arXiv subjects

Shou-Cheng Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Shou-Cheng Zhang.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Topological Mott Insulators

We consider extended Hubbard models with repulsive interactions on a Honeycomb lattice and the transitions from the semi-metal phase at half-filling to Mott insulating phases. In particular, due to the frustrating nature of the second-neighbor repulsive interactions, topological Mott phases displaying the quantum Hall and the quantum spin Hall effects are found for spinless and spinful fermion models, respectively. We present the mean-field phase diagram and consider the effects of fluctuations within the random phase approximation (RPA). Functional renormalization group analysis also show that these states can be favored over the topologically trivial Mott insulating states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Helical edge and surface states in HgTe quantum wells and bulk insulators

The quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect is the property of a new state of matter which preserves time-reversal, has an energy gap in the bulk, but has topologically robust gapless states at the edge. Recently, it has been shown that HgTe quantum wells realize this novel effect. In this work, we start from realistic tight-binding models and demonstrate the existence of the helical edge states in HgTe quantum wells and calculate their physical properties. We also show that 3d HgTe is a topological insulator under uniaxial strain, and show that the surface states are described by single-component massless relativistic Dirac fermions in 2+1 dimensions. Experimental predictions are made based on the quantitative results obtained from realistic calculations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Spin accumulation from the non-Abelian Aharonov-Bohm effect

Recently, it has been shown that the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of the Dresselhaus type in $[110]$ quantum wells can be mathematically removed by a non-Abelian gauge transformation. In the presence of an additional uniform magnetic field, such a non-Abelian gauge flux leads to a spin accumulation at the edges of the sample, where the relative sign of the spin accumulation between the edges can be tuned by the sign of the Dresselhaus SOC constant. Our prediction can be tested by Kerr measurements within the available experimental sensitivities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Fermi liquid instabilities in the spin channel

We study the Fermi surface instabilities of the Pomeranchuk type in the spin triplet channel with high orbital partial waves ($F_{l}^a ~(l>0)$). The ordered phases are classified into two classes, dubbed the $α$ and $β$-phases by analogy to the superfluid $^3$He-A and B-phases. The Fermi surfaces in the $α$-phases exhibit spontaneous anisotropic distortions, while those in the $β$-phases remain circular or spherical with topologically non-trivial spin configurations in momentum space. In the $α$-phase, the Goldstone modes in the density channel exhibit anisotropic overdamping. The Goldstone modes in the spin channel have nearly isotropic underdamped dispersion relation at small propagating wavevectors. Due to the coupling to the Goldstone modes, the spin wave spectrum develops resonance peaks in both the $α$ and $β$-phases, which can be detected in inelastic neutron scattering experiments. In the p-wave channel $β$-phase, a chiral ground state inhomogeneity is spontaneously generated due to a Lifshitz-like instability in the originally nonchiral systems. Possible experiments to detect these phases are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Spin-orbit gap of graphene: First-principles calculations

Even though graphene is a low energy system consisting of the two dimensional honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms, its quasi-particle excitations are fully described by the 2+1 dimensional relativistic Dirac equation. In this paper we show that while the spin-orbit interaction in graphene is of the order of $4 meV$, it opens up a gap of the order of $10^{-3} meV$ at the Dirac points. We present the first principle calculation of the spin-orbit gap, and explain the behavior in terms of a simple tight-binding model. Our result also shows that the recently predicted quantum spin Hall effect in graphene can only occur at unrealistically low temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells

We show that the Quantum Spin Hall Effect, a state of matter with topological properties distinct from conventional insulators, can be realized in HgTe/CdTe semiconductor quantum wells. By varying the thickness of the quantum well, the electronic state changes from a normal to an "inverted" type at a critical thickness $d_c$. We show that this transition is a topological quantum phase transition between a conventional insulating phase and a phase exhibiting the QSH effect with a single pair of helical edge states. We also discuss the methods for experimental detection of the QSH effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Non-diffusive spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas

We describe measurements of spin dynamics in the two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs/GaAlAs quantum wells. Optical techniques, including transient spin-grating spectroscopy, are used to probe the relaxation rates of spin polarization waves in the wavevector range from zero to $6\times 10^4$ cm$^{-1}$. We find that the spin polarization lifetime is maximal at nonzero wavevector, in contrast with expectation based on ordinary spin diffusion, but in quantitative agreement with recent theories that treat diffusion in the presence of spin-orbit coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Topological quantization of the spin Hall effect in two-dimensional paramagnetic semiconductors

We propose models of two dimensional paramagnetic semiconductors where the intrinsic spin Hall effect is exactly quantized in integer units of a topological charge. The model describes a topological insulator in the bulk, and a "holographic metal" at the edge, where the number of extended edge states crossing the Fermi level is dictated by (exactly equal to) the bulk topological charge. We also demonstrate the spin Hall effect explicitly in terms of the spin accumulation caused by the adiabatic flux insertion.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Band Collapse and the Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene

The recent Quantum Hall experiments in graphene have confirmed the theoretically well-understood picture of the quantum Hall (QH) conductance in fermion systems with continuum Dirac spectrum. In this paper we take into account the lattice, and perform an exact diagonalization of the Landau problem on the hexagonal lattice. At very large magnetic fields the Dirac argument fails completely and the Hall conductance, given by the number of edge states present in the gaps of the spectrum, is dominated by lattice effects. As the field is lowered, the experimentally observed situation is recovered through a phenomenon which we call band collapse. As a corollary, for low magnetic field, graphene will exhibit two qualitatively different QHE's: at low filling, the QHE will be dominated by the "relativistic" Dirac spectrum and the Hall conductance will be odd-integer; above a certain filling, the QHE will be dominated by a non-relativistic spectrum, and the Hall conductance will span all integers, even and odd.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

An Exact SU(2) Symmetry and Persistent Spin Helix in a Spin-Orbit Coupled System

Spin-orbit coupled systems generally break the spin rotation symmetry. However, for a model with equal Rashba and Dresselhauss coupling constant (the ReD model), and for the $[110]$ Dresselhauss model, a new type of SU(2) spin rotation symmetry is discovered. This symmetry is robust against spin-independent disorder and interactions, and is generated by operators whose wavevector depends on the coupling strength. It renders the spin lifetime infinite at this wavevector, giving rise to a Persistent Spin Helix (PSH). We obtain the spin fluctuation dynamics at, and away, from the symmetry point, and suggest experiments to observe the PSH.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

A General Theorem Relating the Bulk Topological Number to Edge States in Two-dimensional Insulators

We prove a general theorem on the relation between the bulk topological quantum number and the edge states in two dimensional insulators. It is shown that whenever there is a topological order in bulk, characterized by a non-vanishing Chern number, even if it is defined for a non-conserved quantity such as spin in the case of the spin Hall effect, one can always infer the existence of gapless edge states under certain twisted boundary conditions that allow tunneling between edges. This relation is robust against disorder and interactions, and it provides a unified topological classification of both the quantum (charge) Hall effect and the quantum spin Hall effect. In addition, it reconciles the apparent conflict between the stability of bulk topological order and the instability of gapless edge states in systems with open boundaries (as known happening in the spin Hall case). The consequences of time reversal invariance for bulk topological order and edge state dynamics are further studied in the present framework.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

The Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems

The edge states of the recently proposed quantum spin Hall systems constitute a new symmetry class of one-dimensional liquids dubbed the ``helical liquid'', where the spin orientation is determined by the direction of electron motion. We prove a no-go theorem which states that a helical liquid with an odd number of components cannot be constructed in a purely 1D lattice system. In a helical liquid with an odd number of components, a uniform gap in the ground state can appear when the time-reversal (TR) symmetry is spontaneously broken by interactions. On the other hand, a correlated two-particle backscattering term by an impurity can become relevant while keeping the TR invariance. The Kondo effect in such a liquid exhibits new features in the structure of the screening cloud.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

Exact spontaneous plaquette ground states for high-spin ladder models

We study the exchange physics in high spin Mott insulating systems with $S=3/2$ which is realizable in ultracold atomic systems. The high symmetry of SO(5) or SU(4) therein renders stronger quantum fluctuations than the usual spin-1/2 systems. A spontaneous plaquette ground state without any site and bond spin orders is rigorously proved in a ladder spin-3/2 model, whose topological excitations exhibit fractionalization behavior. The generalization to the SU(N) plaquette state is also investigated.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Spin-orbit coupling induced magnetism in the $d$-density wave phase of La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ superconductors

We study the effects of spin-orbit coupling in the $d$-density wave (DDW) phase. In the low-temperature orthorhombic phase of La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$, we find that spin-orbit coupling induces a ferromagnetic moment in the DDW phase, which is polarized along the [110] direction with a considerable magnitude. This effect does not exist in the superconducting phase. On the other hand, if the $d$-density wave order does not exist at zero field, a magnetic field along the [110] direction always induces such a staggered orbital current. We discuss experimental constraints on the DDW states in light of our theoretical predictions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2005

A sufficient condition for the absence of the sign problem in the fermionic quantum Monte-Carlo algorithm

Quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) simulations involving fermions have the notorious sign problem. Some well-known exceptions of the auxiliary field QMC algorithm rely on the factorizibility of the fermion determinant. Recently, a fermionic QMC algorithm [1] has been found in which the fermion determinant may not necessarily factorizable, but can instead be expressed as a product of complex conjugate pairs of eigenvalues, thus eliminating the sign problem for a much wider class of models. In this paper, we present general conditions for the applicability of this algorithm and point out that it is deeply related to the time reversal symmetry of the fermion matrix. We apply this method to various models of strongly correlated systems at all doping levels and lattice geometries, and show that many novel phases can be simulated without the sign problem.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Quantum Spin Hall Effect

The quantum Hall liquid is a novel state of matter with profound emergent properties such as fractional charge and statistics. Existence of the quantum Hall effect requires breaking of the time reversal symmetry caused by an external magnetic field. In this work, we predict a quantized spin Hall effect in the absence of any magnetic field, where the intrinsic spin Hall conductance is quantized in units of $2 \frac{e}{4π}$. The degenerate quantum Landau levels are created by the spin-orbit coupling in conventional semiconductors in the presence of a strain gradient. This new state of matter has many profound correlated properties described by a topological field theory.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Orbitronics: the Intrinsic Orbital Hall Effect in p-Doped Silicon

The spin Hall effect depends crucially on the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of the energy band. Because of the smaller spin-orbit coupling in silicon, the spin Hall effect is expected to be much reduced. We show that the electric field in p-doped silicon can induce a dissipationless orbital current in a fashion reminiscent of the spin Hall effect. The vertex correction due to impurity scattering vanishes and the effect is therefore robust against disorder. The orbital Hall effect can lead to the accumulation of local orbital momentum at the edge of the sample, and can be detected by the Kerr effect.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Magic Doping Fractions in High-Temperature Superconductors

We report hole-doping dependence of the in-plane resistivity ρ_{ab} in a cuprate superconductor La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}, carefully examined using a series of high-quality single crystals. Our detailed measurements find a tendency towards charge ordering at particular rational hole doping fractions of 1/16, 3/32, 1/8, and 3/16. This observation appears to suggest a specific form of charge order and is most consistent with the recent theoretical prediction of the checkerboard-type ordering of the Cooper pairs at rational doping fractions x = (2m+1)/2^n, with integers m and n.

cond-mat.supr-con↗