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At least 937 records · Page 52

Direct and indirect spin current generation and spin-orbit torques in ferromagnet/nonmagnet/ferromagnet trilayers

Spin-orbit torques in ferromagnet/nonmagnet/ferromagnet trilayers are studied using a combination of symmetry analysis, circuit theory, semiclassical simulations, and first-principles calculations using the nonequilibrium Green's function method with supercell disorder averaging. Here, we focus on unconventional processes involving the interplay between the two ferromagnetic layers, which are classified into direct and indirect mechanisms. The direct mechanism involves spin current generation by one ferromagnetic layer and its subsequent absorption by the other. In the indirect mechanism, the in-plane spin-polarized current from one ferromagnetic layer “leaks” into the other layer, where it is converted into an out-of-plane spin current and reabsorbed by the original layer. The direct mechanism results in a predominantly dampinglike torque, which damps the magnetization towards a certain direction 𝐬 𝑑 . The indirect mechanism results in a predominantly fieldlike torque with respect to a generally different direction 𝐬 𝑓 . Similarly to the current-in-plane giant magnetoresistance, the indirect mechanism is only active if the thickness of the nonmagnetic spacer is smaller than or comparable to the mean free path. Numerical calculations for a semiclassical model based on the Boltzmann equation confirm the presence of both direct and indirect mechanisms of spin current generation. First-principles calculations reveal sizable unconventional spin-orbit torques in Co/Cu/Co, Py/Cu/Py, and Co/Pt/Co trilayers and provide strong evidence of indirect spin current generation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Topological antiferromagnetic semimetal for spintronics: A case study of a layered square-net system EuZnSb 2

Here, we use the first-principles and effective Hamiltonian methods to study the electronic structure and magnetic properties of a recently synthesized layered antiferromagnetic square-net topological semimetal EuZnSb2 [Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 033462 (2020)]. The main message of the paper is that effects of small changes in the band structure produced by the magnetic ordering and changes in the orientation of the Néel vector are amplified in such transport properties as the spin Hall conductivity. We predict that the effects of the broken symmetry introduced by the ordering of the Néel vector, being very weak in the bulk, are pronounced in the surface electronic dispersion, suggesting that surface probes may be more suited to measure them. The coexistence of the magnetism with many other competing phases make this material interesting and possibly useful for quantum spintronics applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Electronic structure and two-band superconductivity in unconventional high- T c cuprates Ba 2 CuO 3+δ

We report that the recently discovered cuprate superconductor Ba 2 CuO 3+δ exhibits a high T c ≃73 K at δ ≃ 0.2. The polycrystal grown under high pressure has a structure similar to La 2 CuO 4 but with dramatically different lattice parameters due to the CuO 6 octahedron compression. The crystal field in the compressed Ba 2 CuO 4 leads to an inverted Cu 3d e g complex with the d x 2 -y 2 orbital sitting below the d 3z 2 - r 2 and an electronic structure highly unusual compared to the conventional cuprates. We construct a two-orbital Hubbard model for the Cu d 9 state at hole doping x = 2δ and study the orbital-dependent strong correlation and superconductivity. For the undoped case at x = 0 , we found that strong correlation drives an orbital-polarized Mott-insulating state with the spin-1/2 moment of the localized d 3z 2 - r 2 orbital. In contrast to the single-band cuprates where superconductivity is suppressed in the overdoped regime, hole doping the two-orbital Mott insulator leads to orbital-dependent correlations and the robust spin and orbital exchange interactions produce a high-T c antiphase d-wave superconductor even in the heavily doped regime at x = 0.4 . We conjecture that Ba 2 CuO 3+δ realizes mixtures of such heavily hole-doped superconducting Ba 2 CuO 4 and disordered Ba 2 CuO 3 chains in a single-layer or predominately separated bilayer structure. Our findings suggest that unconventional cuprates with liberated orbitals as doped two-band Mott insulators can be a direction for realizing high-T c superconductivity with enhanced transition temperature T c .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Electromagnetic response and emergent topological orders in transition metal dichalcogenide MoTe 2 bilayers

Twisted bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides, such as MoTe 2 , provide a versatile platform for exploring correlated topological phases. This work investigates the interplay between perpendicular magnetic and electric fields in tuning the electronic structure and emergent topological orders of twisted bilayer MoTe 2 (t-MoTe 2 ) across two distinct regimes: a low-twist-angle phase (θ ≈ 2.1°) hosting multiple Chern bands of identical Chern numbers per valley, and a higher-angle phase (θ ≈ 3.89°) featuring Haldane-like bands with opposite Chern numbers. Using a continuum model incorporating moiré potentials up to second harmonics, we compute the Hofstadter fractal spectra under applied fields, revealing Landau fan structures and magnetic-flux-dependent band topology. These fractal spectra are useful in studying emergent topological orders in terms of the composite fermion picture, where the statistical Chern-Simons flux is approximated as a uniform gauge field. We demonstrate that the system hosts both Jain-sequence fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) and non-Jain fractal FCIs with higher Chern numbers. As a result, the electric field suppresses composite fermion gaps and induces topological quantum phase transitions. Furthermore, our analysis extends to valley-contrasting flux attachment, proposing pathways to describe fractional quantum spin Hall states.

Anyons↗

Quantum many-body calculations using body-centered cubic lattices

It is often computationally advantageous to model space as a discrete set of points forming a lattice grid. This technique is particularly useful for computationally difficult problems such as quantum many-body systems. For reasons of simplicity and familiarity, nearly all quantum many-body calculations have been performed on simple cubic lattices. Since the removal of lattice artifacts is often an important concern, it would be useful to perform calculations using more than one lattice geometry. In this paper we show how to perform quantum many-body calculations using auxiliary-field Monte Carlo simulations on a three-dimensional body-centered cubic (BCC) lattice. As a benchmark test we compute the ground state energy of 33 spin-up and 33 spin-down neutrons in the unitary limit, which is an idealized limit where the interaction range is zero and scattering length is infinite. As a fraction of the free Fermi gas energy E FG , we find that the ground state energy is E 0 /E FG =0.369(2),0.371(2), using two different definitions of the finite-system energy ratio. This is in excellent agreement with recent results obtained on a cubic lattice [He et al., Phys. Rev. A 101, 063615 (2020)]. We find that the computational effort and performance on a BCC lattice is approximately the same as that for a cubic lattice with the same number of lattice points. We discuss how the lattice simulations with different geometries can be used to constrain the size of lattice artifacts in simulations of continuum quantum many-body systems.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Edge magnetoplasmon dispersion and time-resolved plasmon transport in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator

A quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator breaks reciprocity by combining magnetic polarization and spin-orbit coupling to generate a unidirectional transmission of signals in the absence of an external magnetic field. Such behavior makes QAH materials a good platform for the innovation of circulator technologies. However, it remains elusive as to how the wavelength of the chiral edge plasmon relates to its frequency and how the plasmon wave packet is excited in the time domain in a QAH insulator. Here, we investigate the edge magnetoplasmon (EMP) resonances in Cr-(Bi,Sb) 2 Te 3 by frequency and time domain measurements. From disk shaped samples with various dimensions, we obtain the dispersion relation of EMPs and extract the drift velocity of the chiral edge state. From the time-resolved transport measurements, we identify the velocity of the plasmon wave packet and observe a transition from the edge to bulk transport at an elevated temperature. We show that the frequency and time domain measurements are well modeled by loss from the microwave induced dissipative channels in the bulk area. Our results demonstrate that the EMP decay rate can be significantly reduced by applying a low microwave power and fabricating devices of larger diameter ≥ 100 µ m . In a R = 125 µ m sample, a nonreciprocity of 20 dB has been realized at 1.3 GHz, shining light on using QAH insulators to develop on-chip nonreciprocal devices. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The cosmological bootstrap: inflationary correlators from symmetries and singularities

Scattering amplitudes at weak coupling are highly constrained by Lorentz invariance, locality and unitarity, and depend on model details only through coupling constants and the particle content of the theory. For example, four-particle amplitudes are analytic for contact interactions and have simple poles with appropriately positive residues for tree-level exchange. In this paper, we develop an understanding of inflationary correlators which parallels that of flat-space scattering amplitudes. Specifically, we study slow-roll inflation with weak couplings to extra massive particles, for which all correlation functions are controlled by an approximate conformal symmetry on the boundary of the spacetime. After systematically classifying all possible contact terms in de Sitter space, we derive an analytic expression for the four-point function of conformally coupled scalars mediated by the tree-level exchange of massive scalars. Conformal symmetry implies that the correlator satisfies a pair of differential equations with respect to spatial momenta, encoding bulk time evolution in purely boundary terms. The absence of unphysical singularities (and the correct normalization of physical ones) completely fixes this correlator. Moreover, a “spin-raising” operator relates it to the correlators associated with the exchange of particles with spin, while “weight-shifting” operators map it to the four-point function of massless scalars. We explain how these de Sitter four-point functions can be perturbed to obtain inflationary three-point functions. Using our formalism, we reproduce many classic results in the literature, such as the three-point function of slow-roll inflation, and provide a complete classification of all inflationary three- and four-point functions arising from weakly broken conformal symmetry. Remarkably, the inflationary bispectrum associated with the exchange of particles with arbitrary spin is completely characterized by the soft limit of the simplest scalar-exchange four-point function of conformally coupled scalars and a series of contact terms. Finally, we demonstrate that the inflationary correlators contain flat-space scattering amplitudes via a suitable analytic continuation of the external momenta, which can also be directly connected with the signals for particle production seen in the squeezed limit.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ab initio quantum many-body description of superconducting trends in the cuprates

Using a systematic ab initio quantum many-body approach that goes beyond low-energy models, we directly compute the superconducting pairing order and estimate the pairing gap of several doped cuprate materials and structures within a purely electronic picture. We find that we can correctly capture two well-known trends: the pressure effect, where the pairing order and gap increase with intra-layer pressure, and the layer effect, where the pairing order and gap vary with the number of copper-oxygen layers. From these calculations, we observe that the strength of superexchange and the covalency at optimal doping are the best descriptors for these trends. Our microscopic analysis further identifies that strong short-range spin fluctuations and multi-orbital charge fluctuations drive the development of the pairing order. Our work illustrates the possibility of a material-specific ab initio understanding of unconventional high-temperature superconducting materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Theory of the phase transition in random unitary circuits with measurements

Here, we present a theory of the entanglement transition tuned by measurement strength in qudit chains evolved by random unitary circuits and subject to either weak or random projective measurements. The transition can be understood as a nonanalytic change in the amount of information extracted by the measurements about the initial state of the system, quantified by the Fisher information. To compute the von Neumann entanglement entropy $\textit{S}$ and the Fisher information $\mathcal{F}$, we apply a replica method based on a sequence of quantities $\tilde{S}^{(n)}$ and $\mathcal{F}^{(n)}$ that depend on the $\textit{n}$th moments of density matrices and reduce to $\textit{S}$ and $\mathcal{F}$ in the limit $\textit{n}$ → 1. These quantities with $\textit{n}$ ≥ 2 are mapped to free energies of a classical spin model with $\textit{n}$! internal states in two dimensions with specific boundary conditions. In particular, $\tilde{S}^{(n)}$ is the excess free energy of a domain wall terminating on the top boundary, and $\mathcal{F}^{(n)}$ is related to the magnetization on the bottom boundary. Phase transitions occur as the spin models undergo ordering transitions in the bulk. Taking the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension $\textit{q}$ followed by the replica limit $\textit{n}$ → 1, we obtain the critical measurement probability $p_c$ = 1/2 and identify the transition as a bond percolation in the 2D square lattice in this limit. Finally, we show there is no phase transition if the measurements are allowed in an arbitrary nonlocal basis, thereby highlighting the relation between the phase transition and information scrambling. We establish an explicit connection between the entanglement phase transition and the purification dynamics of a mixed state evolution and discuss implications of our results to experimental observations of the transition and simulability of quantum dynamics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Many-Body Scars as a Group Invariant Sector of Hilbert Space

We present a class of Hamiltonians H for which a sector of the Hilbert space invariant under a Lie group G, which is not a symmetry of H, possesses the essential properties of many-body scar states. These include the absence of thermalization and the “revivals” of special initial states in time evolution. Here, a particular class of examples concerns interacting spin-1/2 fermions on a lattice consisting of N sites (it includes deformations of the Fermi-Hubbard model as special cases), and we show that it contains two families of N + 1 scar states. One of these families, which was found in recent literature, comprises the well-known η-pairing states. We find another family of scar states that is U(N) invariant. Both families and most of the group-invariant scar states produced by our construction, in general, give rise to the off-diagonal long range order, which survives at high temperatures and is insensitive to the details of the dynamics. Such states could be used for reliable quantum information processing because the information is stored nonlocally and thus cannot be easily erased by local perturbations. In contrast, other scar states we find are product states, which could be easily prepared experimentally. The dimension of scar subspace is directly controlled by the choice of group G and can be made exponentially large.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Density Functional Theory Study of Controllable Optical Absorptions and Magneto-Optical Properties of Magnetic CrI 3 Nanoribbons: Implications for Compact 2D Magnetic Devices

A chromium triiodide (CrI 3 ) monolayer has an interesting ferromagnetic ground-state. In this work, we calculate band structures and magnetic moments of tensile-strained and bent zigzag CrI 3 nanoribbons with density functional theory. The edge iodine atoms form flat low-lying conduction bands and couple with chromium atoms ferromagnetically, while the non-edge iodine atoms weakly couple antiferromagnetically. Narrow CrI 3 nanoribbons have two locally stable magnetic moment orientations, namely out-of-plane and in-plane (along the nanoribbon periodic direction) configurations. This enables four magnetization states in CrI 3 nanoribbons, including two out-of-plane ones (up and down) and two in-plane ones (forward and backward along the nanoribbon periodical direction), increasing the operating controllability. Based on the one-dimensional Ising spin chain model, the spin correlation length of the narrow CrI 3 nanoribbon is estimated as about 10 Å at its estimated Curie temperature of 27 Kelvin, which is lower than the measured 45 Kelvin of the monolayer CrI 3 . The optical absorption and magneto-optical properties of CrI 3 nanoribbons are investigated with many-body perturbation GW-BSE (Bethe-Salpeter equation), including magnetic dichroism, Faraday and magneto-optical Kerr effects. Here, the low-energy dark excitons are mainly from transitions between electrons and holes with unlike spins and are non-Frenkel-like, while the bright excitons have mixed spin configurations. The intrinsic lifetime of excitons can be over one nanosecond, suitable for quantum information processes. Tensile strains and bending manifestly modulate the absorption spectra and magneto-optical properties of CrI 3 nanoribbons within a technologically important photon energy-range of ~1.0-2.0 eV. The CrI 3 nanoribbons can be used in 1D or 2D magnetic storage nanodevices, tunable magnetic optoelectronics, and spin-based quantum information controls.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Electronic structure, magnetic properties, and pairing tendencies of the copper-based honeycomb lattice Na 2 Cu 2 TeO 6

Spin-1/2 chains with alternating antiferromagnetic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) couplings have attracted considerable interest due to the topological character of their spin excitations. Here, using density functional theory and density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) methods, we have systematically studied the dimerized chain system Na 2 Cu 2 TeO 6 with a d 9 electronic configuration. Near the Fermi level, in the nonmagnetic phase the dominant states are mainly contributed by the Cu 3d x 2 -y 2 orbitals highly hybridized with the O 2p orbitals, leading to an “effective” single-orbital low-energy model. By calculating the relevant hoping amplitudes, we explain the size and sign of the exchange interactions in Na 2 Cu 2 TeO 6 . In addition, a single-orbital Hubbard model is constructed for this dimerized chain system where the quantum fluctuations are taken into account. Both AFM and FM couplings (leading to an ↑|-|↓-|↓-↑| state) along the chain were found in our DMRG and Lanczos calculations, in agreement with density functional theory and neutron-scattering results. The hole pairing binding energy ΔE is predicted to be negative at Hubbard U~ 11eV, suggesting incipient pairing tendencies.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Effective interactions between nuclear clusters

In this work, the effective interactions between two nuclear clusters, d + d, t + t, and α + α, are investigated within a cluster model using local nucleon-nucleon (NN) forces. It is shown that the interaction in the spin-aligned d + d system is repulsive for all intercluster distances, whereas the α + α and spin-aligned t + t systems are attractive at intermediate distances. The Pauli blocking between identical-nucleon pairs is responsible for the cluster-cluster repulsion and becomes dominant in the shallow binding limit. We demonstrate that two d clusters could be bound if the NN force has nonzero range and is strong enough to form a deeply bound d cluster, or if the NN force has both even-parity and odd-parity attraction. Effective dimer-dimer interactions for general quantum systems of two-component fermions are also discussed in heavy-light mass limit, where one component is much heavier than the other, and their relation to intercluster interactions in nuclear systems are discussed. Our findings provide a conceptual foundation for conclusions obtained numerically in the literature, that increasing the range or strength of the local part of the attractive nucleon-nucleon interaction results in a more attractive cluster-cluster interaction.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Laser-Induced Cooperative Transition in Molecular Electronic Crystal

The competing and non-equilibrium phase transitions, involving dynamic tunability of cooperative electronic and magnetic states in strongly correlated materials, show great promise in quantum sensing and information technology. To date, the stabilization of transient states is still in the preliminary stage, particularly with respect to molecular electronic solids. Here, a dynamic and cooperative phase in potassium-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (K-TCNQ) with the control of pulsed electromagnetic excitation is demonstrated. Simultaneous dynamic and coherent lattice perturbation with 8 ns pulsed laser (532 nm, 15 MW cm -2 , 10 Hz) in such a molecular electronic crystal initiates a stable long-lived (over 400 days) conducting paramagnetic state (≈42 Ωcm), showing the charge–spin bistability over a broad temperature range from 2 to 360 K. Comprehensive noise spectroscopy, in situ high-pressure measurements, electron spin resonance (ESR), theoretical model, and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) studies provide further evidence that such a transition is cooperative, requiring a dedicated charge–spin–lattice decoupling to activate and subsequently stabilize nonequilibrium phase. Finally, the cooperativity triggered by ultrahigh-strain-rate (above 10 6 s -1 ) pulsed excitation offers a collective control toward the generation and stabilization of strongly correlated electronic and magnetic orders in molecular electronic solids and offers unique electro-magnetic phases with technological promises.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Toward a 3d Ising model with a weakly-coupled string theory dual

It has long been expected that the 3d Ising model can be thought of as a string theory, where one interprets the domain walls that separate up spins from down spins as two-dimensional string worldsheets. The usual Ising Hamiltonian measures the area of these domain walls. This theory has string coupling of unit magnitude. We add new local terms to the Ising Hamiltonian that further weight each spin configuration by a factor depending on the genus of the corresponding domain wall, resulting in a new 3d Ising model that has a tunable bare string coupling g_s g s . We use a combination of analytical and numerical methods to analyze the phase structure of this model as g_s g s is varied. We study statistical properties of the topology of worldsheets and discuss the prospects of using this new deformation at weak string coupling to find a worldsheet description of the 3d Ising transition.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Local spin polarizations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Here, based on a generalized side-jump formalism for massless chiral fermions, which naturally takes into account the spin-orbit coupling in the scattering of two chiral fermions and the chiral vortical effect in a rotating chiral fermion matter, we have developed a covariant and total-angular-momentum-conserved chiral transport model to study both the global and local polarizations of this matter. For a system of massless quarks of random spin orientations and finite vorticity in a box, we have demonstrated that the model can exactly conserve the total angular momentum of the system and dynamically generate the quark spin polarization expected from a thermally equilibrated quark matter. Using this model to study the spin polarization in relativistic heavy-ion collision, we have found that the local quark spin polarizations depend strongly on the reference frame where they are evaluated as a result of the nontrivial axial charge distribution caused by the chiral vortical effect. We have further shown that because of the anomalous orbital or side-jump contribution to the quark spin polarization, the local quark polarizations calculated in the medium rest frame are qualitatively consistent with the local polarizations of Lambda hyperons measured in experiments.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Microscopic diagnosis of universal geometric responses in fractional quantum Hall liquids

Topological quantum liquids contain internal degrees of freedom that are coupled to geometric response. Yet, an explicit and microscopic identification of the geometric response remains difficult. Here, taking notable fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states as typical examples, we systematically investigate a promising protocol—the Dehn-twist deformation on the torus geometry—to probe the geometric response of correlated topological states and establish the relation between such response and universal properties of pertinent states. Based on analytical derivations and numerical simulations, we find that the geometry-induced Berry phase encodes features for a broad class of FQH states at the Laughlin, hierarchy, Halperin and non-Abelian Moore-Read fillings. Our findings conclusively demonstrate that the adiabatic Dehn-twist deformation can faithfully capture rich geometric and topological information, including the Hall viscosity and topological spin of the pertinent FQH state and the chiral central charge of the underlying edge conformal field theory. Our approach provides a powerful way to reveal topological orders of generic FQH states and address previously open questions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Magnetic structure and exchange interactions in the layered semiconductor CrPS 4

Compounds with two-dimensional (2D) layers of magnetic ions weakly connected by van der Waals bonding offer routes to enhance quantum behavior, stimulating both fundamental and applied interest. CrPS 4 is one such magnetic van der Waals material, however, it has undergone only limited investigation. Here we present a comprehensive series of neutron scattering measurements to determine the magnetic structure and exchange interactions. The observed magnetic excitations allow a high degree of constraint on the model parameters not normally associated with measurements on a powder sample. The results demonstrate the 2D nature of the magnetic interactions, while also revealing the importance of interactions along 1D chains within the layers. The subtle role of competing interactions is observed, which manifest in a nontrivial magnetic transition and a tunable magnetic structure in a small applied magnetic field through a spin-flop transition. Our results on the bulk compound provide insights that can be applied to an understanding of the behavior of reduced layer CrPS 4 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗