No Arabic abstract
The formation of a superstructure - with a related Moire pattern - plays a crucial role in the extraordinary optical and electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene, including the recently observed unconventional superconductivity. Here we put forward a novel, interdisciplinary approach to determine the Moire angle in twisted bilayer graphene based on the photonic spin Hall effect. We show that the photonic spin Hall effect exhibits clear fingerprints of the underlying Moire pattern, and the associated light beam shifts are well beyond current experimental sensitivities in the near-infrared and visible ranges. By discovering the dependence of the frequency position of the maximal photonic spin Hall effect shift on the Moire angle, we argue that the latter could be unequivocally accessed via all-optical far-field measurements. We also disclose that, when combined with the Goos-Hanchen effect, the spin Hall effect of light enables the complete determination of the electronic conductivity of the bilayer. Altogether our findings demonstrate that sub-wavelength spin-orbit interactions of light provide a unprecedented toolset for investigating optoelectronic properties of multilayer two-dimensional van der Waals materials.
We examine the photonic spin Hall effect (SHE) in a graphene-substrate system with the presence of external magnetic field. In the quantum Hall regime, we demonstrate that the in-plane and transverse spin-dependent splittings in photonic SHE exhibit different quantized behaviors. The quantized SHE can be described as a consequence of a quantized geometric phase (Berry phase), which corresponds to the quantized spin-orbit interaction. Furthermore, an experimental scheme based on quantum weak value amplification is proposed to detect the quantized SHE in terahertz frequency regime. By incorporating the quantum weak measurement techniques, the quantized photonic SHE holds great promise for detecting quantized Hall conductivity and Berry phase. These results may bridge the gap between the electronic SHE and photonic SHE in graphene.
Symmetry-protected photonic topological insulator exhibiting robust pseudo-spin-dependent transportation, analogous to quantum spin Hall (QSH) phases and topological insulators, are of great importance in fundamental physics. Such transportation robustness is protected by time-reversal symmetry. Since electrons (fermion) and photons (boson) obey different statistics rules and associate with different time-reversal operators (i.e., Tf and Tb, respectively), whether photonic counterpart of Kramers degeneracy is topologically protected by bosonic Tb remains unidentified. Here, we construct the degenerate gapless edge states of two photonic pseudo-spins (left/right circular polarizations) in the band gap of a two-dimensional photonic crystal with strong magneto-electric coupling. We further demonstrated that the topological edge states are in fact protected by Tf rather than commonly believed Tb and their pseudo-spin dependent transportation is robust against Tf invariant impurities, discovering for the first time the topological nature of photons. Our results will pave a way towards novel photonic topological insulators and revolutionize our understandings in topological physics of fundamental particles.
We present a systematic classification and analysis of possible pairing instabilities in graphene-based moire superlattices. Motivated by recent experiments on twisted double-bilayer graphene showing signs of triplet superconductivity, we analyze both singlet and triplet pairing separately, and describe how these two channels behave close to the limit where the system is invariant under separate spin rotations in the two valleys, realizing an SU(2)$_+$ $times$ SU(2)$_-$ symmetry. Further, we discuss the conditions under which singlet and triplet can mix via two nearly degenerate transitions, and how the different pairing states behave when an external magnetic field is applied. The consequences of the additional microscopic or emergent approximate symmetries relevant for superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene and ABC trilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride are described in detail. We also analyze which of the pairing states can arise in mean-field theory and study the impact of corrections coming from ferromagnetic fluctuations. For instance, we show that, close to the parameters of mean-field theory, a nematic mixed singlet-triplet state emerges. Our study illustrates that graphene superlattices provide a rich platform for exotic superconducting states, and allow for the admixture of singlet and triplet pairing even in the absence of spin-orbit coupling.
We propose an optical counterpart of the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect in a two-dimensional photonic crystal composed of a gyrotropic medium exhibiting both gyroelectric and gyromagnetic properties simultaneously. Such QSH effect shows unidirectional polarization-dependent transportation of photonic topological edged states, which is robust against certain disorders and impurities. More importantly, we find that such unique property is not protected by conventional time-reversal symmetry of photons obeying the Bosonic statistics but rather by the same symmetry, as electrons time-reversal symmetry. Based on the tight-binding approximation approach, we construct an effective Hamiltonian for this photonic structure, which is shown to have a similar form to that of an electronic QSH system. Furthermore, the invariant of such model is calculated in order to unify its topological non-trivial character. Our finding provides a viable way to exploit the optical topological property, and also can be leveraged to develop a photonic platform to mimic the spin properties of electrons.
Recently twisted bilayer graphene (t-BLG) emerges as a new strongly correlated physical platform near a magic twist angle, which hosts many exciting phenomena such as the Mott-like insulating phases, unconventional superconducting behavior and emergent ferromagnetism. Besides the apparent significance of band flatness, band topology may be another critical element in determining strongly correlated twistronics yet receives much less attention. Here we report compelling evidence for nontrivial noninteracting band topology of t-BLG moire Dirac bands through a systematic nonlocal transport study, in conjunction with an examination rooted in $K$-theory. The moire band topology of t-BLG manifests itself as two pronounced nonlocal responses in the electron and hole superlattice gaps. We further show that the nonlocal responses are robust to the interlayer electric field, twist angle, and edge termination, exhibiting a universal scaling law. While an unusual symmetry of t-BLG trivializes Berry curvature, we elucidate that two $Z_2$ invariants characterize the topology of the moire Dirac bands, validating the topological edge origin of the observed nonlocal responses. Our findings not only provide a new perspective for understanding the emerging strongly correlated phenomena in twisted van der Waals heterostructures, but also suggest a potential strategy to achieve topologically nontrivial metamaterials from topologically trivial quantum materials based on twist engineering.