arXiv subjects

Z. H. Qiao

Publications and source records attributed to Z. H. Qiao.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Direct Determination of Spin-Splitting Energy in Magnetic Graphene by Landau Fan Shifts

Spin-polarized two-dimensional materials with large and tunable spin-splitting energy promise the field of 2D spintronics. While graphene has been a canonical 2D material, its spin properties and tunability are limited. Here, we demonstrate the emergence of robust spin-polarization in graphene with large and tunable spin-splitting energy of up to 132 meV at zero applied magnetic fields. The spin polarization is induced through a magnetic exchange interaction between graphene and the underlying ferrimagnetic oxide insulating layer, Tm3Fe5O12, as confirmed by its X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. The spin-splitting energies are directly measured and visualized by the shift in their landau fan diagram mapped by analyzing the measured subnikov-de-Haas oscillations as a function of applied electric fields, showing consistent fit with our first-principles and machine learning calculations. Further, the observed spin-splitting energies can be tuned over a broad range between 98 and 166 meV by cooling fields. Our methods and results are applicable to other two-dimensional (magnetic) materials and heterostructures, and offer great potential for developing next-generation spin logic and memory devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Gate-controlled topological conducting channels in bilayer graphene

The existence of inequivalent valleys K and K' in the momentum space of two-dimensional hexagonal lattices provides a new electronic degree of freedom, the manipulation of which can potentially lead to new types of electronics, in analogy to the role played by electron spin. In materials with broken inversion symmetry, such as an electrically gated bilayer graphene, the momentum-space Berry curvature $Ω$ carries opposite sign in the K and K' valleys. A sign reversal of $Ω$ along an internal boundary of the sheet gives rise to counter-propagating one-dimensional conducting modes encoded with opposite valley indices. These metallic states are topologically protected against backscattering in the absence of valley-mixing scattering, and thus can carry current ballistically. In bilayer graphene, the reversal of $Ω$ can occur at the domain wall of AB and BA stacked domains, or at the line junction of two oppositely gated regions. The latter approach can provide a scalable platform to implement valleytronic operations such as valves and waveguides, but is technically challenging to realize. Here we fabricate a dual-split-gate structure in bilayer graphene and demonstrate transport evidence of the predicted metallic states. They possess a mean free path of up to a few hundred nanometers in the absence of a magnet field. The application of perpendicular magnetic field suppresses backscattering significantly and enables a 400-nanometer-long junction to exhibit conductance close to the ballistic limit of 4 $e^2/h$ at 8 Tesla. Our experiment paves the path to the realization of gate-controlled ballistic valley transport and the development of valleytronic applications in atomically thin materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

How edge states are destroyed in disordered mesoscopic samples?

We report theoretical investigations on how edge states are destroyed in disordered mesoscopic samples by calculating a "phase diagram" in terms of energy versus disorder strength $(E,W)$, and magnetic field versus disorder strength $(B,W)$, in the integer quantum Hall regime. It is found that as the disorder strength $W$ increases, edge states are destroyed one by one if transmission eigen-channels are used to characterize the edge states. Near the insulating regime, transmission eigen-channels are closed one by one in the same order as edges states are destroyed. To identify those edge states which have survived disorder, we introduce a generalized current density that can be calculated and visualized.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2007

A variant transfer matrix method suitable for transport through multi-probe systems

We have developed a variant transfer matrix method that is suitable for transport through multi-probe systems. Using this method, we have numerically studied the quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) on 2D graphene with both intrinsic (Vso) and Rashba (Vr) spin-orbit (SO) couplings. The integer QSHE arises in the presence of intrinsic SO interaction and is gradually destroyed by the Rashba SO interaction and disorder fluctuation. We have numerically determined the phase boundaries separating integer QSHE and spin Hall liquid. We have found that when Vso> 0.2t with t the hopping constant the energy gap needed for the integer QSHE is the largest satisfying |E|<t. For smaller Vso the energy gap decreases linearly. In the presence of Rashba SO interaction or disorders, the energy gap diminishes. With Rashba SO interaction the integer QSHE is robust at the largest energy within the energy gap while at the smallest energy within the energy gap the integer QSHE is insensitive to the disorder.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Universal quantized spin-Hall conductance fluctuation in graphene

We report a theoretical investigation of quantized spin-Hall conductance fluctuation of graphene devices in the diffusive regime. Two graphene models that exhibit quantized spin-Hall effect (QSHE) are analyzed. Model-I is with unitary symmetry under an external magnetic field $B\ne 0$ but with zero spin-orbit interaction, $t_{SO}=0$. Model-II is with symplectic symmetry where B=0 but $t_{SO} \ne 0$. Extensive numerical calculations indicate that the two models have exactly the same universal QSHE conductance fluctuation value $0.285 e/4π$ regardless of the symmetry. Qualitatively different from the conventional charge and spin universal conductance distributions, in the presence of edge states the spin-Hall conductance shows an one-sided log-normal distribution rather than a Gaussian distribution. Our results strongly suggest that the quantized spin-Hall conductance fluctuation belongs to a new universality class.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗