arXiv subjects

Zhi-Qiang Shi

Publications and source records attributed to Zhi-Qiang Shi.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Kinetics-Limited Two-Step Growth of van der Waals Puckered Honeycomb Sb Monolayer

Puckered honeycomb Sb monolayer, the structural analog of black phosphorene, has been recently successfully grown by means of molecular beam epitaxy. However, little is known to date about the growth mechanism for such puckered honeycomb monolayer. In this study, by using scanning tunneling microscopy in combination with first-principles density functional theory calculations, we unveil that the puckered honeycomb Sb monolayer takes a kinetics-limited two-step growth mode. As the coverage of Sb increases, the Sb atoms firstly form the distorted hexagonal lattice as the half layer, and then the distorted hexagonal half-layer transforms into the puckered honeycomb lattice as the full layer. These results provide the atomic-scale insight in understanding the growth mechanism of puckered honeycomb monolayer, and can be instructive to the direct growth of other monolayers with the same structure.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Tuning the electronic structure of α-antimonene monolayer through interface engineering

The interfacial charge transfer from the substrate may influence the electronic structure of the epitaxial van der Waals (vdW) monolayers and thus their further technological applications. For instance, the freestanding Sb monolayer in puckered honeycomb phase (α-antimonene), the structural analog of black phosphorene, was predicted to be a semiconductor, but the epitaxial one behaves as a gapless semimetal when grown on the Td-WTe2 substrate. Here, we demonstrate that interface engineering can be applied to tune the interfacial charge transfer and thus the electron band of epitaxial monolayer. As a result, the nearly freestanding (semiconducting) α-antimonene monolayer with a band gap of ~170 meV was successfully obtained on the SnSe substrate. Furthermore, a semiconductor-semimetal crossover is observed in the bilayer α-antimonene. This study paves the way towards modifying the electron structure in two-dimensional vdW materials through interface engineering.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Ferromagnetic MnSn monolayer epitaxially grown on silicon substrate

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic materials have been exhibiting promising potential in applications, such as spintronics devices. To grow epitaxial magnetic films on silicon substrate, in the single-layer limit, is practically important but challenging. In this study, we realized the epitaxial growth of MnSn monolayer on Si(111) substrate, with an atomically thin Sn/Si(111)-$2\sqrt{3}\times2\sqrt{3}$- buffer layer, and controlled the MnSn thickness with atomic-layer precision. We discovered the ferromagnetism in MnSn monolayer with the Curie temperature (Tc) of ~54 K. As the MnSn film is grown to 4 monolayers, Tc increases accordingly to ~235 K. The lattice of the epitaxial MnSn monolayer as well as the Sn/Si(111)-$2\sqrt{3}\times2\sqrt{3}$ is perfectly compatible with silicon, and thus an sharp interface is formed between MnSn, Sn and Si. This system provides a new platform for exploring the 2D ferromagnetism, integrating magnetic monolayers into silicon-based technology, and engineering the spintronics heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Quasiparticle Interference Evidence of the Topological Fermi Arc States in Chiral Fermionic Semimetal CoSi

Chiral fermions in solid state feature "Fermi arc" states, connecting the surface projections of the bulk chiral nodes. The surface Fermi arc is a signature of nontrivial bulk topology. Unconventional chiral fermions with an extensive Fermi arc traversing the whole Brillouin zone have been theoretically proposed in CoSi. Here, we use scanning tunneling microscopy / spectroscopy to investigate quasiparticle interference at various terminations of a CoSi single crystal. The observed surface states exhibit chiral fermion-originated characteristics. These reside on (001) and (011) but not (111) surfaces with pi-rotation symmetry, spiral with energy, and disperse in a wide energy range from ~-200 to ~+400 mV. Owing to the high-energy and high-space resolution, a spin-orbit coupling-induced splitting of up to ~80 mV is identified. Our observations are corroborated by density functional theory and provide strong evidence that CoSi hosts the unconventional chiral fermions and the extensive Fermi arc states.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Van der Waals heteroepitaxial growth of monolayer Sb in puckered honeycomb structure

Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) crystals have gained tremendous attentions owing to their potential impacts to the future electronics technologies, as well as the exotic phenomena emerging in these materials. Monolayer of α phase Sb (α-antimonene) that shares the same puckered structure as black phosphorous, has been predicted to be stable with precious properties. However, the experimental realization still remains challenging. Here, we successfully grow high-quality monolayer α-antimonene, with the thickness finely controlled. The α-antimonene exhibits great stability upon exposure to air. Combining scanning tunneling microscope, density functional theory calculations and transport measurement, it is found that the electron band crossing the Fermi level exhibits a linear dispersion with a fairly small effective mass, and thus a good electrical conductivity. All of these properties make the α-antimonene promising in the future electronic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Observation of Coulomb gap in the quantum spin Hall candidate single-layer 1T'-WTe$_2$

The two-dimensional topological insulators (2DTI) host a full gap in the bulk band, induced by spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect, together with the topologically protected gapless edge states. However, the SOC-induced gap is usually small, and it is challenging to suppress the bulk conductance and thus to realize the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect. In this study, we find a novel mechanism to effectively suppress the bulk conductance. By using the quasiparticle interference (QPI) technique with scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), we demonstrate that the QSH candidate single-layer 1T'-WTe$_2$ has a semi-metal bulk band structure with no full SOC-induced gap. Surprisingly, in this two-dimensional system, we find the electron interactions open a Coulomb gap which is always pinned at the Fermi energy (E$_F$). The opening of the Coulomb gap can efficiently diminish the bulk state at the E$_F$ and is in favor of the observation of the quantized conduction of topological edge states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

High-buckled R3 stanene with topologically nontrivial energy gap

Stanene has been predicted to be a two-dimensional topological insulator (2DTI). Its low-buckled atomic geometry and the enhanced spin-orbit coupling are expected to cause a prominent quantum spin hall (QSH) effect. However, most of the experimentally grown stanene to date displays a metallic state without a real gap, possibly due to the chemical coupling with the substrate and the stress applied by the substrate. Here,we demonstrate an efficient way of tuning the atomic buckling in stanene to open a topologically nontrivial energy gap. Via tuning the growth kinetics, we obtain not only the low-buckled 1x1 stanene but also an unexpected high-buckled R3xR3 stanene on the Bi(111) substrate. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) study combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculation confirms that the R3xR3 stanene is a distorted 1x1 structure with a high-buckled Sn in every three 1x1 unit cells. The high-buckled R3xR3 stanene favors a large band inversion at the Γ point, and the spin orbital coupling open a topologically nontrivial energy gap. The existence of edge states as verified in both STM measurement and DFT calculation further confirms the topology of the R3xR3 stanene. This study provides an alternate way to tune the topology of monolayer 2DTI materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Direct Visualization of 2D Topological Insulator in Single-layer 1T'-WTe2

We grow nearly freestanding single-layer 1T'-WTe2 on graphitized 6H-SiC(0001) by using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and characterize its electronic structure with scanning tunneling microscopy / spectroscopy (STM/STS). We demonstrate the existence of topological edge states at the periphery of single-layer WTe2 islands. Surprisingly, we also find a band gap in the bulk and the semiconducting behaviors of the single-layer WTe2 at low temperature, which is likely resulted from an incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) transition. The realization of two-dimensional topological insulators (2D TIs) in single-layer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) thus provides a promising platform for further exploration of the 2D TIs' physics and related applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Analytical Study of the Spin Projection Operator

We present an analytical study of the spin projection operator of the spin state and the helicity state. It is pointed out emphatically that the former is Lorentz covariant, while the latter is a nonrelativistic two-component operator. In the special case of $\bm p=p_z$, the helicity state and the spin state are formally identical. However, even so their spin projection operators are still different and so the helicity state is not a special case of the spin state. This makes the spinor is the degenerate state of the two different spin projection operators. The calculation on the lifetime of polarized muons shows that this difference will inevitably lead to the left-right polarization-dependent lifetime asymmetry.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Left-Right Asymmetry of Weak Interaction Mass of Polarized Fermions in Flight

The left-right polarization-dependent asymmetry of the weak interaction mass is investigated. Based on the Standard Model, the calculation shows that the weak interaction mass of left-handed polarized fermions is always greater than that of right-handed polarized fermions in flight with the same velocity in any inertial frame. The asymmetry of the weak interaction mass might be very important to the investigation of neutrino mass and would have an important significance for understanding the parity nonconservation in weak interactions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Experimental tests on the lifetime Asymmetry

The experimental test problem of the left-right polarization-dependent lifetime asymmetry is discussed. It shows that the existing experiments cannot demonstrate the lifetime asymmetry to be right or wrong after analyzing the measurements on the neutron, the muon and the tau lifetime, as well as the $g-2$ experiment. However, It is pointed out emphatically that the SLD and the E158 experiments, the measurements of the left-right integrated cross section asymmetry in $Z$ boson production by $e^+e^-$ collisions and by electron-electron Møller scattering, can indirectly demonstrate the lifetime asymmetry. In order to directly demonstrate the lifetime asymmetry, we propose some possible experiments on the decays of polarized muons. The precise measurement of the lifetime asymmetry could have important significance for building a muon collider, also in cosmology and astrophysics. It would provide a sensitive test of the standard model in particle physics and allow for exploration of the possible $V+A$ interactions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Two knees and the Evasion of Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min Cutoff in Cosmic Ray Spectrum -- Are Neutrinos the Tachyons?

The whole spectrum of high-energy cosmic ray (HECR) is, very likely, influenced by tachyonic neutrinos. Especially, the appearance of two knees can be fitted by the tachyon mass $m(ν_e)=m(ν_μ)\simeq 0.51$ eV/$c^2$ as predicted by a minimal three - flavor model for tachyonic neutrino with one parameter $δ=0.38$ eV only. Then the evasion of GZK cutoff could be ascribed to $Z^0(W^\pm)$-burst model together with the same mechanism for knees as well as a prediction of left-right polarization dependent lifetime asymmetry. A further conclusive experiment might be whether the protons of HECR detected on Earth are really right handed polarized?

hep-ph↗

arXiv2006

Calculation on the Lifetime of Polarized Muons in Flight

The fermion lifetime was usually calculated in terms of spin states. However, after comparing spin states with helicity states and chirality states, it is pointed out that a spin state is helicity degenerate, and so it can not be used for discussion of the dependence of lifetime on the polarization of an initial-state fermion. Using helicity states, we calculate the lifetime of polarized muons. The result shows that the lifetime of right-handed polarized muons is always greater than that of left-handed polarized muons with the same speed in flight.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2004

The Lifetime Asymmetry of Polarized Muons in Flight

Based on the parity violation in Standard Model, we study the dependence of the lifetime on the polarization of an initial-state fermion in weak interactions. The fermion lifetime was usually calculated in terms of spin states. However, after comparing spin states with helicity states and chirality states, it is pointed out that a spin state is helicity degenerate, and the spin state and the helicity state are entirely different. Using helicity states, we calculate the lifetime of polarized muons. The result shows that the lifetime of right-handed polarized muons is always greater than that of left-handed polarized muons with the same speed in flight.

hep-ph↗