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Wei-Li Lee

Publications and source records attributed to Wei-Li Lee.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Anisotropic magnetoresistance and magnetic field-tunable Weyl nodes in Weyl metal SrRuO$_{3}$ thin films

Weyl semimetals are a unique class of topological materials, possessing Fermi-arc surface states and exhibiting the chiral anomaly effect. The chiral anomaly refers to non-equilibrium charge transfer within a Weyl-node pair of opposite chirality under the condition of aligned electric and magnetic fields ($\bf{E} \parallel \bf{B}$), leading to non-conserved chiral charges and thus enhanced electrical conductivity. In experiments, such an enhanced conductivity due to the chiral anomaly manifests as a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (MR) when the external field $\bf{H}$ is applied along the bias current direction $\bf{I}$. In this work, we present rigorous $ϕ$- and $α$-dependent magnetotransport measurements to investigate such a negative longitudinal MR due to the chiral anomaly in a sunbeam-shaped device fabricated from an untwinned Weyl metal SrRuO$_{3}$ (SRO) thin film. Here, $ϕ$($α$) represents the angle between $\bf{I}$ and the in-plane $\bf{H}$(SRO monoclinic [001]$_{\rm o}$). Unusual $ϕ$ dependences of in-plane MR and Hall effects were uncovered at low temperatures, accompanied by the emergence of the fourfold-symmetric component in the in-plane MR. These results indicate that the chiral anomaly and resistivity anisotropy in SRO play important roles. In particular, the dramatic variation of Weyl nodes near the Fermi level through magnetic field manipulation of the magnetization orientation, as revealed by band structure calculations, is consistent with the observed in-plane MR and Hall effect.

cond-mat.other

Absence of transport altermagnetic spin-splitting effect in RuO2

Altermagnets, which exhibit the advantages of both antiferromagnets and ferromagnets, have attracted significant attention recently. Among them, ruthenium dioxide (RuO2), a prototypical altermagnet candidate, is under intensive debate on its magnetic order and altermagnetic characters. In this work, we provide a comprehensive study of the spin-to-charge conversion in epitaxial RuO2 thin films with various orientations and fabrication methods. By utilizing thermal spin injections from a ferrimagnetic insulator, we unambiguously reveal a negative spin Hall angle for RuO2, which is opposite to all the previous reports using ferromagnetic metals. Most importantly, we observe robust anisotropic spin-to-charge conversion in RuO2, with voltage ratios of 30% for the (100)- and (110)-orientations and 40% for the (101)-orientations. The ratio remains consistent across RuO2 films fabricated by sputtering, pulsed laser deposition, and molecular-beam epitaxy. These results conclusively show a robust and anisotropic spin Hall effect in RuO2 with the absence of altermagnetic spin-splitting contributions. Our study provides crucial insights and advances the understanding of spin-to-charge conversions in emerging materials with low crystal symmetries.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Origin of nonlinear photocurrents in chiral multifold semimetal CoSi unveiled by terahertz emission spectroscopy

Spectroscopic identification of distinct nonlinear photocurrents unveils quantum geometric properties of electron wavefunctions and the momentum-space topological structures. This is especially interesting, but still puzzling, for chiral topological semimetals with possibilities of hosting giant quantized circular photogalvanic effect. Here we report a comprehensive terahertz (THz) emission spectroscopic analysis of nonlinear photoconductivity of chiral multifold CoSi at 0.26 ~ 1 eV. We find a large linear shift conductivity (17 μA/V2), and confirm a giant injection conductivity (167 μA/V2) as a consequence of strongly interfered non-quantized contributions from the vicinity of multifold nodes with opposite chiralities. The bulk injection current excited by the pump field with a complex wavevector is shown to carry both longitudinal and transverse components. Symmetry analyses further unveil weak nonlocal photon drag effect in addition to the photogalvanic effect. This work not only highlights chiral transition metal monosilicides for mid-infrared photovoltaic applications via various nonlinear optical channels, but also consolidates the THz spectroscopy for quantitative photovoltaic research.

physics.optics

Nonlinear and nonreciprocal transport effects in untwinned thin films of ferromagnetic Weyl metal SrRuO$_3$

The identification of distinct charge transport features, deriving from nontrivial bulk band and surface states, has been a challenging subject in the field of topological systems. In topological Dirac and Weyl semimetals, nontrivial conical bands with Fermi-arc surface states give rise to negative longitudinal magnetoresistance due to chiral anomaly effect and unusual thickness dependent quantum oscillation from Weyl-orbit effect, which were demonstrated recently in experiments. In this work, we report the experimental observations of large nonlinear and nonreciprocal transport effects for both longitudinal and transverse channels in an untwinned Weyl metal of SrRuO$_3$ thin film grown on a SrTiO$_{3}$ substrate. From rigorous measurements with bias current applied along various directions with respect to the crystalline principal axes, the magnitude of nonlinear Hall signals from the transverse channel exhibits a simple sin$α$ dependence at low temperatures, where $α$ is the angle between bias current direction and orthorhombic [001]$_{\rm o}$, reaching a maximum when current is along orthorhombic [1-10]$_{\rm o}$. On the contrary, the magnitude of nonlinear and nonreciprocal signals in the longitudinal channel attains a maximum for bias current along [001]$_{\rm o}$, and it vanishes for bias current along [1-10]$_{\rm o}$. The observed $α$-dependent nonlinear and nonreciprocal signals in longitudinal and transverse channels reveal a magnetic Weyl phase with an effective Berry curvature dipole along [1-10]$_{\rm o}$ from surface states, accompanied by 1D chiral edge modes along [001]$_{\rm o}$.

cond-mat.mes-hall

The thickness dependence of quantum oscillations in ferromagnetic Weyl metal SrRuO$_{3}$

Quantum oscillations in resistivity and magnetization at high magnetic fields are a macroscopic fingerprint of the energy quantization due to the cyclotron motion of quasiparticles. In a thin Weyl semimetal, a unique thickness dependent Weyl-orbit quantum oscillation was proposed to exist, originating from a nonlocal cyclotron orbit via the electron tunneling between the top and bottom Fermi-arc surface states. Here, untwinned and high crystalline Weyl metal SrRuO$_3$ thin films with different thicknesses were grown on miscut SrTiO$_3$ (001) substrates. Magneto-transport measurements were carried out in magnetic fields up to 35 T, and quantum oscillations with different frequencies were observed and compared to the calculated band structure. In particular, we discovered a frequency $F \approx$ 30 T at low temperatures and above 3 T that corresponds to a small Fermi pocket with a light effective mass. Its oscillation amplitude appears to be at maximum for film thicknesses in a range of 10 to 20 nm, and the phase of the oscillation exhibits a systematic change with the film thickness. After isolating the well separated frequencies, the constructed Landau fan diagram shows an unusual concave downward curvature in the 1/$μ_0H_n$-$n$ curve, where $n$ is the Landau level index. Based on the rigorous analysis of the thickness and field-orientation dependence of the quantum oscillations, the oscillation with $F \approx$ 30 T is attributed to be of surface origin, which is related to the Fermi-arc surface state originating from non-overlapping Weyl nodes projected on the film's surface plane. Those findings can be understood within the framework of the Weyl-orbit quantum oscillation effect with non-adiabatic corrections.

cond-mat.mes-hall

High-sensitivity of initial SrO growth on the residual resistivity in epitaxial thin films of SrRuO$_3$ on SrTiO$_3$ (001)

The growth of SrRuO$_3$ (SRO) thin film with high-crystallinity and low residual resistivity (RR) is essential to explore its intrinsic properties. Here, utilizing the adsorption-controlled growth technique, the growth condition of initial SrO layer on TiO$_2$-terminated SrTiO$_3$ (STO) (001) substrate was found to be crucial for achieving a low RR in the resulting SRO film grown afterward. The optimized initial SrO layer shows a $c$(2 x 2) superstructure that was characterized by electron diffraction, and a series of SRO films with different thicknesses ($t$s) were then grown. The resulting SRO films exhibit excellent crystallinity with orthorhombic-phase down to $t \approx$ 4.3 nm, which was confirmed by high resolution X-ray measurements. From azimuthal X-ray scan for SRO orthorhombic (021) reflection, we uncover four structural domains with a dominant domain of orthorhombic SRO [001] along cubic STO [010] direction. The dominant domain population depends on $t$, STO miscut angle ($α$), and miscut direction ($β$), giving a volume fraction of about 92 $\%$ for $t \approx$ 26.6 nm and ($α$, $β$) ~ (0.14$^{\rm o}$, 5$^{\rm o}$). On the other hand, metallic and ferromagnetic properties were well preserved down to $t \approx$ 1.2 nm. Residual resistivity ratio (RRR = $ρ$(300 K)/$ρ$(5 K)) reduces from 77.1 for $t \approx$ 28.5 nm to 2.5 for $t \approx$ 1.2 nm, while $ρ$(5 K) increases from 2.5 $μΩ$cm for $t \approx$ 28.5 nm to 131.0 $μΩ$cm for $t \approx$ 1.2 nm. The ferromagnetic onset temperature ($T_c\prime$) of around 151 K remains nearly unchanged down to $t \approx$ 9.0 nm and decreases to 90 K for $t \approx$ 1.2 nm. Our finding thus provides a practical guideline to achieve high crystallinity and low RR in ultra-thin SRO films by simply adjusting the growth of initial SrO layer.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Surface Termination Dependent Quasiparticle Scattering Interference and Magneto-transport Study on ZrSiS

Dirac nodal line semimetals represent a new state of quantum matters in which the electronic bands touch to form a closed loop with linear dispersion. Here, we report a combined study on ZrSiS by density functional theory calculation, scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and magneto-transport measurements. Our STM measurements reveal the spectroscopic signatures of a diamond-shaped Dirac bulk band and a surface band on two types of cleaved surfaces as well as a spin polarized surface band at ${\barΓ}$ at E~0.6eV on S-surface, consistent with our band calculation. Furthermore, we find the surface termination does not affect the surface spectral weight from the Dirac bulk bands but greatly affect the surface bands due to the change in the surface orbital composition. From our magneto-transport measurements, the primary Shubnikov de-Haas frequency is identified to stem from the hole-type quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surface between Γ and X. The extracted non-orbital magnetoresistance (MR) contribution D($θ$, H) yields a nearly H-linear dependence, which is attributed to the intrinsic MR in ZrSiS. Our results demonstrate the unique Dirac line nodes phase and the dominating role of Zr-d orbital on the electronic structure in ZrSiS and the related compounds.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Large transverse Hall-like signal in topological Dirac semimetal Cd3As2

Cadmium arsenide ($\rm Cd_3As_2$) is known for its inverted band structure and ultra-high electron mobility. It has been theoretically predicted and also confirmed by ARPES experiments to exhibit a 3D Dirac semimetal phase containing degenerate Weyl nodes. From magneto-transport measurements in high quality single crystals of $\rm Cd_3As_2$, a small effective mass $m^* \approx$ 0.05 $m_e$ is determined from the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations. In certain field orientations, we find a splitting of the SdH oscillation frequency in the FFT spectrum suggesting a possible lifting of the double degeneracy in accord with the helical spin texture at outer and inner Fermi surfaces with opposite chirality predicted by our \textit{ab initio} calculations. Strikingly, a large antisymmetric magnetoresistance with respect to the applied magnetic fields is uncovered over a wide temperature range in needle crystal of $\rm Cd_3As_2$ with its long axis along [112] crystal direction. It reveals a possible contribution of intrinsic anomalous velocity term in the transport equation resulting from a unique 3D Rashba-like spin splitted bands that can be obtained from band calculations with the inclusion of Cd antisite defects.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Single crystal growth and physical property characterization of PbTaSe2 as a noncentrosymmetric type-II superconductor

The single crystal growth and superconducting properties of PbTaSe2 with non-centrosymmetric crystal structure is reported. Using the chemical vapor transport (CVT) technique, PbTaSe2 crystallizes in a layered structure and the crystal symmetry has been shown belonging to a non-centrosymmetric space group P6-m2 confirmed by the consistent band picture near the Fermi level between the angle-resolved photoemission spectrum (ARPES) and theoretical calculations. Superconductivity with Tc =3.83 K has been characterized fully with electrical resistivity \r{ho}(T), magnetic susceptibility \c{hi}(T), and specific heat C(T) measurements using single crystal samples. The superconducting anisotropy, electron-phonon coupling λep, superconducting energy gap Δ0, and the specific heat jump ΔC/λTc at Tc confirms that PbTaSe2 can be categorized as a weakly coupled type-II superconductor.

cond-mat.supr-con

Metal-to-Insulator Switching in Quantum Anomalous Hall States

After decades of searching for the dissipationless transport in the absence of any external magnetic field, quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) was recently achieved in magnetic topological insulator (TI) films. However, the universal phase diagram of QAHE and its relation with quantum Hall effect (QHE) remain to be investigated. Here, we report the experimental observation of the giant longitudinal resistance peak and zero Hall conductance plateau at the coercive field in the 6 quintuple-layer (Cr0.12Bi0.26Sb0.62)2Te3 film, and demonstrate the metal-to-insulator switching between two opposite QAHE plateau states up to 0.3 K. Moreover, the universal QAHE phase diagram is realized through the angle-dependent measurements. Our results address that the quantum phase transitions in both QAHE and QHE regimes are in the same universality class, yet the microscopic details are different. In addition, the realization of the QAHE insulating state unveils new ways to explore quantum phase-related physics and applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Scale-Invariant Dissipationless Chiral Transport in Magnetic Topological Insulators beyond the Two-Dimensional Limit

We investigate the quantum anomalous Hall Effect (QAHE) and related chiral transport in the millimeter-size (Cr0.12Bi0.26Sb0.62)2Te3 films. With high sample quality and robust magnetism at low temperatures, the quantized Hall conductance of e2/h is found to persist even when the film thickness is beyond the two-dimensional (2D) hybridization limit. Meanwhile, the Chern insulator-featured chiral edge conduction is manifested by the non-local transport measurements. In contrast to the 2D hybridized thin film, an additional weakly field-dependent longitudinal resistance is observed in the 10 quintuple-layer film, suggesting the influence of the film thickness on the dissipative edge channel in the QAHE regime. The extension of QAHE into the three-dimensional thickness region addresses the universality of this quantum transport phenomenon and motivates the exploration of new QAHE phases with tunable Chern numbers. In addition, the observation of the scale-invariant dissipationless chiral propagation on a macroscopic scale makes a major stride towards ideal low-power interconnect applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Magneto-transport in copper-doped noncentrosymmetric BiTeI

BiTeI exhibits large Rashba spin splitting due to its noncentrosymmetric crystal structure. The study of chemical doping effect is important in order to either tune the Fermi level or refine the crystal quality. Here, we report the magneto-transport measurement in high quality BiTeI single crystals with different copper dopings. We found that a small amount of copper doping improves the crystal quality significantly, which is supported by the transport data showing higher Hall mobility and larger amplitude in Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation at low temperature. Two distinct frequencies in Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation were observed giving extremal Fermi surface areas of $A_{S} = 9.1 \times 10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $A_{L} = 3.47\times 10^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$ with corresponding cyclotron masses $m_S^*$ = 0.0353 $m_e$ and $m_L^*$ = 0.178 $m_e$, respectively. Those results are further compared with relativistic band structure calculations using three reported Te and I refined or calculated positions. Our analysis infers the crucial role of Bi-Te bond length in the observed large bulk Rashba-type spin splitting effect in BiTeI.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Enhanced Thermoelectric Power in Dual-Gated Bilayer Graphene

Thermoelectric power of a material, typically governed by its band structure and carrier density, can be varied by chemical doping that is often restricted by solubility of the dopant. Materials showing large thermoelectric power are useful for many industrial applications, such as the heat-to-electricity conversion and the thermoelectric cooling device. Here we show a full electric field tuning of thermoelectric power in a dual-gated bilayer graphene device resulting from the opening of a band-gap by applying a perpendicular electric field on bilayer graphene. We uncover a large enhancement in thermoelectric power at low temperature, which may open up a new possibility in low temperature thermoelectric application using graphene-based device.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Transverse Thermoelectric Conductivity of Bilayer Graphene in Quantum Hall Regime

We performed electric and thermoelectric transport measurements of bilayer graphene in a magnetic field up to 15 Tesla. The transverse thermoelectric conductivity $\rmα_{xy}$, determined from four transport coefficients, attains a peak value of $\rmα_{xy, peak}$ whenever chemical potential lies in the center of a Landau level. The temperature dependence of $\rmα_{xy, peak}$ is dictated by the disorder width $\rm W_L$. For $\rm k_BT/W_L\leq$0.2, $\rmα_{xy, peak}$ is nominally linear in temperature, which gives $\rmα_{xy,peak}/T=0.19 \pm 0.03 n A/K^2$ independent of the magnetic field, temperature and Landau Level index. At $\rm k_BT/W_L\geq$0.5, $\rmα_{xy, peak}$ saturates to a value close to the predicted universal value of $\rm 4\times(ln2)k_Be/h$ according to the theory of Girvin and Jonson. We remark that an anomaly is found in $\rmα_{xy}$ near the charge neutral point, similar to that in single-layer graphene

cond-mat.mes-hall

Geometry and the anomalous Hall effet in ferromagnets

The geometric ideas underlying the Berry phase and the modern viewpoint of Karplus and Luttinger's theory of the anomalous Hall effect are discussed in an elementary way. We briefly review recent Hall and Nernst experiments which support the dominant role of the KL velocity term in ferromagnets.

cond-mat.other

Anomalous-Hall heat current and Nernst effect in the ferromagnet CuCr_2Se_{4-x}Br_x

In a ferromagnet, an anomalous-Hall heat current, given by the off-diagonal Peltier term $α_{xy}$, accompanies the anomalous Hall current. By combining Nernst, thermopower and Hall experiments, we have measured how $α_{xy}$ varies with hole density and lifetime $τ$ in $\rm CuCr_2Se_{4-x}Br_x$. At low temperatures $T$, we find that $α_{xy}$ is independent of $τ$, consistent with anomalous-velocity theories. Its magnitude is fixed by a microscopic geometric area ${\cal A}\sim 34 \mathrmÅ^2$. Our results are incompatible with some models of the Nernst effect in ferromagnets.

cond-mat.other

Dissipationless Anomalous Hall Current in the Ferromagnetic Spinel CuCr$_2$Se$_{4-x}$Br$_x$

In a ferromagnet, an applied electric field $\bf E$ invariably produces an anomalous Hall current ${\bf J}_H$ that flows perpendicular to the plane defined by $\bf E$ and $\bf M$ (the magnetization). For decades, the question whether ${\bf J}_H$ is dissipationless (independent of the scattering rate), has been keenly debated without experimental resolution. In the ferromagnetic spinel CuCr$_2$Se$_{4-x}$Br$_x$, the resistivity $ρ$ (at low temperature) may be increased 1000 fold by varying $x$(Br), without degrading the $\bf M$. We show that ${\bf J}_H/E$ (normalized per carrier, at 5 K) remains unchanged throughout. In addition to resolving the controversy experimentally, our finding has strong bearing on the generation and study of spin-Hall currents in bulk samples.

cond-mat.str-el