声子角动量与手性声子

在经典的物理学理论中,声子广泛地被认为是线极化的、不具有角动量的.最近的理论研究发现,在具有自旋声子相互作用的磁性体系(时间反演对称性破缺)中,声子可以携带非零的角动量,在零温时声子除了具有零点能以外还带有零点角动量;非零的声子角动量将会修正通过爱因斯坦-德哈斯效应测量的回磁比.在非磁性材料中,总的声子角动量为零,但是在空间反演对称性破缺的六角晶格体系中,其倒格子空间的高对称点上声子具有角动量,并具有确定的手性;三重旋转对称操作给予声子量子化的赝角动量,赝角动量的守恒将决定电子谷间散射的选择定则;此外还理论预测了谷声子霍尔效应.     

手征马约拉纳费米子

手征马约拉纳费米子是具有手性的无质量费米子,是其本身的反粒子,只能存在于1+1维(即1维空间+1维时间)或者9+1维.在凝聚态物理中, 1维手征马约拉纳费米子可看成1/2分数化的狄拉克费米子,并作为二维拓扑态的边缘元激发.奇数个手征马约拉纳费米子边缘态的存在也预示着体系中存在满足非阿贝尔量子统计的伊辛任意子.手征马约拉纳费米子也可进行非阿贝尔编织,理论上可用来实现容错量子计算,因此近年来在凝聚态物理研究中引起了广泛的兴趣.本文从二维拓扑态出发,介绍手征拓扑超导态和量子反常霍尔态之间的深刻联系,并由此得出量子反常霍尔平台转变与超导近邻实现手征马约拉纳费米子的方案,最后以单通道手征马约拉纳费米子为例,探讨其实现电子态的非阿贝尓量子门.     

人工带隙材料的拓扑性质

近年来,人工带隙材料(如声子晶体和光子晶体)由于其优异的性能,已成为新一代智能材料的研究焦点.另一方面,材料拓扑学由凝聚态物理领域逐渐延伸到其他粒子或准粒子系统,而研究人工带隙材料的拓扑性质更是受到人们的广泛关注,其特有的鲁棒边界态,具有缺陷免疫、背散射抑制和自旋轨道锁定的传输等特性,潜在应用前景巨大.本文简要介绍拓扑材料特有的鲁棒边界态的物理图像及其物理意义,并列举诸如光/声量子霍尔效应、量子自旋霍尔效应、Floquet拓扑绝缘体等相关工作;利用Dirac方程,从原理上分析光/声拓扑性质的由来;最后对相关领域的发展方向和应用前景进行了相应的讨论.     

声子晶体中的多重拓扑相

研究了圆环型波导依照蜂窝结构排列的声子晶体系统中的拓扑相变.利用晶格结构的点群对称性实现赝自旋,并在圆环中引入旋转气流来打破时间反演对称性.通过紧束缚近似模型计算的解析结果表明,没有引入气流时,调节几何参数,系统存在普通绝缘体和量子自旋霍尔效应绝缘体两个相;引入气流后,可以实现新的时间反演对称性破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应相,而增大气流强度,则可以实现量子反常霍尔效应相.这三个拓扑相可以通过自旋陈数来分类.通过有限元软件模拟了多个系统中边界态的传播,发现不同于量子自旋霍尔效应相,量子反常霍尔相系统的表面只支持一种自旋的边界态,并且它无需时间反演对称性保护.     

磁子霍尔效应

霍尔效应是凝聚态领域中古老却又极具潜力的研究领域,其起源可以追溯到数百年前. 1879年,霍尔发现将载流导体置于磁场中时,磁场带来的洛伦兹力将使得电子在导体的一侧积累,这一新奇的物理现象被命名为霍尔效应.之后,一系列新的霍尔效应被发现,包括反常霍尔效应、量子霍尔效应、自旋霍尔效应、拓扑霍尔效应和平面霍尔效应等.值得注意的是,霍尔效应能够实现不同方向的粒子流之间的相互转化,因此在信息传输过程中扮演着重要的角色.在玻色子体系(如磁子)中,相应的一系列磁子霍尔效应也被发现,他们共同推动了以磁子为基础的自旋电子学的发展.本文回顾了近年来在磁子体系中的霍尔效应,简述其现代半经典的处理方法,包括虚拟电磁场理论和散射理论等.并进一步介绍了磁子霍尔效应的物理起源,概述了不同类型磁子的霍尔效应.最后,对磁子霍尔效应的发展趋势进行了展望.     

拓扑声子晶体

拓扑物态是当前凝聚态及材料物理领域的关注焦点.声子晶体是具有周期性结构的人工材料,其中的声子态或声波态也可具有拓扑性质.从声子晶体的背景知识出发,介绍了2类拓扑声子晶体的研究进展,即能谷声子晶体和外尔声子晶体,它们具有良好鲁棒性及超导传输特性的拓扑界/表面波,这种无障碍的传输特性具有广阔的应用前景.     

Majorana费米子与拓扑量子计算

1937年,Majorana发现Dirac所提出的相对论性协变的电子波动方程,在另一个表象下所得到解可以描述不带电荷的费米子,具有与Dirac费米子不同的性质。在基本粒子领域,对这种Majorana费米子的寻找至今一直在进行中;而在凝聚态物理领域,对拓扑超导体和分数量子霍尔态的研究,人们已经发现了与Majorana费米子有相同行为的准粒子。特别是在二维拓扑超导体系中出现的涡旋元激发包含了零能量的Majorana准粒子,它们在交换操作下表现出非阿贝尔的统计性质,因而有望借以实现拓扑量子计算。文章系统地介绍了凝聚态物质系统中获得Majorana费米子的理论模型和物理实现,并进一步介绍了与之相关的拓扑量子计算的实现方法。     

二维拓扑绝缘体退相干效应研究

拓扑绝缘体是当前凝聚态物理研究的热点.退相干效应对该体系的影响的研究不仅有重要的理论意义,而且也是实现未来量子器件的不可或缺的前期工作.文章作者从理论上研究了退相干对二维拓扑绝缘体特别是量子自旋霍尔效应的影响.研究结果表明,作为量子自旋霍尔效应的标志的量子化纵向电阻平台对不破坏自旋记忆的退相干效应(普通退相干)不敏感,但却对破坏自旋记忆的退相干效应(自旋退相干)非常敏感.因此,该量子化平台只能在尺寸小于自旋退相干长度的介观样品中存在,从而解释了量子自旋霍尔效应实验中所观测到的结果(见Science,2007,318:766).同时,文章作者还定义了一个新的物理量,即自旋霍尔电阻,并发现该自旋霍尔电阻也有量子化平台.特别是该量子化平台对两种类型的退相干都不敏感.这说明在宏观样品中也能观测到自旋霍尔电阻的量子化平台,因此更能全面地反映量子自旋霍尔效应的拓扑特性.     

超构材料中的光学量子自旋霍尔效应

电子的量子自旋霍尔效应的发现推进了当今凝聚态物理学的发展,它是一种电子自旋依赖的具有量子行为的输运效应.近年来,大量的理论和实验研究表明,描述电磁波场运动规律的麦克斯韦方程组内禀了光的量子自旋霍尔效应,存在于界面的倏逝波表现出强烈的自旋与动量关联性.得益于新兴的光学材料:超构材料(metamaterials)的发展,不仅能够任意设定光学参数,同时也能引入很多复杂的自旋-轨道耦合机理,让我们能够更加清晰地了解和验证其中的物理机理.本文对超构材料中量子自旋霍尔效应做了简要的介绍,内容主要包括真空中光的量子自旋霍尔效应的物理本质、电单负和磁单负超构材料能带反转导致的不同拓扑相的界面态、拓扑电路系统中光量子自旋霍尔效应等.     

周期场驱动下量子材料的非平衡物态

量子材料的拓扑物态的研究是当前凝聚态物理的重要前沿.区别于局域对称性破缺对物质状态进行分类的传统方式,量子物态可以用微观体系波函数的拓扑结构进行分类.这些全新的拓扑物态有望颠覆传统的微电子学并进而推动拓扑电子学的迅猛发展.当前大部分理论和实验研究集中于研究量子材料的平衡态性质.周期性光场驱动下量子材料远离平衡态、而达到非平衡态时的拓扑物态近年来受到人们的广泛关注.本文首先回顾周期场驱动下非平衡态的弗洛凯(Floquet)理论方法,分别介绍无质量(如石墨烯)、有质量(如MoS_2)等狄拉克费米子材料体系在远离平衡态下的拓扑物态,利用光场与量子物态的相干耦合实现对量子材料非平衡物态的调控;从原子制造角度出发,光场诱导的相干声子态直接改变了量子材料中电子跃迁的大小,进而调控量子材料的非平衡拓扑物态.量子材料中丰富的声子态为非平衡拓扑物态的调控提供了更多的可能性.最后,文章展望了量子材料非平衡拓扑物态在超快相变以及瞬态物态调节等未来可能发展方向的应用.     

Dislocations as linear topological defects

Dislocations and dislocation plasticity are considered and compared with such dissimilar physical phenomena as superfluidity of liquid helium and type II superconductivity. These phenomena share the common property that the dislocations, as well as quantum vortices in superconductors and superfluid helium, are topological defects. They arise during a phase transformation which is accompanied by spontaneous symmetry breaking caused by Bose condensation of acoustic phonons. The general problems of the evolution of ensembles of linear topological defects and the character of the spatial structures formed by them are discussed.     

Electron-induced rippling in graphene

We show that the interaction between flexural phonons, when corrected by the exchange of electron-hole excitations, may drive the graphene sheet into a quantum critical point characterized by the vanishing of the bending rigidity of the membrane. Ripples arise then due to spontaneous symmetry breaking, following a mechanism similar to that responsible for the condensation of the Higgs field in relativistic field theories, and leading to a zero-temperature buckling transition in which the order parameter is given by the square of the gradient of the flexural phonon field.     

Phonon drag effect in three- and two-dimensional electron systems

The nonequilibrium phonon flow drags the electrons, and depending upon experimental conditions manifests itself in the acoustoelectric current, acoustomagnetic field or acoustoelectric field. The results of these phenomena in Sn, Al, Ga, Ag measured with SQUID technique are discussed. In the two-dimensional (2D) case the phonon drag is studied on the interface of bicrystals and on the cleavage (111) surface of Ge and on the inversion layer on (111) (100) planes of Si. In all these cases the phonon drag is about two orders of magnitude larger than in metals with the same charge density. This is due to the drag of surface electrons by nonequilibrium phonon of the whole specimen. The Kohn resonance of phonons with Fermi surface and topological transitions on Fermi surface of 2D electrons produced sharp singularities of phonon drag effect in 2D cases.     

Optical tuning of Berry phase effect in topological insulators

We theoretically discuss the influence of driving laser field on the topological nature, one of the manifestation of the electron Berry phase effect, in two-dimensional electronic systems. Adiabatic change of the laser amplitude with circular polarization alters the “order parameter”, termed the Chern number, in topological insulator with broken time-reversal symmetry, resulting in photo-induced phase transition. The finding is an optical analog of the integer quantum Hall effect, that is triggered by the laser field instead of magnetic field. This parallelism suggests the similarity of effects to electron dynamics between circularly polarized light and magnetic field.     

Quantum anomalous Hall effect and related topological electronic states

Over a long period of exploration, the successful observation of quantized version of anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in thin film of magnetically doped topological insulator (TI) completed a quantum Hall trio—quantum Hall effect (QHE), quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE), and quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE). On the theoretical front, it was understood that the intrinsic AHE is related to Berry curvature and U(1) gauge field in momentum space. This understanding established connection between the QAHE and the topological properties of electronic structures characterized by the Chern number. With the time-reversal symmetry (TRS) broken by magnetization, a QAHE system carries dissipationless charge current at edges, similar to the QHE where an external magnetic field is necessary. The QAHE and corresponding Chern insulators are also closely related to other topological electronic states, such as TIs and topological semimetals, which have been extensively studied recently and have been known to exist in various compounds. First-principles electronic structure calculations play important roles not only for the understanding of fundamental physics in this field, but also towards the prediction and realization of realistic compounds. In this article, a theoretical review on the Berry phase mechanism and related topological electronic states in terms of various topological invariants will be given with focus on the QAHE and Chern insulators. We will introduce the Wilson loop method and the band inversion mechanism for the selection and design of topological materials, and discuss the predictive power of first-principles calculations. Finally, remaining issues, challenges and possible applications for future investigations in the field will be addressed.     

磁斯格明子拓扑特性及其动力学微磁学模拟研究进展

具有非平庸拓扑性的新型磁结构斯格明子,由于其拓扑稳定性、尺寸小、低电流驱动等方面的显著优势,有望应用于自旋电子学储存器件.拓扑和凝聚态物理学的结合,使得斯格明子展现出很多有趣的拓扑物理现象,吸引了众多的研究兴趣,同时这些性质也是其电流驱动下动力学特点的重要影响因素.本文从斯格明子的拓扑物理学基础及其自旋电子学器件应用相关动力学两个方面介绍了相关研究进展.在拓扑物理基础方面,介绍了斯格明子的拓扑霍尔效应、斯格明子霍尔效应以及自旋轨道转矩等拓扑性质,由此讨论了斯格明子的动力学性质及其计算方法;在动力学方面,从非均匀电流驱动生成斯格明子、电流驱动下的稳定输运、产生湮灭过程的人工控制几个赛道存储应用关心的问题简要地介绍了相关微磁学模拟研究最新进展.     

Electron fractionalization in two-dimensional graphenelike structures

Electron fractionalization is intimately related to topology. In one-dimensional systems, fractionally charged states exist at domain walls between degenerate vacua. In two-dimensional systems, fractionalization exists in quantum Hall fluids, where time-reversal symmetry is broken by a large external magnetic field. Recently, there has been a tremendous effort in the search for examples of fractionalization in two-dimensional systems with time-reversal symmetry. In this Letter, we show that fractionally charged topological excitations exist on graphenelike structures, where quasiparticles are described by two flavors of Dirac fermions and time-reversal symmetry is respected. The topological zero modes are mathematically similar to fractional vortices in p-wave superconductors. They correspond to a twist in the phase in the mass of the Dirac fermions, akin to cosmic strings in particle physics.     

Quantum spin Hall effect

The quantum Hall liquid is a novel state of matter with profound emergent properties such as fractional charge and statistics. The existence of the quantum Hall effect requires breaking of the time reversal symmetry caused by an external magnetic field. In this work, we predict a quantized spin Hall effect in the absence of any magnetic field, where the intrinsic spin Hall conductance is quantized in units of 2(e/4pi). The degenerate quantum Landau levels are created by the spin-orbit coupling in conventional semiconductors in the presence of a strain gradient. This new state of matter has many profound correlated properties described by a topological field theory.     

SU(3) spin-orbit coupled fermions in an optical lattice

We propose a scheme to realize the SU(3)spin-orbit coupled three-component fermions in an one-dimensional optical lattice.The topological properties of the single-particle Hamiltonian are studied by calculating the Berry phase,winding number and edge state.We also investigate the effects of the interaction on the ground-state topology of the system,and characterize the interaction-induced topological phase transitions,using a state-of-the-art density-matrix renormalization-group numerical method.Finally,we show the typical features of the emerging quantum phases,and map out the many-body phase diagram between the interaction and the Zeeman field.Our results establish a way for exploring novel quantum physics induced by the SOC with SU(N)symmetry.