Nondissipative spin Hall effect via quantized edge transport

The spin Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron system on honeycomb lattice with both intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings is studied numerically. Integer quantized spin Hall conductance is obtained at the zero Rashba coupling limit when electron Fermi energy lies in the energy gap created by the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, in agreement with recent theoretical prediction. While nonzero Rashba coupling destroys electron spin conservation, the spin Hall conductance is found to remain near the quantized value, being insensitive to disorder scattering, until the energy gap collapses with increasing the Rashba coupling. We further show that the charge transport through counterpropagating spin-polarized edge channels is well quantized, which is associated with a topological invariant of the system.     

Quantum Spin Transport in Rashba Spin-Orbit-Coupled Graphene Nanoflakes

We study the spin-resolved transport in a two-terminal graphene nanoflake device with a Rashba spinorbit coupling region in the center of the device. The Green's function method is applied to the system and the spin transmission probability and the spin polarization in x, y, and z directions are calculated. It is found that the components of the spin polarization are antisymmetric functions of Fermi energy, which oscillate and decay to the zero with increasing the energy for all values of the Rashba strength. It is shown that by tuning the Rashba strength via a gate voltage and/or changing the size of the system, it is possible to control the sign and magnitude of the spin polarization. The system represented here is a typical candidate for full electrical spintronic devices based on the carbon materials that are used for spin filtration.     

Collective spin excitations in 2D paramagnet with dipole interaction

The collective spin excitations in the unbounded 2D paramagnetic system with dipole interactions are studied. The model Hamiltonian includes Zeeman energy and dipole interaction energy, while the exchange vanishes. The system is placed into a constant uniform magnetic field which is orthogonal to the lattice plane. It provides the equilibrium state with spin ordering along the field direction, and the saturation is reached at zero temperature. We consider the deviations of spin magnetic moments from its equilibrium position along the external field. The Holstein-Primakoff representation is applied to spin operators in low-temperature approximation. When the interaction between the spin waves is negligible and only two-magnon terms are taken into account, the Hamiltonian diagonalisation is possible. We obtain the dispersion relation for spin waves in the square and hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Bose-Einstein statistics determine the average number of spin deviations, and total system magnetization. The lattice structure does not influence on magnetization at the long-wavelength limit. The dependencies of the relative magnetization and longitudinal susceptibility on temperature and external field intensity are found. The internal energy and specific heat of the Bose gas of spin waves are calculated. The collective spin excitations play a significant role in the properties of the paramagnetic system at low temperature and strong external magnetic field.     

Pure spin current generation in monolayer graphene by quantum pumping

We study a method to generate pure spin current in monolayer graphene over a wide range of Fermi energy by adiabatic quantum pumping. The device consists of three gate electrodes and two ferromagnetic strips, which induce a spin-splitting in the graphene through the proximity effect. A pure spin current is generated by applying two periodic oscillating gate voltages. We find that the pumped pure spin current is a sensitive oscillatory function of the Fermi energy. Large spin currents can be found at Fermi energies where there are Fabry-Perot resonances in the barriers. Furthermore, we analyze the effects of the parameters of the system on the pumped currents. Our predicted pumped spin current can be of the order of 100 nA which is measurable using the current technology. The proposed method is useful in the realization of graphene spintronic devices.     

Aging, rejuvenation and memory phenomena in spin glasses

In this paper, we review several important features of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of spin glasses. Starting with the simplest experiments, we discuss the scaling laws used to describe the isothermal aging observed in spin glasses after a quench down to the low-temperature phase. We report in particular new results on the sub-aging behaviour of spin glasses. We then discuss the rejuvenation and memory effects observed when a spin glass is submitted to temperature variations during aging, from the point of view of both energy landscape pictures and real-space pictures. We highlight the fact that both approaches point out the necessity of hierarchical processes involved in aging. Finally, we report an investigation of the effect of small temperature variations on aging in spin glass samples with various anisotropies which indicates that this hierarchy depends on the spin anisotropy.     

Fermionic Magnons, non-Abelian spinons, and the spin quantum Hall effect from an exactly solvable spin-1/2 Kitaev model with SU(2) symmetry

We introduce an exactly solvable SU(2)-invariant spin-1/2 model with exotic spin excitations. With time reversal symmetry (TRS), the ground state is a spin liquid with gapless or gapped spin-1 but fermionic excitations. When TRS is broken, the resulting spin liquid exhibits deconfined vortex excitations which carry spin-1/2 and obey non-Abelian statistics. We show that this SU(2) invariant non-Abelian spin liquid exhibits the spin quantum Hall effect with quantized spin Hall conductivity σ(xy)(s)=?/2π, and that the spin response is effectively described by the SO(3) level-1 Chern-Simons theory at low energy. We further propose that a SU(2) level-2 Chern-Simons theory is the effective field theory describing the topological structure of the non-Abelian SU(2) invariant spin liquid.     

Effects of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling on Hofstadter's butterfly

We study the effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the Hofstadter spectrum of a two-dimensional tight-binding electron system in a perpendicular magnetic field. We obtain the generalized coupled Harper spin-dependent equations which include the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and solve for the energy spectrum and spin polarization. We investigate the effect of spin-orbit coupling on the fractal energy spectrum and the spin polarization for some characteristic states as a function of the magnetic flux α and the spin-orbit coupling parameter. We characterize the complexity of the fractal geometry of the spin-dependent Hofstadter butterfly with the correlation dimension and show that it grows quadratically with the amplitude of the spin-orbit coupling. We study some ground state properties and the spin polarization shows a fractal-like behavior as a function of α, which is demonstrated with the exponent close to unity of the decaying power spectrum of the spin polarization. Some degree of spin localization or distribution around +1 or -1, for small spin-orbit coupling, is found with the determination of the entropy function as a function of the spin-orbit coupling. The excited states show a more extended (uniform) distribution of spin states.     

Super-sensitivity in Dynamics of Ising Model with Transverse Field: From Perspective of Franck-Condon Principle

We study the role of Franck-Condon (F-C) principle in the dynamics of a central spin system, which is coupled to an Ising chain in transverse field. The transition process of energy levels caused by the excited central spin is studied to manifest the quantum critical effect through the Franck-Condon principle. The super-sensitivity of this quantum critical system is demonstrated clearly from the properties of Franck-Condon factors. We analytically show how spin numbers, coupling strength and order parameter of the Ising chain sensitively effect on the energy level populations in dynamical evolution near the critical point. This super-sensitivity and criticality are explicitly displayed in absorption spectrum.     

Quantum frustration in the "spin liquid" phase of two-dimensional 3He

We have measured the ultralow temperature and low field magnetic susceptibility of the 4/7 phase of two-dimensional 3He adsorbed on graphite preplated by one layer of 4He. The experiments are performed by progressively adding 4He to the system, thus suppressing in a controlled way the 3He atoms trapped in substrate heterogeneities. This procedure enables us to determine the intrinsic properties of this spin 1/2 model magnet in the zero field limit. The results show quantitatively that the system is strongly frustrated by multiple spin exchange interactions. A characteristic gapped spin liquid behavior is observed at ultralow temperature.     

The spin-

Experiments on semiconductor quantum dot systems have demonstrated the coupling between electron spins in quantum dots and spins localized in the neighboring area of the dots. Here we show that in a magnetic field the electrical current flowing through a single quantum dot tunnel-coupled to a spin displays a dip at the singlet–triplet anticrossing point which appears due to the spin–orbit interaction. We specify the requirements for which the current dip is formed and examine the properties of the dip for various system parameters, such as energy detuning, spin–orbit interaction strength, and coupling to leads. We suggest a parameter range in which the dip could be probed.     

Spin–orbit interaction induced current dip in a single quantum dot coupled to a spin

Experiments on semiconductor quantum dot systems have demonstrated the coupling between electron spins in quantum dots and spins localized in the neighboring area of the dots. Here we show that in a magnetic field the electrical current flowing through a single quantum dot tunnel-coupled to a spin displays a dip at the singlet–triplet anticrossing point which appears due to the spin–orbit interaction. We specify the requirements for which the current dip is formed and examine the properties of the dip for various system parameters, such as energy detuning, spin–orbit interaction strength, and coupling to leads. We suggest a parameter range in which the dip could be probed.     

Spin waves,vortices, and the structure of equilibrium states in the classicalXY model

We prove that, for spin systems with a continuous symmetry group on lattices of arbitrary dimension, the surface tension vanishes at all temperatures. For the classicalXY model in zero magnetic field, this result is shown to imply absence of interfaces in the thermodynamic limit, at arbitrary temperature. We show that, at values of the temperature at which the free energy of that model is continuously differentiable, i.e. at all except possibly countably many temperatures, there iseither aunique translation-invariant equilibrium state, or all such states are labelled by the elements of the symmetry group, SO(2). Moreover, there areno non-translation-invariant, but periodic equilibrium states. We also reconsider the representation of theXY model as a gas of spin waves and vortices and discuss the possibility that, in four or more dimensions, translation invariance may be broken by imposing boundary conditions which force an (open) vortex sheet through the system. Among our main tools are new correlation inequalities.     

Decoherence-and Dimerization-assisted Energy Transport in Protomer of Light-Harvesting Complexes

We have investigated the dynamics of a protomer coupled to two different decoherent environments,each in a configuration called the spin star configuration.Using the quantum mechanics method,in different situations,we obtain the analytical expressions for the transition probability in the protomer system.In thermal equilibrium,there exist well-defined ranges of parameters for which decoherent interaction between the protomer and the environment assists energy transfer in the protomer system,while in pure quantum mechanics states,the decoherent interaction assists energy transfer for an eigenstate but against energy transfer for quantum mechanics averages.In particular,we also find that the dimerization of two bacteriochlorophylls in protomer can always assist energy transfer in certain parameter range,and in the appropriate spin bath energy,the efficiency of energy transport is sensitively depended on the temperature of environments.     

Local Energy Statistics in Disordered Systems: A Proof of the Local REM Conjecture

Recently, Bauke and Mertens conjectured that the local statistics of energies in random spin systems with discrete spin space should, in most circumstances, be the same as in the random energy model. Here we give necessary conditions for this hypothesis to be true, which we show to be satisfied in wide classes of examples: short range spin glasses and mean field spin glasses of the SK type. We also show that, under certain conditions, the conjecture holds even if energy levels that grow moderately with the volume of the system are considered. Research supported in part by the DFG in the Dutch-German Bilateral Research Group ``Mathematics of Random Spatial Models from Physics and Biology' and by the European Science Foundation in the Programme RDSES.     

Spin edge states in two-dimensional electron systems in the presence of Zeeman effect

We study the spin edge states, induced by the combined effect of Bychkov-Rashba spinorbit and Zeeman interactions or of Dresselhaus spin-orbit and Zeeman interactions in a twodimensional electron system, exposed to a perpendicular quantizing magnetic field and restricted by a hard-wall confining potential. We derive an exact analytical formula for the dispersion relations of spin edge states and analyze their energy spectrum versus the momentum and the magnetic field. We calculate the average spin components and the average transverse position of electron. It is shown that by removing the spin degeneracy, spin-orbit interaction splits the spin edge states not only in the energy but also induces their spatial separation. Depending on the type of spin-orbit coupling and the principal quantum number, the Zeeman term in the combination with spin-orbit interaction increases or decreases essentially the splitting of bulk Landau levels while it has a weak influence on the spin edge states.     

Numerical simulation of the XY-model on a two-dimensional random lattice

We discuss a numerical simulation of the planar XY-model on a two-dimensional random lattice. Results obtained on the random lattice are compared with those obtained using identical methods on a square lattice, which acts as a “control experiment”. Calculations were made of the average energy per spin, susceptibility per spin and magnetization. The specific heat was obtained by a numerical differentiation of the energy curve. Also, the number of positive (or negative) spin vortices in the system at different temperatures was calculated. Particular attention is paid to the way in which these vortices entered the system, since it is their appearance which signals the phase transition. Numerical results computed at high temperatures are compared with the theoretical values obtained from high-temperature expansions; and those computed at low temperatures, with the results of spin-wave theory. We investigate the effect of varying the weights for the field theory on the random lattice.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in a square-lattice model under a uniform magnetic field

We study a toy square-lattice model under a uniform magnetic field. Using the Landauer-Bttiker formula, we calculate the transport properties of the system on a two-terminal, a four-terminal and a six-terminal device. We find that the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect appears in energy ranges where the spin-up and spin-down subsystems have different filling factors. We also study the robustness of the resulting QSH effect and find that it is robust when the Fermi levels of both spin subsystems are far away from the energy plateaus but is fragile when the Fermi level of any spin subsystem is near the energy plateaus. These results provide an example of the QSH effect with a physical origin other than time-reversal (TR) preserving spin-orbit coupling (SOC).     

Spin twists, domain walls, and the cluster spin-glass phase of weakly doped cuprates

We examine the role of spin twists in the formation of domain walls, often called stripes, by focusing on the spin textures found in the cluster spin glass phases of and . To this end, we derive improved analytic expressions for the spin distortions produced by a frustrating bond, both near the core region of the bond and in the far field, and then derive an improved expression for interaction energies between such bonds. We critique our analytical theory by comparison to numerical solutions of this problem and find excellent agreement. By looking at collections of small numbers of such bonds localized in some region of a lattice, we demonstrate the stability of small “clusters” of spins, each cluster having its own orientation of its antiferromagnetic order parameter. Then, we display a domain wall corresponding to spin twists between clusters of locally ordered spins showing how spin twists can serve as a mechanism for stripe formation. Since the charges are localized in this model, we emphasize that these domain walls are produced in a situation for which no kinetic energy is present in the problem. Received 10 January 2000