磁场中拓扑物态的量子输运

拓扑物态包括拓扑绝缘体、拓扑半金属以及拓扑超导体.拓扑物态奇异的能带结构以及受拓扑保护的新奇表面态,使其具有了独特的输运性质.拓扑半金属作为物质的一种三维拓扑态具有无能隙的准粒子激发,根据导带和价带的接触类型分为外尔半金属、狄拉克半金属和节线半金属.本文以拓扑半金属为主回顾了在磁场下拓扑物态中量子输运的最新工作,在不同...     

Intrinsic magnetic topological materials

Topological states of matter possess bulk electronic structures categorized by topological invariants and edge/surface states due to the bulk-boundary correspondence. Topological materials hold great potential in the development of dissipationless spintronics, information storage and quantum computation, particularly if combined with magnetic order intrinsically or extrinsically. Here, we review the recent progress in the exploration of intrinsic magnetic topological materials, including but not limited to magnetic topological insulators, magnetic topological metals, and magnetic Weyl semimetals. We pay special attention to their characteristic band features such as the gap of topological surface state, gapped Dirac cone induced by magnetization (either bulk or surface), Weyl nodal point/line and Fermi arc, as well as the exotic transport responses resulting from such band features. We conclude with a brief envision for experimental explorations of new physics or effects by incorporating other orders in intrinsic magnetic topological materials.     

Electronic states and spin-filter effect in three-dimensional topological insulator Bi_2Se_3 nanoribbons

We study the electronic band structure, density distribution, and transport of a Bi_2Se_3 nanoribbon. We find that the density distribution of the surface states is dependent on not only the shape and size of the transverse cross section of the nanoribbon, but also the energy of the electron. We demonstrate that a transverse electric field can eliminate the coupling between surface states on the walls of the nanoribbon, remove the gap of the surface states, and restore the quantum spin Hall effects. In addition, we study the spin-dependent transport property of the surface states transmitting from top and bottom surfaces(x-y plane) to the side surfaces(z-x plane) of a Bi_2Se_3 nanoribbon. We find that transverse electric fields can open two surface channels for spin-up and-down Dirac electrons, and then switch off one channel for the spin-up Dirac electron. Our results may provide a simple way for the design of a spin filter based on topological insulator nanostructures.     

Magneto-transport properties of thin flakes of Weyl semiconductor tellurium

As an elemental semiconductor, tellurium has recently attracted intense interest due to its non-trivial band topology, and the resulted intriguing topological transport phenomena. In this study we report systematic electronic transport studies on tellurium flakes grown via a simple vapor deposition process. The sample is self-hole-doped, and exhibits typical weak localization behavior at low temperatures. Substantial negative longitudinal magnetoresistance under parallel magnetic field is observed over a wide temperature region, which is considered to share the same origin with that in tellurium bulk crystals, i.e., the Weyl points near the top of valence band. However, with lowering temperature the longitudinal magnetoconductivity experiences a transition from parabolic to linear field dependency, differing distinctly from the bulk counterparts. Further analysis reveals that such a modulation of Weyl behaviors in this low-dimensional tellurium structure can be attributed to the enhanced inter-valley scattering at low temperatures. Our results further extend Weyl physics into a low-dimensional semiconductor system, which may find its potential application in designing topological semiconductor devices.     

Shot noise in magnetic field modulated graphene superlattice

We investigate the shot noise properties in a monolayer graphene superlattice modulated by N parallel ferromagnets deposited on a dielectric layer. It is found that for the antiparallel magnetization configuration or when magnetic field is zero the new Dirac-like point appears in graphene superlattice. The transport is almost forbidden at this new Dirac-like point, and the Fano factor reaches its maximum value 1/3. In the parallel magnetization configuration as the number of magnetic barriers increases, the shot noise increases. In this case, the transmission can be blocked by the magnetic–electric barrier and the Fano factor approaches 1, which is dramatically distinguishable from that in antiparallel alignment. The results may be helpful to control the electron transport in graphene-based electronic devices.     

Electronic Energy Band and Transport Properties in Monolayer Graphene with Periodically Modulated Magnetic Vector Potential and Electrostatic Potential

We investigated the electronic energy band and transport features of graphene superlattice with periodically modulated magnetic vector potential and electrostatic potential.It is found that both parallel magnetic vector potential and electrostatic potential can decisively shift Dirac point in a different way,which may be an efficient way to achieveelectron or hole filter.We also find that applying modulated parallel and anti-parallel magnetic vector potential to the electrons can efficiently change electronic states between pass and stop states,which can be useful in designing electron or hole switches and lead to large magneto-resistance.     

Transport and Conductance in Fibonacci Graphene Superlattices with Electric and Magnetic Potentials

We investigate the electron transport and conductance properties in Fibonacci quasi-periodic graphene superlattices with electrostatic barriers and magnetic vector potentials.It is found that a new Dirac point appears in the band structure of graphene superlattice and the position of the Dirac point is exactly located at the energy corresponding to the zero-averaged wave number.The magnetic and electric potentials modify the energy band structure and transmission spectrum in entirely diverse ways.In addition,the angular-dependent transmission is blocked by the potential barriers at certain incident angles due to the appearance of the evanescent states.The effects of lattice constants and different potentials on angular-averaged conductance are also discussed.     

锡基钙钛矿太阳能电池载流子传输层的探讨

锡基钙钛矿太阳能电池可避免铅元素对环境带来的污染,近年来已成为光伏领域的研究热点.本文以SCAPS-1D太阳能电池数值模拟软件为平台,对不同电子传输层和不同空穴传输层的锡基钙钛矿太阳能电池器件的性能进行数值仿真对比,从理论上分析不同载流子传输层的锡基钙钛矿太阳能电池的性能差异.结果显示,载流子传输层与钙钛矿层的能带对齐对电池性能至关重要.电子传输层具有更高的导带或电子准费米能级以及空穴传输层具有更低的价带或空穴准费米能级时,对电池输出更大的开路电压有促进作用.另外,当电子传输层的导带高于钙钛矿层导带或钙钛矿层的价带高于空穴传输层的价带时,钙钛矿层与载流子传输层界面形成spike势垒,界面复合机制相对较弱,促使电池获得更佳的性能.当Cd0.5Zn0.5S和MASnBr3分别作为电子传输层和空穴传输层时,与其他材料相比,获得了更优的输出特性:开路电压Voc=0.94 V,短路电流密度Jsc=30.35 mA/cm^2,填充因子FF=76.65%,功率转换效率PCE=21.55%,可认为Cd0.5Zn0.5S和MASnBr3是设计锡基钙钛矿太阳能电池结构合适的载流子传输层材料.这些模拟结果有助于实验上设计并制备高性能的锡基钙钦矿太阳能电池.     

Electronic structure of three-dimensional topological insulators: thickness dependence and warping effect

We theoretically study the electronic structure of a three-dimensional topological insulator using a 3D lattice model with a warping term included. Thickness dependence of the electronic structure and the shape of constant-energy contour at different energy are both investigated in this model. We demonstrate that an energy gap opens in the surface state when the thickness is below six quintuple layers and disappears for thicker topological insulators. With the increasing of energy, the shape of constant-energy contour of the surface state band gradually evolves from a point at Dirac point to a circle with increasing volume, then to a hexagon, and finally to a hexagram. We clarify that the critical thickness of six quintuple is not modified by the warping term and the appearance of a hexagram is not influenced by the finite size effect. These phenomena agree well with recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments.     

拓扑绝缘体的普适电导涨落

拓扑绝缘体因其无能量耗散的拓扑表面输运而备受关注, 揭示拓扑表面态因其 的贝利相位而产生的拓扑输运现象, 将有助于拓扑绝缘体相关器件的应用开发. 本文回顾了普适电导涨落(UCF) 揭示拓扑绝缘体奇异输运性质的研究进展. 通过调控温度、角度、门电压、垂直磁场和平行磁场等外部参量, 实现了对拓扑绝缘体的UCF 效应的系统研究, 证实了拓扑绝缘体中二维UCF 的输运现象, 并通过尺寸标度规律获得了UCF 的拓扑起源的实验证据, 讨论了拓扑表面态的UCF 的统计对称规律. 从而实现了对拓扑绝缘体UCF 效应的较为完整的理解.     

Electron on a cylinder with topological defects in a homogeneous magnetic field

In this work we study the effects of the geometry and topology of a cylinder on the energy levels of an electron moving in a homogeneous magnetic field. We consider the existence of topological defects as a screw dislocation and a disclination. When we take the region of movement as the full cylindrical surface, we find that, by increasing the strength of the screw dislocation, the dispersion on the electronic energy levels is affected and monotonically increasing. For an electron moving in an almost flat region we show that the dispersion on the Landau levels decrease monotonically as we increase the strength of the screw dislocation. The lowest Landau level can reach a zero value, leaving the energy of the system solely given by the geometry of the cylinder, which does not depend on the magnetic field. In both situations, as we change the deficit angle of the disclination, we observe that the energy levels are shifted and the magnitude of such shift depends on the magnetic field. The Landau levels for a flat sample are recovered in the limit of an infinite cylinder radius.     

Theory of the quantized hall effect (II)

We review the derivation that the effective lagrangian describing the critical fluctuations in a two-dimensional disordered electronic system in a transverse magnetic field contains a novel, topological term. We extend this result in several directions. We show how the importance of topological concepts can be seen by examining in detail the nature of the boundary current whenever the Fermi energy lies within a localized state region. This insight allows us to construct a field theoretic quantization argument. Our argument is reminiscent of the Laughlin-Halperin quantization approach, in that we make use of the response of the system to sources with nontrivial gauge topology. This then leads to a discussion of how to use the effective field theory to actually compute the response, and of why localization must break down somewhere within the Landau band. Our methodology unifies the results of Laughlin, Halperin and Thouless with the field theoretic approach to localization pioneered by Wegner.     

Electronic energy alignment at the PbSe quantum dots/ZnO(101̅0) interface

A number of solar energy conversion strategies depend on exciton dissociation across interfaces between semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and other electron or hole conducting materials. A critical factor governing exciton dissociation and charge transfer in these systems is the alignment of electronic energy levels across the interface. We probe interfacial electronic energy alignment in a model system, sub-monolayer films of PbSe QDs adsorbed on single crystal ZnO(101?0) surfaces using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. We establish electronic energy alignment as a function of quantum dot size and surface chemistry. We find that replacing insulating oleic-acid capping molecules on the QDs by the short hydrazine or ethanedithiol molecules results in pinning of the valence band maximum (VBM) of QDs to ZnO substrate states, independent of QD size. This is in contrast to similar measurements on TiO₂(110) where the alignment of the PbSe QD VBM to that of the TiO₂ substrate depends on QD size. We interpret these findings as indicative of strong electronic coupling of QDs with the ZnO surface but less with the TiO₂ surface. Based on the measured energy alignment, we predict that electron injection from the 1s_e level in photo-excited PbSe QDs to ZnO can occur with small QDs (diameter ? = 3.4 nm), but energetically unfavorably for larger dots (? = 6.7 nm). In the latter, hot electrons above the 1s_e level are necessary for interfacial electron injection.     

Strain induced novel quantum magnetotransport properties of topological insulators

Recent theoretical and experimental researches have revealed that the strained bulk HgTe can be regarded as a three-dimensional topological insulator (TI). Motivated by this, we explore the strain effects on the transport properties of the HgTe surface states, which are modulated by a weak 1D in-plane electrostatic periodic potential in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We analytically derive the zero frequency (dc) diffusion conductivity for the case of quasielastic scattering in the Kubo formalism, and find that, in strong magnetic field regime, the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations are superimposed on top of the Weiss oscillations due to the electric modulation for null and finite strain. Furthermore, the strain is shown to remove the degeneracy in inversion symmetric Dirac cones on the top and bottom surfaces. This accordingly gives rise to the splitting and mixture of Landau levels, and the asymmetric spectrum of the dc conductivity. These phenomena, not known in a conventional 2D electron gas and even in a strainless TI and graphene, are a consequence of the anomalous spectrum of surface states in a fully stained TI. These results should be valuable for electronic and spintronic applications of TIs, and thus we fully expect to see them in the further experiment.     

Magnetotransport in a graphene monolayer with two tunable magnetic barriers

The magnetotransport property for a monolayer graphene with two turnable magnetic barriers has been investigated by the transfer-matrix method. We show that the parameters of barrier height, width, and interval between two barriers affect the electron wave decaying length, which determine the conductance with parallel or antiparallel magnetization configuration, and consequently the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) for the system. Interestingly, a graphene attached by two barriers with different heights can produce a resonant TMR peak at low energy region one order of magnitude larger than that for the system with two same height barriers because that the asymmetry of magnetic barriers block the electron transmission in the case of antiparallel magnetization configuration. The results obtained here may be useful in understanding of electron tunneling in graphene and in designing of graphene-based nanodevices.     

Colossal anisotropy in diluted magnetic topological insulators

We consider dilute magnetic doping in the surface of a three dimensional topological insulator where a two dimensional Dirac electron gas resides. We find that exchange coupling between magnetic atoms and the Dirac electrons has a strong and peculiar effect on both. First, the exchange-induced single ion magnetic anisotropy is very large and favors off-plane orientation. In the case of a ferromagnetically ordered phase, we find a colossal magnetic anisotropy energy, of the order of the critical temperature. Second, a persistent electronic current circulates around the magnetic atom and, in the case of a ferromagnetic phase, around the edges of the surface.     

Li(Na)AuS体系拓扑绝缘体材料的能带结构

在拓扑领域中发现可以通过大数据搜索拓扑绝缘体,使得此领域对材料的探索转变为对材料性质的研究.半Heusler合金体系是非平庸拓扑绝缘体材料的重要载体.通过全势线性缀加平面波方法计算Li(Na)AuS体系拓扑绝缘体材料的能带结构.采用各种关联泛函计算LiAuS的平衡晶格常数,发现得到的能带图均为具有反带结构的拓扑绝缘体,...     

Experimental Realization of an Intrinsic Magnetic Topological Insulator

An intrinsic magnetic topological insulator(TI) is a stoichiometric magnetic compound possessing both inherent magnetic order and topological electronic states. Such a material can provide a shortcut to various novel topological quantum effects but remained elusive experimentally for a long time. Here we report the experimental realization of thin films of an intrinsic magnetic TI, MnBi_2Te_4, by alternate growth of a Bi_2Te_3 quintuple layer and a MnTe bilayer with molecular beam epitaxy. The material shows the archetypical Dirac surface states in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and is demonstrated to be an antiferromagnetic topological insulator with ferromagnetic surfaces by magnetic and transport measurements as well as first-principles calculations. The unique magnetic and topological electronic structures and their interplays enable the material to embody rich quantum phases such as quantum anomalous Hall insulators and axion insulators at higher temperature and in a well-controlled way.     

本征磁性拓扑绝缘体MnBi2Te4电子结构的压力应变调控

由于MnBi2Te4电子结构具有对晶格常数的改变相当敏感的特性,本文采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法对MnBi2Te4反铁磁块体的电子结构施加等体积应变调控.研究发现体系能带结构在材料等体积拉伸和压缩作用下变化灵敏,体系出现绝缘体-金属相变.特别地,当施加特定应变后导带和价带在Γ处出现交叉,体系呈零带隙状态.在此应...     

Spatial distribution of spin polarization in a channel on the surface of a topological insulator

We study the spatial distribution of electron spin polarization for a gate-controlled T-shaped channel on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator (3D TI). We demonstrate that an energy gap depending on channel geometry parameters is definitely opened due to the spatial confinement. Spin surface locking in momentum space for a uniform wide channel with Hamiltonian linearity in the wavevector is still kept, but it is broken with Hamiltonian nonlinearity in the wavevector, like that for two-dimensional surface states widely studied in the literature. However, the spin surface locking for a T-shaped channel is broken even with Hamiltonian linearity in the wavevector. Interestingly, the magnitude and direction of the in-plane spin polarization are spatially dependent in all regions due to the breaking of translational symmetry of the T-shaped channel system. These interesting findings for an electrically controlled nanostructure based on the 3D TI surface may be testable with the present experimental technique, and may provide further understanding the nature of 3D TI surface states.