No Arabic abstract
Nature creates electrons with two values of the spin projection quantum number. In certain applications, it is important to filter electrons with one spin projection from the rest. Such filtering is not trivial, since spin-dependent interactions are often weak, and cannot lead to any substantial effect. Here we propose an efficient spin filter based upon scattering from a two-dimensional crystal, which is made of aligned point magnets. The polarization of the outgoing electron flux is controlled by the crystal, and reaches maximum at specific values of the parameters. In our scheme, polarization increase is accompanied by higher reflectivity of the crystal. High transmission is feasible in scattering from a quantum cavity made of two crystals. Our findings can be used for studies of low-energy spin-dependent scattering from two-dimensional ordered structures made of magnetic atoms or aligned chiral molecules.
We study transport of noninteracting fermions through a periodically driven quantum point contact (QPC) connecting two tight-binding chains. Initially, each chain is prepared in its own equilibrium state, generally with a bias in chemical potentials and temperatures. We examine the heating rate (or, alternatively, energy increase per cycle) in the nonequilibrium time-periodic steady state established after initial transient dynamics. We find that the heating rate vanishes identically when the driving frequency exceeds the bandwidth of the chain. We first establish this fact for a particular type of QPC where the heating rate can be calculated analytically. Then we verify numerically that this nonequilibrium phase transition is present for a generic QPC. Finally, we derive this effect perturbatively in leading order for cases when the QPC Hamiltonian can be considered as a small perturbation. Strikingly, we discover that for certain QPCs the current averaged over the driving cycle also vanishes above the critical frequency, despite a persistent bias. This shows that a driven QPC can act as a frequency-controlled quantum switch.
Recent studies in the realization of Majorana fermion (MF) quasiparticles have focused on engineering topological superconductivity by combining conventional superconductors and spin-textured electronic materials. We propose an effective model to create unpaired MFs at a honeycomb lattice edge by generalizing a 2-dimensional topologically nontrivial Haldane model and introducing textured pairings. The core idea is to add both the spin-singlet and textured spin-triplet pairings to a pseudospin-state dependent, time-reversal symmetry (TRS) noninvariant honeycomb lattice, and to satisfy generalized sweet spot conditions as in the Kitaev chain model. Our model has a gapped superconducting phase and a gapless phase; either phase may have zero or nonzero topological winding numbers. The discriminant that distinguishes those two phases gives a measure of TRS breaking and may have more general implications. Effective Majorana zero modes arise at edges in distinct phases with different degrees of degeneracy. Our theoretical model motivates concepts, such as textured pairings and the strength of TRS breaking, that may play important roles in future implementation of MFs with cold atoms in optical lattices.
We show how to realize topologically protected crossings of three energy bands, integer-spin analogs of Weyl fermions, in three-dimensional optical lattices. Our proposal only involves ultracold atom techniques that have already been experimentally demonstrated and leads to isolated triple-point crossings (TPCs) which are required to exist by a novel combination of lattice symmetries. The symmetries also allow for a new type of topological object, the type-II, or tilted, TPC. Our Rapid Communication shows that spin-1 Weyl points, which have not yet been observed in the bandstructure of crystals, are within reach of ultracold atom experiments.
We show that scattering of the conduction electrons by nuclear spins via the hyperfine interaction may lead the upper limit on the mean free path in clean metals. Nuclear spins with s >1/2 may cause a strong dephasing in dirty limit due to the quadrupole coupling to the random potential fluctuations caused by static impurities and lattice imperfections.
Topology describes properties that remain unaffected by smooth distortions. Its main hallmark is the emergence of edge states localized at the boundary between regions characterized by distinct topological invariants. This feature offers new opportunities for robust trapping of light in nano- and micro-meter scale systems subject to fabrication imperfections and to environmentally induced deformations. Here we show lasing in such topological edge states of a one-dimensional lattice of polariton micropillars that implements an orbital version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Hamiltonian. We further demonstrate that lasing in these states persists under local deformations of the lattice. These results open the way to the implementation of chiral lasers in systems with broken time-reversal symmetry and, when combined with polariton interactions, to the study of nonlinear topological photonics.