Quantum criticality of quantum speed limit for a two-qubit system in the spin chain with the Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya interaction

We study the quantum speed limit (QSL) time of a two-qubit system coupled to a spin–chain model with the Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya (DM) interaction. For the Bell state coupled to the Ising model or anisotropic XY model, we find that there is a prominent corresponding relationship between the QSL time and quantum phase transition in a spin–chain environment with larger scale, and the DM interaction can strongly enhance or suppress the response relation. Remarkably, when the surrounding environment is set to the XX model, the DM interaction makes it possible for us to witness the quantum phase transition by the local anomalous enhancement of the QSL time near the critical point. In addition, our analyses indicate that the entanglement can speed-up the system evolution in many-body environment.     

Spin-dependent transport properties of debrominated tetrabromopolyaromatic with Cu or Co doping embedded between zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes

Using density functional theory combined with non-equilibrium Green's function method, we investigate the spin-dependent transport properties of debrominated tetrabromopolyaromatic (D-TBPA) molecules embedded between zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes, and the effects of copper and cobalt side doping have also been considered. Our results show that the copper doping can insert new energy levels around the Fermi Level and keep spin degeneration of band structure, the cobalt doping can also induce spin splitting. The results on spin transport properties of D-TBPAs embedded into zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes show that these systems exist spin filtering and negative differential resistance behaviors. Corresponding physical mechanism on the spin-dependent transport property has been revealed according to the frontier molecular orbital characteristics.     

Spin and spin-valley Hall effects in a honeycomb lattice with antiferromagnetism and spin-orbit couplings

We study linear response to a longitudinal electric field on an antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice with intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings (SOCs). It is found that the spin-valley Hall effect could emerge alone or coexist with the spin Hall effect. The spin and spin-valley Hall conductivities exhibit some peculiarities that depend on the distinct topological states of the graphene lattice. Furthermore, the spin and spin-valley Hall conductivities could be remarkably modulated by changing the Fermi level. Our findings suggest that the antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice with SOCs is an excellent platform for potential applications of spintronics and valleytronics.     

Magnetic tunnel junction thermocouple for thermoelectric power harvesting

The thermoelectric power generated in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) is determined as a function of the tunnel barrier thickness for a matched electric circuit. This study suggests that lower resistance area product and higher tunnel magnetoresistance will maximize the thermoelectric power output of the MTJ structures. Further, the thermoelectric behavior of a series of two MTJs, a MTJ thermocouple, is investigated as a function of its magnetic configurations. In an alternating magnetic configurations the thermovoltages cancel each other, while the magnetic contribution remains. A large array of MTJ thermocouples could amplify the magnetic thermovoltage signal significantly.     

Asymmetrical edges induced strong current-polarization in embedded graphene nanoribbons

We investigate the electronic structures and transport properties of the embedded zigzag graphene nanoribbon (E-ZGNR) in hexagonal boron nitride trenches, which are achievable in recent experiments. Our first principles results show that the E-ZGNR has a significant enhanced conductivity relative to common ZGNRs due to the existence of asymmetrical edge structures. Moreover, only one spin-orientation electrons possess a widely opened band gap at the magnetic ground state with anti-ferromagnetic configuration, resulting in a full current-polarization at low bias region. Our findings indicate that the state-of-the-art embedding technology is quite useful for tuning the electronic structure of ZGNR and building possible spin injection and spin filter devices in spintronics.     

Quantum-state transfer through long-range correlated disordered channels

We study quantum-state transfer in XX spin-1/2 chains where both communicating spins are weakly coupled to a channel featuring disordered on-site magnetic fields. Fluctuations are modeled by long-range correlated sequences with self-similar profile obeying a power-law spectrum. We show that the channel is able to perform almost perfect quantum-state transmissions even in the presence of significant amounts of disorder provided the degree of those correlations is strong enough, with the cost of having long transfer times and unavoidable timing errors. Still, we show that the lack of mirror symmetry in the channel does not affect much the likelihood of having high-quality outcomes. Our results suggest that coexistence between localized and delocalized states can diminish effects of static perturbations in solid-state devices for quantum communication.     

Exchange bias mechanism in FM/FM/AF spin valve systems in the presence of random unidirectional anisotropy field at the AF interface: The role played by the interface roughness due to randomness

We propose an atomistic model and present Monte Carlo simulation results regarding the influence of FM/AF interface structure on the hysteresis mechanism and exchange bias behavior for a spin valve type FM/FM/AF magnetic junction. We simulate perfectly flat and roughened interface structures both with uncompensated interfacial AF moments. In order to simulate rough interface effect, we introduce the concept of random exchange anisotropy field induced at the interface, and acting on the interface AF spins. Our results yield that different types of the random field distributions of anisotropy field may lead to different behavior of exchange bias.     

Gate control of quantum dot-based electron spin–orbit qubits

We investigate theoretically the coherent spin dynamics of gate control of quantum dot-based electron spin–orbit qubits subjected to a tilted magnetic field under electric-dipole spin resonance (EDSR). Our results reveal that Rabi oscillation of qubit states can be manipulated electrically based on rapid gate control of SOC strength. The Rabi frequency is strongly dependent on the gate-induced electric field, the strength and orientation of the applied magnetic field. There are two major EDSR mechanisms. One arises from electric field-induced spin–orbit hybridization, and the other arises from magnetic field-induced energy-level crossing. The SOC introduced by the gate-induced electric field allows AC electric fields to drive coherent Rabi oscillations between spin-up and -down states. After the crossing of the energy-levels with the magnetic field, the spin-transfer crossing results in Rabi oscillation irrespective of whether or not the external electric field is present. The spin–orbit qubit is transferred into the orbit qubit. Rabi oscillation is anisotropic and periodic with respect to the tilted and in-plane orientation of the magnetic field originating from the interplay of the SOC, orbital, and Zeeman effects. The strong electrically-controlled SOC strength suggests the possibility for scalable applications of gate-controllable spin–orbit qubits.     

Macroscopic ground-state degeneracy and magnetocaloric effect in the exactly solvable spin-1/2 Ising–Heisenberg double-tetrahedral chain

The ground-state degeneracy and magnetocaloric effect in the spin-1/2 Ising–Heisenberg double-tetrahedral chain are exactly investigated. It is demonstrated that the zero-temperature phase diagram involves two classical and two quantum chiral phases with distinct degrees of the macroscopic degeneracy. Different macroscopic degeneracies observed in the latter phases and at individual ground-state phase transitions are confirmed by multiple-peak dependencies of the specific heat and entropy on the magnetic field. The cooling capability of the model is well illustrated by the magnetic-field variations of the isothermal entropy change, temperature isotherms and the magnetic Grüneisen parameter.     

Domain wall nucleation and propagation in spin-transfer torque switching with thermal effects

We conduct micro-magnetic simulations to study spin-transfer torque induced magnetization switching in perpendicular magnetic tunneling junctions. The effects of current densities and temperatures on the switching processes are studied in details. We then proposed an approach to compute the deterministic switching time by taking thermal-effect into account. The switching time is less temperature-dependent under higher current density; however, as the current density decreases, the effect of temperature on the switching time becomes more and more significant. The switching process with micro-magnetic simulations is shown to be via domain wall nucleation and propagation. The phenomena are consistent with the recent experimental found-out. We further propose a method to compute the switching time based on domain wall nucleation and propagation theory, and compare the switching time with those from macro-spin approximation. It is found the switching times from the micro-magnetic simulations are much shorter than that from the macro-spin approximations. Macro-spin approximation over-estimates the switching times due to its coherent rotation assumptions.