No Arabic abstract
Strong light-matter interactions within nanoscale structures offer the possibility of optically controlling material properties. Motivated by the recent discovery of intrinsic long-range magnetic order in two-dimensional materials, which allows for the creation of novel magnetic devices of unprecedented small size, we predict that light can couple with magnetism and efficiently tune magnetic orders of monolayer ruthenium trichloride (RuCl3). First-principles calculations show that both free carriers and optically excited electron-hole pairs can switch monolayer RuCl3 from the proximate spin-liquid phase to a stable ferromagnetic phase. Specifically, a moderate electron-hole pair density (on the order of 10^13 cm-2) can significantly stabilize the ferromagnetic phase by 10 meV/f.u. in comparison to the zigzag phase, so that the predicted ferromagnetism can be driven by optical pumping experiments. Analysis shows that this magnetic phase transition is driven by a combined effect of doping-induced lattice strain and itinerant ferromagnetism. According to the Ising-model calculation, we find that the Curie temperature of the ferromagnetic phase can be increased significantly by raising carrier or electron-hole pair density. This enhanced opto-magnetic effect opens new opportunities to manipulate two-dimensional magnetism through non-contact, optical approaches.
We report on Terahertz detection by inverted band structure HgTe-based Field Effect Transistor up to room temperature. At low temperature, we show that nonlinearities of the transistor channel allows for the observation of the quantum phase transition due to the avoided crossing of zero-mode Landau levels in HgTe 2D topological insulators. These results pave the way towards Terahertz topological Field Effect Transistors.
The quantized version of anomalous Hall effect realized in magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) has great potential for the development of topological quantum physics and low-power electronic/spintronic applications. To enable dissipationless chiral edge conduction at zero magnetic field, effective exchange field arisen from the aligned magnetic dopants needs to be large enough to yield specific spin sub-band configurations. Here we report the thickness-tailored quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect in Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thin films by tuning the system across the two-dimensional (2D) limit. In addition to the Chern number-related metal-to-insulator QAH phase transition, we also demonstrate that the induced hybridization gap plays an indispensable role in determining the ground magnetic state of the MTIs, namely the spontaneous magnetization owning to considerable Van Vleck spin susceptibility guarantees the zero-field QAH state with unitary scaling law in thick samples, while the quantization of the Hall conductance can only be achieved with the assistance of external magnetic fields in ultra-thin films. The modulation of topology and magnetism through structural engineering may provide a useful guidance for the pursuit of QAH-based new phase diagrams and functionalities.
The (r3xr3)R30{deg} honeycomb of silicene monolayer on Ag(111) was found to undergo a phase transition to two types of mirror-symmetric boundary-separated rhombic phases at temperatures below 40 K by scanning tunneling microscopy. The first-principles calculations reveal that weak interactions between silicene and Ag(111) drive the spontaneous ultra buckling in the monolayer silicene, forming two energy-degenerate and mirror-symmetric (r3xr3)R30{deg} rhombic phases, in which the linear band dispersion near Dirac point (DP) and a significant gap opening (150 meV) at DP were induced. The low transition barrier between these two phases enables them interchangeable through dynamic flip-flop motion, resulting in the (r3xr3)R30{deg} honeycomb structure observed at high temperature.
Majorana fermions, quantum particles with non-Abelian exchange statistics, are not only of fundamental importance, but also building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Although certain experimental breakthroughs for observing Majorana fermions have been made recently, their conclusive dection is still challenging due to the lack of proper material properties of the underlined experimental systems. Here we propose a new platform for Majorana fermions based on edge states of certain non-topological two-dimensional semiconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling, such as monolayer group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). Using first-principles calculations and tight-binding modeling, we show that zigzag edges of monolayer TMD can host well isolated single edge band with strong spin-orbit coupling energy. Combining with proximity induced s-wave superconductivity and in-plane magnetic fields, the zigzag edge supports robust topological Majorana bound states at the edge ends, although the two-dimensional bulk itself is non-topological. Our findings points to a controllable and integrable platform for searching and manipulating Majorana fermions.
Semiconducting monolayer of 2D material are able to concatenate multiple interesting properties into a single component. Here, by combining opto-mechanical and electronic measurements, we demonstrate the presence of a partial 2H-1T phase transition in a suspended 2D monolayer membrane of MoS2. Electronic transport shows unexpected memristive properties in the MoS2 membrane, in the absence of any external dopants. A strong mechanical softening of the membrane is measured concurrently and may only be related to the phase 2H-1T phase transition which imposes a 3percent directional elongation of the topological 1T phase with respect to the semiconducting 2H. We note that only a few percent 2H- 1T phase switching is sufficient to observe measurable memristive effects. Our experimental results combined with First-principles total energy calculations indicate that sulfur vacancy diffusion plays a key role in the initial nucleation of the phase transition. Our study clearly shows that nanomechanics represents an ultrasensitive technique to probe the crystal phase transition in 2D materials or thin membranes. Finally, a better control of the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the observed memristive effect in MoS2 is important for the implementation of future devices.