Quantum spin Hall effect

The quantum Hall liquid is a novel state of matter with profound emergent properties such as fractional charge and statistics. The existence of the quantum Hall effect requires breaking of the time reversal symmetry caused by an external magnetic field. In this work, we predict a quantized spin Hall effect in the absence of any magnetic field, where the intrinsic spin Hall conductance is quantized in units of 2(e/4pi). The degenerate quantum Landau levels are created by the spin-orbit coupling in conventional semiconductors in the presence of a strain gradient. This new state of matter has many profound correlated properties described by a topological field theory.     

超构材料中的光学量子自旋霍尔效应

电子的量子自旋霍尔效应的发现推进了当今凝聚态物理学的发展,它是一种电子自旋依赖的具有量子行为的输运效应.近年来,大量的理论和实验研究表明,描述电磁波场运动规律的麦克斯韦方程组内禀了光的量子自旋霍尔效应,存在于界面的倏逝波表现出强烈的自旋与动量关联性.得益于新兴的光学材料:超构材料(metamaterials)的发展,不仅能够任意设定光学参数,同时也能引入很多复杂的自旋-轨道耦合机理,让我们能够更加清晰地了解和验证其中的物理机理.本文对超构材料中量子自旋霍尔效应做了简要的介绍,内容主要包括真空中光的量子自旋霍尔效应的物理本质、电单负和磁单负超构材料能带反转导致的不同拓扑相的界面态、拓扑电路系统中光量子自旋霍尔效应等.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in graphene

We study the effects of spin orbit interactions on the low energy electronic structure of a single plane of graphene. We find that in an experimentally accessible low temperature regime the symmetry allowed spin orbit potential converts graphene from an ideal two-dimensional semimetallic state to a quantum spin Hall insulator. This novel electronic state of matter is gapped in the bulk and supports the transport of spin and charge in gapless edge states that propagate at the sample boundaries. The edge states are nonchiral, but they are insensitive to disorder because their directionality is correlated with spin. The spin and charge conductances in these edge states are calculated and the effects of temperature, chemical potential, Rashba coupling, disorder, and symmetry breaking fields are discussed.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in inverted type-II semiconductors

The quantum spin Hall (QSH) state is a topologically nontrivial state of quantum matter which preserves time-reversal symmetry; it has an energy gap in the bulk, but topologically robust gapless states at the edge. Recently, this novel effect has been predicted and observed in HgTe quantum wells and in this Letter we predict a similar effect arising in Type-II semiconductor quantum wells made from InAs/GaSb/AlSb. The quantum well exhibits an "inverted" phase similar to HgTe/CdTe quantum wells, which is a QSH state when the Fermi level lies inside the gap. Due to the asymmetric structure of this quantum well, the effects of inversion symmetry breaking are essential. Remarkably, the topological quantum phase transition between the conventional insulating state and the quantum spin Hall state can be continuously tuned by the gate voltage, enabling quantitative investigation of this novel phase transition.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in silicene and two-dimensional germanium

We investigate the spin-orbit opened energy gap and the band topology in recently synthesized silicene as well as two-dimensional low-buckled honeycomb structures of germanium using first-principles calculations. We demonstrate that silicene with topologically nontrivial electronic structures can realize the quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) by exploiting adiabatic continuity and the direct calculation of the Z(2) topological invariant. We predict that the QSHE can be observed in an experimentally accessible low temperature regime in silicene with the spin-orbit band gap of 1.55 meV, much higher than that of graphene. Furthermore, we find that the gap will increase to 2.9 meV under certain pressure strain. Finally, we also study germanium with a similar low-buckled stable structure, and predict that spin-orbit coupling opens a band gap of 23.9 meV, much higher than the liquid nitrogen temperature.     

Electric manipulation of spin relaxation using the spin Hall effect

Using the spin Hall effect, magnetization relaxation in a Ni_{81}Fe_{19}/Pt film is manipulated electrically. An electric current applied to the Pt layer exerts spin torque on the entire magnetization of the Ni81Fe19 layer via the macroscopic spin transfer induced by the spin Hall effect and modulates the magnetization relaxation in the Ni81Fe19 layer. This method allows us to tune the magnetization dynamics regardless of the film size without applying electric currents directly to the magnetic layer.     

异常霍尔效应和自旋霍尔效应

异常霍尔效应和自旋霍尔效应是在常规霍尔效应的基础上引发出的2种新现象.本文介绍了这2种现象及其原理和潜在的应用.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in inverted InAs/GaSb quantum wells

We review the recent experimental progress towards observing quantum spin Hall effect in inverted InAs/GaSb quantum wells (QWs). Low temperature transport measurements in the hybridization gap show bulk conductivity of a non-trivial origin, while the length and width dependence of conductance in this regime show strong evidence for the existence of helical edge modes proposed by Liu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 100: 236601]. Surprisingly, edge modes persist in spite of comparable bulk conduction and show only weak dependence on magnetic field. We elucidate that seeming independence of edge on bulk transport comes due to the disparity in Fermi-wave vectors between the bulk and the edge, leading to a total internal reflection of the edge modes.     

Quantum spin Hall effect and enhanced magnetic response by spin-orbit coupling

We show that the spin-Hall conductivity in insulators is related to a magnetic susceptibility representing the strength of the spin-orbit coupling. We use this relationship as a guiding principle to search real materials showing quantum spin-Hall effect. As a result, we theoretically predict that two-dimensional bismuth will show the quantum spin-Hall effect, both by calculating the helical edge states, and by showing the nontriviality of the Z2 topological number, and propose possible experiments.     

量子霍尔效应

从经典的霍尔效应开始,比较系统地、深入浅出地介绍了量子霍尔效应及其所涉及的一些新概念和实际应用。     

Quantum kinetic equation for nonequilibrium dense systems

Using the density matrix method in the form developed by Zubarev, equations of motion for nonequilibrium quantum systems with continuous short range interactions are derived which describe kinetic and hydrodynamic processes in a consistent way. The T-matrix as well as the two-particle density matrix determining the nonequilibrium collision integral are obtained in the ladder approximation including the Hartree-Fock corrections and the Pauli blocking for intermediate states. It is shown that in this approximation the total energy is conserved. The developed approach to the kinetic theory of dense quantum systems is able to reproduce the virial corrections consistent with the generalized Beth-Uhlenbeck approximation in equilibrium. The contribution of many-particle correlations to the drift term in the quantum kinetic equation for dense systems is discussed.     

Mesoscopic spin Hall effect

We investigate the spin Hall effect in ballistic chaotic quantum dots with spin-orbit coupling. We show that a longitudinal charge current can generate a pure transverse spin current. While this transverse spin current is generically nonzero for a fixed sample, we show that when the spin-orbit coupling time is short compared to the mean dwell time inside the dot, it fluctuates universally from sample to sample or upon variation of the chemical potential with a vanishing average.     

Suppression of electron spin relaxation in Mn-doped GaAs

We report a surprisingly long spin relaxation time of electrons in Mn-doped p-GaAs. The spin relaxation time scales with the optical pumping and increases from 12 ns in the dark to 160 ns upon saturation. This behavior is associated with the difference in spin relaxation rates of electrons precessing in the fluctuating fields of ionized or neutral Mn acceptors, respectively. For the latter, the antiferromagnetic exchange interaction between a Mn ion and a bound hole results in a partial compensation of these fluctuating fields, leading to the enhanced spin memory.     

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).     

Thermally assisted spin Hall effect

The spin polarized charge transport is systematically analyzed as a thermally driven stochastic process. The approach is based on Kramers' equation describing the semiclassical motion under the inclusion of stochastic and damping forces. Due to the relativistic spin-orbit coupling the damping experiences a relativistic correction leading to an additional contribution within the spin Hall conductivity. A further contribution to the conductivity is originated from the averaged underlying crystal potential, the mean value of which depends significantly on the electric field. We derive an exact expression for the electrical conductivity. All corrections are estimated in lowest order of a relativistic approach and in the linear response regime.     

Time-reversal-symmetry-broken quantum spin Hall effect

The quantum spin Hall (QSH) state of matter is usually considered to be protected by time-reversal (TR) symmetry. We investigate the fate of the QSH effect in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an exchange field, which break both inversion and TR symmetries. It is found that the QSH state characterized by nonzero spin Chern numbers C(±) = ±1 persists when the TR symmetry is broken. A topological phase transition from the TR-symmetry-broken QSH phase to a quantum anomalous Hall phase occurs at a critical exchange field, where the bulk band gap just closes. It is also shown that the transition from the TR-symmetry-broken QSH phase to an ordinary insulator state cannot happen without closing the band gap.     

Room-temperature reversible spin Hall effect

Reversible spin Hall effect comprising the direct and inverse spin Hall effects was electrically detected at room temperature. A platinum wire with a strong spin-orbit interaction is used not only as a spin current absorber but also as a spin-current source in the specially designed lateral structure. The obtained spin Hall conductivities are 2.4 x 10(4) (Omega m)(-1) at room temperature, 10(4) times larger than the previously reported values of semiconductor systems. Spin Hall conductivities obtained from both the direct and inverse spin Hall effects are experimentally confirmed to be the same, demonstrating the Onsager reciprocal relations between spin and charge currents.     

Universal intrinsic spin Hall effect

We describe a new effect in semiconductor spintronics that leads to dissipationless spin currents in paramagnetic spin-orbit coupled systems. We argue that in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system with substantial Rashba spin-orbit coupling, a spin current that flows perpendicular to the charge current is intrinsic. In the usual case where both spin-orbit split bands are occupied, the intrinsic spin-Hall conductivity has a universal value for zero quasiparticle spectral broadening.