arXiv subjects

T. K. Ng

Publications and source records attributed to T. K. Ng.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Topological Superconductivity in Multifold Fermion Metals

Recently, multifold fermions characterized by band crossings with multifold degeneracy and Fermi surfaces with nontrivial Chern numbers have been discovered experimentally in AlPt[arXiv:1812.03310] and XSi(X=Rh,Co)[arXiv:1812.04466][arXiv:1901.03358][arXiv:1809.01312]. In this work, we largely expand the family of multifold fermion materials by pointing out that several well-studied noncentrosymmetric superconductors are indeed multifold fermion metals. Importantly, their normal state topological properties, which have been ignored in previous studies, play an important role in the superconducting properties. Taking Li$_2$Pd$_3$B and Li$_2$Pt$_3$B as examples, we found a large number of unconventional degenerate points, such as double spin-1, spin-3/2, Weyl and double Weyl topological band crossing points near the Fermi energy, which result in finite Chern numbers on Fermi surfaces. Long Fermi arc states in Li$_2$Pd$_3$B, originating from the nontrivial band topology were found. Importantly, it has been shown experimentally that Li$_2$Pd$_3$B and Li$_2$Pt$_3$B are fully gapped and gapless superconductors, respectively. By analyzing the possible pairing symmetries, we suggest that Li$_2$Pd$_3$B can be a DIII class topological superconductor with Majorana surface states, even though the spin-orbit coupling in Li$_2$Pd$_3$B is negligible. Interestingly, Li$_2$Pt$_3$B, being gapless, is likely to be a nodal topological superconductor with dispersionless surface Majorana modes. We further identified that several noncentrosymmetric superconductors, such as Mo$_3$Al$_2$C, PdBiSe, Y$_2$C$_3$ and La$_2$C$_3$, are multifold fermion superconductors whose normal state topological properties have been ignored in previous experimental and theoretical studies.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Strongly enlarged topological regime and enhanced superconducting gap in nanowires coupled to Ising superconductors

An external magnetic field is needed to drive a nanowire in proximity to an s-wave superconductor into a topological regime which supports Majorana end states. However, a magnetic field generally suppresses the proximity superconducting gap induced on the nanowire. In recent experiments using InSb nanowires coupled to Al, the induced proximity gap vanishes at magnetic fields B~1T. This results in a small superconducting gap on the wire and a narrow topological regime which is proportional to the strength of the magnetic field. In this work, we show that by placing nanowires in proximity to recently discovered Ising superconductors such as the atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenide(TMD) NbSe2, the topological superconducting gap on the wire can maintain at a large magnetic field as strong as B~10T. This robust topological superconducting gap is induced by the unique equal-spin triplet Cooper pairs of the parent Ising superconductor. The strong magnetic field allows a topological regime ten times larger than those in InSb wires coupled to Al. Our work establishes a realistic platform for building robust Majorana-based qubits.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Selective Equal-Spin Andreev Reflections Induced by Majorana Fermions

In this work, we find that Majorana fermions induce selective equal spin Andreev reflections (SESARs), in which incoming electrons with certain spin polarization in the lead are reflected as counter propagating holes with the same spin. The spin polarization direction of the electrons of this Andreev reflected channel is selected by the Majorana fermions. Moreover, electrons with opposite spin polarization are always reflected as electrons with unchanged spin. As a result, the charge current in the lead is spin-polarized. Therefore, a topological superconductor which supports Majorana fermions can be used as a novel device to create fully spin-polarized currents in paramagnetic leads. We point out that SESARs can also be used to detect Majorana fermions in topological superconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Chiral Topological Orders in an Optical Raman Lattice

We find an optical Raman lattice without spin-orbit coupling showing chiral topological orders for cold atoms. Two incident plane-wave lasers are applied to generate simultaneously a double-well square lattice and periodic Raman couplings, the latter of which drive the nearest-neighbor hopping and create a staggered flux pattern across the lattice. Such a minimal setup is can yield the quantum anomalous Hall effect in the single particle regime, while in the interacting regime it achieves the $J_1$-$J_2$-$K$ model with all parameters controllable, which supports a chiral spin liquid phase. We further show that heating in the present optical Raman lattice is reduced by more than one order of magnitude compared with the conventional laser-assisted tunneling schemes. This suggests that the predicted topological states be well reachable with the current experimental capability.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Realization of 2D Spin-orbit Interaction and Exotic Topological Orders in Cold Atoms

Majorana zero bound mode exists in the vortex core of a chiral $p+ip$ superconductor or superfluid, which can be driven from an s-wave pairing state by two-dimensional (2D) spin-orbit (SO) coupling. We propose here a novel scheme based on realistic cold atom platforms to generate 2D SO interactions in a blue-detuned square optical lattice, and predict both the quantum anomalous Hall effect and chiral topological superfluid phase in the experimentally accessible parameter regimes. This work opens a new direction with experimental feasibility to observe non-Abelian topological orders in cold atom systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Detecting Topological Phases in Cold Atoms

Chern insulators are band insulators which exhibit a gap in the bulk and gapless excitations in the edge. Detection of Chern insulators is a serious challenge in cold atoms since the Hall transport measurements are technically unrealistic for neutral atoms. By establishing a natural correspondence between the time-reversal invariant topological insulator and quantum anomalous Hall system, we show for a class of Chern insulators that the topology can be determined by only measuring Bloch eigenstates at highly symmetric points of the Brillouin zone (BZ). Furthermore, we introduce two experimental schemes including the spin-resolved Bloch oscillation to carry out the measurement. These schemes are highly feasible under realistic experimental conditions. Our results may provide a powerful tool to detect topological phases in cold atoms.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

On a pragmatic approach optical analogues of gravitational attractors

In our work we theoretically demonstrate a refractive index mapping to enable optical analogues to celestial mechanics, where is possible to achieve light confinement and trapping by means of a static, and planar, refractive index mapping which could be implemented under current technological and [meta]material constraints at optical frequencies. The mathematical and physical background to make possible these effects bring forth an exciting ground to test celestial mechanics in the laboratory, and provides the key to enable miscellany of planar optical system that are of great interest to photonic applications, namely optical time delays, transient optical memories and random resonators.

math-ph↗

arXiv2012

Magnetic field-induced instability of the cooperative paramagnetic state in Zn$_x$Co$_{4-x}$(OD)$_6$Cl$_2$

Using elastic and inelastic neutron scattering techniques with and without application of an external magnetic field $H$, the magnetic ground states of Zn$_x$Co$_{4-x}$(OD)$_6$Cl$_2$ ($x=0,1$) were studied. Our results show that for $x=0$, the ground state is a magnetic long-range ordered (LRO) state where each tetrahedron forms an "umbrella"-type structure. On the other hand, for $x=1$, no static ordering was observed down to 1.5 K, which resembles the behavior found in the isostructural quantum system Zn$_x$Cu$_{4-x}$(OD)$_6$Cl$_2$. When $H$ field is applied, however the $x=1$ system develops the same LRO state as $x=0$. This indicates that the $x=1$ disordered state is in the vicinity of the $x=0$ ordered state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Out of plane screening and dipolar interactions in heterostructures

Out-of-plane screening (OPS) is expected to occur generally in metal-semiconductor interfaces but this aspect has been overlooked in previous studies. In this paper we study the effect of OPS in electron-hole bilayer (EHBL) systems. The validity of the dipolar interaction induced by OPS is justified with a RPA calculation. Effect of OPS in electron-hole liquid with close-by screening layers is studied. We find that OPS affects the electronic properties in low density and long wavelength regime. The corresponding zero-temperature phase diagram is obtained within a mean field treatment. We argue that our result is in general relevant to other heterostrucutures. The case of strongly correlated EHBL is also discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Majorana Fermion Induced Resonant Andreev Reflection

We describe experimental signatures of Majorana fermion edge states, which form at the interface between a superconductor and the surface of a topological insulator. If a lead couples to the Majorana fermions through electron tunneling, the Majorana fermions induce \textit{resonant} Andreev reflections from the lead to the grounded superconductor. The linear tunneling conductance is $0 $ ($2 e^2/h$) if there is an even (odd) number of vortices in the superconductor. Similar resonance occurs for tunneling into the zero mode in the vortex core. We also study the current and noise of a two-lead device.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Non-Magnetic Impurity induced in-gap bound states in two band $s_{\pm}$ superconductors

In this paper we study the effect of single non-magnetic impurity in two-band s-wave superconductors where the two s-wave order parameters have relative phase $δ\neq0$ between them. We show that in-gap bound states are always induced by non-magnetic impurities when $δ=π$ ($s_{\pm}$-wave superconductors). The bound state is a consequence of the topological nature of the corresponding Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Broken Time-reversal Symmetry in Josephson Junction with an Anderson impurity and multi band superconductors

A Josephson junction consisting of an Anderson impurity weakly coupled with two-band and single-band superconductors exposes a time reversal breaking ground state when the coupling between the two bands exceeds a certain threshold. The critical regime occurs around local moment formation. This indicates a fundamental and distinct role of strong correlations: Driving a system into a time reversal breaking ground state. One of the observable consequences is that the impurity magnetization in this phase is reduced.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Quantum Dot in 2D Topological Insulator: The Two-channel Kondo Fixed Point

In this work, a quantum dot couples to two helical edge states of a 2D topological insulator through weak tunnelings is studied. We show that if the electron interactions on the edge states are repulsive, with Luttinger liquid parameter $ K < 1 $, the system flows to a stable two-channel fixed point at low temperatures. This is in contrast to the case of a quantum dot couples to two Luttinger liquid leads. In the latter case, a strong electron-electron repulsion is needed, with $ K<1/2 $, to reach the two-channel fixed point. This two-channel fixed point is described by a boundary Sine-Gordon Hamiltonian with a $K$ dependent boundary term. The impurity entropy at zero temperature is shown to be $ \ln\sqrt{2K} $. The impurity specific heat is $C \propto T^{\frac{2}{K}-2}$ when $ 2/3 < K < 1 $, and $ C \propto T$ when $ K<2/3$. We also show that the linear conductance across the two helical edges has non-trivial temperature dependence as a result of the renormalization group flow.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Broken time-reversal symmetry in Josephson junction involving two-band superconductors

A novel time-reversal symmetry breaking state is found theoretically in the Josephson junction between the two-gap superconductor and the conventional s-wave superconductor. This occurs due to the frustration between the three order parameters analogous to the two antiferromagnetically coupled XY-spins put under a magnetic field. This leads to the interface states with the energies inside the superconducting gap. Possible experimental observations of this state with broken time-reversal symmetry are discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2004

Quantum coherence and Kondo effect in multi quantum dot systems

The quantum interference effect among coupled identical quantum dots is studied in the present paper in the limit of strong intra-dot Coulomb interaction. When the average electron number in each dot is a fraction of an integer, quantum interference effect is greatly enhanced because of the sharing of extra electrons by multiple dots. We show that if the extra electron (hole) number is one, the low energy effective Hamiltonian can be map into the 2-channel SU(M) Coqblin-Schriffer model, where M is the total dot number. In particular, for two-dot system with odd number of total electrons, the model is equivalent to a two channel Kondo problem with anisotropic coupling between local spin and conduction bands. The more general situation with (arbitrary) fractional average electron number in each dot is also discussed. To study the Kondo effect, we apply the self consistent ladder approximation(SCLA) to study the electron spectral function for the two-dot system. Similar method is also used to study the triple-dot system where we show how quantum coherence manifest itself in the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Some Experimental Signatures to look for Time-reversal Violating superconductors

We discuss some experimental signatures associated with the topological structures of unconventional superconductor order parameters of form $d_{x^2-y^2}+ix$, where $x=s,p_x \pm p_y$, or $d_{xy}$. Specifically, we study the topological surface states on the $(110)$ and equivalent surfaces of such superconductors which are observable in Andreev tunneling experiments, as well as evaluate the magnetic flux trapped in superconducting rings of such superconductors with multiple grain-boundary Josephson junctions. Previous experiments are examined and several new experiments suggested.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Ferroelectrics with Low-energy Electronic Excitations

We formulate a general theory of the dielectric response of a lattice with a structural transition and a polarization instability due to a soft-optic mode coupled to low energy electronic excitations by the electromagnetic fields. the electronic excitations considered are in two-limits; those of a low density of free-electrons or those of a low density of strongly localized electrons in the Coulomb-glass phase. The ferroelectric transition in the absence of the electronic-excitations and the low energy dielectric properties are shown to be strongly modified.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv1999

Re-examination of electronic transports through a quantum wire coupled to a quantum dot

In this paper we re-examine the problem of electronic transports through a system consisting of a quantum dot which has well-defined discrete energy levels connected to an infinite quantum wire, using the bosonization method and phase shift representation, we show that all previously known results can be obtained through our method in a very simple way. Furthermore, the evolution of the system from ultraviolet to infrared critical fixed points appears naturally our method.

cond-mat↗