Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “FERMIONS”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,117 records · Page 62
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Long-distance coherence of Majorana wires

Theoretically, a pair of Majorana bound states in a topological superconductor forms a single fermionic level even at large separations, implying that the parity information is stored nonlocally. The nonlocality leads to a long-distance coherence for electrons tunneling through a Coulomb-blockaded Majorana wire, an effect that can be observed, e.g., in an interferometer. Here, we examine theoretically the coherent electron transfer, taking into account that tunneling implies the long-distance transfer of charge, which is carried by one-dimensional plasmons. In this work, we show that the charge dynamics does not affect the coherence of the electron tunneling process in a topological superconductor consisting of a semiconductor wire proximitized by a single bulk superconductor. The coherence may be strongly suppressed, however, if the topological superconductivity derives from a semiconductor wire proximitized by a granular superconductor.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Charge density wave and superconductivity competition in Lu 5 Ir 4 Si 10 : A proton irradiation study

Real-space modulated charge density waves (CDW) are a ubiquitous feature in many families of superconductors. In particular, how CDW relates to superconductivity is an active and open question that has recently gathered much interest since CDWs have been discovered in many cuprates superconductors. Here we show that disorder induced by proton irradiation is a full-fledged tuning parameter that can bring essential information to answer this question as it affects CDW and superconductivity with different and unequivocal mechanisms. Specifically, in the model CDW superconductor Lu 5 Ir 4 Si 10 that develops a 1D CDW below 77 K and s-wave superconductivity below 4 K, we show that disorder enhances the superconducting critical temperature T c and H c2 while it suppresses the CDW. Discussing how disorder affects both superconductivity and the CDW, we make a compelling case that superconductivity and CDW are competing for electronic density of states at the Fermi level in Lu 5 Ir 4 Si 10 , and we reconcile the results obtained via the more common tuning parameters of pressure and doping. Owing to its prototypical, 1D, Peierls type CDW and the s-wave, weak-coupling nature of its superconductivity, this irradiation study of Lu 5 Ir 4 Si 10 provides the basis to understand and extend such studies to the more complex cases of density waves and superconductivity coexistence in heavy fermions, Fe-based, or cuprates superconductors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Bulk Fermi surfaces of the Dirac type-II semimetallic candidate NiTe 2

Here, we present a study on the Fermi surface of the Dirac type-II semimetallic candidate NiTe 2 via the temperature and angular dependence of the de Haas–van Alphen (dHvA) effect measured in single crystals grown through Te flux. In contrast to its isostructural compounds like PtSe 2 , band-structure calculations predict NiTe 2 to display a tilted Dirac node very close to its Fermi level that is located along the Γ to A high-symmetry direction within its first Brillouin zone. The angular dependence of the dHvA frequencies is found to be in agreement with the first-principles calculations when the electronic bands are slightly shifted with respect to the Fermi level (ε F ), and therefore provide support for the existence of a Dirac type-II node in NiTe 2 . Nevertheless, we observed mild disagreements between experimental observations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations as, for example, nearly isotropic and light experimental effective masses. This indicates that the dispersion of the bands is not well captured by DFT. Despite the coexistence of Dirac-like fermions with topologically trivial carriers, samples of the highest quality display an anomalous and large either linear or sublinear magnetoresistivity. Finally, this suggests that Lorentz invariance breaking Dirac-like quasiparticles dominate the carrier transport in this compound.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Prediction of superconductivity and topological aspects in single-layer β -Bi 2 Pd

Topological superconductors, characterized by topologically nontrivial states residing in a superconducting gap, are a recently discovered class of materials having Majorana fermions. The interplay of superconductivity and topological states gives rise to opportunities for achieving such topological superconductors in condensed matter systems. Up to now, several single-material topological superconductors in this form have been theoretically predicted and experimentally confirmed. Here, using the first-principles calculations, we study the superconducting single-layer β-Bi 2 Pd. In this work, the electronic density of states near Fermi level of this monolayer are dominated by the Bi-p and Pd-d orbitals, forming a two-band Fermi surface with multiclass sheets. The presence of soft phonon bands, in cooperation with the electron susceptibility, accounts for electron-phonon superconductivity of single-layer β-Bi 2 Pd. With the centrosymmetric structure, single-layer β-Bi 2 Pd possesses a continuous gap over the whole Brillouin zone and topological Dirac-like states at its one-dimensional boundary. The present findings would lead to the expectation of one-dimensional topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states in a monolayer candidate of β-Bi 2 Pd with intrinsic full-gap superconductivity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Laser pulse driven control of charge and spin order in the two-dimensional Kondo lattice

Fast and dynamical control of quantum phases is highly desired in the application of quantum phenomena in devices. On the experimental side, ultrafast laser pulses provide an ideal platform to induce femtosecond dynamics in a variety of materials. Here we show that a laser pulse driven heavy fermion system can be tuned to dynamically evolve into a phase, which is not present in equilibrium. Using the state-of-the-art time-dependent variational Monte Carlo method, we perform numerical simulations of realistic laser pulses applied to the Kondo lattice model. By tracking spin and charge degrees of freedom we identify a dynamical phase transition, within the partially Kondo screened phase, from a charge ordered into a metallic state, while preserving the spin order of the system. Furthermore, we propose using high-harmonic generation and nonequilibrium optical conductivity to identify the dynamical phase transition in an ultrafast experiment.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Heat generation due to the Anderson catastrophe in mesoscopic devices

Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe (AOC) theorem establishes that the ground state of the many-body fermion system is asymptotically orthogonal to the ground state of the same system perturbed by a scattering potential so that the overlap between the original and new ground states decays to zero with the system size. We adopt the AOC for a description of heat production in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor. We find that the heat released in the transistor comprises two distinct components, contribution from the dissipation accompanying electron transmission under the applied voltage and purely quantum-mechanical AOC part due to the change in scattering matrix for electrons upon switching between high and low conductance regimes. We calculate the AOC-induced heat production, which we call switching heat.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Superconducting pairing mechanism in CeCoIn 5 revisited

Spectroscopic-imaging scanning-tunneling microscopy (SI-STM) measurements have previously been applied to the study of the heavy-fermion system CeCoIn 5 to examine the superconducting gap structure and band dispersions via quasiparticle intereference. Here we directly measure the dispersing electron bands with angle-resolved-photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) and compare with first principles electronic structure calculations. By auto-correllating the ARPES-resolved bands with themselves we can measure the potential q-vectors and discern exactly which bands the STM is measuring. We find that the STM results are dominated by scattering associated with a cloverleaf shaped band centered at the zone corners. This same band is also a viable candidate to host the superconducting gap. Overall, the electronic structure calculations indicate that this region of the Fermi surface involves significant contributions from the Co d-electrons, an indication that the superconductivity in these materials is more 3-dimensional than that found in the related unconventional superconductors, the cuprates and the pnictides.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Phonons, Q-dependent Kondo spin fluctuations, and 4f phonon resonance in YbAl 3

4f intermediate valence (IV) compounds are canonical hosts of correlated electron physics and can contribute to our understanding of the larger class of correlated electron materials. In this work, we study the prototype IV compound YbAl 3 which exhibits a nonintegral valence with a moderately heavy fermion ground state and a large Kondo temperature (T K ~500–600K). To better characterize the correlated physics of YbAl 3 , we have measured the phonon and the magnetic excitation spectra on single crystals of this material by time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering and inelastic x-ray scattering. We have also performed theoretical calculations of the phonon spectra. We present three findings of these measurements. First, we observe that the measured phonon spectra can be described adequately by a calculation based on standard DFT+U density functional theory. The calculated energies, however, are 10% too low compared to the measured energies. This discrepancy may reflect a hardening of the phonons due to dynamic 4f correlations. Second, the low-temperature spin fluctuations on the Kondo energy scale k B T K have a momentum (Q) dependence similar to that seen recently in the IV compound CePd 3 . For that system, the Q dependence has been attributed to particle-hole excitations in a coherent itinerant 4f correlated ground state. We suggest a similar origin for the momentum dependence seen in YbAl 3 . This Q dependence disappears as the temperature is raised towards room temperature and the 4f electron band states become increasingly incoherent. Such a coherent/incoherent crossover is expected to be generic for correlated electron systems. Third, a low-temperature magnetic peak observed in the neutron scattering near 30 meV shows dispersion identical to a particular optic-phonon branch. This 4f/phonon resonance disappears for T≥150K. The phonon spectrum appears to be unaffected by the resonance. We discuss several possibilities for the origin of this unusual excitation, which may be unique to YbAl 3 . We suggest that the excitation may arise from the large amplitude beating of the light Al atoms against the heavy Yb atoms, resulting in a dynamic 4f/3p hybridization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dynamic control of nonequilibrium metal-insulator transitions

Here, we demonstrate a first order metal-insulator phase transition in the repulsive, fully frustrated, single-band Hubbard model as a function of the coupling to a fermion bath. Time dependent manipulation of the bath coupling allows switching between metallic and insulating states both across the phase transition and within the coexistence region. We propose a simple nanoelectronic device for experimentally realizing dynamic control of the bath coupling. Analysis of the device characteristics shows that it can act as a two-terminal memristor.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Interplay of flat electronic bands with Holstein phonons

Existing quantum Monte Carlo studies have investigated the properties of fermions on a Lieb (CuO 2 ) lattice interacting with on-site or near-neighbor electron-electron coupling. Attention has focused on the interplay of such interactions with the macroscopic degeneracy of local zero-energy modes, from which Bloch states can be formed to produce a flat band in which energy is independent of momentum. The resulting high density of states, in combination with the Stoner criterion, suggests that there should be pronounced instabilities to ordered phases. Indeed, a theorem by Lieb rigorously establishes the existence of ferrimagnetic order. Here we study the charge density wave phases induced by electron-phonon coupling on the Lieb lattice, as opposed to previous work on electron-electron interactions. Our key result is the demonstration of charge density wave phases at one third and two thirds fillings, characterized by long-range density-density correlations between doubly occupied sites on the minority or majority sublattices, and an accompanying gap. Our team also computes the transition temperature to the ordered phase as a function of the electron-phonon coupling.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Anisotropic Fano resonance in the Weyl semimetal candidate LaAlSi

Topological Weyl semimetal (WSM) is a solid-state realization of chiral Weyl fermions, whose phonon behaviors provide in-depth knowledge of their electronic properties. In this work, anisotropic Fano resonance is observed in a type-II WSM candidate LaAlSi by polarized Raman spectroscopy. The asymmetric line shape occurs for the $B^2_1$ phonon mode of LaAlSi only for 488- and 532-nm laser excitations but not for 364-, 633-, and 785-nm excitations, suggesting the excitation selectivity. The asymmetry, frequency, and linewidth of the $B^2_1$ phonon mode, along with the spectral background, all show fourfold rotational symmetry as a function of the polarization angle in the polarized Raman spectra. While the shift of Raman frequency in a metal or semimetal is typically attributed to Kohn anomaly, here we show that the anisotropic frequency shift in LaAlSi cannot be explained by the effect of Kohn anomaly, but potentially by the anisotropic scattering background of Fano resonance. Origins of the excitation-energy dependence and anisotropic behavior of the Fano resonance are discussed by the first-principles calculated electronic band structure and phonon dispersion.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Berry phase in quantum field theory: Diabolical points and boundary phenomena

We study aspects of Berry phase in gapped many-body quantum systems by means of effective field theory. Once the parameters are promoted to spacetime-dependent background fields, such adiabatic phases are described by Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) and similar terms. In the presence of symmetries, there are also quantized invariants capturing generalized Thouless pumps. Consideration of these terms provides constraints on the phase diagram of many-body systems, implying the existence of gapless points in the phase diagram which are stable for topological reasons. We describe such diabolical points, realized by free fermions and gauge theories in various dimensions, which act as sources of "higher Berry curvature" and are protected by the quantization of the corresponding WZW terms or Thouless pump terms. Here, these are analogous to Weyl nodes in a semimetal band structure. We argue that in the presence of a boundary, there are boundary diabolical points---parameter values where the boundary gap closes---which occupy arcs ending at the bulk diabolical points. Consideration of the topological effective action for the parameters also provides some new checks on conjectured infrared dualities and deconfined quantum criticality in 2+1d.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantum phase transitions in long-range interacting hyperuniform spin chains in a transverse field

Hyperuniform states of matter are characterized by anomalous suppression of long-wavelength density fluctuations. While most of the interesting cases of disordered hyperuniformity are provided by complex many-body systems such as liquids or amorphous solids, classical spin chains with certain long-range interactions have been shown to demonstrate the same phenomenon. Such spin-chain systems are ideal models for exploring the effects of quantum mechanics on hyperuniformity. It is well-known that the transverse field Ising model shows a quantum phase transition (QPT) at zero temperature. Under the quantum effects of a transverse magnetic field, classical hyperuniform spin chains are expected to lose their hyperuniformity. High-precision simulations of these cases are complicated because of the presence of highly nontrivial long-range interactions. We perform an extensive analysis of these systems using density matrix renormalization group simulations to study the possibilities of phase transitions and the mechanism by which they lose hyperuniformity. Even for a spin chain of length 30, we see discontinuous changes in properties like the “τ order metric” of the ground state, the measure of hyperuniformity, and the second cumulant of the total magnetization along the x-direction, all suggestive of first-order QPTs. An interesting feature of the phase transitions in these disordered hyperuniform spin chains is that, depending on the parameter values, the presence of a transverse magnetic field may lead remarkably to an increase in the order of the ground state as measured by the “τ order metric,” even if hyperuniformity is lost. Therefore, it would be possible to design materials to target specific novel quantum behaviors in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Our numerical investigations suggest that these spin chains can show no more than two QPTs. We further analyze the long-range interacting spin chains via the Jordan-Wigner mapping onto a system of spinless fermions, showing that under the pairwise-interaction approximation and a mean-field treatment, there can be at most two quantum phase transitions. Here, based on these numerical and theoretical explorations, we conjecture that for spin chains with long-range pair interactions that have convergent cosine transforms, there can be a maximum of two quantum phase transitions at zero temperature.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Kohn-Sham density functional theory of Abelian anyons

In this work, we develop a density functional treatment of noninteracting Abelian anyons, which is capable, in principle, of dealing with a system of a large number of anyons in an external potential. Comparison with exact results for a few particles shows that the model captures the behavior qualitatively and semiquantitatively, especially in the vicinity of the fermionic statistics. We then study anyons with statistics parameter 1+1/n, which are thought to condense into a superconducting state. An indication of the superconducting behavior is the mean-field result that, for uniform density systems, the ground-state energy increases under the application of an external magnetic field independent of its direction. Our density functional theory based analysis does not find that to be the case for finite systems of anyons, which can accommodate a weak external magnetic field through density transfer between the bulk and the boundary rather than through transitions across effective Landau levels, but the “Meissner repulsion” of the external magnetic field is recovered in the thermodynamic limit as the effect of the boundary becomes negligible. We also consider the quantum Hall effect of anyons, and show that its topological properties, such as the charge and statistics of the excitations and the quantized Hall conductance, arise in a self-consistent fashion.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Expansive open Fermi arcs and connectivity changes induced by infrared phonons in ZrTe 5

Expansive open Fermi arcs covering most of the surface Brillouin zone (SBZ) are desirable for detection and control of many topological phenomena, but they have generally been reported for Kramers-Weyl points, or unconventional chiral fermions, pinned at time-reversal invariant momentum in chiral materials. Here using first-principles band structure calculations, we show that for conventional Weyl points in ZrTe 5 with the chirality of +1/–1 near the BZ center at general momentum induced by one of the infrared phonons—the second lowest $B_{1u}$ mode for breaking inversion symmetry—they can also form expansive open Fermi arcs across the SBZ boundary to occupy most of the SBZ when projected on the (001) surface. In this work, we reveal that such expansive open Fermi arcs are evolved from the topological surface states that connect multiple surface Dirac points on the (001) surface of the topological insulator phases without lattice distortion in ZrTe 5 . Furthermore, we find that the connectivity of the induced open Fermi arcs can be changed by the magnitude of the lattice distortion of this infrared phonon mode. Thus, we propose that using coherent optical phonons to modulate lattice parameters can offer ways to induce unique topological features including expansive open Fermi arcs and to dynamically control Fermi arc connectivity in ZrTe 5 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Topological band and superconductivity in UTe 2

UTe 2 is a likely spin-triplet superconductor that also exhibits evidence for chiral Majorana edge states. A characteristic structural feature of UTe 2 is inversion-symmetry related pairs of U atoms, forming rungs of ladders. Here we show how each rung's two sublattice degrees of freedom play a key role in understanding the electronic structure and the origin of superconductivity. In particular, DFT + U calculations generically reveal a topological band near the chemical potential originating from a band inversion associated with 5f electrons residing on these rungs, necessitating a microscopic description that includes these rung degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we show that a previously identified strong ferromagnetic interaction within a U-U rung leads to a pseudospin-triplet superconducting state that accounts for a nonzero polar Kerr angle, the observed magnetic field-temperature phase diagrams, and nodal Weyl fermions. Finally, our analysis may also be relevant for other U-based superconductors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Visualizing quasiparticles from quantum entanglement for general one-dimensional phases

In this work, we present a quantum information framework for the entanglement behavior of the low-energy quasiparticle (QP) excitations in various quantum phases in one-dimensional (1D) systems. We first establish an exact correspondence between the correlation matrix and the QP entanglement Hamiltonian for free fermions and find an extended in-gap state in the QP entanglement Hamiltonian as a consequence of the position uncertainty of the QP. A more general understanding of such an in-gap state can be extended to a Kramers theorem for the QP entanglement Hamiltonian, which also applies to strongly interacting systems. Further, we present a set of ubiquitous entanglement spectrum features, dubbed entanglement fragmentation, conditional mutual information, and measurement-induced nonlocal entanglement for QPs in 1D symmetry protected topological phases. Our result thus provides another framework to identify different phases of matter in terms of their QP entanglement.

1-dimensional spin chains↗
DOE OSTI2021

Twisted symmetric trilayer graphene: Single-particle and many-body Hamiltonians and hidden nonlocal symmetries of trilayer moiré systems with and without displacement field

Here, we derive the Hamiltonian for trilayer moiré systems with the Coulomb interaction projected onto the bands near the charge neutrality point. Motivated by the latest experimental results, we focus on the twisted symmetric trilayer graphene (TSTG) with a mirror symmetry with respect to the middle layer. We provide a full symmetry analysis of the noninteracting Hamiltonian with a perpendicular displacement field coupling the band structure made otherwise of the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) and the high-velocity Dirac fermions, and we identify a hidden nonlocal symmetry of the problem. In the presence of this displacement field, we construct an approximate single-particle model, akin to the tripod model for TBG, capturing the essence of noninteracting TSTG. We also derive more quantitative perturbation schemes for the low-energy physics of TSTG with displacement field, obtaining the corresponding eigenstates. This allows us to obtain the Coulomb interaction Hamiltonian projected in the active band TSTG wave functions and derive the full many-body Hamiltonian of the system. We also provide an efficient parametrization of the interacting Hamiltonian. Finally, we show that the discrete symmetries at the single-particle level promote the U (2) × U (2) spin-valley symmetry to enlarged symmetry groups of the interacting problem under different limits. The interacting part of the Hamiltonian exhibits a large U (4) × U (4) × U (4) × U (4) symmetry in the chiral limit. Moreover, by identifying a symmetry which we dub spatial many-body charge conjugation, we show that the physics of TSTG is symmetric around charge neutrality.

2-dimensional systems↗