arXiv subjects

Sumathi Rao

Publications and source records attributed to Sumathi Rao.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Fabry-Perot interferometry in Weyl semi-metals

We show that the electrical transport across a minimal model for a time-reversal symmetry(TRS) breaking Weyl semi-metal (WSM) involving two Weyl nodes can be interpreted as an interferometer in momentum space. The interference phase depends on the distance between the Weyl nodes ($\vec{δk}$) and is {\it anisotropic}. It is further shown that a minimal inversion symmetry broken model for a WSM with four Weyl nodes effectively mimics a situation corresponding to having two copies of the interferometer due to the presence of an orbital pseudo-spin domain wall in momentum space. We point out that the value of the $δk$ and consequently the interference phase can be tuned by driving the WSMs resulting in oscillations in the two terminal conductance measured in the direction of splitting of the Weyl nodes.

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arXiv2018

Quantum charge pumping through Majorana bound states

We study adiabatic charge pumping through a Majorana bound state tunnel coupled to multiple normal leads. We show that for most of the parameters such a pump does not lead to any net pumped charge between the various leads unless a multiply connected geometry is implemented. We introduce an Aharonov-Bohm ring geometry at the junction to implement such a multiply connected geometry. We further show that the Fourier transform of the pumped charge with respect to flux inserted through the ring shows a clear distinction between the case of an Andreev bound state and the Majorana bound state. Hence such a Fourier analysis can serve as a diagnostic for the detection of Majorana bound states in the proposed geometry.

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arXiv2018

Interplay of Floquet Lifshitz transitions and topological transitions in bilayer Dirac materials

We show how transitions between different Lifshitz phases in bilayer Dirac materials with and without spin-orbit coupling can be studied by driving the system. The periodic driving is induced by a laser and the resultant phase diagram is studied in the high frequency limit using the Brillouin-Wigner perturbation approach to leading order. The examples of such materials include bilayer graphene and spin-orbit coupled materials such as bilayer silicene. The phase diagrams of the effective static models are analyzed to understand the interplay of topological phase transitions, with changes in the Chern number and topological Lifshitz transitions, with the ensuing changes in the Fermi surface. Both the topological transitions and the Lifshitz transitions are tuned by the amplitude of the drive.

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arXiv2017

Spin Mode-Switching at the Edge of a Quantum Hall System

Quantum Hall states can be characterized by their chiral edge modes. Upon softening the edge potential, the edge has long been known to undergo spontaneous reconstruction driven by charging effects. In this paper we demonstrate a qualitatively distinct phenomenon driven by exchange effects, in which the ordering of the edge modes at $ν=3$ switches abruptly as the edge potential is made softer, while the ordering in the bulk remains intact. We demonstrate that this phenomenon is robust, and has many verifiable experimental signatures in transport.

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arXiv2017

Transport through Andreev bound states in a Weyl semimetal quantum dot

We study transport through a Weyl semimetal quantum dot sandwiched between an $s$-wave superconductor and a normal lead. The conductance peaks at regular intervals and exhibits double periodicity with respect to two characteristic frequencies of the system, one that originates from Klein tunneling in the system and the other coming from the chiral nature of the excitations. Using a scattering matrix approach as well as a lattice simulation, we demonstrate the universal features of the conductance through the system and discuss the feasibility of observing them in experiments.

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arXiv2017

$0$-$π$ transitions in a Josephson junction of irradiated Weyl semimetal

We propose a setup for the experimental realization of unexpected and anisotropic $0$-$π$ transitions of the Josephson current, in a junction whose link is made of irradiated Weyl semi-metal (WSM), due to the presence of chiral nodes. We show using a Green's function technique that the Josephson current through a time-reversal symmetric WSM has anisotropic periodic oscillations as a function of $k_0L$, where $k_0$ is the (relevant) separation of the chiral nodes and $L$ is the length of the sample. This is unexpected, for time-reversal symmetric systems, although it has been shown earlier for time-reversal symmetry breaking WSMs. We then show that the effective value of $k_0$ can be tuned with precision by irradiating the sample with photons resulting in $0$-$π$ transitions of the critical current. Finally, we discuss the robustness of our setup.

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arXiv2016

Introduction to abelian and non-abelian anyons

In this set of lectures, we will start with a brief pedagogical introduction to abelian anyons and their properties. This will essentially cover the background material with an introduction to basic concepts in anyon physics, fractional statistics, braid groups and abelian anyons. The next topic that we will study is a specific exactly solvable model, called the toric code model, whose excitations have (mutual) anyon statistics. Then we will go on to discuss non-abelian anyons, where we will use the one dimensional Kitaev model as a prototypical example to produce Majorana modes at the edge. We will then explicitly derive the non-abelian unitary matrices under exchange of these Majorana modes.

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arXiv2016

Slave fermion formalism for the tetrahedral spin chain

We use the SU(2) slave fermion approach to study a tetrahedral spin 1/2 chain, which is a one-dimensional generalization of the two dimensional Kitaev honeycomb model. Using the mean field theory, coupled with a gauge fixing procedure to implement the single occupancy constraint, we obtain the phase diagram of the model. We then show that it matches the exact results obtained earlier using the Majorana fermion representation. We also compute the spin-spin correlation in the gapless phase and show that it is a spin liquid. Finally, we map the one-dimensional model in terms of the slave fermions to the model of 1D p-wave superconducting model with complex parameters and show that the parameters of our model fall in the topological trivial regime and hence does not have edge Majorana modes.

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arXiv2016

Brillouin-Wigner Theory for Floquet Topological Phase Transitions in Spin-orbit Coupled Materials

We develop the high frequency expansion based on the Brillouin-Wigner (B-W) perturbation theory for driven systems with spin-orbit coupling which is applicable to the cases of silicene, germanene and stanene. We compute the effective Hamiltonian in the zero photon subspace not only to order $O(ω^{-1})$, but by keeping all the important terms to order $O(ω^{-2})$, and obtain the photo-assisted correction terms to both the hopping and the spin-orbit terms, as well as new longer ranged hopping terms. We then use the effective static Hamiltonian to compute the phase diagram in the high frequency limit and compare it with the results of direct numerical computation of the Chern numbers of the Floquet bands, and show that at sufficiently large frequencies, the B-W theory high frequency expansion works well even in the presence of spin-orbit coupling terms.

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arXiv2016

Fingerprints of Majorana bound states in Aharonov Bohm geometry

We study a ring geometry, coupled to two normal metallic leads, which has a Majorana bound state (MBS) embedded in one of its arm and is threaded by Aharonov Bohm ($\mathcal{A}\mathcal{B}$) flux $ϕ$. We show that by varying the $\mathcal{AB}$ flux, the two leads go through resonance in an anti-correlated fashion while the resonance conductance is quantized to $2 e^2/h$. We further show that such anti-correlation is completely absent when the MBS is replaced by an Andreev bound state (ABS). Hence this anti-correlation in conductance when studied as a function of $ϕ$ provides a unique signature of the MBS which cannot be faked by an ABS. We contrast the phase sensitivity of the MBS and ABS in terms of tunneling conductances. We argue that the relative phase between the tunneling amplitude of the electrons and holes from either lead to the level (MBS or ABS), which is constrained to $0,π$ for the MBS and unconstrained for the ABS, is responsible for this interesting contrast in the $\mathcal{AB}$ effect between the MBS and ABS.

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arXiv2016

Weyl semi-metals : a short review

We begin this review with an introduction and a discussion of Weyl fermions as emergent particles in condensed matter systems, and explain how high energy phenomena like the chiral anomaly can be seen in low energy experiments. We then explain the current interest in the field due to the recent discovery of real materials which behave like Weyl semi-metals. We then describe a simple lattice model of a topological insulator, which can be turned into a Weyl semi-metal on breaking either time-reversal or inversion symmetry, and show how flat bands or Fermi arcs develop. Finally, we describe some new phenomena which occur due to the chiral nature of the Weyl nodes and end with possible future prospects in the field, both in theory and experiment.

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arXiv2016

Chiral nodes and oscillations in the Josephson current in Weyl semimetals

The separation of the Weyl nodes in a broken time-reversal symmetric Weyl semimetal leads to helical quasi-particle excitations at the Weyl nodes, which, when coupled with overall spin conservation allows only inter-nodal transport at the junction of the Weyl semimetal with a superconductor. This leads to an unusual periodic oscillation in the Josephson current as a function of $k_0L$, where $L$ is the length of the Weyl semimetal and $2k_0$ is the inter-nodal distance. This oscillation is robust and should be experimentally measurable, providing a direct path to confirming the existence of chiral nodes in the Weyl semimetal.

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arXiv2016

Conductance, Valley and Spin polarization and Tunnelling magneto-resistance in ferromagnetic-normal-ferromagnetic junctions of silicene

We investigate charge conductance and spin and valley polarization along with the tunnelling magneto-resistance (TMR) in silicene junctions composed of normal silicene and ferromagnetic silicene. We show distinct features of the conductances for parallel and anti-parallel spin configurations and the TMR, as the ferromagnetic-normal-ferromagnetic (FNF) junction is tuned by an external electric field. We analyse the behavior of the charge conductance and valley and spin polarizations in terms of the independent conductances of the different spins at the two valleys and the band structure of ferromagnetic silicene and show how the conductances are affected by the vanishing of the propagating states at one or the other valley. In particular, unlike in graphene, the band structure at the two valleys are independently affected by the spin in the ferromagnetic regions and lead to non-zero, and in certain parameter regimes, pure valley and spin polarizations, which can be tuned by the external electric field. We also investigate the oscillatory behavior of the TMR with respect to the strength of the barrier potential (both spin-independent and spin-dependent barriers) in the normal silicene region and note that in some parameter regimes, the TMR can even go from positive to negative values, as a function of the external electric field.

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arXiv2014

Proximity induced superconductivity in Weyl semi-metals

We introduce superconducting proximity effects in Weyl semi-metals (WSM) with broken time reversal symmetry by tunnel coupling one of its surfaces to an s-wave superconductor using the Green's function approach. We find that the band structure develops coherence peaks, but despite the presence of metallic states in the bulk, the coherence peaks do not extend far into the bulk and remain confined to a few layers close to the interface, similar to the proximity effect in the topological insulators (TI) which are gapped in the bulk. The Weyl nodes remain unaffected, and in that sense, no true gap develops. We also study the various induced p and s-wave pairing amplitudes classified by their symmetries, as a function of the various relevant parameters of the theory and note the exponential decay of the induced pairings in the bulk both in the TI and the WSM, even at finite chemical potential.

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arXiv2013

Transport and STM studies of hyperbolic surface states of topological insulators

Motivated by the transmission of topological surface states through atomic scale steps, we study the transport of gapless Dirac fermions on hyperbolic surfaces. We confirm that, independent of the curvature of the hyperbolae and the sharpness of the corners, no backward scattering takes place and transmission of the topological surface states is completely independent of the geometrical shape (within the hyperbolic model) of the surface. The density of states of the electrons, however, shows a dip at concave step edges which can be measured by an STM tip. We also show that the tunneling conductance measured by a polarized scanning tunneling probe exhibits an unconventional dependence on the polar and azimuthal angles of the magnetization of the tip as a function of the curvature of the surface and the sharpness of the edge.

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arXiv2012

Magnetic field induced Fabry-Pérot resonances in helical edge states

We study electronic transport across a helical edge state exposed to a uniform magnetic ({$\vec B$}) field over a finite length. We show that this system exhibits Fabry-Pérot type resonances in electronic transport. The intrinsic spin anisotropy of the helical edge states allows us to tune these resonances by changing the direction of the {$\vec B$} field while keeping its magnitude constant. This is in sharp contrast to the case of non-helical one dimensional electron gases with a parabolic dispersion, where similar resonances do appear in individual spin channels ($\uparrow$ and $\downarrow$) separately which, however, cannot be tuned by merely changing the direction of the {$\vec B$} field. These resonances provide a unique way to probe the helical nature of the theory.

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arXiv2011

Spin polarised scanning tunneling probe for helical Luttinger liquids

We propose a three terminal spin polarized stm setup for probing the helical nature of the Luttinger liquid edge state that appears in the quantum spin Hall system. We show that the three-terminal tunneling conductance strongly depends on the angle ($θ$) between the magnetization direction of the tip and the local orientation of the electron spin on the edge while the two terminal conductance is independent of this angle. We demonstrate that chiral injection of an electron into the helical Luttinger liquid (which occurs when $θ$ is zero or $π$) is associated with fractionalization of the spin of the injected electron in addition to the fractionalization of its charge. We also point out a spin current amplification effect induced by the spin fractionalization.

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arXiv2011

Quantum charge pumping through a superconducting double barrier structure in graphene

We consider the phenomenon of quantum charge pumping of electrons across a superconducting double barrier structure in graphene in the adiabatic limit. In this geometry, quantum charge pumping can be achieved by modulating the amplitudes (Delta_1 and Delta_2) of the gaps associated with the two superconducting strips. We show that the superconducting gaps give rise to a transmission resonance in the Delta_1-Delta_2 plane, resulting in a large value of pumped charge, when the pumping contour encloses the resonance. This is in sharp contrast to the case of charge pumping in a normal double barrier structure in graphene, where the pumped charge is very small, due to the phenomenon of Klein tunneling. We analyse the behaviour of the pumped charge through the superconducting double barrier geometry as a function of the pumping strength and the phase difference between the two pumping parameters, for various angles of the incident electron.

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