Spin susceptibility of two-dimensional electrons in narrow AlAs quantum wells

We report measurements of the spin susceptibility in dilute two-dimensional electrons confined to a 45 A wide AlAs quantum well. The electrons in this well occupy an out-of-plane conduction-band valley, rendering a system similar to two-dimensional electrons in Si-MOSFETs but with only one valley occupied. We observe an enhancement of the spin susceptibility over the band value that increases as the density is decreased, following closely the prediction of quantum Monte Carlo calculations and continuing at finite values through the metal-insulator transition.     

Dependence of spin susceptibility of a two-dimensional electron system on the valley degree of freedom

We report measurements of the spin susceptibility, chi proportional, variant g(v)g*m*, in an AlAs two-dimensional electron system where, via the application of in-plane stress, we transfer electrons from one ellipsoidal conduction-band valley to another (g(v) is the valley degeneracy, and m* and g* are the electron effective mass and g factor). At a given density, when the two valleys are equally populated (g(v)=2), the measured g*m* is smaller than when only one valley is occupied (g(v)=1). This observation counters the common assumption that a two-valley two-dimensional system is effectively more dilute than a single-valley system because of its smaller Fermi energy.     

电子的谷自由度

电子在晶格周期性势场影响下的运动遵循布洛赫定理. 布洛赫电子除了具有电荷和自旋两个内禀自由度外, 还有其他内禀自由度. 能带色散曲线上的某些极值点作为谷自由度, 具有独特的电子结构和运动规律. 本文从布洛赫电子的谷自由度出发, 简单介绍传统半导体的谷电子性质研究现状, 并重点介绍新型二维材料体系, 如石墨烯、硅烯、硫族化合物等材料中谷相关的物理特性. 有效利用谷自由度的新奇输运特性, 将其作为信息的载体可以制作出新颖的纳米光电子器件, 并有望造就下一代纳电子器件的新领域, 即谷电子学(valleytronics).     

二维原子层谷电子学材料和器件

人为操控电子的内禀自由度是现代电子器件的核心和关键.如今电子的电荷和自旋自由度已经被广泛地应用于逻辑计算与信息存储.以二维过渡金属硫属化合物为代表的二维原子层材料由于其具有独特的谷自由度和优异的物理性质,成为了新型谷电子学器件研究的优选材料体系.本文介绍了能谷的基本概念、谷材料的基本物理性质、谷效应的调控和谷电子学器件的研究进展,并对谷电子学材料和器件的研究进行了总结与展望.     

Monte Carlo Study of Planar Rotator Model with Weak Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya Interaction

With the help of an improvement Monte Carlo method, the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition arising in two-dimensional planar rotator model with weak Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction is investigated. The effects of the DM interaction on specific heat, susceptibility, and magnetization are simulated. The critical temperature of transitions is determined by the so-called Binder cumulant and the susceptibility of finite-size scaling. We find that the chiral Z2 symmetry reduced by the DM interactions plays an important role in a two-dimensional XY spin system,typically, the critical temperature is sensitive to weak DM spin couplings.     

非共振圆偏振光作用下单层二硫化钼电子结构及其自旋/谷输运性质

基于紧束缚近似下的低能有效哈密顿模型和久保线性响应理论,研究了外部非共振圆偏振光作用下单层二硫化钼(MoS_2)电子结构及其自旋/谷输运性质.研究结果表明:单层MoS_2布里渊区K谷和K′谷附近自旋依赖子带间的能隙随着非共振右旋圆偏振光引起的有效耦合能分别线性增大和先减小后增大,随着非共振左旋圆偏振光引起的有效耦合能分别先减小后增大和线性增大,实现了系统能带结构有趣的半导体-半金属-半导体转变.此外,单层MoS_2在外部非共振圆偏振光作用下,呈现有趣的量子化横向霍尔电导和自旋/谷霍尔电导,自旋极化率在非共振右/左旋圆偏振光有效耦合能±0.79 eV附近达到最大并发生由正到负或由负到正的急剧转变,谷极化率随着非共振圆偏振光有效耦合能先增大后减小并在其绝对值0.79-0.87 eV范围内达到100%.因而,可以利用外部非共振圆偏振光将单层MoS_2调制成自旋/谷以及光电特性优异的新带隙材料.     

Spin susceptibility of an ultra-low-density two-dimensional electron system

We determine the spin susceptibility in a two-dimensional electron system in GaAs/AlGaAs over a wide range of low densities from 2x10(9) cm(-2) to 4x10(10) cm(-2). Our data can be fitted to an equation that describes the density dependence as well as the polarization dependence of the spin susceptibility. It can account for the anomalous g factors reported recently in GaAs electron and hole systems. The paramagnetic spin susceptibility increases with decreasing density as expected from theoretical calculations.     

Valley polarization and susceptibility of composite fermions around a filling factor nu=3/2

We report magnetotransport measurements of fractional quantum Hall states in an AlAs quantum well around a Landau level filling factor nu=3/2, demonstrating that the quasiparticles are composite fermions (CFs) with a valley degree of freedom. By monitoring the valley level crossings for these states as a function of applied symmetry-breaking strain, we determine the CF valley susceptibility and polarization. The data can be explained well by a simple Landau level fan diagram for CFs, and are in nearly quantitative agreement with the results reported for CF spin polarization.     

Enhancement of valley splitting in (100) Si MOSFETs at high magnetic fields

We report the density and magnetic field dependence of the valley splitting of two-dimensional electrons in (100) Si metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors, as determined via activation measurements in the quantum Hall regime. We find that the valley activation gap can be greatly enhanced at high magnetic fields as compared to the bare valley splitting. The observation of strong dependence of the valley activation gap on orbital Landau level occupancy and similar behavior of nearby spin gaps suggest that electron–electron interactions play a large role in the observed enhancement.     

Nonlinear 2D spin susceptibility in a finite magnetic field: spin-polarization dependence

By theoretically calculating the interacting spin susceptibility of a two-dimensional electron system in the presence of finite spin polarization, we show that the extensively employed technique of measuring the 2D spin susceptibility by linear extrapolation to a zero field from the finite-field experimental data is theoretically unjustified due to the strong nonlinear magnetic field dependence of the interacting susceptibility. Our work compellingly establishes that much of the prevailing interpretation of the 2D susceptibility measurements is incorrect, and, in general, the 2D interacting susceptibility cannot be extracted from the critical magnetic field for full spin polarization, as is routinely done experimentally.     

Tunable valley filter efficiency by spin–orbit coupling in silicene nanoconstrictions

Valley filter is a promising device for producing valley polarized current in graphene-like two-dimensional honeycomb lattice materials. The relatively large spin–orbit coupling in silicene contributes to remarkable quantum spin Hall effect, which leads to distinctive valley-dependent transport properties compared with intrinsic graphene. In this paper,quantized conductance and valley polarization in silicene nanoconstrictions are theoretically investigated in quantum spinHall insulator phase. Nearly perfect valley filter effect is found by aligning the gate voltage in the central constriction region. However, the valley polarization plateaus are shifted with the increase of spin–orbit coupling strength, accompanied by smooth variation of polarization reversal. Our findings provide new strategies to control the valley polarization in valleytronic devices.     

Dependence of effective mass on spin and valley degrees of freedom

We measure the effective mass (m) of interacting two-dimensional electrons confined to an AlAs quantum well while we change the conduction-band valley occupation and the spin polarization via the application of strain and magnetic field, respectively. Compared to its band value, m is enhanced unless the electrons are fully valley- and spin-polarized. Incidentally, in the fully spin- and valley-polarized regime, the electron system exhibits an insulating behavior.     

Anomalous giant piezoresistance in AlAs 2D electron systems with antidot lattices

An AlAs two-dimensional electron system patterned with an antidot lattice exhibits a giant piezoresistance effect at low temperatures, with a sign opposite to the piezoresistance observed in the unpatterned region. We suggest that the origin of this anomalous giant piezoresistance is the nonuniform strain in the antidot lattice and the exclusion of electrons occupying the two conduction-band valleys from different regions of the sample. This is analogous to the well-known giant magnetoresistance effect, with valley playing the role of spin and strain the role of magnetic field.     

Resonating-valence-bond States and ferromagnetic correlations in the doped triangular Mott insulator

The two-dimensional t-J model on a triangular lattice is studied using high-temperature expansions. By studying the entropy and spin susceptibility, we find that the sign of the hopping integral t is very crucial. In the case of t>0, the peak of the spin susceptibility moves to the high-temperature region with hole doping, which indicates the appearance of the resonating-valence-bond state. In contrast, for t<0, the peak of the spin susceptibility disappears with hole doping and the entropy at low temperatures behaves as S=gammaT with large coefficient gamma, representing a large effective mass. This behavior is understood from the competition between Nagaoka's ferromagnetism and singlet formation.     

Physics of the insulating phase in dilute two-dimensional electron gas

We propose to use the radiofrequency single-electron transistor as an extremely sensitive probe to detect the time-periodic ac signal generated by a sliding electron lattice in the insulating state of the two-dimensional electron gas. We also propose to use the optically-pumped NMR technique to probe the electron spin structure of the insulating state. We show that the electron effective mass and spin susceptibility are strongly enhanced by critical fluctuations of the electron lattice in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition, as observed in experiment.     

Spin and valley half metal induced by staggered potential and magnetization in silicene

We investigate the electron transport in silicene with both staggered electric potential and magnetization; the latter comes from the magnetic proximity effect by depositing silicene on a magnetic insulator. It is shown that the silicene could be a spin and valley half metal under appropriate parameters when the spin–orbit interaction is considered; further, the filtered spin and valley could be controlled by modulating the staggered potential or magnetization. It is also found that in the spin-valve structure of silicene, not only can the antiparallel magnetization configuration significantly reduce the valve-structure conductance, but the reversing staggered electric potential can cause a high-performance magnetoresistance due to the spin and valley blocking effects. Our findings show that the silicene might be an ideal basis for the spin and valley filter analyzer devices.     

A new method for calculation of the magnetic properties in one- and two-dimensional spin systems with anisotropic Heisenberg exchange

A new approximation method is proposed for the calculation of the magnetic susceptibility of one-dimensional assembly of spins and the critical temperature of two-dimensional one both with the anisotropic Heisenberg exchange. In a linear chain system, every spins are grouped into pairs of adjacent spins (pair-approximation) or clusters of adjacent three spins ((q+1)-approximation), and the partition function of the total spin system is approximated as a sum of products of the partitions functions for the pairs or the clusters. Then the partition function of the anisotropic Heisenberg spin system is shown to reduce into a form of the Ising spin system with modified coupling constants. The exact result for the Ising chain system enables us to obtain an analytical expression for the magnetic susceptibility of anisotropic Heisenberg chain system. The same approximations are also applied to two-dimensional lattices, and the critical temperatures of the square, triangular, and honeycomb lattices with anisotropic Heisenberg exchange are calculated as a function of anisotropy parameter. The results are compared with those of the existing theories and shown to be quite excellent.     

Zinc impurities in d-wave superconductors

We study the two-dimensional Hubbard model with nonmagnetic Zn impurities modeled by binary diagonal disorder using quantum Monte Carlo within the dynamical cluster approximation. With increasing Zn content we find a strong suppression of d-wave superconductivity and an enhancement of antiferromagnetic spin correlations. T(c) vanishes linearly with Zn impurity concentration. The spin susceptibility changes from pseudogap to Curie-Weiss-like behavior indicating the existence of free magnetic moments in the Zn doped system. We interpret these results within the resonating-valence-bond picture.     

Pauli spin susceptibility of a strongly correlated two-dimensional electron liquid

Thermodynamic measurements reveal that the Pauli spin susceptibility of strongly correlated two-dimensional electrons in silicon grows critically at low electron densities--behavior that is characteristic of the existence of a phase transition.     

Structure of the pairing interaction in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

Dynamic cluster Monte Carlo calculations for the doped two-dimensional Hubbard model are used to study the irreducible particle-particle vertex responsible for dx2-y2 pairing in this model. This vertex increases with increasing momentum transfer and decreases when the energy transfer exceeds a scale associated with the Q=(pi, pi) spin susceptibility. Using an exact decomposition of this vertex into a fully irreducible two-fermion vertex and charge and magnetic exchange channels, the dominant part of the effective pairing interaction is found to come from the magnetic, spin S=1 exchange channel.