No Arabic abstract
In this communication, we numerically studied disordered quantum transport in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator-superconductor junction based on the effective edge model approach. In particular, we focus on the parameter regime with the free mean path due to elastic scattering much smaller than the sample size and discuss disordered transport behaviors in the presence of different numbers of chiral edge modes, as well as non-chiral metallic modes. Our numerical results demonstrate that the presence of multiple chiral edge modes or non-chiral metallic modes will lead to a strong Andreev conversion, giving rise to half-electron half-hole transmission through the junction structure, in sharp contrast to the suppression of Andreev conversion in the single chiral edge mode case. Our results suggest the importance of additional transport modes in the quantum anomalous Hall insulator-superconductor junction and will guide the future transport measurements.
After the recognition of the possibility to implement Majorana fermions using the building blocks of solid-state matters, the detection of this peculiar particle has been an intense focus of research. Here we experimentally demonstrate a collection of Majorana fermions living in a one-dimensional transport channel at the boundary of a superconducting quantum anomalous Hall insulator thin film. A series of topological phase changes are controlled by the reversal of the magnetization, where a half-integer quantized conductance plateau (0.5e2/h) is observed as a clear signature of the Majorana phase. This transport signature can be well repeated during many magnetic reversal sweeps, and can be tracked at different temperatures, providing a promising evidence of the chiral Majorana edge modes in the system.
The superconducting-insulator transition is simulated in disordered networks of Josephson junctions with thermally activated Arrhenius-like resistive shunt. By solving the conductance matrix of the network, the transition is reproduced in different experimental conditions by tuning thickness, charge density and disorder degree. In particular, on increasing fluctuations of the parameters entering the Josephson coupling and the Coulomb energy of the junctions, the transition occurs for decreasing values of the critical temperature Tc and increasing values of the activation temperature To. The results of the simulation compare well with recent experiments where the mesoscopic fluctuations of the phase have been suggested as the mechanism underlying the phenomenon of emergent granularity in otherwise homogeneous films. The proposed approach is compared with the results obtained on TiN films and nanopatterned arrays of weak-links, where the superconductor-insulator transition is directly stimulated.
A weak superconducting proximity effect in the vicinity of the topological transition of a quantum anomalous Hall system has been proposed as a venue to realize a topological superconductor (TSC) with chiral Majorana edge modes (CMEMs). A recent experiment [Science 357, 294 (2017)] claimed to have observed such CMEMs in the form of a half-integer quantized conductance plateau in the two-terminal transport measurement of a quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor junction. Although the presence of a superconducting proximity effect generically splits the quantum Hall transition into two phase transitions with a gapped TSC in between, in this Rapid Communication we propose that a nearly flat conductance plateau, similar to that expected from CMEMs, can also arise from the percolation of quantum Hall edges well before the onset of the TSC or at temperatures much above the TSC gap. Our Rapid Communication, therefore, suggests that, in order to confirm the TSC, it is necessary to supplement the observation of the half-quantized conductance plateau with a hard superconducting gap (which is unlikely for a disordered system) from the conductance measurements or the heat transport measurement of the transport gap. Alternatively, the half-quantized thermal conductance would also serve as a smoking-gun signature of the TSC.
The low-temperature Hall resistivity rho_{xy} of La_{2/3}A_{1/3}MnO_3 single crystals (where A stands for Ca, Pb and Ca, or Sr) can be separated into Ordinary and Anomalous contributions, giving rise to Ordinary and Anomalous Hall effects, respectively. However, no such decomposition is possible near the Curie temperature which, in these systems, is close to metal-to-insulator transition. Rather, for all of these compounds and to a good approximation, the rho_{xy} data at various temperatures and magnetic fields collapse (up to an overall scale), on to a single function of the reduced magnetization m=M/M_{sat}, the extremum of this function lying at m~0.4. A new mechanism for the Anomalous Hall Effect in the inelastic hopping regime, which reproduces these scaling curves, is identified. This mechanism, which is an extension of Holsteins model for the Ordinary Hall effect in the hopping regime, arises from the combined effects of the double-exchange-induced quantal phase in triads of Mn ions and spin-orbit interactions. We identify processes that lead to the Anomalous Hall Effect for localized carriers and, along the way, analyze issues of quantum interference in the presence of phonon-assisted hopping. Our results suggest that, near the ferromagnet-to-paramagnet transition, it is appropriate to describe transport in manganites in terms of carrier hopping between states that are localized due to combined effect of magnetic and non-magnetic disorder. We attribute the qualitative variations in resistivity characteristics across manganite compounds to the differing strengths of their carrier self-trapping, and conclude that both disorder-induced localization and self-trapping effects are important for transport.
Two-dimensional electron gases in strong magnetic fields provide a canonical platform for realizing a variety of electronic ordering phenomena. Here we review the physics of one intriguing class of interaction-driven quantum Hall states: quantum Hall valley nematics. These phases of matter emerge when the formation of a topologically insulating quantum Hall state is accompanied by the spontaneous breaking of a point-group symmetry that combines a spatial rotation with a permutation of valley indices. The resulting orientational order is particularly sensitive to quenched disorder, while quantum Hall physics links charge conduction to topological defects. We discuss how these combine to yield a rich phase structure, and their implications for transport and spectroscopy measurements. In parallel, we discuss relevant experimental systems. We close with an outlook on future directions.