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Register a new userTheory and Experimental Investigation of the Quantum Valley Hall Effect
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The quantum valley Hall effect (QVHE) has been observed in a variety of experimental setups, both quantum and classical. While extremely promising for applications, one should be reminded that QVHE is not an exact topological phenomenon and that, so far, it has been fully understood only qualitatively in certain extreme limits. Here we present a technique to relate QVHE systems with exact quantum spin-Hall insulators that accept real-space representations, without taking any extreme limit. Since the bulk-boundary correspondence is well understood for the latter, we are able to formulate precise quantitative statements about the QVHE regime and its robustness against disorder. We further investigate the effect using a novel experimental platform based on magnetically coupled spinners. Visual renderings, quantitative data and various tests of the domain-wall modes are supplied, hence giving an unprecedented insight into the effect.
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A recent scientific debate has arisen: Which processes underlie the actual ground of the valley Hall effect (VHE) in two-dimensional materials? The original VHE emerges in samples with ballistic transport of electrons due to the anomalous velocity terms resulting from the Berry phase effect. In disordered samples though, alternative mechanisms associated with electron scattering off impurities have been suggested: (i) asymmetric electron scattering, called skew scattering, and (ii) a shift of the electron wave packet in real space, called a side jump. It has been claimed that the side jump not only contributes to the VHE but fully offsets the anomalous terms regardless of the drag force for fundamental reasons and, thus, the side-jump together with skew scattering become the dominant mechanisms. However, this claim is based on equilibrium theories without any external valley-selective optical pumping, which makes the results fundamentally interesting but incomplete and impracticable. We develop in this paper a microscopic theory of the photoinduced VHE using the Keldysh nonequilibrium diagrammatic technique and find that the asymmetric skew scattering mechanism is dominant in the vicinity of the interband absorption edge. This allows us to explain the operation of optical transistors based on the VHE.
The nonlinear Hall effect is an unconventional response, in which a voltage can be driven by two perpendicular currents in the Hall-bar measurement. Unprecedented in the family of the Hall effects, it can survive time-reversal symmetry but is sensitive to the breaking of discrete and crystal symmetries. It is a quantum transport phenomenon that has deep connection with the Berry curvature. However, a full quantum description is still absent. Here we construct a quantum theory of the nonlinear Hall effect by using the diagrammatic technique. Quite different from nonlinear optics, nearly all the diagrams account for the disorder effects, which play decisive role in the electronic transport. After including the disorder contributions in terms of the Feynman diagrams, the total nonlinear Hall conductivity is enhanced but its sign remains unchanged for the 2D tilted Dirac model, compared to the one with only the Berry curvature contribution. We discuss the symmetry of the nonlinear conductivity tensor and predict a pure disorder-induced nonlinear Hall effect for point groups $C_{3}$, $C_{3h}$, $C_{3v}$, $D_{3h}$, $D_{3}$ in 2D, and $T$, $T_{d}$, $C_{3h}$, $D_{3h}$ in 3D. This work will be helpful for explorations of the topological physics beyond the linear regime.
We study the electronic structures and topological properties of $(M+N)$-layer twisted graphene systems. We consider the generic situation that $N$-layer graphene is placed on top of the other $M$-layer graphene, and is twisted with respect to each other by an angle $theta$. In such twisted multilayer graphene (TMG) systems, we find that there exists two low-energy flat bands for each valley emerging from the interface between the $M$ layers and the $N$ layers. These two low-energy bands in the TMG system possess valley Chern numbers that are dependent on both the number of layers and the stacking chiralities. In particular, when the stacking chiralities of the $M$ layers and $N$ layers are opposite, the total Chern number of the two low-energy bands for each valley equals to $pm(M+N-2)$ (per spin). If the stacking chiralities of the $M$ layers and the $N$ layers are the same, then the total Chern number of the two low-energy bands for each valley is $pm(M-N)$ (per spin). The valley Chern numbers of the low-energy bands are associated with large, valley-contrasting orbital magnetizations, suggesting the possible existence of orbital ferromagnetism and anomalous Hall effect once the valley degeneracy is lifted either externally by a weak magnetic field or internally by Coulomb interaction through spontaneous symmetry breaking.
The search for topologically non-trivial states of matter has become an important goal for condensed matter physics. Recently, a new class of topological insulators has been proposed. These topological insulators have an insulating gap in the bulk, but have topologically protected edge states due to the time reversal symmetry. In two dimensions the helical edge states give rise to the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect, in the absence of any external magnetic field. Here we review a recent theory which predicts that the QSH state can be realized in HgTe/CdTe semiconductor quantum wells. By varying the thickness of the quantum well, the band structure changes from a normal to an inverted type at a critical thickness $d_c$. We present an analytical solution of the helical edge states and explicitly demonstrate their topological stability. We also review the recent experimental observation of the QSH state in HgTe/(Hg,Cd)Te quantum wells. We review both the fabrication of the sample and the experimental setup. For thin quantum wells with well width $d_{QW}< 6.3$ nm, the insulating regime shows the conventional behavior of vanishingly small conductance at low temperature. However, for thicker quantum wells ($d_{QW}> 6.3$ nm), the nominally insulating regime shows a plateau of residual conductance close to $2e^2/h$. The residual conductance is independent of the sample width, indicating that it is caused by edge states. Furthermore, the residual conductance is destroyed by a small external magnetic field. The quantum phase transition at the critical thickness, $d_c= 6.3$ nm, is also independently determined from the occurrence of a magnetic field induced insulator to metal transition.
When electrons are confined in two-dimensional (2D) materials, quantum mechanically enhanced transport phenomena, as exemplified by the quantum Hall effects (QHE), can be observed. Graphene, an isolated single atomic layer of graphite, is an ideal realization of such a 2D system. Here, we report an experimental investigation of magneto transport in a high mobility single layer of graphene. Adjusting the chemical potential using the electric field effect, we observe an unusual half integer QHE for both electron and hole carriers in graphene. Vanishing effective carrier masses is observed at Dirac point in the temperature dependent Shubnikov de Haas oscillations, which probe the relativistic Dirac particle-like dispersion. The relevance of Berrys phase to these experiments is confirmed by the phase shift of magneto-oscillations, related to the exceptional topology of the graphene band structure.
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