Graphene electrons feature a pair of massless Dirac cones of opposite pseudospin chirality at two valleys. Klein tunneling refers to the intriguing capability of these chiral electrons to penetrate through high and wide potential barrier. The two val
leys have been treated independently in the literature, where time reversal symmetry dictates that neither the normal incidence transmission nor the angle-averaged one can have any valley polarization. Here we show that, when intervalley scattering by barrier is accounted, graphene electrons normally incident at a superlattice barrier can experience a fully valley-selective Klein tunneling, i.e. perfect transmission in one valley, and perfect reflection in the other. Intervalley backscattering creates staggered pseudospin gaps in the superlattice barrier, which, combined with the valley contrast in pseudospin chirality, determines the valley polarity of Klein tunneling. The angle averaged transmission can have a net valley polarization of 20% for a 5-period barrier, and exceed 75% for a 20-period barrier. Our finding points to an unexpected opportunity to realize valley functionalities in graphene electronics.
In solid, the crystalline structure can endow electron an internal degree of freedom known as valley, which characterizes the degenerate energy minima in momentum space. The recent success in optical pumping of valley polarization in 2D transition me
tal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has greatly promoted the concept of valley-based informatics and electronics. However, between the demonstrated valley polarization of transient electron-hole pair excitations and practical valleytronic operations, there exist obvious gaps to fill, among which is the valley pump of long-lived charge carriers. Here we discover that the quested valley pump of electrons or holes can be realized simply by scattering at the ubiquitous nonmagnetic disorders, not relying on any specific material property. The mechanism is rooted in the nature of valley as a momentum space index: the intervalley backscattering in general has valley contrasted rate due to the distinct momentum transfers, causing a net transfer of population from one valley to another. As examples, we numerically demonstrate the sizable valley pump effects driven by charge current in nanoribbons of monolayer TMDs, where the spin-orbit scattering by non-magnetic disorders also realizes spin pump for the spin-valley locked holes. Our finding points to an unexpected new opportunity towards valley-spintronics, turning disorders from a deleterious factor to a resource of valley and spin polarization.
We investigate the scattering and localization properties of edge and bulk states in a disordered two-dimensional topological insulator when they coexist at the same fermi energy. Due to edge-bulk backscattering (which is not prohibited emph{a priori
} by topology or symmetry), Anderson disorder makes the edge and bulk states localized indistinguishably. Two methods are proposed to effectively decouple them and to restore robust transport. The first kind of decouple is from long range disorder, since edge and bulk states are well separated in $k$ space. The second one is from an edge gating, owing to the edge nature of edge states in real space. The latter can be used to electrically tune a system between an Anderson insulator and a topologically robust conductor, i.e., a realization of a topological transistor.
The effect of an ac electric field on quantum transport properties in a system of three quantum dots, two of which are connected in parallel while the third is coupled to one of the other two, is investigated theoretically. Based on the Keldysh noneq
uilibrium Greens function method, the spin-dependent current, occupation number and spin accumulation can be obtained in our model. An external magnetic flux, Rashba spin orbit coupling (SOC) and intradot Coulomb interactions are considered. The magnitude of the spin-dependent average current and the positions of the photon assisted tunneling (PAT) peaks can be accurately controlled and manipulated by simply varying the strength of the coupling and the frequency of the ac field. A particularly interesting result is the observation of a new kind of PAT peak and a multiple electron-photon pump effect that can generated and controlled by the coupling between the quantum dots. In addition, the spin occupation number and spin accumulation can be well controlled by the Rashba SOC and the magnetic flux.
Considering the difference of energy bands in graphene and silicene, we put forward a new model of the graphene-silicene-graphene (GSG) heterojunction. In the GSG, we study the valley polarization properties in a zigzag nanoribbon in the presence of
an external electric field. We find the energy range associated with the bulk gap of silicene has a valley polarization more than 95%. Under the protection of the topological edge states of the silicene, the valley polarization remains even the small non-magnetic disorder is introduced. These results have certain practical significance in applications for future valley valve.
We theoretically investigate the effect of the negative differential conductance of a ferromagnetic barrier on the surface of a topological insulator. Due to the changes of the shape and position of the Fermi surfaces in the ferromagnetic barrier, th
e transport processes can be divided into three kinds: the total, partial and blockade transmission mechanisms. The bias voltage can give rise to the transition of the transport processes from partial to blockade transmission mechanisms, which results in a giant effect of negative differential conductance. With appropriate structural parameters, the current-voltage characteristics show that the minimum value of the current can reach to zero in a wide range of the bias voltage, and a large peak-to-valley current ratio can be obtained.
We investigate the interplay between the edge and bulk states, induced by the Rashba spin-orbit coupling, in a zigzag silicene nanoribbon in the presence of an external electric field. The interplay can be divided into two kinds, one is the interplay
between the edge and bulk states with opposite velocities, and the other is that with the same velocity direction. The former can open small direct spin-dependent subgaps. A spin-polarized current can be generated in the nanoribbon as the Fermi energy is in the subgaps. While the later can give rise to the spin precession in the nanoribbon. Therefore, the zigzag silicene nanoribbon can be used as an efficient spin filter and spin modulation device.
We investigate the transport properties in a zigzag silicene nanoribbon in the presence of an external electric field. The staggered sublattice potential and two kinds of Rashba spin-orbit couplings can be induced by the external electric field due t
o the buckled structure of the silicene. A bulk gap is opened by the staggered potential and gapless edge states appear in the gap by tuning the two kinds of Rashba spin-orbit couplings properly. Furthermore, the gapless edge states are spin-filtered and are insensitive to the non-magnetic disorder. These results prove that the quantum spin Hall effect can be induced by an external electric field in silicene, which may have certain practical significance in applications for future spintronics device.
A mechanism to generate a spin-polarized current in a two-terminal zigzag silicene nanoribbon is predicted. As a weak local exchange field that is parallel to the surface of silicene is applied on one of edges of the silicene nanoribbon, a gap is ope
ned in the corresponding gapless edge states but another pair of gapless edge states with opposite spin are still protected by the time-reversal symmetry. Hence, a spin-polarized current can be induced in the gap opened by the local exchange field in this two-terminal system. What is important is that the spin-polarized current can be obtained even in the absence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and in the case of the very weak exchange filed. That is to say, the mechanism to generate the spin-polarized currents can be easily realized experimentally.We also find that the spin-polarized current is insensitive to weak disorder.
We predict a mechanism to generate a pure spin current in a two-dimensional topological insulator. As the magnetic impurities exist on one of edges of the two-dimensional topological insulator, a gap is opened in the corresponding gapless edge states
but another pair of gapless edge states with opposite spin are still protected by the time-reversal symmetry. So the conductance plateaus with the half-integer values $e^2/h$ can be obtained in the gap induced by magnetic impurities, which means that the pure spin current can be induced in the sample. We also find that the pure spin current is insensitive to weak disorder. The mechanism to generate pure spin currents is generalized for two-dimensional topological insulators.
