铁磁石墨烯体系的CT不变量子自旋霍尔效应

文章作者在垂直磁场作用下的铁磁石墨烯体系里预言了一种新类型的量子自旋霍尔效应.这量子自旋霍尔效应与自旋轨道耦合无关,体系也不具有时间反演不变性;但是有CT不变(C为电子-空穴变换、T为时间反演变换).由于量子自旋霍尔效应,体系的纵向电阻和自旋霍尔阻出现量子化平台.特别是,自旋霍尔阻的量子化平台有很强的抗杂质干扰能力.     

磁性拓扑绝缘体中的量子化反常霍尔效应——无需外磁场的量子化霍尔效应

文章从平常霍尔效应出发,介绍了反常霍尔效应及其内秉物理机制,并在此基础上介绍了其量子化版本——量子化反常霍尔效应.然后从拓扑有序态的角度,重点讨论了量子化反常霍尔效应与量子霍尔效应、量子自旋霍尔效应、拓扑绝缘体等之间的区别与内在联系.最后介绍了通过在拓扑绝缘体(Bi2Se3,Bi2Te3和Sb2Te3)薄膜中掺杂过渡金属元素(Cr或Fe)实现量子化反常霍尔效应的方法.     

磁性拓扑绝缘体与量子反常霍尔效应

量子反常霍尔绝缘体,有时也被称为陈数绝缘体,是不同于普通绝缘体和拓扑绝缘体的一类新的二维绝缘体,该体系具有可被实验观测的特殊物理性质—量子反常霍尔效应。该体系的物态不能用朗道对称性破缺理论来描写,而要用到拓扑物态的概念。它的发现也经历了从反常霍尔效应的内秉物性阐释,到量子自旋霍尔效应与拓扑绝缘体的发现,再到磁性拓扑绝缘体的理论预测与实现,并最终成功实验观测的漫长过程。由于量子反常霍尔效应的实现不需要外加磁场,而此时样品的边缘态可以被看成一根无能耗的理想导线,因此人们对于其将来可能的应用充满了期待。本文将从理论的角度简单综述该领域的发展历程、基本概念、以及相关的材料系统。     

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.     

二维光子拓扑绝缘体研究进展

受凝聚态拓扑绝缘体研究的启发,整数量子霍尔效应、量子自旋霍尔效应、拓扑半金属、高阶拓扑绝缘体等拓扑物理相继在光学系统中实现。光子系统因能带干净,样品设计简单且制作精度高等优势,逐渐成为研究物理拓扑模型和新型拓扑效应的重要平台。拓扑光子学提供了全新的调控光场和操控光子的方法,其拓扑保护的边界态可实现光子对材料杂质缺陷免疫的传播,这种传统光子系统不具备的理想的传输态有望驱动新型光学集成器件的变革。本文将从二维光学体系出发,简要介绍几种典型的光拓扑绝缘体的最新进展,例如光整数量子霍尔效应、光量子自旋霍尔效应、光Floquet拓扑绝缘体、拓扑安德森绝缘体和高阶拓扑绝缘体。文中重点介绍了上述几种光拓扑绝缘体的拓扑模型及其新型的拓扑现象,并在最后展望了新型光学拓扑效应及其在光学器件中的应用前景。     

二维拓扑材料的新进展——纯平锡烯中存在大的拓扑能隙

<正>近年来,得益于拓扑物理理论和二维材料制备的迅速发展,以量子自旋霍尔绝缘体为代表的二维拓扑材料的研究受到热切关注~([1, 2])。早在2005年前后,理论表明在二维材料体系如石墨烯~([3])和HgTe量子阱体系~([4])中由于自旋轨道耦合作用而存在拓扑量子自旋霍尔效应。然而石墨烯中的碳是轻元素,自旋轨道作用非常微弱,所以其拓扑     

Rashba自旋轨道耦合下square-octagon晶格的拓扑相变

本文研究了各向同性square-octagon晶格在内禀自旋轨道耦合、Rashba自旋轨道耦合和交换场作用下的拓扑相变,同时引入陈数和自旋陈数对系统进行拓扑分类.系统在自旋轨道耦合和交换场的影响下会出现许多拓扑非平庸态,包括时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔态和量子反常霍尔态.特别的是,在时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应中,无能隙螺旋边缘态依然能够完好存在.调节交换场或者填充因子的大小会导致系统发生从时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔态到自旋过滤的量子反常霍尔态的拓扑相变.边缘态能谱和自旋谱的性质与陈数和自旋陈数的拓扑刻画完全一致.这些研究成果为自旋量子操控提供了一个有趣的途径.     

拓扑声子与声子霍尔效应

拓扑学与物理的结合是近几十年物理学蓬勃发展的一个新领域,它不仅活跃在量子场理论以及高能物理中,更广泛地存在于凝聚态物理体系中,包括量子(反常、自旋)霍尔效应和拓扑绝缘体(超导体)等.声子是凝聚态体系中热输运的主要载体;最近由于各种声子器件的发现,声子学得到了广泛的关注.本文介绍了声子的拓扑性质以及声子的霍尔效应现象,分别评述了在破坏时间反演对称、破坏空间反演对称、以及同时破坏时间和空间反演对称三种情况下所产生的声子霍尔效应、声子谷霍尔效应等相关物理研究进展.最后对拓扑学在其他声学体系中的应用做了简单介绍,并进一步讨论了其未来的发展方向.     

缀饰格子中时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应

<正>研究了缀饰格子中的量子自旋霍尔效应,模型中同时考虑了Rashba自旋轨道耦合和交换场的作用.缀饰格子具有简立方对称性,以零能平带和单狄拉克锥结构为主要特点.在缀饰格子中,不论是实现量子自旋霍尔效应还是量子反常霍尔效应,都需要一个不为零的内禀自旋轨道耦合作用来打开一个完全的体能隙,这与石墨烯等六角格子模型有着很大的不同.在交换场破坏了时间反演对称性的情况下,以自旋陈数为标志的量子自旋霍尔效应仍然能够存在,边缘态和极化率的相关结果也证明了这一结论.结果表明自旋陈数比z2拓扑数在表征量子自旋霍尔效应方面有着更广泛的适用范围,相应的结论为利用磁场控制量子自旋霍尔效应提出了一个理论模型和依据.     

二维光/声学拓扑态

文章主要介绍光/声学拓扑态的基本概念和研究背景,评述了这一领域中二维体系研究的进展。首先简要回顾了霍尔效应及其与贝利曲率和对称性的关系,接着综合分析了不同对称性条件下的光和声拓扑态,包括光/声量子霍尔效应、Floquet拓扑绝缘体、量子自旋霍尔效应的相关工作,最后讨论了该领域可能的发展方向和前景。     

Effective spin dephasing mechanism in confined two-dimensional topological insulators

A Kramers pair of helical edge states in quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) is robust against normal dephasing but not robust to spin dephasing. In our work, we provide an effective spin dephasing mechanism in the puddles of two-dimensional (2D) QSHE, which is simulated as quantum dots modeled by 2D massive Dirac Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that the spin dephasing effect can originate from the combination of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and electron-phonon interaction, which gives rise to inelastic backscattering in edge states within the topological insulator quantum dots, although the time-reversal symmetry is preserved throughout. Finally, we discuss the tunneling between extended helical edge states and local edge states in the QSH quantum dots, which leads to backscattering in the extended edge states. These results can explain the more robust edge transport in InAs/GaSb QSH systems.     

Wave function multifractality and dephasing at metal–insulator and quantum Hall transitions

We analyze the critical behavior of the dephasing rate induced by short-range electron–electron interaction near an Anderson transition of metal–insulator or quantum Hall type. The corresponding exponent characterizes the scaling of the transition width with temperature. Assuming no spin degeneracy, the critical behavior can be studied by performing the scaling analysis in the vicinity of the non-interacting fixed point, since the latter is stable with respect to the interaction. We combine an analytical treatment (that includes the identification of operators responsible for dephasing in the formalism of the non-linear sigma-model and the corresponding renormalization-group analysis in 2 + ? dimensions) with numerical simulations on the Chalker–Coddington network model of the quantum Hall transition. Finally, we discuss the current understanding of the Coulomb interaction case and the available experimental data.     

Symmetry and spin dephasing in (110)-grown quantum wells

Symmetry and spin dephasing in (110)-grown GaAs quantum wells (QWs) are investigated applying magnetic field induced photogalvanic effect and time-resolved Kerr rotation. We show that magnetic field induced photogalvanic effect provides a tool to probe the symmetry of (110)-grown quantum wells. The photocurrent is only observed for asymmetric structures but vanishes for symmetric QWs. Applying Kerr rotation we prove that in the latter case the spin relaxation time is maximal; therefore, these structures set the upper limit of spin dephasing in GaAs QWs. We also demonstrate that structure inversion asymmetry can be controllably tuned to zero by variation of delta-doping layer positions.     

Towards a dephasing diode: asymmetric and geometric dephasing

We study the effect of a noisy environment on spin and charge transport in ballistic quantum wires with spin-orbit coupling (Rashba coupling). We find that the wire then acts as a dephasing diode, inducing very different dephasing of the spins of right and left movers. We also show how Berry phase (geometric phase) in a curved wire can induce such asymmetric dephasing, in addition to purely geometric dephasing. We propose ways to measure these effects through spin detectors, spin-echo techniques, and Aharanov-Bohm interferometry.     

Influence of electron localization on the spin dephasing anisotropy in bias GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells

JETP Letters - Electron spin dephasing anisotropy is studied in GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells by means of a timeresolved Kerr rotation technique. It is found that the spin dephasing rate is...     

Coherent spin dynamics of different density high mobility two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs quantum well

We have addressed the dependence of quasi-two-dimensional electron spin dephasing time on the electron gas density in a 17-nm GaAs quantum well using the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. A superlinear increase in the electron dephasing time with decreasing electron density has been found. The degree of electron spin relaxation anisotropy has been measured and the dependence of spin-orbit splitting on electron gas density has been determined.     

Can D'yakonov–Perel' effect cause spin dephasing in GaAs(110) quantum wells?

Current theory [Fiz. Tekh. Popluprovodn. 20 (1986) 178; Sov. Phys. Semicond. 20 (1986) 110] indicates that the D'yakonov–Perel' (DP) mechanism is unable to cause spin dephasing in quantum well (QW) with [110] growth direction. We point out that this is no longer true when the many-body inhomogeneous broadening effect of the DP term is taken into account. Based on our many-body theory [J. Supercond. 14 (2001) 245], by solving the kinetic Bloch equations, we show that the DP term contributes to the spin dephasing in (110) QW. The spin dephasing is also compared with that in (100) QW.     

Anomalous spin dephasing in (110) GaAs quantum wells: anisotropy and intersubband effects

A strong anisotropy of electron spin decoherence is observed in GaAs/(AlGa)As quantum wells grown on a (110) oriented substrate. The spin lifetime of spins perpendicular to the growth direction is about one order of magnitude shorter compared to spins along [110]. The spin lifetimes of both spin orientations decrease monotonically above temperatures of 80 and 120 K, respectively. The decrease is very surprising for spins along the [110] direction and cannot be explained by the usual Dyakonov-Perel dephasing mechanism. A novel spin dephasing mechanism is put forward that is based on scattering of electrons between different quantum well subbands.     

Dephasing effects in topological insulators

Topological insulators, a class of typical topological materials in both two dimensions and three dimensions,are insulating in bulk and metallic at surface. The spin-momentum locked surface states and peculiar transport properties exhibit promising potential applications on quantum devices, which generate extensive interest in the last decade. Dephasing is the process of the loss of phase coherence, which inevitably exists in a realistic sample. In this review, we focus on recent progress in dephasing effects on the topological insulators. In general, there are two types of dephasing processes: normal dephasing and spin dephasing. In two-dimensional topological insulators, the phenomenologically numerical investigation shows that the longitudinal resistance plateaus is robust against normal dephasing but fragile with spin dephasing. Several microscopic mechanisms of spin dephasing are then discussed. In three-dimensional topological insulators, the helical surface states exhibit a helical spin texture due to the spin-momentum locking mechanism. Thus, normal dephasing has close connection to spin dephasing in this case, and gives rise to anomalous “gap-like” feature. Dephasing effects on properties of helical surface states are investigated.