SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Yanxia Xing

Publications and source records attributed to Yanxia Xing.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Spin Seebeck Effect in Normal-Metal--Chiral-Insulator Heterostructure

Phonons can carry angular momentum and exhibit chirality through the circular polarization of atomic motion. This enables a phonon-mediated spin Seebeck effect (SSE) via the conversion of phonon angular momentum into electron spin angular momentum. In this Letter, we develop a theoretical framework for calculating the spin current in a normal-metal--chiral-insulator (NM--CI) heterostructure within the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. We discuss the influence of (i) the thermal bias across the NM--CI interface, (ii) the chemical potential of the NM, and (iii) the modification of the interfacial on-site potential on the spin transport properties. We identify two characteristic nonlinear spin-transport phenomena: negative differential SSE and spin-current rectification. The negative differential SSE arises from the competition between the thermal bias and the density of thermally excited electrons. Spin-current rectification suggests the possibility of realizing a thermally controlled spin diode. We also find that the spin-transport behavior is closely associated with an effective interfacial spectral density. This work suggests a novel route toward thermally controlled spintronic devices using chiral phonons.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Electromechanical Switching and Momentum-Selective Transport in Geometry-Defined Blue Phosphorus Homojunctions

Developing intrinsic homojunctions without chemical heterogeneity remains a key challenge in future two - dimensional devices. Here, we report a geometry - defined metal--semiconductor--metal homojunction in bilayer blue phosphorus (BlueP) created by a localized bubble corrugation, without chemical doping or foreign - material interfaces. First - principles calculations show that enlarging the interlayer separation in the metallic A\(_1\)B\(_1\) - stacked BlueP bilayer opens a band gap, enabling a semiconducting barrier embedded between metallic segments. First - principles quantum - transport simulations reveal a crossover from ballistic to tunneling transport upon bubble formation. In the tunneling regime, transmission decreases exponentially with bubble width while remaining weakly sensitive to bubble height and bulging direction. The junction acts as an orientation - dependent \(k\) - space filter, producing transport anisotropy and momentum selectivity. Orbital - resolved scattering analysis shows that intralayer - bonding channels persist under deformation whereas interlayer - hybridized channels are quenched, and that \sigma - type bonding yields higher conductance than \pi - type bonding. These insights motivate two electromechanical device concepts: a mechanically switchable memory element with ON/OFF ratios up to 30 and a nanoscale sliding rheostat with reproducible exponential resistance tuning for \AA - scale displacement sensing.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Specular-Andreev reflection and Andreev interference in an Ising superconductor junction

Being resilient to magnetic field, Ising superconductor serves as an exceptional platform for studying the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism. In this Letter, we first explore the transport properties of a two-terminal graphene-Ising superconductor junction where mirage gaps are induced in the superconductor by an exchange field due to magnetic proximity effect. We demonstrate that the chemical potential range of graphene supporting specular-Andreev reflection at the interface is between the two mirage gaps and about twice the Ising spin-orbit coupling strength. This enhances the resilience of observing specular-Andreev reflection against graphene potential fluctuations in experiments. We further study the Andreev interference effect based on a four-terminal junction of which two terminals consist of Ising superconductors in the presence of exchange fields. Due to the finite contribution from the spin-triplet pairing, the interference can be modulated by tuning the relative orientation of the exchange fields in addition to the traditional scheme by changing superconducting phase difference and the chemical potential of the normal region.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Quantum nonlinear ac transport theory at low frequency

Based on the nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF), we develop a quantum nonlinear theory to study time-dependent ac transport properties in the low frequency and nonlinear bias voltage regimes. By expanding NEGF in terms of time to the linear order in Wigner representation, we can explicitly include the time-dependent self-consistent Coulomb interaction induced by external ac bias. Hence this theory automatically satisfies two basic requirements, i.e., current conservation and gauge invariance. Within this theory, the nonlinear ac current can be evaluated at arbitrarily large bias voltages under the low frequency limit. In addition, we obtain the expression of time-dependent current under the wide band limit and derive the relation between the nonlinear electrochemical capacitance and the bias voltage, which are very useful in predicting the dynamical properties of nanoelectronic devices. This quantum theory can be directly combined with density functional theory to investigate time-dependent ac transport from first-principles calculation.

cond-mat.mes-hall

High-efficiency photoelectric detector based on a p-n homojunction of monolayer black phosphorus

We numerically investigate the high-efficiency photovoltaic effect in lateral p-n homojunction based on monolayer black phosphorus (MBP) by using the non-equilibrium Green's function combined with the density functional theory. Due to the built-in electric field of the p-n junction and the wrinkle structure of MBP, the photocurrent excited by either linearly or elliptically polarized light is significantly enhanced in a wide photon energy range. Moreover, because of the electron-photon interaction, the photocurrent is related to atomic orbitals through the polarizing angle of polarized light. Therefore, we can read the orbital information of the band structure from the polarizing angular distribution of photocurrent. These findings suggest the promising application of MBP-based p-n homojunction in high-efficiency photoelectric devices and orbital-resolved photovoltaic detection.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Evolution of individual quantum Hall edge states in the presence of disorder

Employing the Bloch eigenmode matching approach, we numerically study the evolution of individual quantum Hall edge states with respect to disorder. As shown by the two-parameter renormalization group flow of the Hall and Thouless conductances, quantum Hall edge states with high Chern number n are completely different from that of n=1 case. Two categories of individual edge modes are evaluated in a quantum Hall system with high Chern number. Edge states from the lowest Landau level have similar eigenfunctions which are well localized at the system edge and independent of the Fermi energy. On the other hand, at fixed Fermi energy, the edge state from higher Landau levels has larger expansion, which leads to less stable quantum Hall states at high Fermi energies. By presenting the local current density distribution, the influence of disorder on eigenmode-resolved edge states is vividly demonstrated.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Geometric Effect on Quantum Anomalous Hall States in Magnetic Topological Insulators

An intriguing observation on the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) in magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) is the dissipative edge states, where quantized Hall resistance is accompanied by nonzero longitudinal resistance. We numerically investigate this dissipative behavior of QAHE in MTIs with a three-dimensional tight-binding model and non-equilibrium Greens function formalism. It is found that, in clean samples, the geometric mismatch between the detecting electrodes and the MTI sample leads to additional scattering in the central Hall bar, which is similar to the effect of splitting gates in the traditional Hall effect. As a result, while the Hall resistance remains quantized, the longitudinal resistance deviates from zero due to such additional scattering. It is also shown that external magnetic fields as well as disorder scattering can suppress the dissipation of the longitudinal resistance. These results are in good agreement with previous experimental observations and provide insight on the fabrication of QAHE devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Crossed Andreev effects in two-dimensional quantum Hall systems

We study the crossed Andreev effects in two-dimensional conductor/superconductor hybrid systems under a perpendicular magnetic field. Both a graphene/superconductor hybrid system and an electron gas/superconductor one are considered. It is shown that an exclusive crossed Andreev reflection, with other Andreev reflections being completely suppressed, is obtained in a high magnetic field because of the chiral edge states in the quantum Hall regime. Importantly, the exclusive crossed Andreev reflection not only holds for a wide range of system parameters, e.g., the size of system, the width of central superconductor, and the quality of coupling between the graphene and the superconductor, but also is very robust against disorder. When the applied bias is within the superconductor gap, a robust Cooper-pair splitting process with high-efficiency can be realized in this system.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Short time dynamics of molecular junctions after projective measurement

In this work, we study the short time dynamics of a molecular junction described by Anderson-Holstein model using full-counting statistics after projective measurement. The coupling between the central quantum dot (QD) and two leads was turned on at remote past and the system is evolved to steady state at time $t=0$, when we perform the projective measurement in one of the lead. Generating function for the charge transfer is expressed as a Fredholm determinant in terms of Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function in the time domain. It is found that the current is not constant at short times indicating that the measurement does perturb the system. We numerically compare the current behaviors after the projective measurement with those in the transient regime where the subsystems are connected at $t=0$. The universal scaling for high-order cumulants is observed for the case with zero QD occupation due to the unidirectional transport at short times. The influences of electron-phonon interaction on short time dynamics of electric current, shot noise and differential conductance are analyzed.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Numerical study of parametric pumping current in mesoscopic systems in the presence of magnetic field

We numerically study the parametric pumped current when magnetic field is applied both in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes. In particular, we investigate the nature of pumped current for systems with resonance as well as anti-resonance. It is found that in the adiabatic regime, the pumped current changes sign across the sharp resonance with long lifetime while the non-adiabatic pumped current at finite frequency does not. When the lifetime of resonant level is short, the behaviors of adiabatic and non-adiabatic pumped current are similar with sign changes. Our results show that at the energy where complete transmission occurs the adiabatic pumped current is zero while non-adiabatic pumped current is non-zero. Different from the resonant case, both adiabatic and non-adiabatic pumped current are zero at anti-resonance with complete reflection. We also investigate the pumped current when the other system parameters such as magnetic field, pumped frequency, and pumping potentials. Interesting behaviors are revealed. Finally, we study the symmetry relation of pumped current for several systems with different spatial symmetry upon reversal of magnetic field. Different from the previous theoretical prediction, we find that a system with general inversion symmetry can pump out a finite current in the adiabatic regime. At small magnetic field, the pumped current has an approximate relation I(B) \approx I(-B) both in adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Nonlocal transport in a hybrid two-dimensional topological insulator

We study nonlocal resistance in an H-shaped two-dimensional HgTe/CdTe quantum well consist of injector and detector, both of which can be tuned in the quantum spin Hall or metallic spin Hall regime. Because of strong spin-orbit interaction, there always exist spin Hall effect and the nonlocal resistance in HgTe/CdTe quantum well. We find that when both detector and injector are in the quantum spin Hall regime, the nonlocal resistance is quantized at $0.25\frac{h}{e^2}$, which is robust against weak disorder scattering and small magnetic field. While beyond this regime, the nonlocal resistance decreases rapidly and will be strongly suppressed by disorder and magnetic field. In the presence of strong magnetic field, the quantum spin Hall regime will be switched into the quantum Hall regime and the nonlocal resistance will disappear. The nonlocal signal and its various manifestation in different hybrid regimes originate from the special band structure of HgTe/CdTe quantum well, and can be considered as the fingerprint of the helical quantum spin Hall edge states in two-dimensional topological insulator.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Coherent Single Spin Source based on topological insulator

We report on the injection of quantized pure spin current into quantum conductors. In particular, we propose an on demand single spin source generated by periodically varying the gate voltages of two quantum dots that are connected to a two dimensional topological insulator via tunneling barriers. Due to the nature of the helical states of the topological insulator, one or several {\it spin pair}s can be pumped out per cycle giving rise to a pure quantized alternating spin current. Depending on the phase difference between two gate voltages, this device can serve as an on demand single spin emitter or single charge emitter. Again due to the helicity of the topological insulator, the single spin emitter or charge emitter is dissipationless and immune to disorders. The proposed single spin emitter can be an important building block of future spintronic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Disorder induced quantized conductance with fractional value and universal conductance fluctuation in three-dimensional topological insulators

We report a theoretical investigation on the conductance and its fluctuation of three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TI) in $Bi_2Se_3$ and $Sb_2Te_3$ in the presence of disorders. Extensive numerical simulations are carried out. We find that in the diffusive regime the conductance is quantized with fractional value. Importantly, the conductance fluctuation is also quantized with a universal value. For 3D TI connected by two terminals, three independent conductances $G_{zz}$, $G_{xx}$ and $G_{zx}$ are identified where z is the normal direction of quintuple layer of 3D TI (see inset of Fig.1). The quantized conductance are found to be $ =1$, $ =4/3$ and $ =6/5$ with corresponding quantized conductance fluctuation 0.54, 0.47, and 0.50. The quantization of average conductance and its fluctuation can be understood by theory of mode mixing. The experimental realization that can observe the quantization of average conductance is discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Topological Anderson insulator phenomena

We study the nature of the disorder-induced quantized conductance, i.e., the phenomena of topological Anderson insulator (TAI) induced in HgTe/CdTe semiconductor quantum well. The disorder effect in several different systems where anomalous Hall effect exist, is numerically studied using the tight-binding Hamiltonian. It is found that the TAI phenomena also occur in the modified Dirac model where the quadratic corrections $k^2\sigma_z$ is included and electron-hole symmetry is kept. It also occurs in the graphene system with the next nearest-neighbor coupling and staggered sublattice potential. Comparison between the localization lengths of the 2D ribbon and 2D cylinder clearly reveals the topological nature of this phenomena. Furthermore, analysis on the local current density in anomalous quantum Hall systems where the TAI phenomena can or can not arise reveals the nature of TAI phenomena: the bulk state is killed drastically and only the robust edge state survives in a moderate disorder. When the edge state is robust enough to resist the strong disorder that can completely kills the bulk state, TAI phenomena arise.

cond-mat.mes-hall

The parity of specular Andreev reflection under mirror operation in zigzag graphene ribbon

It is known that the parity of reflection amplitude can either be even or odd under the mirror operation. Up to now, all the parities of reflection amplitude in the one-mode energy region are even under the mirror operation. In this paper, we give an example of odd parity for Andreev reflection (AR) in a three-terminal graphene-supercondutor hybrid systems. We found that the parity is even for the Andreev retroreflection (ARR) and odd for specular Andreev reflection (SAR). We attribute this remarkable phenomenon to the distinct topology of the band structure of graphene and the specular Andreev reflection involving two energy bands with different parity symmetry. As a result of odd parity of SAR, the SAR probability of a four-terminal system with two superconducting leads (two reflection interfaces) can be zero even when the system is asymmetric due to the quantum interference of two ARs.

cond-mat.mes-hall

The focusing of electron flow in a bipolar Graphene ribbon with different chiralities

The focusing of electron flow in a symmetric p-n junction (PNJ) of graphene ribbon with different chiralities is studied. Considering the PNJ with the sharp interface, in a armchair ribbon, the electron flow emitting from $(-L,0)$ in n-region can always be focused perfectly at $(L,0)$ in p-region in the whole Dirac fermion regime, i.e. in whole regime $E_0<t$ where $E_0$ is the distance between Dirac-point energy and Fermi energy and $t$ is the nearest hopping energy. For the bipolar ribbon with zigzag edge, however, the incoming electron flow in n-region is perfectly converged in p-region only in a very low energy regime with $E_0<0.05t$. Moreover, for a smooth PNJ, electrons are backscattered near PNJ, which weakens the focusing effect. But the focusing pattern still remains the same as that of the sharp PNJ. In addition, quantum oscillation in charge density occurs due to the interference between forward and backward scattering. Finally, in the presence of weak perpendicular magnetic field, charge carriers are deflected in opposite directions in the p-region and n-region. As a result, the focusing effect is smeared. The lower energy $E_0$, the easier the focusing effect is destroyed. For the high energy $E_0$ (e.g. $E_0=0.9t$), however, the focusing effect can still survive in a moderate magnetic field on order of one Tesla.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Nernst and Seebeck effect in a graphene nanoribbon

The thermoelectric power, including the Nernst and Seebeck effects, in graphene nanoribbon is studied. By using the non-equilibrium Green function combining with the tight-binding Hamiltonian, the Nernst and Seebeck coefficients are obtained. Due to the electron-hole symmetry, the Nernst coefficient is an even function of the Fermi energy while the Seebeck coefficient is an odd function regardless of the magnetic field. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, the Nernst and Seebeck coefficients are almost independent of the chirality and width of the nanoribbon, and they show peaks when the Fermi energy crosses the Landau levels. The height of $n$-th (excluding $n=0$) peak is $[\ln2/|n|]$ for the Nernst effect and is $\ln2/n$ for the Seebeck effect. For the zeroth peak, it is abnormal with height $[2\ln2]$ for the Nernst effect and the peak disappears for the Seebeck effect. When the magnetic field is turned off, however, the Nernst effect is absent and only Seebeck effect exists. In this case, the Seebeck coefficient strongly depends on the chirality of the nanoribbon. The peaks are equidistant for the nanoribbons with zigzag edge but are irregularly distributed for the armchair edge. In particular, for the insulating armchair ribbon, the Seebeck coefficient can be very large near the Dirac point. When the magnetic field varies from zero to large values, the differences among the Seebeck coefficients for different chiral ribbons gradually vanish and the nonzero value of Nernst coefficient appears first near the Dirac point then gradually extents to the whole energy region.

cond-mat.mes-hall

First-principles investigation of dynamical properties of molecular devices under a steplike pulse

We report a computationally tractable approach to first principles investigation of time-dependent current of molecular devices under a step-like pulse. For molecular devices, all the resonant states below Fermi level contribute to the time-dependent current. Hence calculation beyond wideband limit must be carried out for a quantitative analysis of transient dynamics of molecules devices. Based on the exact non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism of calculating the transient current in Ref.\onlinecite{Maciejko}, we develop two approximate schemes going beyond the wideband limit, they are all suitable for first principles calculation using the NEGF combined with density functional theory. Benchmark test has been done by comparing with the exact solution of a single level quantum dot system. Good agreement has been reached for two approximate schemes. As an application, we calculate the transient current using the first approximated formula with opposite voltage $V_L(t)=-V_R(t)$ in two molecular structures: Al-${\rm C}_{5}$-Al and Al-${\rm C}_{60}$-Al. As illustrated in these examples, our formalism can be easily implemented for real molecular devices. Importantly, our new formula has captured the essential physics of dynamical properties of molecular devices and gives the correct steady state current at $t=0$ and $t\rightarrow \infty$.

cond-mat.mes-hall