering a single quantum particle in a periodic cosine potential. We find that the band structure can be obtained accurately provided the bootstrap uses moments involving both position and momentum variables. We also introduce several new techniques that can apply generally to other bootstrap studies. First, we devise a trick to reduce by one unit the dimensionality of the search space for the variables parametrizing the bootstrap. Second, we employ statistical techniques to reconstruct the distribution probability allowing to compute observables that are analytic functions of the canonical variables. This method is used to extract the Bloch momentum, a quantity that is not readily available from the bootstrap recursion itself.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Guided accumulation of active particles by topological design of a second-order skin effect

Collective guidance of out-of-equilibrium systems without using external fields is a challenge of paramount importance in active matter, ranging from bacterial colonies to swarms of self-propelled particles. Designing strategies to guide active matter and exploiting enhanced diffusion associated to its motion will provide insights for application from sensing, drug delivery to water remediation. However, achieving directed motion without breaking detailed balance, for example by asymmetric topographical patterning, is challenging. Here we engineer a two-dimensional periodic topographical design with detailed balance in its unit cell where we observe spontaneous particle edge guidance and corner accumulation of self-propelled particles. This emergent behaviour is guaranteed by a second-order non-Hermitian skin effect, a topologically robust non-equilibrium phenomenon, that we use to dynamically break detailed balance. Our stochastic circuit model predicts, without fitting parameters, how guidance and accumulation can be controlled and enhanced by design: a device guides particles more efficiently if the topological invariant characterizing it is non-zero. Our work establishes a fruitful bridge between active and topological matter, and our design principles offer a blueprint to design devices that display spontaneous, robust and predictable guided motion and accumulation, guaranteed by out-of-equilibrium topology.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Conservation of chirality at a junction between two Weyl semimetals

In Weyl semimetals the location of linear band crossings, the Weyl cones, is not bound to any high symmetry point of the Brillouin zone, unlike the Dirac nodes in graphene. This flexibility is advantageous for valleytronics, where information is encoded in the valleys of the band structure when intervalley scattering is weak. However, if numerous Weyl cones coexist the encoded information can decohere rapidly because of band mixing. Here, we investigate how the helical iso-spin texture of Weyl cones affects valleytronics in heterojunctions of Weyl materials, and show how the chirality of this iso-spin texture can serve to encode information.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Impurities in 3D quadratic band-touching Luttinger semimetals : Friedel and RKKY oscillations

We investigate the response of 3D Luttinger semimetals to localized charge and spin impurities as a function of doping. The strong spin-orbit coupling of these materials strongly influences the Friedel oscillations and RKKY interactions. This can be seen at short distances with an $1/r^4$ divergence of the responses, and anisotropic behavior. Certain of the spin-orbital signatures are robust to temperature, even if the charge and spin oscillations are smeared out, and give an unusual diamagnetic Pauli susceptibility. We compare our results to the experimental literature on the bismuth-based half-Heuslers such as YPtBi and on the pyrochlore iridate Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Superconductivity from Coulomb repulsion in three-dimensional quadratic band touching Luttinger semimetals

We study superconductivity driven by screened Coulomb repulsion in three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals with a quadratic band touching and strong spin-orbit coupling. In these semimetals, the Cooper pairs are formed by spin-3/2 fermions with non-trivial wavefunctions. We numerically solve the linear Eliashberg equation to obtain the critical temperature of a singlet s-wave gap function as a function of doping, with account of spin-orbit and self-energy corrections. In order to understand the underlying mechanism of superconductivity, we compute the sensitivity of the critical temperature to changes in the dielectric function $ε(iΩ_n,q)$. We relate our results to the plasmon and Kohn-Luttinger mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the validity of our approach and compare our results to the litterature. We find good agreement with some bismuth-based half-Heuslers, such as YPtBi, and speculate on superconductivity in the iridate Pr2Ir2O7.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Dielectric and electronic properties of three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals with a quadratic band touching

Due to strong spin-orbit coupling, charge carriers in three-dimensional quadratic band touching Luttinger semimetals have non-trivial wavefunctions characterized by a pseudospin of 3/2. We compute the dielectric permittivity of such semimetals at finite doping, within the random phase approximation. Because of interband coupling, the dielectric screening shows a reduced plasma frequency and an increased spectral weight at small wavevectors, compared to a regular quadratic band. This weakens the effective Coulomb potential, modifying the single-particle self-energy for which we present both analytical and numerical results. At a low carrier density, the quasiparticle properties of this model strongly deviate from that of a single quadratic band. We compare our findings with experimental results for alpha-Sn, HgSe, HgTe, YPtBi and Pr2Ir2O7.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Interplay of Coulomb repulsion and spin-orbit coupling in superconducting 3D quadratic band touching Luttinger semimetals

We investigate the superconductivity of 3D Luttinger semimetals, such as YPtBi, where Cooper pairs are constituted of spin-3/2 quasiparticles. Various pairing mechanisms have already been considered for these semimetals, such as from polar phonons modes, and in this work we explore pairing from the screened electron-electron Coulomb repulsion. In these materials, the small Fermi energy and the spin-orbit coupling strongly influence how charge fluctuations can mediate pairing. We find the superconducting critical temperature as a function of doping for an s-wave order parameter, and determine its sensitivity to changes in the dielectric permittivity. Also, we discuss how order parameters other than s-wave may lead to a larger critical temperature, due to spin-orbit coupling.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Magnetic description of the Fermi arc in type-I and type-II Weyl semimetals

We consider finite-sized interfaces of a Weyl semi-metal and show that the corresponding confinement potential is similar to the application of a magnetic field. Among the numerous states, which can be labeled by indices n like in Landau levels, the n = 0 surface state describes the Weyl semimetal Fermi arc at a given chemical potential. Moreover, the analogy with a magnetic field shows that an external in-plane magnetic field can be used to distort the Fermi arc and would explain some features of magneto-transport in Weyl semimetals. We derive the Fermi arc for type-I and type-II Weyl semimetals where we deal with the tilt anisotropy by the use of Lorentz boosts. In the case of type-II Weyl semimetals, this leads to many additional topologically trivial surface states at low energy. Finally, we extend the Aharonov-Casher argument and demonstrate the stability of the Fermi arc over fluctuations of the surface potential.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Magnetic-field-induced relativistic properties in type-I and type-II Weyl semimetals

We investigate Weyl semimetals with tilted conical bands in a magnetic field. Even when the cones are overtilted (type-II Weyl semimetal), Landau-level quantization can be possible as long as the magnetic field is oriented close to the tilt direction. Most saliently, the tilt can be described within the relativistic framework of Lorentz transformations that give rise to a rich spectrum, displaying new transitions beyond the usual dipolar ones in the optical conductivity. We identify particular features in the latter that allow one to distinguish between semimetals of different types.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗