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

Abstract: Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds are a powerful tool for accurate magnetic field measurements. The key is precisely estimating the field-dependent splitting width of the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectra of the NV centers. In this study, we investigate the optical power dependence of the ODMR spectra using NV ensemble in nanodiamonds (NDs) and a single-crystal bulk diamond. We find that the splitting width exponentially decays and is saturated as the optical power increases. Comparison between NDs and a bulk sample shows that while the decay amplitude is sample-dependent, the optical power at which the decay saturates is almost sample-independent. We propose that this unexpected phenomenon is an intrinsic property of the NV center due to non-axisymmetry deformation or impurities. Our finding indicates that diamonds with less deformation are advantageous for accurate magnetic field measurements.

Abstract: The identification of distinct charge transport features, deriving from nontrivial bulk band and surface states, has been a challenging subject in the field of topological systems. In topological Dirac and Weyl semimetals, nontrivial conical bands with Fermi-arc surfaces states give rise to negative longitudinal magnetoresistance due to chiral anomaly effect and unusual thickness dependent quantum oscillation from Weyl-orbit effect, which were demonstrated recently in experiments. In this work, we report the experimental observations of large nonlinear and nonreciprocal transport effects for both longitudinal and transverse channels in an untwinned Weyl metal of SrRuO$_3$ thin film grown on a SrTiO$_{3}$ substrate. From rigorous measurements with bias current applied along various directions with respect to the crystalline principal axes, the magnitude of nonlinear Hall signals from the transverse channel exhibits a simple sin$\alpha$ dependent at low temperatures, where $\alpha$ is the angle between bias current direction and orthorhombic [001]$_{\rm o}$, reaching a maximum when current is along orthorhombic [1-10]$_{\rm o}$. On the contrary, the magnitude of nonlinear and nonreciprocal signals in the longitudinal channel attains a maximum for bias current along [001]$_{\rm o}$, and it vanishes for bias current along [1-10]$_{\rm o}$. The observed $\alpha$-dependent nonlinear and nonreciprocal signals in longitudinal and transverse channels reveal a magnetic Weyl phase with an effective Berry curvature dipole along [1-10]$_{\rm o}$ from surface states, accompanied by 1D chiral edge modes along [001]$_{\rm o}$.

Abstract: Strong circularly polarized excitation opens up the possibility to generate and control effective magnetic fields in solid state systems, e.g., via the optical inverse Faraday effect or the phonon inverse Faraday effect. While these effects rely on material properties that can be tailored only to a limited degree, plasmonic resonances can be fully controlled by choosing proper dimensions and carrier concentrations. Plasmon resonances provide new degrees of freedom that can be used to tune or enhance the light-induced magnetic field in engineered metamaterials. Here we employ graphene disks to demonstrate light-induced transient magnetic fields from a plasmonic circular current with extremely high efficiency. The effective magnetic field at the plasmon resonance frequency of the graphene disks (3.5 THz) is evidenced by a strong (~1{\deg}) ultrafast Faraday rotation (~ 20 ps). In accordance with reference measurements and simulations, we estimated the strength of the induced magnetic field to be on the order of 0.7 T under a moderate pump fluence of about 440 nJ cm-2.

Abstract: Twisted van der Waals materials have risen as highly tunable platform for realizing unconventional superconductivity. Here we demonstrate how a topological superconducting state can be driven in a twisted graphene multilayer at a twist angle of approximately 1.6 degrees proximitized to other 2D materials. We show that an encapsulated twisted bilayer subject to induced Rashba spin-orbit coupling, s-wave superconductivity and exchange field generates a topological superconducting state enabled by the moire pattern. We demonstrate a variety of topological states with different Chern numbers highly tunable through doping, strain and bias voltage. Our proposal does not depend on a fine tuning of the twist angle, but solely on the emergence of moire minibands and is applicable for twist angles between 1.3 and 3 degrees. Our results establish the potential of twisted graphene bilayers to create artificial topological superconductivity without requiring ultraflat dispersions.

Abstract: In this paper we establish a connection between the bulk topological structure and the magnetic properties of drumhead surface states of nodal loop semimetals. We identify the magnetic characteristics of the surface states and compute the system's magnon spectrum by treating electron-electron interactions on a mean-field level. We draw attention to a subtle connection between a Lifshitz-like transition of the surface states driven by mechanical distortions and the magnetic characteristics of the system. Our findings may be experimentally verified e.g. by spin polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy of nodal semimetal surfaces.

Abstract: Probabilistic computing with binary stochastic neurons (BSN) implemented with low- or zero-energy barrier nanoscale ferromagnets (LBMs) possessing in-plane magnetic anisotropy has emerged as an efficient paradigm for solving computationally hard problems. The fluctuating magnetization of an LBM at room temperature encodes a p-bit which is the building block of a BSN. Its only drawback is that the dynamics of common (transition metal) ferromagnets are relatively slow and hence the number of uncorrelated p-bits that can be generated per second - the so-called "flips per second" (fps) - is insufficient, leading to slow computational speed in autonomous co-processing with p-computers. Here, we show that a simple way to increase fps is to replace commonly used ferromagnets (e.g. Co, Fe, Ni), which have large saturation magnetization Ms, with a dilute magnetic semiconductor like GaMnAs with much smaller saturation magnetization. The smaller Ms reduces the energy barrier within the LBM and increases the fps significantly. It also offers other benefits such as increased packing density for increased parallelization and reduced device to device variation. This provides a way to realize the hardware acceleration and energy efficiency promise of p-computers.