To address the observation of Max Born (M. Born 1969) that the Newton's second law can emerge from a purely statistical perspective, we derive the evolution equation about the statistical distribution for dilute gas based solely on statistical principles, without invoking Newtonian mechanics, and then obtain the equations of motion for individual particles. Newton's second law for a single particle naturally emerges when the distribution reaches equilibrium. We demonstrate that the magnitude of an external force, traditionally measured by particle acceleration, can be understood as a measure of distribution inhomogeneity. We further show that the entropic force (utilized in current gravity studies) is equivalent to the statistical force and under non-equilibrium conditions, a deviation arises between the entropic force and the Newtonian force. This framework offers a novel perspective distinct from classical Newtonian mechanics and broadens the potential scope of its application.
Surface plasmons are the collective electron excitations in metallic systems and the associated electromagnetic wave usually has the transverse magnetic (TM) polarization. On the other hand, spin waves are the spin excitations perpendicular to the equilibrium magnetization and are usually circularly polarized in a ferromagnet. The direct coupling of these two modes is difficult due to the difficulty of matching electromagnetic boundary conditions at the interface of magnetic and non-magnetic materials. Here, we overcome this challenge by utilizing the linearly polarized spin waves in antiferromagnets (AFM) and show that a strong coupling between AFM magnons and surface plasmons can be realized in a hybrid 2D material/AFM structure, featuring a clear anticrossing spectrum at resonance. The coupling strength, characterized by the gap of anticrossing at resonance, can be tuned by electric gating on 2D materials and be probed by measuring the two reflection minima in the reflection spectrum. Further, as a potential application, we show that plasmonic modes can assist the coupling of two well-separated AFMs over several micrometers, featuring symmetric and antisymmetric hybrid modes. Our results may open a new platform to study antiferromagnetic spintronics and its interplay with plasmonic photonics.
Non-Abelian anyons, which correspond to collective excitations possessing multiple fusion channels and noncommuting braiding statistics, serve as the fundamental constituents for topological quantum computation. Here, we reveal the exotic Bloch oscillations (BOs) induced by non-Abelian fusion of Fibonacci anyons. It is shown that the interplay between fusion-dependent internal energy levels and external forces can induce BOs and Bloch-Zener oscillations (BZOs) of coupled fusion degrees with varying periods. In this case, the golden ratio of the fusion matrix can be determined by the period of BOs or BZOs in conjunction with external forces, giving rise to an effective way to unravel non-Abelian fusion. Furthermore, we experimentally simulate nonAbelian fusion BOs by mapping Schrodinger equation of two Fibonacci anyons onto dynamical equation of electric circuits. Through the measurement of impedance spectra and voltage evolution, both fusion-dependent BZOs and BOs are simulated. Our findings establish a connection between BOs and non-Abelian fusion, providing a versatile platform for simulating numerous intriguing phenomena associated with non-Abelian physics.
Bound states in the continuum (BICs), referring to spatially localized bound states with energies falling within the range of extended modes, have been extensively investigated in single-particle systems, leading to diverse applications in photonics, acoustics, and other classical-wave systems. Recently, there has been theoretical interest in exploring many-body BICs in interacting quantum systems, which necessitate the careful design of impurity potentials or spatial profiles of interaction. Here, we propose a type of many-body BICs localized at boundaries, which can be purely induced by the uniform onsite interaction without requiring any specific design of impurity potential or nonlocal interaction. We numerically show that three or more interacting bosons can concentrate on the boundary of a homogeneous one-dimensional lattice, which is absent at single- and twoparticle counterparts. Moreover, the eigenenergy of multi-boson bound states can embed within the continuous energy spectra of extended scattering states, thereby giving rise to interactioninduced boundary many-body BICs. Furthermore, by mapping Fock states of three and four bosons to nonlinear circuit networks, we experimentally simulate boundary many-body BICs. Our findings enrich the comprehension of correlated BICs beyond the single-particle level, and have the potential to inspire future investigations on exploring many-body BICs.
Disordered granular packings share many similarities with supercooled liquids, particu-larly in the rapid increase of structural relaxation time within a narrow range of temperature or packing fraction. However, it is unclear whether the dynamics of granular materials align with those of their corresponding thermal hard sphere liquids, and the particular influence of friction of a granular system remains largely unexplored. Here, we experimentally study the slow relaxation and the steady state of monodisperse granular sphere packings with X-ray tomography. We first quantify the thermodynamic parameters under the Edwards' ensemble, (i.e., effective temperature and configurational entropy), of granular spheres with varying friction, and measure their characteristic relaxation time during compaction processes. We then demonstrate a unified picture of the relaxation process in granular systems in which the Adam-Gibbs (AG) relationship is generally followed. These results clarify the close relation-ship between granular materials and the ideal frictionless hard sphere model.
Granular heaps are critical in both industrial applications and natural processes, exhibiting complex behaviors that have sparked significant research interest. The stress dip phenomenon observed beneath granular heaps continues to be a topic of significant debate. Current models based on force transmission often assume that the packing is near the isostatic point, overlooking the critical influence of internal structure and formation history on the mechanical properties of granular heaps. Consequently, these models fail to fully account for diverse observations. In this study, we experimentally explore the structural evolution of three dimensional (3D) granular heaps composed of monodisperse spherical particles prepared using the raining method. Our results reveal the presence of two distinct regions within the heaps, characterized by significant differences in structural properties such as packing fraction, contact number, and contact anisotropy. We attribute these structural variations to the differing formation mechanisms during heap growth. Our findings emphasize the substantial influence of the preparation protocols on the internal structure of granular heaps and provide valuable insights into stress distribution within granular materials. This research may contribute to the development of more accurate constitutive relations for granular materials by informing and refining future modeling approaches
A central goal in spintronics and magnonics is the use of spin waves rather than electrons for efficient information processing. The key to integrate such spintronic circuits with electronic circuits is the ability to inject, control and detect coherent spin waves with charge currents. Here, we propose a tunable setup consisting of a synthetic antiferromagnet in an inhomogeneous magnetic field in which one of the magnetic layers is thin and biased by spin-orbit torque. We show that for appriopriate conditions single-mode coherent spin waves are emitted in this set-up. The set-up implements coupling of continuum spin waves with a finite region of negative energy spin waves, such that specific frequencies become self-amplified and thus start lasing. We show there exist a large region in parameter space for which the coherent spin wave laser is stabilized by non-linearities and spin-orbit torques. Our findings may lead to new ways of injecting coherent spin waves with direct currents.
The vanadium-based kagome metals $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ ($A$ = K, Rb, and Cs) host a superconducting ground state that coexists with an unconventional charge density wave (CDW). The CDW state exhibits experimental signatures of chirality, electronic nematicity, and time-reversal-symmetry-breaking, raising the questions whether the superconductivity (SC) in $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ may also be unconventional, how SC interplays with CDW, and how the two orders evolve upon tuning. This article reviews studies of the superconducting pairing symmetry, and the tuning of SC and CDW in the $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ compounds. Various experimental techniques consistently find that CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ exhibits nodeless SC, which remains robust regardless whether the CDW is present. Under hydrostatic pressure, SC in $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ becomes enhanced as the CDW is gradually suppressed, revealing a competition between the two orders. In CsV$_3$Sb$_5$, a new CDW state emerges under pressure that competes more strongly with SC relative to the CDW at ambient pressure, and results in two superconducting domes that coexist with CDW. After the CDW in $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ is fully suppressed with hydrostatic pressure, a further increase in pressure leads to a nonmonotonic evolution of the superconducting transition temperature driven by lattice modulations. Thickness is shown to be a powerful tuning parameter in $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ thin flakes, revealing the evolution of CDW and SC upon dimensional reduction, and can be combined with hydrostatic pressure to shed light on the interplay between SC and CDW. Based on results reviewed in this article, we discuss outstanding issues to be addressed in the $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ systems.
Kibble-Zurek (KZ) mechanism describes the scaling behavior when driving a system across a continuous symmetry-breaking transition. Previous studies have shown that the KZ-like scaling behavior also lies in the topological transitions in the Qi-Wu-Zhang model (2D) and the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model (1D), although symmetry breaking does not exist here. Both models with linear band crossings give that $\nu=1$ and $z=1$. We wonder whether different critical exponents can be acquired in topological transitions beyond linear band crossing. In this work, we look into the KZ behavior in a topological 2D checkerboard lattice with a quadratic band crossing. We investigate from dual perspectives: momentum distribution of the Berry curvature in clean systems for simplicity, and real-space analysis of domain-like local Chern marker configurations in disordered systems, which is a more intuitive analog to conventional KZ description. In equilibrium, we find the correlation length diverges with a power $\nu\simeq 1/2$. Then, by slowly quenching the system across the topological phase transition, we find that the freeze-out time $t_\mathrm{f}$ and the unfrozen length scale $\xi(t_\mathrm{f})$ both satisfy the KZ scaling, verifying $z\simeq 2$. We subsequently explore KZ behavior in topological phase transitions with other higher-order band crossing and find the relationship between the critical exponents and the order. Our results extend the understanding of the KZ mechanism and non-equilibrium topological phase transitions.
The blue-green phosphorescence/thermoluminescence is most commonly observed in diamonds following excitation at or above the indirect band gap and has been explained by a substitutional nitrogen-boron donor-acceptor pair recombination model. Orange and red phosphorescence have also been frequently observed in lab-grown near-colourless high-pressure high-temperature diamonds following optical excitation, and their luminescence mechanisms are shown to be different from that of the blue-green phosphorescence. The physics of the orange and red luminescence and phosphorescence bands including the optical-excitation dependency (UV-NIR), temperature dependency (20 - 573 K), and related charge transfer process are investigated by a combination of self-built time-resolved imaging/spectroscopic techniques. In this paper, an alternative model for long-lived phosphorescence based on charge trapping is proposed to explain the orange phosphorescence/ thermoluminescence band. Additionally, the red phosphorescence band are attributed to point defect which possibly has a three-level phosphorescence system.
We propose a quantum analog of the Vicsek model, consisting of an ensemble of overdamped spin$-1/2$ particles with ferromagnetic couplings, driven by a uniformly polarized magnetic field. The spontaneous magnetization of the spin components breaks the $SO(3)$ (or $SO(2)$) symmetry, inducing an ordered phase of flocking. We derive the hydrodynamic equations, similar to those formulated by Toner and Tu, by applying a mean-field approximation to the quantum analog model up to the next leading order. Our investigation not only establishes a microscopic connection between the Vicsek model and the Toner-Tu hydrodynamics for active matter, but also aims to inspire further studies of active matter in the quantum regime.
Using X-ray tomography, we experimentally investigate granular segregation phenomena in a mixture of particles with different densities under quasi-static cyclic shear. We quantitatively characterize their height distributions at steady states by minimizing effective free energy based on a segregation temperature that captures the competition between the mixing entropy and gravitational potential energy. We find this temperature coincides with Edwards' compactivity within error under various pressures and cyclic shear amplitudes. Therefore, we find that granular segregation in quasi-static conditions can be fundamentally explained by an effective granular thermodynamic framework including real energy terms based on the Edwards statistical ensemble.
Guowei Yang, Zhanghuan Li, Sai Yang, Jiyuan Li, Hao Zheng, Weifan Zhu, Ze Pan, Yifu Xu, Saizheng Cao, Wenxuan Zhao, Anupam Jana, Jiawen Zhang, Mao Ye, Yu Song, Lun-Hui Hu, Lexian Yang, Jun Fujii, Ivana Vobornik, Ming Shi, Huiqiu Yuan, et al (3) Recently, a new kind of collinear magnetism, dubbed altermagnetism, has attracted considerable interests. A key characteristic of altermagnet is the momentum-dependent band and spin splitting without net magnetization. However, finding altermagnetic materials with large splitting near the Fermi level, which necessarily requires three-dimensional k-space mapping and is crucial for spintronic applications and emergent phenomena, remains challenging. Here by employing synchrotron-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), spin-resolved ARPES and model calculations, we uncover a large altermagnetic splitting, up to ~1.0 eV, near the Fermi level in CrSb. We verify its bulk-type g-wave altermagnetism through systematic three-dimensional k-space mapping, which unambiguously reveals the altermagnetic symmetry and associated nodal planes. The ARPES results are well captured by density functional theory calculations. Spin-resolved ARPES measurements further verify the spin polarizations of the split bands near Fermi level. In addition, tight-binding model analysis indicates that the large altermagnetic splitting arises from strong third-nearest-neighbor hopping mediated by Sb ions, which breaks both the space-time reversal symmetry and the translational spin-rotation symmetry. The large band/spin splitting near Fermi level in metallic CrSb, together with its high TN (up to 705 K) and simple spin configuration, paves the way for exploring emergent phenomena and spintronic applications based on altermagnets.
The rise of electron microscopy has expanded our ability to acquire nanometer and atomically resolved images of complex materials. The resulting vast datasets are typically analyzed by human operators, an intrinsically challenging process due to the multiple possible analysis steps and the corresponding need to build and optimize complex analysis workflows. We present a methodology based on the concept of a Reward Function coupled with Bayesian Optimization, to optimize image analysis workflows dynamically. The Reward Function is engineered to closely align with the experimental objectives and broader context and is quantifiable upon completion of the analysis. Here, cross-section, high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) images of ion-irradiated $(Y, Dy)Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}$ thin-films were used as a model system. The reward functions were formed based on the expected materials density and atomic spacings and used to drive multi-objective optimization of the classical Laplacian-of-Gaussian (LoG) method. These results can be benchmarked against the DCNN segmentation. This optimized LoG* compares favorably against DCNN in the presence of the additional noise. We further extend the reward function approach towards the identification of partially-disordered regions, creating a physics-driven reward function and action space of high-dimensional clustering. We pose that with correct definition, the reward function approach allows real-time optimization of complex analysis workflows at much higher speeds and lower computational costs than classical DCNN-based inference, ensuring the attainment of results that are both precise and aligned with the human-defined objectives.
Much of the rich physics of correlated systems is manifested in the diverse range of intertwined ordered phases and other quantum states that are associated with different electronic and structural degrees of freedom. Here we find that PrCuSb$_2$ exhibits such phenomena, which at ambient pressure exhibits a fragile antiferromagnetic order, where cooling in a small $c$ axis magnetic field leads to an additional transition to a field-induced ferromagnetic state. This corresponds to an 'inverse melting' effect, whereby further cooling the system restores symmetries of the paramagnetic state broken at the antiferromagnetic transition. Moreover, hydrostatic pressure induces an additional first-order transition at low temperatures, which despite being not likely associated with solely magnetic degrees of freedom, is closely entwined with the magnetic order, disappearing once antiferromagnetism is destroyed by pressure or magnetic fields. Consequently, PrCuSb$_2$ presents a distinct scenario for interplay between different orders, underscoring the breadth of such behaviors within one family of correlated materials.
Kui Meng, Zeya Li, Peng Chen, Xingyue Ma, Junwei Huang, Jiayi Li, Feng Qin, Caiyu Qiu, Yilin Zhang, Ding Zhang, Yu Deng, Yurong Yang, Genda Gu, Harold Y. Hwang, Qi-Kun Xue, Yi Cui, Hongtao Yuan Exploration of new dielectrics with large capacitive coupling is an essential topic in modern electronics when conventional dielectrics suffer from the leakage issue near breakdown limit. To address this looming challenge, we demonstrate that rare-earth-metal fluorides with extremely-low ion migration barriers can generally exhibit an excellent capacitive coupling over 20 $\mu$F cm$^{-2}$ (with an equivalent oxide thickness of ~0.15 nm and a large effective dielectric constant near 30) and great compatibility with scalable device manufacturing processes. Such static dielectric capability of superionic fluorides is exemplified by MoS$_2$ transistors exhibiting high on/off current ratios over 10$^8$, ultralow subthreshold swing of 65 mV dec$^{-1}$, and ultralow leakage current density of ~10$^{-6}$ A cm$^{-2}$. Therefore, the fluoride-gated logic inverters can achieve significantly higher static voltage gain values, surpassing ~167, compared to conventional dielectric. Furthermore, the application of fluoride gating enables the demonstration of NAND, NOR, AND, and OR logic circuits with low static energy consumption. Notably, the superconductor-to-insulator transition at the clean-limit Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ can also be realized through fluoride gating. Our findings highlight fluoride dielectrics as a pioneering platform for advanced electronics applications and for tailoring emergent electronic states in condensed matters.
Jingyue Wang, Junwei Huang, Daniel Kaplan, Xuehan Zhou, Congwei Tan, Jing Zhang, Gangjian Jin, Xuzhong Cong, Yongchao Zhu, Xiaoyin Gao, Yan Liang, Huakun Zuo, Zengwei Zhu, Ruixue Zhu, Ady Stern, Hongtao Liu, Peng Gao, Binghai Yan, Hongtao Yuan, Hailin Peng In the presence of high magnetic field, quantum Hall systems usually host both even- and odd-integer quantized states because of lifted band degeneracies. Selective control of these quantized states is challenging but essential to understand the exotic ground states and manipulate the spin textures. Here, we study the quantum Hall effect in Bi2O2Se thin films. In magnetic fields as high as 50 T, we observe only even-integer quantum Hall states, but no sign of odd-integer states. However, when reducing the thickness of the epitaxial Bi2O2Se film to one unit cell, we observe both odd- and even-integer states in this Janus (asymmetric) film grown on SrTiO3. By means of a Rashba bilayer model based on ab initio band structures of Bi2O2Se thin films, we can ascribe the absence of odd-integer states in thicker films to the hidden Rasbha effect, where the local inversion symmetry breaking in two sectors of the [Bi2O2]2+ layer yields opposite Rashba spin polarizations, which compensate with each other. In the one unit cell Bi2O2Se film grown on SrTiO3, the asymmetry introduced by top surface and bottom interface induces a net polar field. The resulting global Rashba effect lifts the band degeneracies present in the symmetric case of thicker films.
We theoretically propose Ac$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$, La$_2$BaNi$_2$O$_6$F, and La$_2$SrNi$_2$O$_6$F compounds to be benchmark materials for bilayer nickelate superconductivity. The stable phase of Ac$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ and La$_2$BaNi$_2$O$_6$F are found to be $I4/mmm$ without the lattice distortion caused by octahedra rotation at ambient pressure, where as the lattice distortion in La$_2$SrNi$_2$O$_6$F can be suppressed with relatively small external pressure of 4 GPa. The magnetism, electronic structure and spin susceptibilities of Ac$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ are extremely close to those of La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ at 30 GPa. The ground state of La$_2$BaNi$_2$O$_6$F and La$_2$SrNi$_2$O$_6$F are antiferromagnetically coupled checkerboard bilayer with sizable magnetic moment on Ni. In addition, the inter-layer coupling $J_{\perp}$ between Ni-bilayers in La$_2$BaNi$_2$O$_6$F or La$_2$SrNi$_2$O$_6$F is only $\sim$ 1/10 of that in Ac$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ or La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ at 30 GPa. We argue that these compounds may serve as superconducting candidates at ambient pressure and can be employed to testify theoretical proposals for bilayer nickelate superconductivity.
CeNiSn is a Kondo semimetal where a gap opens at low temperatures due to hybridization between 4$f$ and conduction electrons, but a full insulating state fails to develop. Upon the insertion of hydrogen, long range magnetic order is induced. Here we report zero-field muon-spin relaxation and inelastic neutron scattering measurements of polycrystalline samples of the deuterides CeNiSnD$_x$ ($x$=1.0, 1.8). The muon-spin relaxation results confirm magnetic ordering in the whole sample of CeNiSnD below around 4.7 K, while inelastic neutron scattering reveals two well-defined crystalline-electric field (CEF) excitations at around 13 meV and 34 meV in CeNiSnD, and 5 meV and 27 meV for CeNiSnD$_{1.8}$. These results suggest that hydrogenation leads to the localization of the Ce-4$f$ electrons, giving rise to long-range magnetic order. We propose CEF level schemes for both systems, which predict a ground state moment of 0.96$\mu_{\rm B}$/Ce within the $ab$-plane for CeNiSnD$_{1.8}$ and a saturated moment of 1.26$\mu_{\rm B}$/Ce along the easy $c$ axis for CeNiSnD, that account for the observed magnetic properties.
The temperature at which supercooled liquids turn into solid-like glasses ($T_g$) can change at the free surface, affecting the properties of nanostructured glasses and their applications. However, inadequate experimental resolution to determine the $T_g$ gradient and a longstanding debate over the role of nonequilibrium effects have hindered fundamental understanding of this phenomenon. Using spatially resolved $T_g$ measurements and molecular dynamics simulations, we reveal a crossover from equilibrium behavior to a new regime of near-surface nonequilibrium glass physics on cooling. This crossover causes the form of the nonequilibrium $T_g$ gradient to change, highlighting the need to include these physics for rational understanding of the properties of realistic nanostructured glass-forming materials. They also potentially recast the interpretation of decades of experimental data on nanoconfined glasses.
Ge Ye, Mengwei Xie, Chufan Chen, Yanan Zhang, Dongting Zhang, Xin Ma, Xiangyu Zeng, Fanghang Yu, Yi Liu, Xiaozhi Wang, Guanghan Cao, Xiaofeng Xu, Xianhui Chen, Huiqiu Yuan, Chao Cao, Xin Lu It is intriguing to explore the coexistence and (or) competition between charge-density-wave (CDW) and superconductivity (SC) in many correlated electron systems, such as cuprates, organic superconductors and dichacolgenides. Among them, the recently discovered $\mathbb{Z} _2$ topological kagome metals AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A=K, Rb, Cs) serve as an ideal platform to study the intricate relation between them. Here, we report the electrical resistance measurements on CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ thin flakes ($\approx$ 60 nm) under hydrostatic pressure up to 2.12 GPa to compare its pressure phase diagram of CDW and SC with its bulk form. Even though the CDW transition temperature (T$_{CDW}$) in CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ thin flakes is still monotonically suppressed under pressure and totally vanishes at P$_2$=1.83 GPa similar to the bulk, the superconducting transition temperature (T$_c$) shows an initial decrease and consequent increase up to its maximum $\sim$ 8.03 K at P$_2$, in sharp contrast with the M-shaped double domes in the bulk CsV$_3$Sb$_5$. Our results suggest the important role of reduced dimensionality on the CDW state and its interplay with the SC, offering a new perspective to explore the exotic nature of CsV$_3$Sb$_5$.
Surface plasmons in two-dimensional (2D) electron systems have attracted great attention for their promising light-matter applications. However, the excitation of a surface plasmon, in particular, transverse-electric (TE) surface plasmon, remains an outstanding challenge due to the difficulty to conserve energy and momentum simultaneously in the normal 2D materials. Here we show that the TE surface plasmons ranging from gigahertz to terahertz regime can be effectively excited and manipulated in a hybrid dielectric, 2D material and magnet structure. The essential physics is that the surface spin wave supplements an additional freedom of surface plasmon excitation and thus greatly enhances the electric field in the 2D medium. Based on widely-used magnetic materials like yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and manganese difluoride ($\mathrm{MnF}_2$), we further show that the plasmon excitation manifests itself as a measurable dip in the reflection spectrum of the hybrid system while the dip position and the dip depth can be well controlled by an electric gating on the 2D layer and an external magnetic field. Our findings should bridge the fields of low-dimensional physics, plasmonics and spintronics and open a novel route to integrate plasmonic and spintronic devices.
Shuaishuai Luo, Feng Du, Dajun Su, Yongjun Zhang, Jiawen Zhang, Jiacheng Xu, Yuxin Chen, Chao Cao, Michael Smidman, Frank Steglich, Huiqiu Yuan While charge carriers can typically be designated as either electron- or hole- type, depending on the sign of the Hall coefficient, some materials defy this straightforward classification. Here we find that LaRh$_6$Ge$_4$ goes beyond this dichotomy, where the Hall resistivity is electron-like for magnetic fields along the $c$-axis but hole-like in the basal plane. Together with first-principles calculations, we show that this direction-dependent switching of the carrier type arises within a single band, where the special geometry leads to charge carriers on the same Fermi surface orbiting as electrons along some directions, but holes along others. The relationship between the Fermi surface geometry and occurrence of a Hall sign reversal is further generalized by considering tight-binding model calculations, which show that this type of Fermi surface corresponds to a more robust means of realizing this phenomenon, suggesting an important route for tailoring direction dependent properties for advanced electronic device applications.
Guowei Yang, Weifan Zhu, Jiawen Zhang, Hao Zheng, Yi Wu, Huali Zhang, Ge Ye, Dajun Su, Yanan Zhang, Chao Cao, Xin Lu, Huiqiu Yuan, Yang Liu The recent discovery of orientation-dependent superconductivity in KTaO3-based interfaces has attracted considerable interest, while the underlying origin remains an open question. Here we report a different approach to tune the interfacial electron gas and superconductivity by forming interfaces between rare-earth (RE) metals (RE being La, Ce, Eu) and KTaO3 substrates with different orientations. We found that the interfacial superconductivity is strongest for the Eu/KTaO3 interfaces, becomes weaker in La/KTaO3 and is absent in Ce/KTaO3. Using in-situ photoemission, we observed distinct valence bands associated with RE metals, as well as a pronounced orientation dependence in the interfacial electronic structure, which can be linked to the orientation-dependent superconductivity. The photoemission spectra show similar double-peak structures for the (111) and (110) oriented interfaces, with an energy separation close to the LO4 phonon of KTaO3. Detailed analyses suggest that this double-peak structure could be attributed to electron-phonon coupling, which might be important for the interfacial superconductivity.
Spin dynamics is usually described as massless or, more precisely, as free of inertia. Recent experiments, however, found direct evidence for inertial spin dynamics. In turn, it is necessary to rethink the basics of spin dynamics. Focusing on a macrospin in an environment (bath), we show that the spin-to-bath coupling gives rise to spin inertia. This bath-induced spin inertia appears universally from all the high-frequency bath modes. We expect our results to provide new insights into recent experiments on spin inertia. Moreover, they indicate that any channel for spin dissipation should also be accompanied by a term accounting for bath-induced spin inertia. As an illustrative example, we consider phonon-bath-induced spin inertia in a YIG/GGG stack.
Yi Wu, Yongjun Zhang, Sailong Ju, Yong Hu, Yanen Huang, Yanan Zhang, Huali Zhang, Hao Zheng, Guowei Yang, Evrard-Ouicem Eljaouhari, Baopeng Song, Nicholas C. Plumb, Frank Steglich, Ming Shi, Gertrud Zwicknag, Chao Cao, Huiqiu Yuan, Yang Liu The locally noncentrosymmetric heavy fermion superconductor CeRh$_2$As$_2$ has attracted considerable interests due to its rich superconducting phases, accompanied by a quadrupole density wave and pronounced antiferromagnetic excitations. To understand the underlying physics, we here report measurements from high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission. Our results reveal fine splittings of the conduction bands related to the locally noncentrosymmetric structure, as well as a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surface (FS) with strong $4f$ contributions. The FS exhibits nesting with an in-plane vector $({\pi}/a, {\pi}/a)$, which is facilitated by the van Hove singularity near $\bar X$ that arises from the characteristic conduction-$f$ hybridization. The FS nesting provides a natural explanation for the observed antiferromagnetic excitations at $({\pi}/a, {\pi}/a)$, which could be intimately connected to its unconventional superconductivity. Our experimental results are well supported by density functional theory plus dynamical mean field theory calculations, which can capture the strong correlation effects. Our study not only provides spectroscopic proof of the key factors underlying the field-induced superconducting transition, but also uncovers the critical role of FS nesting and lattice Kondo effect in the intertwined spin and charge fluctuations.
Huali Zhang, Feng Du, Xiaoying Zheng, Shuaishuai Luo, Yi Wu, Hao Zheng, Shengtao Cui, Zhe Sun, Zhengtai Liu, Dawei Shen, Michael Smidman, Yu Song, Ming Shi, Zhicheng Zhong, Chao Cao, Huiqiu Yuan, Yang Liu While colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) in Eu-based compounds is often associated with strong spin-carrier interactions, the underlying reconstruction of the electronic bands is much less understood from spectroscopic experiments. Here using angle-resolved photoemission, we directly observe an electronic band reconstruction across the insulator-metal (and magnetic) transition in the recently discovered CMR compound EuCd2P2. This transition is manifested by a large magnetic band splitting associated with the magnetic order, as well as unusual energy shifts of the valence bands: both the large ordered moment of Eu and carrier localization in the paramagnetic phase are crucial. Our results provide spectroscopic evidence for an electronic structure reconstruction underlying the enormous CMR observed in EuCd2P2, which could be important for understanding Eu-based CMR materials, as well as designing CMR materials based on large-moment rare-earth magnets.
We experimentally investigate the clogging process of granular materials in a two-dimensional hopper, and present a self-consistent physical mechanism of clogging based on preformed dynamic chain structures in the flow. We found that these chain structures follow a specific modified restricted random walk, and clogging occurs when they are mechanically stable enough to withstand the flow fluctuations, resulting in the formation of an arch at the outlet. We introduce a simple model which can explain the clogging probability by incorporating an analytical expression for chain formation and its transition into an arch. Our results provide insight into the microscopic mechanism of clogging in hopper flow.
Cerium is a fascinating element due to its diverse physical properties, which include forming various crystal structures ($\gamma$, $\alpha$, $\alpha^{'}$, $\alpha^{''}$ and $\epsilon$), mixed valence behavior and superconductivity, making it an ideal platform for investigating the interplay between different electronic states. Here, we present a comprehensive transport study of cerium under hydrostatic pressures up to 54 GPa. Upon applying pressure, cerium undergoes the $\alpha$ $\rightarrow$ $\alpha^{''}$ transition at around 4.9 GPa, which is accompanied by the appearance of superconductivity with $T_{\rm c}$ of 0.4 K, and $T_{\rm c}$ slightly increases to 0.5 K at 11.4 GPa. At 14.3 GPa, $T_{\rm c}$ suddenly increases when the $\alpha^{''}$ phase transforms into the $\epsilon$ phase, reaching a maximum value of 1.25 K at around 17.2 GPa. Upon further increasing the pressure, $T_{\rm c}$ monotonically decreases. Together with the results of previous studies, our findings suggest that the evolution of superconductivity in cerium is closely correlated with the multiple pressure-induced structural transitions and corresponding unusual electronic structures.
Yanan Zhang, Dajun Su, Yanen Huang, Zhaoyang Shan, Hualei Sun, Mengwu Huo, Kaixin Ye, Jiawen Zhang, Zihan Yang, Yongkang Xu, Yi Su, Rui Li, Michael Smidman, Meng Wang, Lin Jiao, Huiqiu Yuan Recently signatures of superconductivity were observed close to 80 K in \LN under pressure. This discovery positions \LN as the first bulk nickelate with high-temperature superconductivity, but the lack of zero resistance presents a significant drawback for validating the findings. Here we report pressure measurements up to over 30 GPa using a liquid pressure medium and show that single crystals of \LNO do exhibit zero resistance. We find that \LNO remains metallic under applied pressures, suggesting the absence of a metal-insulator transition proximate to the superconductivity. Analysis of the normal state $T$-linear resistance suggests an intricate link between this strange metal behaviour and superconductivity, whereby at high pressures both the linear resistance coefficient and superconducting transition are slowly suppressed by pressure, while at intermediate pressures both the superconductivity and strange metal behaviour appear disrupted, possibly due to a nearby structural instability. The association between strange metal behaviour and high-temperature superconductivity is very much in line with diverse classes of unconventional superconductors, including the cuprates and Fe-based superconductors. Understanding the superconductivity of \LNO evidently requires further revealing the interplay of strange metal behaviour, superconductivity, as well as possible competing electronic or structural phases.
Millimeter-sized Ce$_2$Rh$_{3+\delta}$Sb$_4$ ($\delta\approx 1/8$) single crystals were synthesized by a Bi-flux method and their physical properties were studied by a combination of electrical transport, magnetic and thermodynamic measurements. The resistivity anisotropy $\rho_{a,b}/\rho_{c}\sim2$, manifesting a quasi-one-dimensional electronic character. Magnetic susceptibility measurements confirm $\mathbf{ab}$ as the magnetic easy plane. A long-range antiferromagnetic transition occurs at $T_N=1.4$ K, while clear short-range ordering can be detected well above $T_N$. The low ordering temperature is ascribed to the large Ce-Ce distance as well as the geometric frustration. Kondo scale is estimated to be about 2.4 K, comparable to the strength of magnetic exchange. Ce$_2$Rh$_{3+\delta}$Sb$_4$, therefore, represents a rare example of dense Kondo lattice whose Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida exchange and Kondo coupling are both weak but competing.
Epithelial cells can assemble into cohesive colonies and collectively interact with substrates by generating extracellular forces through focal adhesions. Recently, a molecularly based thermodynamic model, which integrates both the monolayer elasticity and force-mediated focal adhesion formation, has been developed to elucidate the regulation of the cellular force landscape induced by the active epithelial-substrate coupling. However, how epithelial-substrate coupling strength mediate the landscapes of the traction, the cellular displacement, and the focal adhesion distribution in a cohesive monolayer remains unexamined in details. In this work, we follow the procedures by the previous work to re-formulate the free energy of the epithelial-substrate system and obtain the thermodynamic steady-state equations. We then derive a simplified form of the complete equation system, and solve it both semi-analytically and numerically. We find that the parameter which characterizes the epithelial-substrate coupling strength can significantly affect the landscapes of the traction the cellular displacement, and the focal adhesion distribution. We also revisit the "size effect" addressed by previous works and demonstrate that such effect is the natural outcome of a strong epithelial-substrate coupling without introducing any extra factors. For epithelial-substrate coupling which is not strong enough, the currently observed "size effect" does not hold. A scaling law that determines whether the previously observed "size effect" holds is proposed based on our model.
Electronic sensors play important roles in various applications, such as industry and environmental monitoring, biomedical sample ingredient analysis, wireless networks and so on. However, the sensitivity and robustness of current schemes are often limited by the low quality-factors of resonators and fabrication disorders. Hence, exploring new mechanisms of the electronic sensor with a high-level sensitivity and a strong robustness is of great significance. Here, we propose a new way to design electronic sensors with superior performances based on exotic properties of non-Hermitian topological physics. Owing to the extreme boundary-sensitivity of non-Hermitian topological zero modes, the frequency shift induced by boundary perturbations can show an exponential growth trend with respect to the size of non-Hermitian topolectrical circuit sensors. Moreover, such an exponential growth sensitivity is also robust against disorders of circuit elements. Using designed non-Hermitian topolectrical circuit sensors, we further experimentally verify the ultra-sensitive identification of the distance, rotation angle, and liquid level with the designed capacitive devices. Our proposed non-Hermitian topolectrical circuit sensors can possess a wide range of applications in ultra-sensitive environmental monitoring and show an exciting prospect for nextgeneration sensing technologies.
Nonlinear magnonics studies the nonlinear interaction between magnons and other physical platforms (phonon, photon, qubit, spin texture) to generate novel magnon states for information processing. In this tutorial, we first introduce the nonlinear interactions of magnons in pure magnetic systems and hybrid magnon-phonon and magnon-photon systems. Then we show how these nonlinear interactions can generate exotic magnonic phenomena. In the classical regime, we will cover the parametric excitation of magnons, bistability and multistability, and the magnonic frequency comb. In the quantum regime, we will discuss the single magnon state, Schrödinger cat state and the entanglement and quantum steering among magnons, photons and phonons. The applications of the hybrid magnonics systems in quantum transducer and sensing will also be presented. Finally, we outlook the future development direction of nonlinear magnonics.
We report the discovery of structural phase transitions and superconductivity in the full Heusler compounds $X$Pd$_2$Sn ($X$ = Ti, Zr, Hf), by means of electrical transport, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and x-ray diffraction measurements. TiPd$_2$Sn, ZrPd$_2$Sn and HfPd$_2$Sn undergo structural phase transitions from the room-temperature cubic MnCu$_2$Al-type structure (space group $Fm\bar{3}m$) to a low-temperature tetragonal structure at around 160 K, 110 K and 90 K, respectively, which are likely related charge density wave (CDW) instabilities. Low temperature single crystal x-ray diffraction measurements of ZrPd$_2$Sn demonstrate the emergence of a superstructure with multiple commensurate modulations below $T_s$. ZrPd$_2$Sn and HfPd$_2$Sn have bulk superconductivity (SC) with transition temperatures $T_c$ $\sim$ 1.2 K and 1.3 K, respectively. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal evidence for structural and electronic instabilities which can give rise to CDW formation, suggesting that these $X$Pd$_2$Sn systems are good candidates for examining the interplay between CDW and SC.
The heavy-fermion metal CeCu$_2$Si$_2$ was the first discovered unconventional, non-phonon-mediated superconductor, and for a long time was believed to exhibit single-band $d$-wave superconductivity, as inferred from various measurements hinting at a nodal gap structure. More recently however, measurements using a range of techniques at very low temperatures ($T \lessapprox 0.1$ K) provided evidence for a fully-gapped superconducting order parameter. In this Colloquium, after a brief historical overview we survey the apparently conflicting results of numerous experimental studies on this compound. We then address the different theoretical scenarios which have been applied to understand the particular gap structure, including both isotropic (sign-preserving) and anisotropic two-band $s$-wave superconductivity, as well as an effective two-band $d$-wave model, where the latter can explain the currently available experimental data on CeCu$_2$Si$_2$. The lessons from CeCu$_2$Si$_2$ are expected to help uncover the Cooper-pair states in other unconventional, fully-gapped superconductors with strongly correlated carriers, and in particular highlight the rich variety of such states enabled by orbital degrees of freedom.
Peng Li, Huiqing Ye, Yong Hu, Yuan Fang, Zhiguang Xiao, Zhongzheng Wu, Zhaoyang Shan, Ravi P. Singh, Geetha Balakrishnan, Dawei Shen, Yi-feng Yang, Chao Cao, Nicholas C. Plumb, Michael Smidman, Ming Shi, Johann Kroha, Huiqiu Yuan, Frank Steglich, Yang Liu The competition between magnetic order and Kondo effect is essential for the rich physics of heavy fermion systems. Nevertheless, how such competition is manifested in the quasiparticle bands in a real periodic lattice remains elusive in spectroscopic experiments. Here we report a high-resolution photoemission study of the antiferromagnetic Kondo lattice system CeCoGe3 with a high TN1 of 21K. Our measurements reveal a weakly dispersive 4f band at the Fermi level near the Z point, arisingfrom moderate Kondo effect. The intensity of this heavy 4f band exhibits a logarithmic increase with lowering temperature and begins to deviate from this Kondo-like behavior below 25 K, just above TN1, and eventually ceases to grow below 12 K. Our work provides direct spectroscopic evidence for the competition between magnetic order and the Kondo effect in a Kondo lattice system with local-moment antiferromagnetism, indicating a distinct scenario for the microscopic coexistence and competition of these phenomena, which might be related to the real-space modulation.
The discovery of topological quantum states in two-dimensional (2D) systems is one of the most promising advancements in condensed matter physics. Linear Weyl point (LWP) phonons have been theoretically investigated in some 2D materials. Especially, Jin, Wang, and Xu [Nano Lett. 2018, 18, 12, 7755-7760] proposed in 2018 that the candidates with threefold rotational symmetry at the corners of the hexagonal Brillouin zone can host LWP phonons with a quantized valley Berry phase. However, all the candidates with hexagonal lattices may not host LWP phonons at $K$ ($K'$) high-symmetry points (HSPs). Hence, a more accurate recipe for LWP phonons in 2D is highly required. This work provides an exhaustive list of valley LWP phonons at HSPs in 2D by searching the entire 80 layer groups (LGs). We found that the valley LWP phonons can be obtained at HSPs in 11 of the 80 LGs. Guided by the symmetry analysis, we also contributed to realizing the ideal 2D material with valley LWP phonons. We identified the existence of the valley LWP phonons in eleven 2D material candidates with 11 LGs. This work offers a method to search for valley LWPs in 2D phononic systems and proposes 2D material candidates to obtain the valley LWP phonons.
Spectro-ptychography offers improved spatial resolution and additional phase spectral information relative to that provided by scanning transmission X-ray microscopes (STXM). However, carrying out ptychography at the lower range of soft X-ray energies (e.g., below 200 eV to 600 eV) on samples with weakly scattering signals can be challenging. We present soft X-ray ptychography results at energies as low as 180 eV and illustrate the capabilities with results from permalloy nanorods (Fe 2p), carbon nanotubes (C 1s), and boron nitride bamboo nanostructures (B 1s, N1s). We describe optimization of low energy X-ray spectro-ptychography and discuss important challenges associated with measurement approaches, reconstruction algorithms, and their effects on the reconstructed images. A method for evaluating the increase in radiation dose when using overlapping sampling is presented.
Hybrid quantum systems based on magnetic platforms have witnessed the birth and fast development of quantum spintronics. Until now, most of the studies rely on magnetic excitations in low-damping magnetic insulators, particularly yttrium iron garnet, while a large class of magnetic systems is ruled out in this interdisciplinary field. Here we propose the generation of a magnon bundle in a hybrid magnet-qubit system, where two or more magnons are emitted simultaneously. By tuning the driving frequency of qubit to match the detuning between magnon and qubit mode, one can effectively generate a magnon bundle via super-Rabi oscillations. In contrast with general wisdom, magnetic dissipation plays an enabling role in generating the magnon bundle, where the relaxation time of magnons determines the typical time delay between two successive magnons. The maximal damping that allows an antibunched magnon bundle can reach the order of 0.1, which may break the monopoly of low-dissipation magnetic insulators in quantum spintronics and enables a large class of magnetic materials for quantum manipulation. Further, our finding may provide a scalable and generic platform to study multi-magnon physics and benefit the design of magnonic networks for quantum information processing.
Granular materials such as sand, powders, and grains are omnipresent in daily life, industrial applications, and earth-science [1]. When unperturbed, they form stable structures that resemble the ones of other amorphous solids like metallic and colloidal glasses [2]. It is commonly conjectured that all these amorphous materials show a universal mechanical response when sheared slowly, i.e., to have an elastic regime, followed by yielding [3]. Here we use X-ray tomography to determine the microscopic dynamics of a cyclically sheared granular system in three dimensions. Independent of the shear amplitude $\Gamma$, the sample shows a cross-over from creep to diffusive dynamics, indicating that granular materials have no elastic response and always yield, in stark contrast to other glasses. The overlap function [4] reveals that at large $\Gamma$ yielding is a simple cross-over phenomenon, while for small $\Gamma$ it shows features of a first order transition with a critical point at $\Gamma\approx 0.1$ at which one finds a pronounced slowing down and dynamical heterogeneity. Our findings are directly related to the surface roughness of granular particles which induces a micro-corrugation to the potential energy landscape, thus creating relaxation channels that are absent in simple glasses. These processes must be understood for reaching an understanding of the complex relaxation dynamics of granular systems.
In Hilbert space, the geometry of the quantum state is identified by the quantum geometric tensor (QGT), whose imaginary part is the Berry curvature and real part is the quantum metric tensor. Here, we propose and experimentally implement a complete Bloch state tomography to directly measure eigenfunction of an optical Raman lattice for ultracold atoms. Through the measured eigenfunction, the distribution of the complete QGT in the Brillouin zone is reconstructed, with which the topological invariants are extracted by the Berry curvature and the distances of quantum states in momentum space are measured by the quantum metric tensor. Further, we experimentally test a predicted inequality between the Berry curvature and quantum metric tensor, which reveals a deep connection between topology and geometry.
When a magnon passes through two-dimensional magnetic textures, it will experience a fictitious magnetic field originating from the $3\times 3$ skew-symmetric gauge fields. To date, only one of the three independent components of the gauge fields has been found to play a role in generating the fictitious magnetic field while the rest two are perfectly hidden. In this work, we show that they are concealed in the nonlinear magnon transport in magnetic textures. Without loss of generality, we theoretically study the nonlinear magnon-skyrmion interaction in antiferromagnets. By analyzing the scattering features of three-magnon processes between the circularly-polarized incident magnon and breathing skyrmion, we predict a giant Hall angle of both the confluence and splitting modes. Furthermore, we find that the Hall angle reverses its sign when one switches the handedness of the incident magnons. We dub it nonlinear topological magnon spin Hall effect. Our findings are deeply rooted in the bosonic nature of magnons that the particle number is not conserved, which has no counterpart in low-energy fermionic systems, and may open the door for probing gauge fields by nonlinear means.
Topological integrated circuits are integrated-circuit realizations of topological systems. Here we show an experimental demonstration by taking the case of the Kitaev topological superconductor model. An integrated-circuit implementation enables us to realize high resonant frequency as high as 13GHz. We explicitly observe the spatial profile of a topological edge state. In particular, the topological interface state between a topological segment and a trivial segment is the Majorana-like state. We construct a switchable structure in the integrated circuit, which enables us to control the position of a Majorana-like interface state arbitrarily along a chain. Our results contribute to the development of topological electronics with high frequency integrated circuits.
We report the magnetic properties of the layered heavy fermion antiferromagnet CePdGa$_{6}$, and their evolution upon tuning with the application of magnetic field and pressure. CePdGa$_{6}$ orders antiferromagnetically below $T\rm_{N}$ = 5.2 K, where there is evidence for heavy fermion behavior from an enhanced Sommerfeld coefficient. Our results are best explained by a magnetic ground state of ferromagnetically coupled layers of Ce $4f$-moments orientated along the $c$-axis, with antiferromagnetic coupling between layers. At low temperatures we observe two metamagnetic transitions for fields applied along the $c$-axis corresponding to spin-flip transitions, where the lower transition is to a different magnetic phase with a magnetization one-third of the saturated value. From our analysis of the magnetic susceptibility, we propose a CEF level scheme which accounts for the Ising anisotropy at low temperatures, and we find that the evolution of the magnetic ground state can be explained considering both antiferromagnetic exchange between nearest neighbor and next nearest neighbor layers, indicating the influence of long-range interactions. Meanwhile we find little change of $T\rm_{N}$ upon applying hydrostatic pressures up to 2.2 GPa, suggesting that significantly higher pressures are required to examine for possible quantum critical behaviors.
Z. Y. Nie, J. W. Shu, A. Wang, H. Su, W. Y. Duan, A. D. Hillier, D. T. Adroja, P. K. Biswas, T. Takabatake, M. Smidman, H. Q. Yuan The superconducting order parameter of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor LaRhSn is investigated by means of low temperature measurements of the specific heat, muon-spin relaxation/rotation ($\mu$SR) and the tunnel-diode oscillator (TDO) based method. The specific heat and magnetic penetration depth [$\lambda(T)$] show an exponentially activated temperature dependence, demonstrating fully gapped superconductivity in LaRhSn. The temperature dependence of $\lambda^{-2}(T)$ deduced from the TDO based method and $\mu$SR show nearly identical behavior, which can be well described by a single-gap $s$-wave model, with a zero temperature gap value of $\Delta(0)=1.77(4)k_BT_c$. The zero-field $\mu$SR spectra do not show detectable changes upon cooling below $T_c$, and therefore there is no evidence for time-reversal-symmetry breaking in the superconducting state.
Ming Tang, Junwei Huang, Feng Qin, Kun Zhai, Toshiya Ideue, Zeya Li, Fanhao Meng, Anmin Nie, Linglu Wu, Xiangyu Bi, Caorong Zhang, Ling Zhou, Peng Chen, Caiyu Qiu, Peizhe Tang, Haijun Zhang, Xiangang Wan, Lin Wang, Zhongyuan Liu, Yongjun Tian, et al (2) Controlling the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic materials plays a key role in magnetic switching devices and spintronic applications. Examples of spin-orbit torque devices with different magnetic anisotropy geometries (in-plane or out-of-plane directions) have been demonstrated with novel magnetization switching mechanisms for extended device functionalities. Normally, the intrinsic magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic materials is unchanged within a fixed direction, and thus, it is difficult to realize multifunctionality devices. Therefore, continuous modulation of magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic materials is highly desired but remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a gate-tunable magnetic anisotropy transition from out-of-plane to canted and finally to in-plane in layered Fe$_5$GeTe$_2$ by combining the measurements of the angle-dependent anomalous Hall effect and magneto-optical Kerr effect with quantitative Stoner-Wohlfarth analysis. The magnetic easy axis continuously rotates in a spin-flop pathway by gating or temperature modulation. Such observations offer a new avenue for exploring magnetization switching mechanisms and realizing new spintronic functionalities.
Phonons are an ideal platform for realizing stable spinless two-dimensional (2D) Dirac points because they have a bosonic nature and hard-to-break time-reversal symmetry. It should be noted that the twofold degenerate nodal points in the phonon dispersions of almost all reported 2D materials are misclassified as 'Dirac points' owing to a historical issue. The correct name for these twofold degenerate nodal points should be 'Weyl' because 2D phononic systems are essentially spinless and because each twofold degenerate point is described by a Weyl model in two dimensions. To date, there have been no reports of fourfold degenerate Dirac point phonons in 2D materials. In this study, we searched through the entire 80 layer groups (LGs) and discovered that Dirac phonons can be realized in 7 of the 80 LGs. Moreover, the Dirac points in the phonon dispersions of 2D materials can be divided into essential and accidental degenerate points, which appear at high-symmetry points and on high-symmetry lines, respectively. Guided by symmetry analysis, we identified the presence of Dirac phonons in several 2D material candidates with six LGs. This letter offers a method for identifying Dirac phonons in 2D and proposes 2D material candidates for realizing Dirac phonons.
The Floquet engineering opens the way to create new topological states without counterparts in static systems. Here, we report the experimental realization and characterization of new anomalous topological states with high-precision Floquet engineering for ultracold atoms trapped in a shaking optical Raman lattice. The Floquet band topology is manipulated by tuning the driving-induced band crossings referred to as band inversion surfaces (BISs), whose configurations fully characterize the topology of the underlying states. We uncover various exotic anomalous topological states by measuring the configurations of BISs which correspond to the bulk Floquet topology. In particular, we identify an unprecedented anomalous Floquet valley-Hall state that possesses anomalous helicallike edge modes protected by valleys and a chiral state with high Chern number.
Magnons are the quanta of collective spin excitations in magnetically-ordered systems and manipulation of magnons for computing and information processing has witnessed the development of ``magnonics". A magnon corresponds to an excitation of the magnetic system from its ground state and the creation of a magnon thus increases the total energy of the system. In this perspective, we introduce the antiparticle of a magnon, dubbed the antimagnon, as an excitation that lowers the magnetic energy. We investigate the stability and thermal occupation of antimagnons and verify our theory by micromagnetic simulations. Furthermore, we show how the concept of antimagnons yields a unified picture to understand the magnonic analog of the Klein effect, magnonic black-hole horizons, and magnonic black-hole lasing. Our work may stimulate fundamental interest in antimagnons, as well as their applications to spintronic devices.
Stokesian Dynamics is a well-established computational method for simulating dynamics of many particles suspended in a conventional passive fluid medium. Active fluids composed of self-propelling particles with broken time reversal symmetry permit the emergence of a so-called odd viscosity. In this work, we extended the conventional Stokesian Dynamics formalism to incorporate the additional hydrodynamic effects due to odd viscosity, which enables simulating collective behaviors of many particles suspended in an active fluid medium with both even viscosity and odd viscosity.
T. Shang, Y. Chen, W. Xie, D. J. Gawryluk, R. Gupta, R. Khasanov, X. Y. Zhu, H. Zhang, Z. X. Zhen, B. C. Yu, Z. Zhou, Y. Xu, Q. F. Zhan, E. Pomjakushina, H. Q. Yuan, T. Shiroka The CuIr$_{2-x}$Ru$_x$Te$_4$ superconductors (with a $T_c$ around 2.8 K) can host charge-density waves, whose onset and interplay with superconductivity are not well known at a microscopic level. Here, we report a comprehensive study of the $x$ = 0 and 0.05 cases, whose superconductivity was characterized via electrical-resistivity-, magnetization-, and heat-capacity measurements, while their microscopic superconducting properties were studied via muon-spin rotation and relaxation ($\mu$SR). In CuIr$_{2-x}$Ru$_x$Te$_4$, both the temperature-dependent electronic specific heat and the superfluid density (determined via transverse-field $\mu$SR) are best described by a two-gap (s+d)-wave model, comprising a nodeless gap and a gap with nodes. The multigap superconductivity is also supported by the temperature dependence of the upper critical field $H_\mathrm{c2}(T)$. However, under applied pressure, a charge-density-wave order starts to develop and, as a consequence, the superconductivity of CuIr$_2$Te$_4$ achieves a more conventional s-wave character. From a series of experiments, we provide ample evidence that the CuIr$_{2-x}$Ru$_x$Te$_4$ family belongs to the rare cases, where an unconventional superconducting pairing is found near a charge-density-wave quantum critical point.
CaSb2 is a topological nodal-line semimetal that becomes superconducting below 1.6 K, providing an ideal platform to investigate the interplay between topologically nontrivial electronic bands and superconductivity. In this work, we investigated the superconducting order parameter of CaSb2 by measuring its magnetic penetration depth change ∆\lambda(T) down to 0.07 K, using a tunneling diode oscillator (TDO) based technique. Well inside the superconducting state, ∆\lambda(T) shows an exponential activated behavior, and provides direct evidence for a nodeless superconducting gap. By analyzing the temperature dependence of the superfluid density and the electronic specific heat, we find both can be consistently described by a two-gap s-wave model, in line with the presence of multiple Fermi surfaces associated with distinct Sb sites in this compound. These results demonstrate fully-gapped superconductivity in CaSb2 and constrain the allowed pairing symmetry.
We show that interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in combination with non-local Gilbert damping gives rise to unidirectional magnetic coupling. That is, the coupling between two magnetic layers -- say the left and right layer -- is such that dynamics of the left layer leads to dynamics of the right layer, but not vice versa. We discuss the implications of this result for the magnetic susceptibility of a magnetic bilayer, electrically-actuated spin-current transmission, and unidirectional spin-wave packet generation and propagation. Our results may enable a route towards spin-current and spin-wave diodes and further pave the way to design spintronic devices via reservoir engineering.
There has been a recent upsurge of interest in the quantum properties of magnons for quantum information processing. An important issue is to examine the stability of quantum states of magnons against various relaxation and dephasing channels. Since the interaction of magnons in magnetic systems may fall in the ultra-strong and even deep-strong coupling regimes, the relaxation process of magnon states is quite different from the more common quantum optical systems. Here we study the relaxation and dephasing of magnons based on the Lindblad formalism and derive a generalized master equation that describes the quantum dynamics of magnons. Employing this master equation, we identify two distinct dissipation channels for squeezed magnons, i.e., the local dissipation and collective dissipation, which play a role for both ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. The local dissipation is caused by the independent exchange of angular momentum between the magnonic system and the environment, while the collective dissipation is dressed by the parametric interactions of magnons and it enhances the quantumness and thermal stability of squeezed magnons. Further, we show how this formalism can be applied to study the pure dephasing of magnons caused by four-magnon scattering and magnon-phonon interactions. Our results provide the theoretical tools to study the decoherence of magnons within a full quantum-mechanical framework and further benefit the use of quantum states of magnons for information processing.
W. Xie, F. Du, X. Y. Zheng, H. Su, Z. Y. Nie, B. Q. Liu, Y. H. Xia, T. Shang, C. Cao, M. Smidman, T. Takabatake, H. Q. Yuan We have synthesized YbPdAs with the hexagonal ZrNiAl-type structure, in which the Yb-atoms form a distorted kagome sublattice in the hexagonal basal plane. Magnetic, transport, and thermodynamic measurements indicate that YbPdAs is a low-carrier Kondo lattice compound with an antiferromagnetic transition at $T_\mathrm{N}$ = 6.6 K, which is slightly suppressed in applied magnetic fields up to 9 T. The magnetic entropy at $T_\mathrm{N}$ recovers only 33\% of $R\ln{2}$, the full entropy of the ground state doublet of the Yb-ions. The resistivity displays a $-\ln T$ dependence between 30 and 15 K, followed by a broad maximum at $T\rm_{coh}$ = 12 K upon cooling. Below $T\rm_{coh}$, the magnetoresistance changes from negative to positive, suggesting a crossover from single-ion Kondo scattering processes at intermediate temperatures to coherent Kondo lattice behaviors at low temperatures. Both the Hall resistivity measurements and band structure calculations indicate a relatively low carrier concentration in YbPdAs. Our results suggest that YbPdAs could provide an opportunity for examining the interplay of Kondo physics and magnetic frustration in low carrier systems.
The heavy-fermion superconductor CeCu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ exhibits two-band, $d$-wave superconductivity with a finite energy gap over the whole Fermi surface around the magnetic instability where 4$f$ antiferrerromagnetic order is suppressed. In contrast, in YbRh$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ heavy-fermion superconductivity appears only when 4$f$-electronic antiferromagnetic order is replaced at ultra-low temperatures by a combined nuclear and 4$f$-spin order. Whereas both compounds exhibit different variants of antiferromagnetic instabilities, i.e., a spin-density-wave quantum critical point in CeCu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ and one of "partial-Mott" type in YbRh$_{2}$Si$_{2}$, in both cases the Cooper pairing, as well as the pronounced "strange-metal" behavior in YbRh$_{2}$Si$_{2}$, appear to be driven by large-to-small Fermi surface fluctuations. The transport properties and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) for these materials are dominated by single-ion Kondo scatterings down to very low temperatures. Further open problems of the Kondo lattice include both the interplay between superconductivity and antiferromagnetic order as well as the onset of lattice coherence. While microscopic coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism seems to require a sufficiently large staggered moment, the onset of lattice coherence in transport measurements and STS is associated solely with the crystal-field-doublet ground state, while it involves the fully degenerate Hund's rule multiplet in ARPES.
The coordinated behaviors of epithelial cells are widely observed in tissue development, such as re-epithelialization, tumor growth, and morphogenesis. In these processes, cells either migrate collectively or organize themselves into specific structures to serve certain purposes. In this work, we study a spreading epithelial monolayer whose migrating front encloses a circular gap in the monolayer center. Such tissue is usually used to mimic the wound healing process in Virto. We model the epithelial sheet as a layer of active viscous polar fluid. With an axisymmetric assumption, the model can be analytically solved under two special conditions, suggesting two possible spreading modes for the epithelial monolayer. Based on these two sets of analytical solutions, we assess the velocity of the spreading front affected by the gap size, the active intercellular contractility, and the purse-string contraction acting on the spreading edge. Several critical values exist in the model parameters for the initiation of the gap closure process, and the purse-string contraction plays a vital role in governing the gap closure kinetics. Finally, the instability of the morphology of the spreading front was studied. Numerical calculations show how the perturbated velocities and the growth rates vary with respect to different model parameters.
Ling Zhou, Junwei Huang, Lukas Windgaetter, Chin Shen Ong, Xiaoxu Zhao, Caorong Zhang, Ming Tang, Zeya Li, Caiyu Qiu, Simone Latini, Yangfan Lu, Di Wu, Huiyang Gou, Andrew T. S. Wee, Hideo Hosono, Steven G. Louie, Peizhe Tang, Angel Rubio, Hongtao Yuan Many-body interactions between quasiparticles (electrons, excitons, and phonons) have led to the emergence of new complex correlated states and are at the core of condensed matter physics and material science. In low-dimensional materials, unique electronic properties for these correlated states could significantly affect their optical properties. Herein, combining photoluminescence, optical reflection measurements and theoretical calculations, we demonstrate an unconventional excitonic state and its bound phonon sideband in layered silicon diphosphide (SiP$_2$), in which the bound electron-hole pair is composed of electrons confined within one-dimensional phosphorus$-$phosphorus chains and holes extended in two-dimensional SiP$_2$ layers. The excitonic state and the emergent phonon sideband show linear dichroism and large energy redshifts with increasing temperature. Within the $GW$ plus Bethe$-$Salpeter equation calculations and solving the generalized Holstein model non-perturbatively, we confirm that the observed sideband feature results from the correlated interaction between excitons and optical phonons. Such a layered material provides a new platform to study excitonic physics and many-particle effects.
The coupling between a system and its environment (or bath) always leads to dissipation. We show, however, that a system composed of two subsystems can have a dissipation-free mode, if the bath is shared between the two subsystems. Reading in reverse, a shared bath does not contribute to the dissipation of all modes. As a key example, we consider a simple model for a two-sublattice antiferromagnet, where the environment is modeled by a bath that is shared between the two sublattice magnetizations. In our model, we find that the Néel order parameter is a dissipation-free mode. For antiferromagnets, our results offer an explanation for why the dissipation rate of the Néel vector is typically much lower than that of the average magnetization. In general, our results suggest a way to reduce dissipation (and decoherence) for some modes in composite systems, which could have experimental and technological applications.
By employing the exact-diagonalization method, we revisit the ground-state phase diagram of the Haldane-Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice with staggered sublattice potentials. The phase diagram includes the band insulator, Mott insulator, and two Chern insulator phases with Chern numbers C=2 and C=1, respectively. The character of transitions between different phases is studied by analyzing the lower-lying energy levels, excitation gaps, structure factors, and fidelity metric. We find that the C=1 phase can be continuously deformed into the C=2 phase without a gap closure in the periodic boundary condition, while a further analysis on the Berry curvatures indicates that the excitation gap closes at the phase boundary in a twisted boundary condition, accompanied by the discontinuities of structure factors. All the other phase transitions are found to be first-order ones as expected.
We report a comprehensive study of the noncentrosymmetric NbReSi superconductor by means of muon-spin rotation and relaxation ($\mu$SR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. NbReSi is a bulk superconductor with $T_c = 6.5$ K, characterized by a large upper critical field, which exceeds the Pauli limit. Both the superfluid density $\rho_\mathrm{sc}(T)$ (determined via transverse-field $\mu$SR) and the spin-lattice relaxation rate $T_1^{-1}(T)$ (determined via NMR) suggest a nodeless superconductivity (SC) in NbReSi. We also find signatures of multigap SC, here evidenced by the field-dependent muon-spin relaxation rate and the electronic specific-heat coefficient. The absence of spontaneous magnetic fields below $T_c$, as evinced from zero-field $\mu$SR measurements, indicates a preserved time-reversal symmetry in the superconducting state of NbReSi. Finally, we discuss possible reasons for the unusually large upper critical field of NbReSi, most likely arising from its anisotropic crystal structure.
Hang Su, Feng Du, Shuaishuai Luo, Zhiyong Nie, Rui Li, Wu Xie, Bin Shen, Yunfeng Wang, An Wang, Toshiro Takabatake, Chao Cao, Michael Smidman, Huiqiu Yuan We report the discovery of superconductivity in a series of noncentrosymmetric compounds La$_4$$TX$ ($T$ = Ru, Rh, Ir; $X$ = Al, In), which have a cubic crystal structure with space group $F\bar{4}3m$. La$_4$RuAl, La$_4$RhAl, La$_4$IrAl, La$_4$RuIn and La$_4$IrIn exhibit bulk superconducting transitions with critical temperatures $T_c$ of 1.77 K, 3.05 K, 1.54 K, 0.58 K and 0.93 K, respectively. The specific heat of the La$_4$$T$Al compounds are consistent with an $s$-wave model with a fully open superconducting gap. In all cases, the upper critical fields are well described by the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg model, and the values are well below the Pauli limit, indicating that orbital limiting is the dominant pair-breaking mechanism. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the degree of band splitting by the antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling (ASOC) shows considerable variation between the different compounds. This indicates that the strength of the ASOC is highly tunable across this series of superconductors, suggesting that these are good candidates for examining the relationship between the ASOC and superconducting properties in noncentrosymmetric superconductors.
Quantization effects of the nonlinear magnon-vortex interaction in ferromagnetic nanodisks are studied. We show that the circular geometry twists the spin-wave fields with spiral phase dislocations carrying quantized orbital angular momentum (OAM). Meanwhile, the confluence and splitting scattering of twisted magnons off the gyrating vortex core (VC) generates a frequency comb consisting of discrete and equally spaced spectral lines, dubbed as twisted magnon frequency comb (tMFC). It is found that the mode spacing of the tMFC is equal to the gyration frequency of the VC and the OAM quantum numbers between adjacent spectral lines differ by one. By applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the plane of a thick nanodisk, we observe a magnonic Penrose superradiance inside the cone vortex state, which mimics the amplification of waves scattered from a rotating black hole. It is demonstrated that the higher-order modes of tMFC are significantly amplified while the lower-order ones are trapped within the VC gyrating orbit which manifests as the ergoregion. These results suggest a promising way to generate twisted magnons with large OAM and to drastically improve the flatness of the magnon comb.
Zhaoyang Shan, Pabitra K. Biswas, Sudeep K. Ghosh, T. Tula, Adrian D. Hillier, Devashibhai Adroja, Stephen Cottrell, Guang-Han Cao, Yi Liu, Xiaofeng Xu, Yu Song, Huiqiu Yuan, Michael Smidman The ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ topological metals $R$V$_3$Sb$_5$ ($R$ = K, Rb, Cs) with a layered kagome structure provide a unique opportunity to investigate the interplay between charge order, superconductivity and topology. Here, we report muon-spin relaxation/rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements performed on CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ across a broad temperature range, in order to uncover the nature of the charge-density wave order and superconductivity in this material. From zero-field $\mu$SR, we find that spontaneous magnetic fields appear below 50 K which is well below the charge-density wave transition ($T^* \sim 93$ K). We show that these spontaneous fields are dynamic in nature making it difficult to associate them with a hidden static order. The superconducting state of CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ is found to preserve time-reversal symmetry and the transverse-field $\mu$SR results are consistent with a superconducting state that has two fully open gaps.
The discovery of novel topological states has served as a major branch in physics and material science. However, to date, most of the established topological states of matter have been employed in Euclidean systems, where the interplay between unique geometrical characteristics of curved spaces and exotic topological phases is less explored, especially on the experimental perspective. Recently, the experimental realization of the hyperbolic lattice, which is the regular tessellation in non-Euclidean spaces with a constant negative curvature, has attracted much attention in the field of simulating exotic phenomena from quantum physics in curved spaces to the general relativity. The question is whether there are novel topological states in such a non-Euclidean system without analogues in Euclidean spaces. Here, we demonstrate both in theory and experiment that novel topological states possessing unique properties compared with their Euclidean counterparts can exist in engineered hyperbolic lattices. Specially, based on the extended Haldane model, the boundary-dominated first-order Chern edge state with a nontrivial real-space Chern number is achieved, and the associated one-way propagation is proven. Furthermore, we show that fractal-like midgap higher-order zero modes appear in deformed hyperbolic lattices, where the number of zero modes increases exponentially with the increase of lattice size. These novel topological states are observed in designed hyperbolic circuit networks by measuring site-resolved impendence responses and dynamics of voltage packets. Our findings suggest a novel platform to study topological phases beyond Euclidean space and may have potential applications in the field of designing high-efficient topological devices, such as topological lasers, with extremely fewer trivial regions.
X. Liu, P. Liu, H. C. Yuan, J. Y. Shi, H. L. Wang, S. H. Nie, F. Jin, Z. Zheng, X. Z. Yu, J. H. Zhao, H. B. Zhao, G. Lüpke Spin angular momentum transfer in magnetic bilayers offers the possibility of ultrafast and low-loss operation for next-generation spintronic devices. We report the field- and temperature- dependent measurements on the magnetization precessions in Co$_2$FeAl/(Ga,Mn)As by time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE). Analysis of the effective Gilbert damping and phase shift indicates a clear signature of an enhanced dynamic exchange coupling between the two ferromagnetic (FM) layers due to the reinforced spin pumping at resonance. The temperature dependence of the dynamic exchange-coupling reveals a primary contribution from the ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)As.
X. Liu, H. C. Yuan, P. Liu, J. Y. Shi, H. L. Wang, S. H. Nie, F. Jin, Z. Zheng, X. Z. Yu, J. H. Zhao, H. B. Zhao, G. Lüpke Fast spin manipulation in magnetic heterostructures, where magnetic interactions between different materials often define the functionality of devices, is a key issue in the development of ultrafast spintronics. Although recently developed optical approaches such as ultrafast spin-transfer and spin-orbit torques open new pathways to fast spin manipulation, these processes do not fully utilize the unique possibilities offered by interfacial magnetic coupling effects in ferromagnetic multilayer systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate ultrafast photo-enhanced interfacial exchange interactions in the ferromagnetic Co$_2$FeAl/(Ga,Mn)As system at low laser fluence levels. The excitation efficiency of Co$_2$FeAl with the (Ga,Mn)As layer is 30-40 times higher than the case with the GaAs layer at 5 K due to a photo-enhanced exchange coupling interaction via photoexcited charge transfer between the two ferromagnetic layers. In addition, the coherent spin precessions persist to room temperature, excluding the drive of photo-enhanced magnetization in the (Ga,Mn)As layer and indicating a proximity-effect-related optical excitation mechanism. The results highlight the importance of considering the range of interfacial exchange interactions in ferromagnetic heterostructures and how these magnetic coupling effects can be utilized for ultrafast, low-power spin manipulation.
Y. J. Zhang, Z. Y. Nie, R. Li, Y. C. Li, D. L. Yang, B. Shen, C. Ye, H. Su, R. Shi, S. Y. Wang, F. Steglich, M. Smidman, H. Q. Yuan We report a study of isoelectronic chemical substitution in the recently discovered quantum critical ferromagnet CeRh$_6$Ge$_4$. Upon silicon-doping, the ferromagnetic ordering temperature of CeRh$_6$(Ge$_{1-x}$Si$_x$)$_4$ is continuously suppressed, and no transition is observed beyond $x_c$$\approx$0.125. Non-Fermi liquid behavior with $C/T \propto$log($T^*/T$) is observed close to $x_c$, indicating the existence of strong quantum fluctuations, while the $T$-linear behavior observed upon pressurizing the parent compound is absent in the resistivity, which appears to be a consequence of the disorder induced by silicon doping. Our findings provide evidence for the role played by disorder on the unusual ferromagnetic quantum criticality in CeRh$_6$Ge$_4$, and provides further evidence for understanding the origin of this behavior.
Feng Du, Lin Yang, Zhiyong Nie, Ninghua Wu, Yong Li, Shuaishuai Luo, Ye Chen, Dajun Su, Michael Smidman, Youguo Shi, Chao Cao, Frank Steglich, Yu Song, Huiqiu Yuan The combination of magnetic symmetries and electronic band topology provides a promising route for realizing topologically nontrivial quasiparticles, and the manipulation of magnetic structures may enable the switching between topological phases, with the potential for achieving functional physical properties. Here, we report measurements of the electrical resistivity of EuCd$_2$As$_2$ under pressure, which show an intriguing insulating dome at pressures between $p_{\rm c1}\sim1.0$~GPa and $p_{\rm c2}\sim2.0$~GPa, situated between two regimes with metallic transport. The insulating state can be fully suppressed by a small magnetic field, leading to a colossal negative magnetoresistance on the order of $10^5$\%, accessible via a modest field of $\sim0.2$~T. First-principles calculations reveal that the dramatic evolution of the resistivity under pressure is due to consecutive transitions of EuCd$_2$As$_2$ from a magnetic topological insulator to a trivial insulator, and then to a Weyl semimetal, with the latter resulting from a pressure-induced change in the magnetic ground state. Similarly, the colossal magnetoresistance results from a field-induced polarization of the magnetic moments, transforming EuCd$_2$As$_2$ from a trivial insulator to a Weyl semimetal. These findings underscore weak magnetic exchange couplings and spin anisotropy as ingredients for discovering tunable magnetic topological materials with desirable functionalities.