arXiv subjects

Steffen Schäfer

Publications and source records attributed to Steffen Schäfer.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Topological Hall Response from Canted Antiferromagnetic Order in $d$-Electron Kagome Systems

In a two-dimensional kagome monolayer, a nontrivial intrinsic Berry curvature may arise in the $d$-electron system from the interaction with a non-collinear spin order induced by an underlying antiferromagnetic exchange. This opens the route for a quantum anomalous Hall effect in the multi-orbital system, even without an external magnetic field, explicit spin-orbit coupling or relativistic effects. For spin orders with an out-of-plane component, the scalar spin chirality is finite, and the integration of the Berry curvature over the Brillouin zone may yield integer Hall conductivities in units of $e^2/h$. For a Fermi level within a nontrivial gap, the canted configuration offers, at least in principle, the possibility of a maximal Chern number, $C=\pm 5$. Candidate materials are considered in this paper. In existing materials, the electron hopping is generally highly anisotropic, leading to a quantum anomalous Hall effect with smaller Chern numbers. A topological phase transition between Hall plateaus of opposite $C$ can be driven by flipping the out-of-plane component of the spin order, alluding to the potential of this system to applications in quantum information.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Incremental Validation of Automated Driving Functions using Generic Volumes in Micro- Operational Design Domains

The validation of highly automated, perception-based driving systems must ensure that they function correctly under the full range of real-world conditions. Scenario-based testing is a prominent approach to addressing this challenge, as it involves the systematic simulation of objects and environments. Operational Design Domains (ODDs) are usually described using a taxonomy of qualitative designations for individual objects. However, the process of transitioning from taxonomy to concrete test cases remains unstructured, and completeness is theoretical. This paper introduces a structured method of subdividing the ODD into manageable sections, termed micro-ODDs (mODDs), and deriving test cases with abstract object representations. This concept is demonstrated using a one-dimensional, laterally guided manoeuvre involving a shunting locomotive within a constrained ODD. In this example, mODDs are defined and refined into narrow taxonomies that enable test case generation. Obstacles are represented as generic cubes of varying sizes, providing a simplified yet robust means of evaluating perception performance. A series of tests were conducted in a closed-loop, co-simulated virtual environment featuring photorealistic rendering and simulated LiDAR, GNSS and camera sensors. The results demonstrate how edge cases in obstacle detection can be systematically explored and how perception quality can be evaluated based on observed vehicle behaviour, using crash versus safe stop as the outcome metrics. These findings support the development of a standardised framework for safety argumentation and offer a practical step towards the validation and authorisation of automated driving functions.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Quantum dot-based device for high-performance magnetic microscopy and spin filtering in the Kondo regime

We propose a nanoscale device consisting of a double quantum dot with a full exchange and pair hopping interaction. In this design, the current can only flow through the upper dot, but is sensitive to the spin state of the lower dot. The system is immersed in a highly inhomogeneous magnetic field, and only the bottom dot feels a substantial magnetic field, while the top dot experiences only a residual one. We show that our device exhibits very interesting magnetic field-dependent transport properties at low temperatures. The Kondo effect partially survives the presence of the magnetic field and allows to obtain conductances that differ by several orders of magnitude for the two spin types across the top dot. Interestingly, as a function of the magnetic field, our two-dot device changes from a spin singlet state to a spin triplet state, in which the amplitudes of the spin-dependent conductances are reversed. Our device is able to discriminate between positive and negative magnetic fields with a high sensitivity and is therefore particularly interesting for imaging the surface of anti-ferromagnetic (AF) insulating materials with alternated surface magnetic field, as well as for spin filtering applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in $d$-Electron Kagome Systems: Chern Insulating States from Transverse Spin-Orbit Coupling

The possibility of quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) in two-dimensional kagome systems with $d$-orbital electrons is studied within a multi-orbital tight-binding model. We concentrate on the case of isotropic Slater-Koster integrals which is realized in a recently discovered class of metal-organic frameworks TM$_3$C$_6$O$_6$ with transition metals (TM) in the beginning of the 3$d$ series. Furthermore, in the absence of exchange-type spin-orbit coupling, only isotropic Slater-Koster integrals give a perfect flatband in addition to the two dispersive bands hosting relativistic (Dirac) and quadratic band crossing points at high symmetry spots in the Brillouin zone. A quantized topological invariant requires a flux-creating spin-orbit coupling, giving Chern number (per spin sector) $C=1$ not only from the familiar Dirac points at the six corners of the Brillouin zone, but also from the quadratic band crossing point at the center $Γ$. In the case of isotropic Slater-Koster integrals the on-site spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is ineffective to create the QAHE and it is only the transfer or exchange-type SOC which can lead to a QAHE. Surprisingly, this QAHE comes from the nontrivial effective flux induced by the \textit{transverse} part of the spin-orbit coupling, exhibited by electrons in the $d$-orbital state with $m_l=0$ ($d_{z^2}$ orbital), in stark contrast to the more familiar form of QAHE due to the $d$-orbitals with $m_l \neq 0$, driven by the Ising part of spin-orbit coupling. The $C=1$ Chern plateau (per spin sector) due to Dirac point extends over a smaller region of Fermi energy than that due to quadratic band crossing. Our result hints at the promising potential of kagome $d$-electron systems as a platform for dissipationless electronics by virtue of its unique QAHE.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Self-organized Kagome-lattice in a metal-organic monolayer

We report on the successful on-surface synthesis of metal-organic covalent coordination networks with a dense Kagome lattice of metallic centers. In the case of Mn centers ab-initio calculations show that the adsorbed monolayer on Ag(111) has all the characteristic features of a strictly two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic Kagome metal. Tetrahydroxyquinone (THQ) and metal atoms (M=Cu or Mn) are co-deposited on the Ag(111) substrate to build well-ordered 2D lattices M$_3$C$_6$O$_6$. The surface is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to optimize the growth conditions like fluxes and temperatures. The details of the atomic, electronic and magnetic structures are clarified by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. XPS and DFT reveal a Cu$^+$ charge state and no local magnetic moments for the Cu-organic network. For the Mn-organic network, we find the charge state Mn$^{2+}$ and a local spin S=5/2. Charge transfer stabilizes the Cu$^+$ and Mn$^{2+}$ charge states. We find two different modifications of the M$_3$C$_6$O$_6$ lattice. DFT calculations which neglect the small spin-orbit coupling show a Dirac point, i.e. a band crossing with linear electron dispersion at the K-point of the Brillouin zone. This Dirac point is at the Fermi level if there is no charge transfer but drops by 100 meV if electron doping of Cu$_3$C$_6$O$_6$ on Ag(111) surface is acknowledged. We predict the magnetic couplings of an isolated M$_3$C$_6$O$_6$ monolayer to be short range and antiferromagnetic leading to high frustration at the Kagome lattice and a tendency towards a spin-liquid ground state. In the case of hole transfer from the substrates ferromagnetic ordering is introduced, making M$_3$C$_6$O$_6$ an interesting candidate for the quantum anomalous Hall effect.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Kondo-assisted switching between three conduction states in capacitively coupled quantum dots

We propose a nanoscale device consisting of a double quantum dot with strong intra- and inter- dot Coulomb repulsions. In this design, the current can only flow through the lower dot, but is triggered by the gate-controlled occupancy of the upper dot. At low temperatures, our calculations predict the double dot to pass through a narrow Kondo regime, resulting in highly sensitive switching characteristics between three well-defined states : insulating, normal conduction and resonant conduction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

The Anderson impurity model with a narrow-band host: from orbital physics to the Kondo effect

A particle-hole symmetric Anderson impurity model with a metallic host of narrow bandwidth is studied within the framework of the local moment approach. The resultant single-particle spectra are compared to unrestricted Hartree-Fock, second order perturbation theory about the noninteracting limit, and Lanczos spectra by Hofstetter and Kehrein. Rather accurate analytical results explain the spectral evolution over almost the entire range of interactions. These encompass, in particular, a rationale for the four-peak structure observed in the low-energy sector of the Lanczos spectra in the moderate-coupling regime. In weak coupling, the spectral evolution is governed by orbital effects, while in the strong coupling Kondo limit, the model is shown to connect smoothly to the generic Anderson impurity with a flat and infinitely wide hybridization band.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Dielectric resonances of ordered passive arrays

The electrical and optical properties of ordered passive arrays, constituted of inductive and capacitive components, are usually deduced from Kirchhoff's rules. Under the assumption of periodic boundary conditions, comparable results may be obtained via an approach employing transfer matrices. In particular, resonances in the dielectric spectrum are demonstrated to occur if all eigenvalues of the transfer matrix of the entire array are unity. The latter condition, which is shown to be equivalent to the habitual definition of a resonance in impedance for an array between electrodes, allows for a convenient and accurate determination of the resonance frequencies, and may thus be used as a tool for the design of materials with a specific dielectric response. For the opposite case of linear arrays in a large network, where periodic boundary condition do not apply, several asymptotic properties are derived. Throughout the article, the derived analytic results are compared to numerical models, based on either Exact Numerical Renormalisation or the spectral method.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Dielectric resonances in disordered media

Binary disordered systems are usually obtained by mixing two ingredients in variable proportions: conductor and insulator, or conductor and super-conductor. and are naturally modeled by regular bi-dimensional or tri-dimensional lattices, on which sites or bonds are chosen randomly with given probabilities. In this article, we calculate the impedance of the composite by two independent methods: the so-called spectral method, which diagonalises Kirchhoff's Laws via a Green function formalism, and the Exact Numerical Renormalization method (ENR). These methods are applied to mixtures of resistors and capacitors (R-C systems), simulating e.g. ionic conductor-insulator systems, and to composites consituted of resistive inductances and capacitors (LR-C systems), representing metal inclusions in a dielectric bulk. The frequency dependent impedances of the latter composites present very intricate structures in the vicinity of the percolation threshold. We analyse the LR-C behavior of compounds formed by the inclusion of small conducting clusters (``$n$-legged animals'') in a dielectric medium. We investigate in particular their absorption spectra who present a pattern of sharp lines at very specific frequencies of the incident electromagnetic field, the goal being to identify the signature of each animal. This enables us to make suggestions of how to build compounds with specific absorption or transmission properties in a given frequency domain.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2000

Spectral properties of a narrow-band Anderson model

We consider single-particle spectra of a symmetric narrow-band Anderson impurity model, where the host bandwidth $D$ is small compared to the hybridization strength $Δ_{0}$. Simple 2nd order perturbation theory (2PT) in $U$ is found to produce a rich spectral structure, that leads to rather good agreement with extant Lanczos results and offers a transparent picture of the underlying physics. It also leads naturally to two distinct regimes of spectral behaviour, $Δ_{0}Z/D\gg 1 $ and $\ll 1$ (with $Z$ the quasi-particle weight), whose existence and essential characteristics are discussed and shown to be independent of 2PT itself. The self-energy $Σ_{iω}$ is also examined beyond the confines of PT. It is argued that on frequency scales of order $ω\sim\sqrt{Delta_{0}D}$, the self-energy in {\em strong} coupling is given precisely by the 2PT result, and we point out that the resultant poles in $Σ_{iω}$ connect continuously to that characteristic of the atomic limit. This in turn offers a natural rationale for the known inability of the skeleton expansion to capture such behaviour, and points to the intrinsic dangers of partial infinite-order summations that are based on PT in $U$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Dyson Equation Approach to Many-Body Greens Functions and Self-Consistent RPA, First Application to the Hubbard Model

An approach for particle-hole correlation functions, based on the so-called SCRPA, is developed. This leads to a fully self-consistent RPA-like theory which satisfies the $f$-sum rule and several other theorems. As a first step, a simpler self-consistent approach, the renormalized RPA, is solved numerically in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. The charge and the longitudinal spin susceptibility, the momentum distribution and several ground state properties are calculated and compared with the exact results. Especially at half filling, our approach provides quite promising results and matches the exact behaviour apart from a general prefactor. The strong coupling limit of our approach can be described analytically.

cond-mat.str-el↗