Composite solitons in SU(3) spin–orbit-coupling Bose gases

We study solitons in a spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates with SU(3) spin–orbit coupling. We obtain the ground state and the metastable solution for solitons with attractive interactions by the imaginary-time evolution method. Compared with the SU(2) spin–orbit coupling, it is found that the solitons in SU(3) spin–orbit coupling show a new feature due to breaking the symmetry. The solitons called the composite solitons have mixing manifolds of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states. This has stimulated people to study the topological excitation properties of SU(3) spin–orbit coupling and it is expected to find new quantum phases.     

Phonon dichroism in proximitized graphene

We systematically investigate the phonon dichroism in proximitized graphene with broken time-reversal symmetry.We find that in the absence of any type of spin–orbit coupling, phonon dichroism vanishes. Linear and circular phonon dichroism occur in the presence of uniform(staggered) intrinsic spin–orbit coupling and ferromagnetic(antiferromagnetic)exchange coupling. All these situations can be distinguished by their specific behaviors of phonon absorption at the transition point. Our finding prov...     

Spinor F=1 Bose–Einstein condensates loaded in two types of radially-periodic potentials with spin–orbit coupling

We consider two-dimensional spinor F = 1 Bose–Einstein condensates in two types of radially-periodic potentials with spin–orbit coupling, i.e., spin-independent and spin-dependent radially-periodic potentials. For the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-independent radially-periodic potential, the density of each component exhibits the periodic density modulation along the azimuthal direction, which realizes the necklacelike state in the ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates. As the spin-exchange interaction increases, the necklacelike state gradually transition to the plane wave phase for the antiferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates with larger spin–orbit coupling. The competition of the spin-dependent radially-periodic potential, spin–orbit coupling, and spin-exchange interaction gives rise to the exotic ground-state phases when the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-dependent radially-periodic potential.     

Ground state of rotating ultracold quantum gases with anisotropic spin orbit coupling and concentrically coupled annular potential

Motivated by recent experimental realization of synthetic spin–orbit coupling in neutral quantum gases, we consider the quasi-two-dimensional rotating two-component Bose–Einstein condensates with anisotropic Rashba spin–orbit coupling subject to concentrically coupled annular potential. For experimentally feasible parameters, the rotating condensate exhibits a variety of rich ground state structures by varying the strengths of the spin–orbit coupling and rotational frequency.Moreover, the phase transitions between different ground state phases induced by the anisotropic spin–orbit coupling are obviously different from the isotropic one.     

SU(3) spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic plus quartic trap

We consider a SU(3) spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic plus quartic trap.The ground-state wave functions of such a system are obtained by minimizing the Gross–Pitaevskii energy functional, and the effects of the spin-dependent interaction and spin–orbit coupling are investigated in detail.For the case of ferromagnetic spin interaction, the SU(3) spin–orbit coupling induces a threefold-degenerate plane wave ground state with nontrivial spin texture.For the case of antiferromagnetic spin interaction, the system shows phase separation for weak SU(3) spin–orbit coupling, where three discrete minima with unequal weights in momentum space are selected, while hexagonal honeycomb lattice structure for strong SU(3) SOC, where three discrete minima with equal weights are selected.     

Spin transport properties of a Dresselhaus-polygonal quantum ring

We propose a theoretical method to investigate the effect of the Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling(DSOC) on the spin transport properties of a regular polygonal quantum ring with an arbitrary number of segments. We find that the DSOC can break the time reversal symmetry of the spin conductance in a polygonal ring and that this property can be used to reverse the spin direction of electrons in the polygon with the result that a pure spin up or pure spin down conductance can be obtained by exchanging the source and the drain. When the DSOC is considered in a polygonal ring with Rashba spin–orbit coupling(RSOC) with symmetric attachment of the leads, the total conductance is independent of the number of segments when both of the two types of spin–orbit coupling(SOC) have the same value. However, the interaction of the two types of SOC results in an anisotropic and shape-dependent conductance in a polygonal ring with asymmetric attachment of the leads. The method we proposed to solve for the spin conductance of a polygon can be generalized to the circular model.     

Three-dimensional spin–orbit coupled Fermi gases:Fulde–Ferrell pairing,Majorana fermions,Weyl fermions,and gapless topological superfluidity

We theoretically investigate a three-dimensional Fermi gas with Rashba spin–orbit coupling in the presence of both out-of-plane and in-plane Zeeman fields. We show that, driven by a sufficiently large Zeeman field, either out-of-plane or in-plane, the superfluid phase of this system exhibits a number of interesting features, including inhomogeneous Fulde–Ferrell pairing, gapped or gapless topological order, and exotic quasi-particle excitations known as Weyl fermions that have linear energy dispersions in momentum space(i.e., massless Dirac fermions). The topological superfluid phase can have either four or two topologically protected Weyl nodes. We present the phase diagrams at both zero and finite temperatures and discuss the possibility of their observation in an atomic Fermi gas with synthetic spin–orbit coupling. In this context,topological superfluid phase with an imperfect Rashba spin–orbit coupling is also studied.     

Global phase diagram of a spin–orbit-coupled Kondo lattice model on the honeycomb lattice

Motivated by the growing interest in the novel quantum phases in materials with strong electron correlations and spin–orbit coupling, we study the interplay among the spin–orbit coupling, Kondo interaction, and magnetic frustration of a Kondo lattice model on a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.We calculate the renormalized electronic structure and correlation functions at the saddle point based on a fermionic representation of the spin operators.We find a global phase diagram of the model at half-filling, which contains a variety of phases due to the competing interactions.In addition to a Kondo insulator, there is a topological insulator with valence bond solid correlations in the spin sector, and two antiferromagnetic phases.Due to the competition between the spin–orbit coupling and Kondo interaction, the direction of the magnetic moments in the antiferromagnetic phases can be either within or perpendicular to the lattice plane.The latter antiferromagnetic state is topologically nontrivial for moderate and strong spin–orbit couplings.     

Topological phase in one-dimensional Rashba wire

We study the possible topological phase in a one-dimensional(1D) quantum wire with an oscillating Rashba spin–orbital coupling in real space. It is shown that there are a pair of particle–hole symmetric gaps forming in the bulk energy band and fractional boundary states residing in the gap when the system has an inversion symmetry. These states are topologically nontrivial and can be characterized by a quantized Berry phase ±π or nonzero Chern number through dimensional extension. When the Rashba spin–orbital coupling varies slowly with time, the system can pump out 2 charges in a pumping cycle because of the spin flip effect. This quantized pumping is protected by topology and is robust against moderate disorders as long as the disorder strength does not exceed the opened energy gap.     

Spin switching in antiferromagnets using Néel-order spin-orbit torques

Antiferromagnets offer considerable potential for electronic device applications. This article reviews recent demonstrations of spin manipulation in antiferromagnetic devices using applied electrical currents. Due to spin–orbit coupling in environments with particular crystalline or structural symmetries, the electric current can induce an effective magnetic field with a sign that alternates on the lengthscale of the unit cell. The staggered effective field provides an efficient mechanism for switching antiferromagnetic domains and moving antiferromagnetic domain walls, with writing speeds in the terahertz regime.     

Bose–Einstein condensates under a non-Hermitian spin–orbit coupling

We study the properties of Bose–Einstein condensates under a non-Hermitian spin–orbit coupling(SOC), induced by a dissipative two-photon Raman process. We focus on the dynamics of the condensate at short times, when the impact of decoherence induced by quantum jumps is negligible and the dynamics is coherently driven by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Given the significantly modified single-particle physics by dissipative SOC, the interplay of non-Hermiticity and interaction leads to a quasi-steady-state phase diagram different from its Hermitian counterpart. In particular, we find that dissipation can induce a phase transition from the stripe phase to the plane-wave phase. We further map out the phase diagram with respect to the dissipation and interaction strengths, and finally investigate the stability of quasi-steady states through the time-dependent dissipative Gross–Pitaevskii equation. Our results are readily accessible based on standard experiments with synthetic spin–orbit couplings.     

Floquet topological phase transition in two-dimensional quadratic band crossing system

We investigate the Hall effects of quadratic band crossing(QBC) fermions in a square optical lattice with spin–orbit coupling and orbital Zeeman term. We find that the orbital Zeeman term and shaking play critical roles in the systems,which can drive a topological transition from spin Hall phases to anomalous Hall phase with nonvanishing(spin) Chern numbers. Due to the interplay among the orbital Zeeman term, spin–orbit coupling, and the shaking, the phase diagram of the system exhibits rich phases, which are characterized by Chern number.     

Spin excitation spectra of spin–orbit coupled bosons in an optical lattice

Spin-wave excitation plays important roles in the investigation of the magnetic phases. In this paper, we study the spin-wave excitation spectra of two-component Bose gases with spin–orbit coupling in a deep square optical lattice using the spin-wave theory. We find that, while the excitation spectrum of the vortex crystal phase is gapless with a linear dispersion in the vicinity of the minimum point, the spectra of the commensurate spiral spin phase and the skyrmion crystal phase are gapped. Significantly, the spin fluctuations strongly destabilize the classical ground state of the skyrmion phase with the appearance of an imaginary part in the eigenfrequencies of spin excitations. Such features of the spin excitation spectra provide further insights into the exotic spin phases.     

Pressure induced magnetic and semiconductor–metal phase transitions in Cr_2MoO_6

We investigate magnetic ordering and electronic structures of Cr_2MoO_6under hydrostatic pressure. To overcome the band gap problem, the modified Becke and Johnson exchange potential is used to investigate the electronic structures of Cr_2MoO_6. The insulating nature at the experimental crystal structure is produced, with a band gap of 1.04 eV, and the magnetic moment of the Cr atom is 2.50 μB, compared to an experimental value of about 2.47 μB. The calculated results show that an antiferromagnetic inter-bilayer coupling–ferromagnetic intra-bilayer coupling to a ferromagnetic inter-bilayer coupling–antiferromagnetic intra-bilayer coupling phase transition is produced with the pressure increasing. The magnetic phase transition is simultaneously accompanied by a semiconductor–metal phase transition. The magnetic phase transition can be explained by the Mo–O hybridization strength, and ferromagnetic coupling between two Cr atoms can be understood by empty Mo-d bands perturbing the nearest O-p orbital.     

Energy Band and Josephson Dynamics of Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose–Einstein Condensates

We theoretically investigate the energy band structure and Josephson dynamics of a spin-orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. We study the energy band structure and the corresponding tunneling dynamics of the system by properly adjusting the SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions.The coupled effects of SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions lead to the appearance of complex energy band structure including the loop structure. Particularly, the emergence of the loop structure in energy band also depends on SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions. Correspondingly,the Josephson dynamics of the system are strongly related to the energy band structure. Especially, the emergence of the loop structure results in complex tunneling dynamics, including suppression-revival transitions and self-trapping of atoms transfer between two spin states and two wells. This engineering provides a possible means for studying energy level and corresponding dynamics of two-species SO coupled BECs.     

Quantum spin Hall and quantum valley Hall effects in trilayer graphene and their topological structures

The present study pertains to the trilayer graphene in the presence of spin orbit coupling to probe the quantum spin/valley Hall effect. The spin Chern-number C_s for energy-bands of trilayer graphene having the essence of intrinsic spin–orbit coupling is analytically calculated. We find that for each valley and spin, C_s is three times larger in trilayer graphene as compared to single layer graphene. Since the spin Chern-number corresponds to the number of edge states,consequently the trilayer graphene has edge states, three times more in comparison to single layer graphene. We also study the trilayer graphene in the presence of both electric-field and intrinsic spin–orbit coupling and investigate that the trilayer graphene goes through a phase transition from a quantum spin Hall state to a quantum valley Hall state when the strength of the electric field exceeds the intrinsic spin coupling strength. The robustness of the associated topological bulk-state of the trilayer graphene is evaluated by adding various perturbations such as Rashba spin–orbit(RSO) interaction αR, and exchange-magnetization M. In addition, we consider a theoretical model, where only one of the outer layers in trilayer graphene has the essence of intrinsic spin–orbit coupling, while the other two layers have zero intrinsic spin–orbit coupling.Although the first Chern number is non-zero for individual valleys of trilayer graphene in this model, however, we find that the system cannot be regarded as a topological insulator because the system as a whole is not gaped.     

Enhancing von Neumann entropy by chaos in spin–orbit entanglement

For a quantum system with multiple degrees of freedom or subspaces, loss of coherence in a certain subspace is intimately related to the enhancement of entanglement between this subspace and another one. We investigate intra-particle entanglement in two-dimensional mesoscopic systems, where an electron has both spin and orbital degrees of freedom and the interaction between them is enabled by Rashba type of spin–orbit coupling. The geometric shape of the scattering region can be adjusted to produce a continuous spectrum of classical dynamics with different degree of chaos. Focusing on the spin degree of freedom in the weak spin–orbit coupling regime, we find that classical chaos can significantly enhance spin–orbit entanglement at the expense of spin coherence. Our finding that classical chaos can be beneficial to intra-particle entanglement may have potential applications such as enhancing the bandwidth of quantum communications.     

Spin flip in single quantum ring with Rashba spin–orbit interation

We theoretically investigate spin transport in the elliptical ring and the circular ring with Rashba spin–orbit interaction.It is shown that when Rashba spin–orbit interaction is relatively weak, a single circular ring can not realize spin flip, however an elliptical ring may work as a spin-inverter at this time, and the influence of the defect of the geometry is not obvious.Howerver if a giant Rashba spin–orbit interaction strength has been obtained, a circular ring can work as a spin-inverter with a high stability.     

The phenomenon of even bulk modes variance in a ferromagnetic A--A bilayer system

The eigenproblems of spin waves in a symmetrical ferromagnetic bilayered system with periodic boundary conditions are solved using the interface-rescaling approach (IRA). The results show that interface coupling between two sublayers would not change the excitation energy of odd bulk modes, but change excitation energy of even bulk modes. We call this peculiar phenomenon the phenomenon of even bulk mode variance (PEBMV). There are two kinds of mechanisms which cause PEBMV: phase reversal and phase translation of the magnon at the interface, corresponding, respectively, to the antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interface coupling cases. PEBMV embodies the selective effect of the interface on different bulk magnons.     

Quantum Entanglement in a Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose–Einstein Condensate

We study the spin-field and the spin-spin entanglement in the ground state of a spin-orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate. It is found that the spin-field and the spin-spin entanglement can be induced by the spin-orbit coupling. By mapping the system to the Dicke-like model,the system exhibits a quantum phase transition from a normal(spin balanced) phase to superradiant(spin polarized) phase. The Dicke-like phase transition can be captured by the spin-field and the spin-spin entanglement arising from the spin-orbit coupling. The spin-field and the spin-spin entanglement increase as the Raman coupling increases in the superradiant phase,while they decrease with the Raman coupling increasing in the normal phase. We also consider the effect of a finite detuning on these entanglement show that the presence of the detuning suppresses the spin-field and the spin-spin entanglement.