Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Abstract: Phonons and magnons are engineered by periodic potential landscapes in phononic and magnonic crystals, and their combined studies may enable valley phonon transport tunable by the magnetic field. Through nonreciprocal surface acoustic wave transmission, we demonstrate valley-selective phonon-magnon scattering in magnetoelastic superlattices. The lattice symmetry and the out-of-plane magnetization component control the sign of nonreciprocity. The phonons in the valleys play a crucial role in generating nonreciprocal transmission by inducing circularly polarized strains that couple with the magnons. The transmission spectra show a nonreciprocity peak near a transmission gap, matching the phononic band structure. Our results open the way for manipulating valley phonon transport through periodically varying magnon-phonon coupling.

Abstract: We present here a general formulation for the interband dynamical optical conductivity in the nonlinear regime of graphene in the presence of a quantum bath comprising phonons and electrons. Our main focus is the relaxation behavior of the quantum solid of graphene perturbed by an oscillatory electric field. Considering the optical range of the frequency and a considerable amount of the amplitude of the field, one can observe a nonlinear response by formulating a quantum master equation of the density operator associated with the Hamiltonian encapsulated in the form of a spin-Boson model of dissipative quantum statistical mechanics. Mapping the valence and conduction states as the eigenstates of the Pauli spin operators and utilizing the rotating wave approximation to omit off-resonant terms, one can solve the rate equation for the mean population of the conduction and valence states and the mixing matrix elements between them. Our results reveal the nonlinear steady-state regime's population inversion and interband coherence. It is characterized by a single dimensionless parameter that is directly proportional to the incident field strength and inversely proportional to the optical frequency. Our method is also capable of calculating the nonlinear interband optical conductivity of doped and gapped graphene at finite temperatures. The effects of different bath spectra for phonons and electrons are examined in detail. Although our general formulation can address a variety of nonequilibrium response of the two-band system, it also facilitates a connection with phenomenological modeling of nonlinear optical conductivity.

Abstract: A single Josephson junction in the phase-slip regime exhibits Bloch oscillations in the voltage when biased with a DC current $I_\text{DC}$. The frequency of the oscillation is given by $\pi I_\text{DC}/e$, with $e$ the elementary charge, linking the current to the frequency via fundamental constants of nature. If an additional AC drive is applied, the Bloch oscillations may synchronize with the external drive. This leads to the emergence of dual Shapiro steps at fixed current in the $IV$ characteristics of the device. For applications as a current standard, frequencies of the order of 10\,GHz are required. These are challenging to implement experimentally without detrimental effects due to stray capacitances. Here, we propose to employ an additional Josephson junction with a DC voltage bias as an on chip AC source due to the AC Josephson effect. We study the back action of the Bloch oscillations on the Josephson oscillations and identify a parameter regime in which it is minimized. Furthermore, we find that the back action can even be utilized to further enhance the driving signal which can lead to increased widths of the resulting dual Shapiro steps. Finally, we show dual Shapiro steps for a set of realistic experimental parameters at finite temperatures.

Abstract: The boom of semiconductor quantum computing platforms created a demand for computer-aided design and fabrication of quantum devices. Path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) can have an important role in this effort because it intrinsically integrates strong quantum correlations that often appear in these multi-electron systems. In this paper we present a PIMC algorithm that estimates exchange interactions of three-dimensional electrically defined quantum dots. We apply this model to silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices and we benchmark our method against well-tested full configuration interaction (FCI) simulations. As an application, we study the impact of a single charge trap on two exchanging dots, opening the possibility of using this code to test the tolerance to disorder of CMOS devices. This algorithm provides an accurate description of this system, setting up an initial step to integrate PIMC algorithms into development of semiconductor quantum computers.

Abstract: Orbitronics is based on the use of orbit currents as information carriers. Up to now, orbit currents were created from the conversion of charge or spin currents, and inversely, they could be converted back to charge or spin currents. Here we demonstrate that orbit currents can also be generated by femtosecond light pulses on Ni. In multilayers associating Ni with oxides and nonmagnetic metals such as Cu, we detect the orbit currents by their conversion into charge currents and the resulting terahertz emission. We show that the orbit currents extraordinarily predominate the light-induced spin currents in Ni-based systems, whereas only spin currents can be detected with CoFeB-based systems. In addition, the analysis of the time delays of the terahertz pulses leads to relevant information on the velocity and propagation of orbit carriers. Our finding of light-induced orbit currents and our observation of their conversion into charge currents opens new avenues in orbitronics, including the development of orbitronic terahertz devices.

Abstract: As a promising alternative to the Von Neumann architecture, in-memory computing holds the promise of delivering high computing capacity while consuming low power. Content addressable memory (CAM) can implement pattern matching and distance measurement in memory with massive parallelism, making them highly desirable for data-intensive applications. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel 1-transistor-per-bit CAM based on the ferroelectric reconfigurable transistor. By exploiting the switchable polarity of the ferroelectric reconfigurable transistor, XOR/XNOR-like matching operation in CAM can be realized in a single transistor. By eliminating the need for the complementary circuit, these non-volatile CAMs based on reconfigurable transistors can offer a significant improvement in area and energy efficiency compared to conventional CAMs. NAND- and NOR-arrays of CAMs are also demonstrated, which enable multi-bit matching in a single reading operation. In addition, the NOR array of CAM cells effectively measures the Hamming distance between the input query and stored entries. Furthermore, utilizing the switchable polarity of these ferroelectric Schottky barrier transistors, we demonstrate reconfigurable logic gates with NAND/NOR dual functions, whose input-output mapping can be transformed in real-time without changing the layout. These reconfigurable circuits will serve as important building blocks for high-density data-stream processors and reconfigurable Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (r-ASICs). The CAMs and transformable logic gates based on ferroelectric reconfigurable transistors will have broad applications in data-intensive applications from image processing to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Abstract: Fractional charges of anyons can be extracted from shot noise in two ways. One can use either the auto-correlation noise of the current in one drain or the cross-correlation noise between two drains on the two sides of the device. The former approach typically overestimates the charge. This may happen due to upstream edge modes. We propose a mechanism for the excess auto-correlation noise without upstream modes. It applies to systems with multiple co-propagating edge modes and assumes that the noise is measured at a low but non-zero frequency.

Abstract: We study the effects of anisotropy on the magnetoresistance of Weyl semimetals (WSMs) in the ultraquantum regime. We utilize the fact that many Weyl semimetals are approximately axially anisotropic. We find that anisotropy manifests itself in the strong dependence of the magnetoresistance on the polar and azimuthal angles determining the orientation of the anisotropy axis with respect to the applied magnetic field and electric current. We also predict that the ratio of magnetoresistances in the geometries, where the magnetic field and anisotropy axes are aligned and where they are orthogonal, scales as $(v_\bot/v_\parallel)^2$ where $v_\bot$ and $v_\parallel$ are the corresponding Fermi velocities.

Abstract: We propose a minimal transport experiment in the linear regime that can probe the chirality of twisted moir\'e structures. First, we point out that usual two-terminal conductance measurements cannot access the chirality of a system. Only with a third contact and in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, a chiral system displays non-reciprocal transport even if all contacts are symmetric. We thus propose to use the third lead as a voltage probe and show that opposite enantiomers give rise to different voltage drops on the third lead. The third lead can also be used as a current probe in the case of layer-discriminating contacts that can detect different handedness even in the absence of a magnetic field. Our exact symmetry considerations are supported by numerical calculations that confirm our conclusions and also demonstrate that there is a change of chirality around the magic angle.

Abstract: Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterobilayers provide a versatile platform to explore unique excitonic physics via properties of the constituent TMDs and external stimuli. Interlayer excitons (IXs) can form in TMD heterobilayers as delocalized or localized states. However, the localization of IX in different types of potential traps, the emergence of biexcitons in the high-excitation regime, and the impact of potential traps on biexciton formation have remained elusive. In our work, we observe two types of potential traps in a MoSe$_2$/WSe$_2$ heterobilayer, which result in significantly different emission behavior of IXs at different temperatures. We identify the origin of these traps as localized defect states and the moir{\'e} potential of the TMD heterobilayer. Furthermore, with strong excitation intensity, a superlinear emission behavior indicates the emergence of interlayer biexcitons, whose formation peaks at a specific temperature. Our work elucidates the different excitation and temperature regimes required for the formation of both localized and delocalized IX and biexcitons, and, thus, contributes to a better understanding and application of the rich exciton physics in TMD heterostructures.