arXiv subjects

Tiantian Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Tiantian Zhang.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Truly chiral phonons in α-HgS

Chirality is a manifestation of the asymmetry inherent in nature. It has been defined as the symmetry breaking of the parity of static objects, and the definition was extended to dynamic motion such that true and false chiralities were distinguished. Recently, rotating, yet not propagating, atomic motions were predicted and observed in two-dimensional materials, and they were referred to as "chiral phonons" . A natural development would be the discovery of truly chiral phonons that propagate while rotating in three-dimensional materials. Here, we used circularly polarised Raman scattering and first-principles calculations to identify truly chiral phonons in chiral bulk crystals. This approach enabled us to determine the chirality of a crystal in a non-contact and non-destructive manner. In addition, we demonstrated that the law of the conservation of pseudo-angular momentum holds between circularly polarised photons and chiral phonons. These findings are expected to help develop ways for transferring the pseudo-angular momentum from photons to electron spins via the propagating chiral phonons in opto-phononic-spintronic devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Physics of Phonons in Systems with Approximate Screw Symmetry

Properties of systems with exact n-fold screw symmetry (n=2, 3, 4, 6) have been well studied because they can be understood in terms of space groups. On the other hand, existence of materials with approximate screw symmetries, such as 7-fold and 10-fold screw symmetries, has been predicted. In this paper, we study properties of phonons in crystals with approximate screw symmetries, which will lead to unique and new physical phenomena. In a crystal with an approximate screw symmetry, we propose a method to extract information of pseudoangular momentum of phonons, which is a quantum number characterizing the properties of phonon modes under screw symmetry, based on the fact that the information of the quantum numbers defined under exact screw symmetry partially remains in the eigenvectors of approximate screw symmetric systems. As a preparation, we study a one-dimensional crystal with partially broken translation symmetry to have an enlarged unit cell, and we show how to extract information of a quantum number corresponding to the pseudoangular momentum, by studying a relative phase between neighboring atoms. We also extend this method to systems with an approximate screw symmetry, and discuss properties of the pseudoangular momentum. We apply this method to results of our first-principle calculations on candidate materials with an approximate translational symmetry or with an approximate screw symmetry, and show how this approximate symmetry is reflected in the phonon wavefunctions.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2022

Polarization jumps by breaking symmetries of two-dimensional Weyl semimetals

The electric polarization as a bulk quantity is described by the modern theory of polarization in insulating systems and cannot be defined in conducting systems. Upon a gradual change of a parameter in the system, the polarization always varies smoothly as long as the gap remains open. In this paper, we focus on the two-dimensional Weyl semimetal, which hosts Weyl nodes protected by symmetries, and study the behavior of the polarization when a symmetry-breaking term $M$ is introduced and a gap opens. We show that there can be a jump between $M\to0^+$ and $M\to0^-$ limits. We find that the jump is universally described by the ``Weyl dipole" representing how the Weyl nodes with monopole charges are displaced in the reciprocal space. Our result is applicable to general two-dimensional Weyl semimetals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Catastrophic Interference in Reinforcement Learning: A Solution Based on Context Division and Knowledge Distillation

The powerful learning ability of deep neural networks enables reinforcement learning agents to learn competent control policies directly from continuous environments. In theory, to achieve stable performance, neural networks assume i.i.d. inputs, which unfortunately does no hold in the general reinforcement learning paradigm where the training data is temporally correlated and non-stationary. This issue may lead to the phenomenon of "catastrophic interference" and the collapse in performance. In this paper, we present IQ, i.e., interference-aware deep Q-learning, to mitigate catastrophic interference in single-task deep reinforcement learning. Specifically, we resort to online clustering to achieve on-the-fly context division, together with a multi-head network and a knowledge distillation regularization term for preserving the policy of learned contexts. Built upon deep Q networks, IQ consistently boosts the stability and performance when compared to existing methods, verified with extensive experiments on classic control and Atari tasks. The code is publicly available at: https://github.com/Sweety-dm/Interference-aware-Deep-Q-learning.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2022

$Z_2$ Dirac points with topologically protected multihelicoid surface states

In some Dirac systems with time-reversal (T) and glide (G) symmetries, multihelicoid surface states (MHSSs) appear, as discussed in various systems such as electronic and photonic ones. However, the topological nature and the conditions for the appearance of the MHSSs have not been understood. Here we show that MHSSs result from bulk-surface correspondence for the $Z_2$ monopole charge Q, which cannot be defined as a local quantity associated with the Dirac point, unlike the Z monopole charge characterizing Weyl points. The previously known formula of Q turns out to be non-gauge-invariant and thus cannot characterize the MHSSs. This shortcoming of the definition of Q is amended by redefining Q as a global topological invariant in k-space. Surprisingly, the newly defined Q, characterizing GT invariant gapless systems, is equal to the G-protected $Z_2$ topological invariant v, which is nontrivial only in T-breaking gapped systems. This global definition of Q automatically guarantees the appearance of MHSSs even when the Dirac point splits into Weyl points or a nodal ring by lowering the symmetry, as long as the GT symmetry is preserved. Q can be simplified to symmetry-based indicators when two vertical Gs are preserved, and filling-enforced topological crystalline insulators are diagnosed in several cases when a T-breaking perturbation is induced. Material candidate Li2B4O7 together with a list of space groups preserving MHSSs are also proposed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

A comprehensive study of complex non-adiabatic exciton dynamics in MoSi$_2$N$_4$

Excitons, which are composite boson quasi-particles composed of bound electrons and holes, have many fascinating properties and great potential in practical applications. Though experimental studies on exciton dynamics are well-developed, the ab initio simulation ones still remain vacant until two years ago. Here, we apply the density functional theory (DFT) and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) on 2D MoSi$_2$N$_4$ to study its exciton-related physics and non-adiabatic ultrafast exciton dynamics theoretically and numerically for the first time. We calculate the photoluminescence (PL) spectra with final states as bright excitons, yet lots of them are contributed by the dark ones, and the results match the experimental ones perfectly. We also study the dark-exciton-involved processes, which were barely studied in the past but dominate in many physical processes, and obtain several main results like: (i) High scattering rates over the whole Brillouin zone (BZ) within the order of magnitude from 10$^{-2}$ fs$^{-1}$ to 10$^{-1}$ fs$^{-1}$; (ii) Thorough analysis for the dynamics of the dark excitons at $Λ$ valley, which have negative effective mass and the highest scattering rate among several exciton states; (iii) Simulate the time-resolved evolution of the excitons after photo-excitation with the real-time Boltzmann transport equation (rt-BTE) techniques, in which process excitons at K/K' valley play an important role; (iv) Exciton dynamics with spin-valley locking at K/K' valley are also discussed here; (v) A new approach is proposed for modulating the non-adiabatic effects for excitons, accompanied by a chiral phonon absorption/emission, by tuning the chirality of the external circularly polarized light. All the results show that the 2D material MoSi$_2$N$_4$ is an ideal platform to study the exciton-involved physics and has great application value.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Anomalous Crystal Shapes of Topological Crystalline Insulators

Understanding crystal shapes is a fundamental subject in surface science. It is now well studied how chemical bondings determine crystal shapes via dependence of surface energies on surface orientations. Meanwhile, discoveries of topological materials have led us to a new paradigm in surface science, and one can expect that topological surface states may affect surface energies and crystal facets in an unconventional way. Here we show that the surface energy of glide-symmetric topological crystalline insulators (TCI) depends on the surface orientation in a singular way via the parity of the Miller index. This singular surface energy of the TCI affects equilibrium crystal shapes, resulting in emergence of unique crystal facets of the TCI. This singular dependence of the topological surface states is unique to the TCI protected by the glide symmetry in contrast to a TCI protected by a mirror symmetry. In addition, we show that such singular surface states of the TCI protected by the glide symmetries can be realized in KHgSb with first-principles calculations. Our results provide a basis for designs and manipulations of crystal facets by utilizing symmetry and topology.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Chern numbers of topological phonon band crossing determined with inelastic neutron scattering

Topological invariants in the band structure, such as Chern numbers, are crucial for the classification of topological matters and dictate the occurrence of exotic properties, yet their direct spectroscopic determination has been largely limited to electronic bands. Here, we use inelastic neutron scattering in conjunction with ab initio calculations to identify a variety of topological phonon band crossings in MnSi and CoSi single crystals. We find a distinct relation between the Chern numbers of a band-crossing node and the scattering intensity modulation in momentum space around the node. Given sufficiently high resolution, our method can be used to determine arbitrarily large Chern numbers of topological phonon band-crossing nodes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Endless Dirac nodal lines in kagome-metal Ni3In2S2

Topological semimetals are a frontier of quantum materials. In multi-band electronic systems, topological band-crossings can form closed curves, known as nodal lines. In the presence of spin-orbit coupling and/or symmetry-breaking operations, topological nodal lines can break into Dirac/Weyl nodes and give rise to novel transport properties, such as the chiral anomaly and giant anomalous Hall effect. Recently the time-reversal symmetry-breaking induced Weyl fermions are observed in a kagome-metal Co3Sn2S2, triggering interests in nodal-line excitations in multiband kagome systems. Here, using first-principles calculations and symmetry based indicator theories, we find six endless nodal lines along the stacking direction of kagome layers and two nodal rings in the kagome plane in nonmagnetic Ni3 In2 S2 . The linear dipsersive electronic structure, confirmed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, induces large magnetoresistance up to 2000% at 9 T. Our results establish a diverse topological landscape of multi-band kagome metals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Chiral phonons entangled with multiple Hall effects and unified convention for pseudoangular momentum in 2D materials

Recently, a series of two-dimensional (2D) nonmagnetic layered materials XSi2Y4 (X=transition metals; Y=pnictogens) having similar crystal structures with transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) were proposed for their potential application value. Like TMDs, we propose that chiral phonon involved valley-selective optical circular dichroism can be also obtained in XSi2Y4, and it can be further entangled with multiple Hall effects. However, it is difficult to compare such effect between XSi2Y4 and TMDs due to the non-unified conventions for pseudo-angular momentum (PAM) in the previous studies. Here we use MoSi2As4 and MoS2 as examples to establish unified convention for both phonon PAM and electronic PAM, together with showing their similarities and differences in crystal structure, band structures and valley-selective optical circular dichroism. In particular, we find in MoSi2As4, the chiral phonon emission/absorption, the spin, the valley and the transverse Hall current, can be modulated by changing either the energy or the handedness of the incident light, which show better performance than TMDs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Parallel and anti-parallel helical surface states for topological semimetals

Weyl points, carrying a Z-type monopole charge C, have bulk-surface correspondence (BSC) associated with helical surface states (HSSs). When |C| > 1, multi-HSSs can appear in a parallel manner. However, when a pair of Weyl points carrying C = \pm 1 meet, a Dirac point carrying C = 0 can be obtained and the BSC vanishes. Nonetheless, a recent study in Ref. [arXiv:2201.03238] shows that a new BSC can survive for Dirac points when the system has time-reversal (T )-glide (G) symmetry (Θ=TG), i.e., anti-parallel double/quad-HSSs associated with a new Z2-type monopole charge Q appears. In this paper, we systematically review and discuss both the parallel and anti-parallel multi-HSSs for Weyl and Dirac points, carrying two different kinds of monopole charges. Two material examples are offered to understand the whole configuration of multi-HSSs. One carries the Z-type monopole charge C, shows both local and global topology for three kinds of Weyl points, and it leads to parallel multi-HSSs. The other carries the Z2-type monopole charge Q, only showing the global topology for Θ-invariant Dirac points, and it is accompanied by antiparallel multi-HSSs. These diverse topological surface states not only offer the local and global topology for the bulk degeneracy but also offer platforms to various topological phases.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

A Surrogate-Assisted Controller for Expensive Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning

The integration of Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) aims at simultaneously exploiting the sample efficiency as well as the diversity and robustness of the two paradigms. Recently, hybrid learning frameworks based on this principle have achieved great success in various challenging robot control tasks. However, in these methods, policies from the genetic population are evaluated via interactions with the real environments, limiting their applicability in computationally expensive problems. In this work, we propose Surrogate-assisted Controller (SC), a novel and efficient module that can be integrated into existing frameworks to alleviate the computational burden of EAs by partially replacing the expensive policy evaluation. The key challenge in applying this module is to prevent the optimization process from being misled by the possible false minima introduced by the surrogate. To address this issue, we present two strategies for SC to control the workflow of hybrid frameworks. Experiments on six continuous control tasks from the OpenAI Gym platform show that SC can not only significantly reduce the cost of fitness evaluations, but also boost the performance of the original hybrid frameworks with collaborative learning and evolutionary processes.

cs.NE↗

arXiv2022

Observation of Light-Induced Dipole-Dipole Forces in Ultracold Atomic Gases

We investigate an attractive force caused by light induced dipole-dipole interactions in freely expanding ultracold 87Rb atoms. This collective, light-triggered effect results in a self-confining potential with interesting features: it exhibits nonlocal properties, is attractive for both red and blue-detuned light fields and induces a remarkably strong force that depends on the gradient of the atomic density. The experimental data are discussed in the framework of a theoretical model based on a local-field approach for the light scattered by the atomic cloud.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Unique surface-state connection between Weyl and nodal ring fermions in ferromagnetic material Cs2MoCl6

For topological materials with coexistence of Weyl nodes and nodal rings, the surface-state configuration and connection are unique yet have never been studied and discussed before. In this paper, we predict a ferromagnetic (FM) material, Cs2MoCl6, with coexistence of Weyl and nodering fermions in its spinful FM electronic band structure, which is unusual since FM materials are very rare in nature and node-ring band crossings will usually open a gap when spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is taken into consideration. We find that the surface states of Cs2MoCl6 show different properties along different directions, i.e, the surface states are in the drumhead shape showing the node-ring property on the (001) surface and in the helicoid shape showing the Weyl property on the (010) surface. Interestingly, both the drumhead surface states and the helicoid surface states will cross the projected points of the Weyl and nodal ring along different directions. In particular, helicoid surface states on the (010) surface will meet the nodal ring tangentially, with their shapes change abruptly as a function of the energy. We implement both first-principle calculation and an analytical model to understand the unique surface-state connection for systems with the coexistence of Weyl nodes and nodal rings (or nodal lines). This result is universal and irrespective of the presence/absence of and time-reversal symmetry (T).

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Degenerate topological line surface phonons in quasi-1D double helix crystal SnIP

Degenerate points/lines in the bulk band structures of crystals have become a staple of the growing number of topological materials. The bulk-boundary correspondence provides a relation between bulk topology and surface states. While line degeneracies of bulk excitations have been extensively characterized, line degeneracies of surface states are not well understood. We show that SnIP, a quasi-one-dimensional van der Waals material with a double helix crystal structure, exhibits topological nodal rings/lines in both the bulk phonon modes and their corresponding surface states. Using a combination of first-principles calculations, symmetry-based indicator theories and Zak phase analysis, we find that two neighbouring bulk nodal rings form doubly degenerate lines in their drumhead-like surface states, which are protected by the combination of time-reversal and glide mirror symmetries $\mathcal{T}\bar{M}_y$. Our results indicate that surface degeneracies can be generically protected by symmetries such as $\mathcal{T}\bar{M}_y$, and phonons provide an ideal platform to explore such degeneracies.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Kinetic magnetoelectric effect in topological insulators

The kinetic magnetoelectric effect is an orbital analogue of the Edelstein effect and offers an additional degree of freedom to control magnetisation via the charge current. Here we theoretically propose a gigantic kinetic magnetoelectric effect in topological insulators and interpret the results in terms of topological surface currents. We construct a theory of the kinetic magnetoelectric effect for a surface Hamiltonian of a topological insulator, and show that it well describes the results by direct numerical calculation. This kinetic magnetoelectric effect depends on the details of the surface, meaning that it cannot be defined as a bulk quantity. We propose that Chern insulators and Z_2 topological insulators can be a platform with a large kinetic magnetoelectric effect, compared to metals by 5 - 8 orders of magnitude, because the current flows only along the surface. We demonstrate the presence of said effect in a topological insulator, identifying Cu$_2$ZnSnSe$_4$ as a potential candidate.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Predicting topological materials: symmetry-based indicator theories and beyond

Though symmetry-based indicators formulae are powerful in diagnosing topological states with a gapped band structure at/between any high-symmetry points, it fails in diagnosing topological degeneracies when the compatibility condition is violated. In such cases, we can only obtain information of whether there is a band degeneracy at some high-symmetry points or along some high-symmetry lines by the compatibility condition. Under the framework of symmetry-based indicator theories, we proposed an algorithm to diagnose the topological band crossings in the compatibility condition-violating systems to obtain the whole topological information, by using the symmetry-based indicator formulae of their subgroups. In this paper, we reinterpret the algorithm in a simpler way with two material examples preserving different topological states in spinless systems with time-reversal symmetry, discuss the limitation of the symmetry-based indicator theories, and make further discussions on the algorithm applying in spinful systems with time-reversal symmetry.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Chiral phonons and pseudo-angular momentum in non-symmorphic systems

Chiral phonons are the ones with nonzero polarization and can be observed only via a selective coupling with valley electrons and circularly polarized photons. In such process, a new physical quantity, i.e., pseudo-angular momentum (PAM), is required to meet the selection rule. However, phonon PAM was thought to be quantized and can be only defined in the symmorphic systems. In this work, we generalized the definition of PAM to three-dimensional non-symmorphic systems, which show distinct different properties compared with the one in symmorphic systems, e.g., PAM can be non-quantized and q-dependent but still be an observable quantity by experiments. Such new definitions and discoveries can help us to obtain chiral phonons in a broader class of systems with a nonzero group velocity and to convey information like chirality and angular momentum in solids as expected. Materials are also offered to understand the new definition and for further experimental detection.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗