No Arabic abstract
We report on experimental evidence of directed electron transport, induced by external linear-polarized microwave irradiation, in a two-dimensional spatially-periodic asymmetrical system called ratchet. The broken spatial symmetry was introduced in a high mobility two-dimensional electron gas based on AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction, by patterning an array of artificial semi-discs-shaped antidots. We show that the direction of the transport is efficiently changed by microwave polarization. The dependence of the effect on magnetic field and temperature is investigated. This represents a significant step towards the realization of new microwave detectors and current generators.
Realizing stable two-dimensional (2D) Dirac points against spin-orbit coupling (SOC) has attracted much attention because it provides a platform to study the unique transport properties. In previous work, Young and Kane [Phys. Rev. Lett. textbf{115}, 126803 (2015)] proposed stable 2D Dirac points with SOC, in which the Berry curvature and edge states vanish due to the coexistence of inversion and time-reversal symmetries. Herein, using the tight-binding model and k$cdot$p effective Hamiltonian, we present that 2D Dirac points can survive in the presence of SOC without inversion symmetry. Such 2D Dirac semimetals possess nonzero Berry curvature near the crossing nodes, and two edge states are terminated at one pair of Dirac points. In addition, according to symmetry arguments and high-throughput first-principles calculations, we identify a family of ideal 2D Dirac semimetals, which has nonzero Berry curvature in the vicinity of Dirac points and visible edge states, thus facilitating the experimental observations. Our work shows that 2D Dirac points can emerge without inversion symmetry, which not only enriches the classification of 2D topological semimetals but also provides a promising avenue to observe exotic transport phenomena beyond graphene, e.g., nonlinear Hall effect.
We investigate the Nernst effect in a mesoscopic two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at low magnetic fields, before the onset of Landau level quantization. The overall magnitude of the Nernst signal agrees well with semi-classical predictions. We observe reproducible mesoscopic fluctuations in the signal which diminish significantly with an increase in temperature. We also show that the Nernst effect exhibits an anomalous component which is correlated with an oscillatory Hall effect. This behavior may be able to distinguish between different spin-correlated states in the 2DES.
The manipulation of topologically protected field configurations, already predicted and experimentally observed in non-centrosymmetric magnets, as skyrmions, merons and antimerons could definitely have potential applications in logic gate operations as carriers of information. Here, we present and elaborate a proof of concept on how to construct a three-input non-canonical majority gate on a kagome ferromagnet lacking inversion symmetry. By taking advantage of the existence of edge modes in a Kagome magnet, it is possible to create topological excitations as merons and antimerons at the edge of the material. Using atomistic spin dynamics simulations, we determine the precise physical conditions for the creation and annihilation of merons and antimerons and, in a second stage, we describe the majority gate functionality.
We study the response of a weakly damped vibrational mode of a nanostring resonator to a moderately strong resonant driving force. Because of the geometry of the experiment, the studied flexural vibrations lack inversion symmetry. As we show, this leads to a nontrivial dependence of the vibration amplitude on the force parameters. For a comparatively weak force, the response has the familiar Duffing form, but for a somewhat stronger force, it becomes significantly different. Concurrently there emerge vibrations at twice the drive frequency, a signature of the broken symmetry. Their amplitude and phase allow us to establish the cubic nonlinearity of the potential of the mode as the mechanism responsible for both observations. The developed theory goes beyond the standard rotating-wave approximation. It quantitatively describes the experiment and allows us to determine the nonlinearity parameters.
We study a topological phase transition between a normal insulator and a quantum spin Hall insulator in two-dimensional (2D) systems with time-reversal and two-fold rotation symmetries. Contrary to the case of ordinary time-reversal invariant systems where a direct transition between two insulators is generally predicted, we find that the topological phase transition in systems with an additional two-fold rotation symmetry is mediated by an emergent stable two-dimensional Weyl semimetal phase between two insulators. Here the central role is played by the so-called space-time inversion symmetry, the combination of time-reversal and two-fold rotation symmetries, which guarantees the quantization of the Berry phase around a 2D Weyl point even in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. Pair-creation/pair-annihilation of Weyl points accompanying partner exchange between different pairs induces a jump of a 2D $Z_{2}$ topological invariant leading to a topological phase transition. According to our theory, the topological phase transition in HgTe/CdTe quantum well structure is mediated by a stable 2D Weyl semimetal phase since the quantum well, lacking inversion symmetry intrinsically, has two-fold rotation about the growth direction. Namely, the HgTe/CdTe quantum well can show 2D Weyl semimetallic behavior within a small but finite interval in the thickness of HgTe layers between a normal insulator and a quantum spin Hall insulator. We also propose that few-layer black phosphorus under perpendicular electric field is another candidate system to observe the unconventional topological phase transition mechanism accompanied by emerging 2D Weyl semimetal phase protected by space-time inversion symmetry.