No Arabic abstract
A lattice-based model exhibits an unusual conductivity when it is subjected to both a static magnetic field and electromagnetic radiation. This conductivity anomaly may explain some aspects of the recently observed zero-resistance states. PACS: 72.40+w, 73.40-c, 73.63 Keywords: Zero-resistance states, negative conductivity, lattice model
A 2D electron system in a quantized magnetic field can be driven by microwave radiation into a non-equilibrium state with strong magnetooscillations of the dissipative conductivity. We demonstrate that in such system a negative conductivity can coexist with a positive diffusion coefficient. In a finite system, solution of coupled electrostatic and linear transport problems shows that the diffusion can stabilize a state with negative conductivity. Specifically, this happens when the system size is smaller than the absolute value of the non-equilibrium screening length that diverges at the point where the conductivity changes sign. We predict that a negative resistance can be measured in such a state. Further, for a non-zero difference between the work functions of two contacts, we explore the distribution of the electrostatic potential and of the electron density in the sample. We show that in the diffusion-stabilized regime of negative conductivity the system splits into two regions with opposite directions of electric field. This effect is a precursor of the domain structure that has been predicted to emerge spontaneously in the microwave-induced zero-resistance states.
Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics is used to investigate the heat current due to the atomic lattice vibrations in graphene nanoribbons and nanorings under a thermal gradient. We consider a wide range of temperature, nanoribbon widths up to 6nm and the effect of moderate edge disorder. We find that narrow graphene nanorings can efficiently suppress the lattice thermal conductivity at low temperatures (~100K), as compared to nanoribbons of the same width. Remarkably, rough edges do not appear to have a large impact on lattice energy transport through graphene nanorings while nanoribbons seem more affected by imperfections. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the effects of hydrogen-saturated edges can be neglected in these graphene nanostructures.
Graphene is a monolayer of carbon atoms packed into a hexagon lattice to host two pairs of massless two-dimensional Dirac fermions in the absence of or with negligible spin-orbit coupling. It is known that the existence of non-zero electric polarization in reduced momentum space which is associated with a hidden chiral symmetry will lead to the zero-energy flat band of zigzag nanoribbon. The Adler-Bell-Jackiw chiral anomaly or non-conservation of chiral charges at different valleys can be realized in a confined ribbon of finite width. In the laterally diffusive regime, the finite-size correction to conductivity is always positive and goes inversely with the square of the lateral dimension W, which is different from the finite-size correction inversely with W from boundary modes. This anomalous finite-size conductivity reveals the signature of the chiral anomaly in graphene, and is measurable experimentally.
The dynamical transport properties near the integer quantum Hall transition are investigated at zero temperature by means of the Dirac fermion approach. These properties have been studied experimentally at low frequency omega and low temperature near the nu=1 filling factor Hall transition, with the observation of an anusual broadening and an overall increase of the longitudinal conductivity Re sigma_{xx} as a function of omega. We find in our approach that, unlike for normal metals, the longitudinal conductivity increases as the frequency increases, whilst the width Delta B (or Delta nu) of the conductivity peak near the Hall transition increases. These findings are in reasonable quantitative agreement with recent experiments by Engel et al. as well as with recent numerical work by Avishai and Luck.
Recent work has extended topological band theory to open, non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, yet little is understood about how non-Hermiticity alters the topological quantization of associated observables. We address this problem by studying the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) generated in the Dirac surface states of a 3D time-reversal-invariant topological insulator (TI) that is proximity-coupled to a metallic ferromagnet. By constructing a contact self-energy for the ferromagnet, we show that in addition to generating a mass gap in the surface spectrum, the ferromagnet can introduce a non-Hermitian broadening term, which can obscure the mass gap in the spectral function. We calculate the Hall conductivity for the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian describing the heterostructure and show that it is no longer quantized despite being classified as a Chern insulator based on non-Hermitian topological band theory. Our results indicate that the QAHE will be challenging to experimentally observe in ferromagnet-TI heterostructures due to the finite lifetime of quasi-particles at the interface.