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Tatiana G. Rappoport

Publications and source records attributed to Tatiana G. Rappoport.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Orbital magnetoelectric effect in nanoribbons of transition metal dichalcogenides

The orbital magnetoelectric effect (OME) generically refers to the appearance of an orbital magnetization induced by an applied electric field. Here, we show that nanoribbons of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with zigzag (ZZ) edges may exhibit a sizeable OME activated by an electric field applied along the ribbons' axis. We examine nanoribbons extracted from a monolayer (1L) and a bilayer (2L) of MoS$_2$ in the trigonal (H) structural phase. Transverse profiles of the induced orbital angular momentum accumulations are calculated to first order in the longitudinally applied electric field. Our results show that close to the nanoribbon's edge-state crossings energy, the orbital angular momentum accumulations take place mainly around the ribbons' edges. They have two contributions: one arising from the orbital Hall effect (OHE) and the other consists in the OME. The former is transversely anti-symmetric with respect to the principal axis of the nanoribbon, whereas the latter is symmetric, and hence responsible for the resultant orbital magnetization induced in the system. We found that the orbital accumulation originating from the OHE for the 1L-nanoribbon is approximately half that of a 2L-nanoribbon. Furthermore, while the OME can reach fairly high values in 1L-TMD nanoribbons, it vanishes in the 2L ones that preserve spatial inversion symmetry.The microscopic features that justify our findings are also discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Generation and control of non-local chiral currents in graphene superlattices by orbital Hall effect

Graphene-based superlattices offer a new materials playground to exploit and control a higher number of electronic degrees of freedom, such as charge, spin, or valley for disruptive technologies. Recently, orbital effects, emerging in multivalley band structure lacking inversion symmetry, have been discussed as possible mechanisms for developing orbitronics. Here, we report non-local transport measurements in small gap hBN/graphene/hBN moiré superlattices which reveal very strong magnetic field-induced chiral response which is stable up to room temperature. The measured sign dependence of the non-local signal with respect to the magnetic field orientation clearly indicates the manifestation of emerging orbital magnetic moments. The interpretation of experimental data is well supported by numerical simulations, and the reported phenomenon stands as a formidable way of in-situ manipulation of the transverse flow of orbital information, that could enable the design of orbitronic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Engineering transistor-like optical gain in two-dimensional materials with Berry curvature dipoles

Semiconductor transistors are essential elements of electronic circuits as they enable, for example, the isolation or amplification of voltage signals. While conventional transistors are point-type (lumped-element) devices, it may be highly interesting to realize a distributed transistor-type optical response in a bulk material. Here, we show that low-symmetry two-dimensional metallic systems may be the ideal solution to implement such a distributed-transistor response. To this end, using the semiclassical Boltzmann equation approach, we characterize the optical conductivity of a two-dimensional material under a static electric bias. It is found that similar to the nonlinear Hall effect, the electron transport depends on the Berry curvature dipole. Our analysis reveals that the electro-optic effect modifies the optical conductivity of the material, breaking the electromagnetic reciprocity and yielding a dynamical response that imitates that of a transistor but in a distributed volume. Furthermore, the effective conductivity tensor can be non-Hermitian, opening the possibility of optical gain. To maximize the non-Hermitian response, we explore the specific case of strained twisted bilayer graphene. Our analysis reveals that the optical gain for incident light transmitted through the biased system depends on the light polarization, and can be quite large, especially for multilayer configurations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Orbital Hall effect in bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides: From the intra-atomic approximation to the Bloch states orbital magnetic moment approach

Using an effective Dirac model, we study the orbital Hall effect (OHE) in bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides with 2H stacking (2H-TMD). We use first-order perturbation theory in the interlayer coupling of the bilayer system to obtain analytical expressions for the orbital Hall conductivity in the linear response regime. We use two distinct descriptions of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) operator: The first one is the intra-atomic approximation that considers only the intrasite contribution to the OAM [Cysne et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 056601 (2021)]. The second one uses the Berry-phase formula of the orbital (valley) magnetic moment to describe the OAM operator [Bhowal and Vignale, Phys. Rev. B 103, 195309 (2021)]. This approach includes both intersite and intrasite contributions to the OAM. Our results suggest that the two approaches agree qualitatively in describing the OHE in bilayers of 2H-TMDs, although they present some quantitative differences. We also show that interlayer coupling plays an essential role in understanding the OHE in the unbiased bilayer of 2H-TMD. This coupling causes the Bloch states to become bonding (antibonding) combinations of states of individual layers, demanding the consideration of the non-Abelian structure of the orbital magnetic moment to the occurrence of OHE. As we discuss throughout the work, the emerging picture of transport of OAM in the unbiased bilayer of 2H-TMDs based on OHE is very different from the usual picture based on the valley Hall effect, shedding new lights on previous experimental results. We also discuss the effect of the inclusion of a gate-voltage bias in the bilayer system. Our work gives support to recent theoretical predictions on OHE in two-dimensional materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Orbital magnetoelectric effect in zigzag nanoribbons of p-band systems

Profiles of the spin and orbital angular momentum accumulations induced by a longitudinally applied electric field are explored in nanoribbons of $p$-band systems with a honeycomb lattice. We show that nanoribbons with zigzag borders can exhibit orbital magnetoelectric effects. More specifically, we have found that purely orbital magnetization oriented perpendicularly to the ribbon may be induced in these systems by means of the external electric field, when sublattice symmetry is broken. The effect is rather general and may occur in other multi-orbital materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Decoding the DC and optical conductivities of disordered MoS$_{2}$ films: an inverse problem

To calculate the conductivity of a material having full knowledge of its composition is a reasonably simple task. To do the same in reverse, i.e., to find information about the composition of a device from its conductivity response alone, is very challenging and even more so in the presence of disorder. An inversion methodology capable of decoding the information contained in the conductivity response of disordered structures has been recently proposed but despite claims of generality and robustness, the method has only been used with 2D systems possessing relatively simple electronic structures. Here we put these claims to the test and generalise the inversion method to the case of monolayer MoS$_2$, a material whose electronic structure is far more complex and elaborate. Starting from the spectral function that describes the DC conductivity of a disordered sample of a single layered MoS$_2$ containing a small concentration of randomly dispersed vacancies, we are able to invert the signal and find the exact composition of defects with an impressive degree of accuracy. Remarkably, equally accurate results are obtained with the optical conductivity. This is indicative of a methodology that is indeed suitable to extract composition information from different 2D materials, regardless of their electronic structure complexity. Calculated conductivity results were used as a proxy for their experimental counterpart and were obtained with an efficient quantum transport code (KITE) based on a real-space multi-orbital tight-binding model with parameters generated by density functional theory.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Topological Graphene plasmons in a plasmonic realization of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Model

Graphene hybrids, made of thin insulators, graphene, and metals can support propagating acoustic plasmons (AGPs). The metal screening modifies the dispersion relation of usual graphene plasmons leading to slowly propagating plasmons, with record confinement of electromagnetic radiation. Here, we show that a graphene monolayer, covered by a thin dielectric material and an array of metallic nanorods can be used as a robust platform to emulate the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We calculate the Zak's phase of the different plasmonic bands to characterise their topology. The system shows bulk-edge correspondence: strongly localized interface states are generated in the domain walls separating arrays in different topological phases. We find signatures of the nontrivial phase which can directly be probed by far-field mid-IR radiation, hence allowing a direct experimental confirmation of graphene topological plasmons. The robust field enhancement, highly localized nature of the interface states, and their gate-tuned frequencies expand the capabilities of AGP-based devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Disentangling orbital and valley Hall effects in bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides

It has been recently shown that monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in the 2H structural phase exhibit relatively large orbital Hall conductivity plateaus within their energy band gaps, where their spin Hall conductivities vanish. However, since the valley Hall effect (VHE) in these systems also generates a transverse flow of orbital angular momentum it becomes experimentally challenging to distinguish between the two effects in these materials. The VHE requires inversion symmetry breaking to occur, which takes place in the TMD monolayers, but not in the bilayers. We show that a bilayer of 2H-MoS$_2$ is an orbital Hall insulator that exhibits a sizeable OHE in the absence of both spin and valley Hall effects. This phase can be characterised by an orbital Chern number that assumes the value $\mathcal{C}_{L}=2$ for the 2H-MoS$_2$ bilayer and $\mathcal{C}_{L}=1$ for the monolayer, confirming the topological nature of these orbital-Hall insulator systems. Our results are based on density functional theory (DFT) and low-energy effective model calculations and strongly suggest that bilayers of TMDs are highly suitable platforms for direct observation of the orbital Hall insulating phase in two-dimensional materials. Implications of our findings for attempts to observe the VHE in TMD bilayers are also discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Understanding the electromagnetic response of graphene/metallic nanostructures hybrids of different dimensionality

Plasmonic excitations such as surface-plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) and graphene-plasmons (GPs), carry large momenta and are thus able to confine electromagnetic fields to small dimensions. This property makes them ideal platforms for subwavelength optical control and manipulation at the nanoscale. The momenta of these plasmons are even further increased if a scheme of metal-insulator-metal and graphene-insulator-metal are used for SPPs and GPs, respectively. However, with such large momenta, their far-field excitation becomes challenging. In this work, we consider hybrids of graphene and metallic nanostructures and study the physical mechanisms behind the interaction of far-field light with the supported high momenta plasmon modes. While there are some similarities in the properties of GPs and SPPs, since both are of the plasmon-polariton type, their physical properties are also distinctly different. For GPs we find two different physical mechanism related to either GPs confined to isolated cavities, or large area collective grating couplers. Strikingly, we find that although the two systems are conceptually different, under specific conditions they can behave similarly. By applying the same study to SPPs, we find a different physical behavior, which fundamentally stems from the different dispersion relations of SPPs as compared to GPs. Furthermore, these hybrids produce large field enhancements that can also be electrically tuned and modulated making them the ideal candidates for a variety of plasmonic devices.

physics.optics↗

Orbital Hall Insulating Phase in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers

We show that H-phase transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) monolayers such as MoS$_2$ and WSe$_2$, are orbital Hall insulators. They present very large orbital Hall conductivity plateaus in their semiconducting gap, where the spin Hall conductivity vanishes. Our results open the possibility of using TMDs for orbital current injection and orbital torque transfers that surpass their spin-counterparts in spin-orbitronics devices. The orbital Hall effect (OHE) in TMD monolayers occurs even in the absence of spin-orbit coupling. It can be linked to exotic momentum-space Dresselhaus-like orbital textures, analogous to the spin-momentum locking in 2D Dirac fermions that arise from a combination of orbital attributes and lattice symmetry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Two-dimensional orbital Hall insulators

The orbital-Hall effect (OHE), similarly to the spin-Hall effect (SHE), refers to the creation of a transverse flow of orbital angular momentum that is induced by a longitudinally applied electric field. For systems in which the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is sizeable, the orbital and spin angular momentum degrees of freedom are coupled, and an interrelationship between charge, spin and orbital angular momentum excitations is naturally established. The OHE has been explored mostly in metallic systems, where it can be quite strong. However, several of its features remain unexplored in two-dimensional (2D) materials. Here, we investigate the role of orbital textures for the OHE displayed by multi-orbital 2D materials. We predict the appearance of a rather large orbital Hall effect in these systems both in their metallic and insulating phases. In some cases, the orbital Hall currents are larger than the spin Hall ones, and their use as information carriers widens the development possibilities of novel spin-orbitronic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Far-field Excitation of Single Graphene Plasmon Cavities with Ultra-compressed Mode-volumes

Acoustic-graphene-plasmons (AGPs) are highly confined electromagnetic modes, carrying large momentum and low loss in the mid-infrared/Terahertz spectra. Owing to their ability to confine light to extremely small dimensions, they bear great potential for ultra-strong light-matter interactions in this long wavelength regime, where molecular fingerprints reside. However, until now AGPs have been restricted to micron-scale areas, reducing their confinement potential by several orders-of-magnitude. Here, by utilizing a new type of graphene-based magnetic-resonance, we realize single, nanometric-scale AGP cavities, reaching record-breaking mode-volume confinement factors of $\thicksim5\cdot10^{-10}$. This AGP cavity acts as a mid-infrared nanoantenna, which is efficiently excited from the far-field, and electrically tuneble over an ultra-broadband spectrum. Our approach provides a new platform for studying ultra-strong-coupling phenomena, such as chemical manipulation via vibrational-strong-coupling, and a path to efficient detectors and sensors, in this challenging spectral range.

physics.optics↗

Spin and Charge Transport of Multi-Orbital Quantum Spin Hall Insulators

The fabrication of bismuthene on top of SiC paved the way for substrate engineering of room temperature quantum spin Hall insulators made of group V atoms. We perform large-scale quantum transport calculations in these 2d materials to analyse the rich phenomenology that arises from the interplay between topology, disorder, valley and spin degrees of freedom. For this purpose, we consider a minimal multi-orbital real-space tight-binding hamiltonian and use a Chebyshev polynomial expansion technique. We discuss how the quantum spin Hall states are affected by disorder, sublattice resolved potential and Rashba spin-orbit coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the anomalous Hall conductivity of Chern insulators

The Haldane model on a honeycomb lattice is a paradigmatic example of a system featuring quantized Hall conductivity in the absence of an external magnetic field, that is, a quantum anomalous Hall effect. Recent theoretical work predicted that the anomalous Hall conductivity of massive Dirac fermions can display Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations, which could be observed in topological insulators and honeycomb layers with strong spin--orbit coupling. Here, we investigate the electronic transport properties of Chern insulators subject to high magnetic fields by means of accurate spectral expansions of lattice Green's functions. We find that the anomalous component of the Hall conductivity displays visible SdH oscillations at low temperature. \textcolor{black}{The effect is shown to result from the modulation of the next-nearest neighbour flux accumulation due to the Haldane term,} which removes the electron--hole symmetry from the Landau spectrum. To support our numerical findings, we derive a long-wavelength description beyond the linear ('Dirac cone') approximation. Finally, we discuss the dependence of the energy spectra shift for reversed magnetic fields with the topological gap and the lattice bandwidth.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Crystal-field effects in graphene with interface-induced spin-orbit coupling

We consider theoretically the influence of crystalline fields on the electronic structure of graphene placed on a layered material with reduced symmetry and large spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We use a perturbative procedure combined with the Slater-Koster method to derive the low-energy effective Hamiltonian around the $K$ points and estimate the magnitude of the effective couplings. Two simple models for the envisaged graphene-substrate hybrid bilayer are considered, in which the relevant atomic orbitals hybridize with either top or hollow sites of the graphene honeycomb lattice. In both cases, the interlayer coupling to a crystal-field-split substrate is found to generate highly anisotropic proximity spin-orbit interactions, including in-plane 'spin-valley' coupling. Interestingly, when an anisotropic intrinsic-type SOC becomes sizeable, the bilayer system is effectively a quantum spin Hall insulator characterized by in-plane helical edge states robust against Bychkov-Rashba effect. Finally, we discuss the type of substrate required to achieve anisotropic proximity-induced SOC and suggest possible candidates to further explore crystal field effects in graphene-based heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene with Interface-Induced Spin-Orbit Coupling

We consider an effective model for graphene with interface-induced spin-orbit coupling and calculate the quantum Hall effect in the low-energy limit. We perform a systematic analysis of the contribution of the different terms of the effective Hamiltonian to the quantum Hall effect (QHE). By analysing the spin-splitting of the quantum Hall states as a function of magnetic field and gate-voltage, we obtain different scaling laws that can be used to characterise the spin-orbit coupling in experiments. Furthermore, we employ a real-space quantum transport approach to calculate the quantum Hall conductivity and investigate the robustness of the QHE to disorder introduced by hydrogen impurities. For that purpose, we combine first-principles calculations and a genetic algorithm strategy to obtain a graphene-only Hamiltonian that models the impurity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Controlling Spin-Polarization in Graphene by Cloaking Magnetic and Spin-Orbit Scatterers

We consider spin-dependent scatterers with large scattering cross-sections in graphene -a Zeeman-like and an intrinsic spin-orbit coupling impurity- and show that a gated ring around them can be engineered to produce an effcient control of the spin dependent transport, like current spin polarization and spin Hall angle. Our analysis is based on a spin-dependent partial-waves expansion of the electronic wave-functions in the continuum approximation, described by the Dirac equation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Kubo-Bastin approach for the spin Hall conductivity of decorated graphene

Theoretical predictions and recent experimental results suggest one can engineer spin Hall effect in graphene by enhancing the spin-orbit coupling in the vicinity of an impurity. We use a Chebyshev expansion of the Kubo-Bastin formula to compute the spin conductivity tensor for a tight-binding model of graphene with randomly distributed impurities absorbed on top of carbon atoms. We model the impurity-induced spin-orbit coupling with a graphene-only Hamiltonian that takes into account three different contributions~\cite{Gmitra2013} and show how the spin Hall and longitudinal conductivities depend on the strength of each spin-orbit coupling and the concentration of impurities. Additionally, we calculate the real-space projection of the density of states in the vicinity of the Dirac point for single and multiple impurities and correlate these results with the conductivity calculations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗