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

Abstract: An uncertainty in studying twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is the minimum energy geometry, which strongly affects the electronic structure. The minimum energy geometry is determined by the potential energy surface, which is dominated by van der Waals (vdW) interactions. In this work, large-scale diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations are performed to evaluate the energy of bilayer graphene at various interlayer distances for four stacking registries. An accurate registry-dependent potential is fit to the QMC data and is used to describe interlayer interactions in the geometry of near-magic-angle TBG. The band structure for the optimized geometry is evaluated using the accurate local-environment tight-binding model. We find that compared to QMC, DFT-based vdW interactions can result in errors in the corrugation magnitude by a factor of 2 or more near the magic angle. The error in corrugation then propagates to the flat bands in twisted bilayer graphene, where the error in corrugation can affect the bandwidth by about 30% and can change the nature and degeneracy of the flat bands.

Abstract: In recent years, much research has been undertaken to investigate the suitability of two-dimensional materials to act as single-photon sources with high optical and quantum optical quality. Amongst them, transition-metal dichalcogenides, especially WSe$_{2}$, have been one of the subjects of intensive studies. Yet, their single-photon purity and photon indistinguishability, remain the most significant challenges to compete with mature semiconducting systems such as self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. In this work, we explore the emission properties of quantum emitters in a WSe$_{2}$ monolayer which are induced by metallic nanoparticles. Under quasi-resonant pulsed excitation, we verify clean single-photon emission with a $g^{(2)}(0) = 0.036\pm0.004$. Furthermore, we determine its temperature dependent coherence time via Michelson interferometry, where a value of (13.5$\pm$1.0) ps is extracted for the zero-phonon line (ZPL) at 4 K, which reduces to (9$\pm$2) ps at 8 K. Associated time-resolved photoluminescence experiments reveal a decrease of the decay time from (2.4$\pm$0.1) ns to (0.42$\pm$0.05) ns. This change in decay time is explained by a model which considers a F\"orster-type resonant energy transfer process, which yields a strong temperature induced energy loss from the SPE to the nearby Ag nanoparticle.

Abstract: Optically driven electronic spins coupled in quantum dots to nuclear spins show a pre-pulse signal (revival amplitude) after having been trained by long periodic sequences of pulses. The size of this revival amplitude depends on the external magnetic field in a specific way due to the varying commensurability of the nuclear Larmor precession period with the time $T_\text{rep}$ between two consecutive pulses. In theoretical simulations, sharp dips occur at fields when an integer number of precessions fits in $T_\text{rep}$; this feature could be used to identify nuclear isotopes spectroscopically. But these sharp and characteristic dips have not (yet) been detected in experiment. We study whether the nuclear quadrupolar interaction is the reason for this discrepancy because it perturbs the nuclear precessions. But our simulations show that the absolute width of the dips and their relative depth are not changed by quadrupolar interactions. Only the absolute depth decreases. We conclude that quadrupolar interaction alone cannot be the reason for the absence of the characteristic dips in experiment.

Abstract: Twisted magnons (TMs) have great potential applications in communication and computing owing to the orbital angular momentum (OAM) degree of freedom. Realizing the unidirectional propagation of TMs is the key to design functional magnonics devices. Here we theoretically study the propagation of TMs in one-dimensional magnetic nanodisk arrays. By performing micromagnetic simulations, we find that the one-dimensional nanodisk array exhibits a few bands due to the collective excitations of TMs. A simple model by considering the exchange interaction is proposed to explain the emerging multiband structure and theoretical results agree well with micromagnetic simulations. Interestingly, for a zigzag structure, the dispersion curves and propagation images of TMs show obvious nonreciprocity for specific azimuthal quantum number ($l$), which originates from a geometric effect depending on the phase difference of TMs and the relative angle between two adjacent nanodisks. Utilizing this feature, one can conveniently realize the unidirectional propagation of TMs with arbitrary nonzero $l$. Our work provides important theoretical references for controlling the propagation of TMs.

Abstract: We study a two-dimensional (2D) electron system with a linear spectrum in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit (RSO) coupling in the hydrodynamic regime. We derive a semiclassical Boltzmann equation with a collision integral due to Coulomb interactions in the basis of the eigenstates of the system with RSO coupling. Using the local equilibrium distribution functions, we obtain a generalized hydrodynamic Navier-Stokes equation for electronic systems with RSO coupling. In particular, we discuss the influence of the spin-orbit coupling on the viscosity and the enthalpy of the system and present some of its observable effects in hydrodynamic transport.

Abstract: The chiral edge modes of a topological superconductor can transport fermionic quasiparticles, with Abelian exchange statistics, but they can also transport non-Abelian anyons: Majorana zero-modes bound to a {\pi}-phase domain wall that propagates along the boundary. Such an edge vortex is injected by the application of an h/2e flux bias over a Josephson junction. Existing descriptions of the injection process rely on the instantaneous scattering approximation of the adiabatic regime, where the internal dynamics of the Josephson junction is ignored. Here we go beyond that approximation in a time-dependent many-body simulation of the injection process, followed by a braiding of the mobile edge vortex with an immobile Abrikosov vortex in the bulk of the superconductor. Our simulation sheds light on the properties of the Josephson junction needed for a successful implementation of a flying Majorana qubit.