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

Abstract: The study of moir\'e engineering started with the advent of van der Waals heterostructures in which stacking two-dimensional layers with different lattice constants leads to a moir\'e pattern controlling their electronic properties. The field entered a new era when it was found that adjusting the twist between two graphene layers led to strongly-correlated-electron physics and topological effects associated with atomic relaxation. Twist is now used routinely to adjust the properties of two-dimensional materials. Here, we investigate a new type of moir\'e superlattice in bilayer graphene when one layer is biaxially strained with respect to the other - so-called biaxial heterostrain. Scanning tunneling microscopy measurements uncover spiraling electronic states associated with a novel symmetry-breaking atomic reconstruction at small biaxial heterostrain. Atomistic calculations using experimental parameters as inputs reveal that a giant atomic swirl forms around regions of aligned stacking to reduce the mechanical energy of the bilayer. Tight-binding calculations performed on the relaxed structure show that the observed electronic states decorate spiraling domain wall solitons as required by topology. This study establishes biaxial heterostrain as an important parameter to be harnessed for the next step of moir\'e engineering in van der Waals multilayers.

Abstract: $\mathrm{MoS_2}$ is an emergent van der Waals material that shows promising prospects in semiconductor industry and optoelectronic applications. However, its electronic properties are not yet fully understood. In particular, the nature of the insulating state at low carrier density deserves further investigation, as it is important for fundamental research and applications. In this study, we investigate the insulating state of a dual-gated exfoliated bilayer $\mathrm{MoS_2}$ field-effect transistor by performing magnetotransport experiments. We observe positive and non-saturating magnetoresistance, in a regime where only one band contributes to electron transport. At low electron density ($\sim 1.4\times 10^{12}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}}$) and a perpendicular magnetic field of 7 Tesla, the resistance exceeds by more than one order of magnitude the zero field resistance and exponentially drops with increasing temperature. We attribute this observation to strong electron localization. Both temperature and magnetic field dependence can, at least qualitatively, be described by the Efros-Shklovskii law, predicting the formation of a Coulomb gap in the density of states due to Coulomb interactions. However, the localization length obtained from fitting the temperature dependence exceeds by more than one order of magnitude the one obtained from the magnetic field dependence. We attribute this discrepancy to the presence of a nearby metallic gate, which provides electrostatic screening and thus reduces long-range Coulomb interactions. The result of our study suggests that the insulating state of $\mathrm{MoS_2}$ originates from a combination of disorder-driven electron localization and Coulomb interactions.

Abstract: The weak disorder potential seen by the electrons of a two-dimensional electron gas in high-mobility semiconductor heterostructures leads to fluctuations in the physical properties and can be an issue for nanodevices. In this paper, we show that a scanning gate microscopy (SGM) image contains information about the disorder potential, and that a machine learning approach based on SGM data can be used to determine the disorder. We reconstruct the electric potential of a sample from its experimental SGM data and validate the result through an estimate of its accuracy.

Abstract: According to the laws of magnetism, the shape of magnetically soft objects limits the effective susceptibility. For example, spherical soft magnets cannot display an effective susceptibility larger than 3. Although true for macroscopic multi-domain magnetic materials, we show that magnetic nanoparticles in a single-domain state do not suffer from this limitation. This is a consequence of the particle moment being forced to saturation by the predominance of exchange forces, and only allowed to rotate coherently in response to thermal and/or applied fields. We apply statistical mechanics to determine the static and dynamic susceptibility of single-domain particles as a function of size, temperature and material parameters. Our calculations reveal that spherical single-domain particles with large saturation magnetisation and small magneto-crystalline anisotropy, e.g. FeNi particles, can have very a large susceptibility of 200 or more. We further show that susceptibility and losses can be tuned by particle easy axis alignment with the applied field in case of uniaxial anisotropy, but not for particles with cubic anisotropy. Our model is validated experimentally by comparison with measurements on nanocomposites containing spherical 11$\pm$3 nm $\gamma$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ particles up to 45 vol% finely dispersed in a polymer matrix. In agreement with the calculations for this specific material, the measured susceptibility of the composites is up to 17 ($\gg$3) and depends linearly on the volume fraction of particles. Based on these results, we predict that nanocomposites of 30 vol% of superparamagnetic FeNi particles in an insulating non-magnetic matrix can have a sufficiently large susceptibility to be used as micro-inductor core materials in the MHz frequency range, while maintaining losses below state-of-the-art ferrites.

Abstract: The discovery of van der Waals (vdW) materials exhibiting non-trivial and tunable magnetic interactions at room temperature can give rise to exotic magnetic states, which are not readily attainable with conventional materials. Such vdW magnets can provide a unique platform for studying new magnetic phenomena and realising magnetization dynamics for energy-efficient and non-volatile spintronic memory and logic technologies. Recent developments in vdW magnets have revealed their potential to enable spin-orbit torque (SOT) induced magnetization dynamics. However, the deterministic and field-free SOT switching of vdW magnets at room temperature has been lacking, prohibiting their potential applications. Here, we demonstrate magnetic field-free and deterministic SOT switching of a vdW magnet (Co0.5Fe0.5)5GeTe2 (CFGT) at room temperature, capitalizing on its non-trivial intrinsic magnetic ordering. We discover a coexistence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orders in CFGT at room temperature, inducing an intrinsic exchange bias and canted perpendicular magnetism. The resulting canted perpendicular magnetization of CFGT introduces symmetry breaking, facilitating successful magnetic field-free magnetization switching in the CFGT/Pt heterostructure devices. Furthermore, the SOT-induced magnetization dynamics and their efficiency are evaluated using 2nd harmonic Hall measurements. This advancement opens new avenues for investigating tunable magnetic phenomena in vdW material heterostructures and realizing field-free SOT-based spintronic technologies.

Abstract: By using the self-consistent Born approximation, we investigate disorder effect induced by short-range impurities on the band-gap of a seminal two-dimensional (2D) system, whose phase diagram contains trivial, single-band-inverted and double-band-inverted states. Following the density-of-states (DOS) evolution, we demonstrate multiple closings and openings of the band-gap with the increase of the disorder strength. Calculations of the spectral function describing the quasiparticles at the $\Gamma$ point of the Brillouin zone evidence that the observed band-gap behavior is unambiguously caused by the topological phase transitions due to the mutual inversions between the first and second electron-like and hole-like subbands. We also find that an increase in the disorder strength in the double-inverted state always leads to the band-gap closing due to the overlap of the tails of DOS from conduction and valence subbands.

Abstract: Electron spins confined in silicon quantum dots are promising candidates for large-scale quantum computers. However, the degeneracy of the conduction band of bulk silicon introduces additional levels dangerously close to the window of computational energies, where the quantum information can leak. The energy of the valley states - typically 0.1 meV - depends on hardly controllable atomistic disorder and still constitutes a fundamental limit to the scalability of these architectures. In this work, we introduce designs of CMOS-compatible silicon fin field-effect transistors that enhance the energy gap to non-computational states by more than one order of magnitude. Our devices comprise realistic silicon-germanium nanostructures with a large shear strain, where troublesome valley degrees of freedom are completely removed. The energy of non-computational states is therefore not affected by unavoidable atomistic disorder and can further be tuned in-situ by applied electric fields. Our design ideas are directly applicable to a variety of setups and will offer a blueprint towards silicon-based large-scale quantum processors.