Search

Line excitations in topological phases are a subject of particular interest because their mutual linking structures encode robust topological information of matter. It has been recently shown that the linking and winding of complex eigenenergy strings can classify one-dimensional non-Hermitian topological matter. However, in higher dimensions, bundles of linked strings can emerge such that every string is mutually linked with all the other strings. Interestingly, despite being an unconventional topological structure, a non-Hermitian Hopf bundle has not been experimentally clarified. Here, we make the first attempt to explore the non-Hermitian Hopf bundle by visualizing the global linking structure of spinor strings in the momentum space of a two-dimensional electric circuit. By exploiting the flexibility of reconfigurable couplings between circuit nodes, we can study the non-Hermitian topological phase transition and gain insight into the intricate structure of the Hopf bundle. Furthermore, we find that the emergence of a higher-order skin effect in real space is accompanied by the linking of spinor strings in momentum space, revealing a bulk-boundary correspondence between the two domains. The proposed non-Hermitian Hopf bundle platform and visualization methodology pave the way to design new topologically robust non-Hermitian phases of matter.

Exotic tiling patterns of quasicrystals have motivated extensive studies of quantum phenomena such as critical states and phasons. Nevertheless, the systematic understanding of the Landau levels of quasicrystals in the presence of the magnetic field has not been established yet. One of the main obstacles is the complication of the quasiperiodic tilings without periodic length scales, thus it has been thought that the system cannot possess any universal features of the Landau levels. In this paper, contrary to these assertions, we develop a generic theory of the Landau levels for quasicrystals. Focusing on the two dimensional quasicrystals with rotational symmetries, we highlight that quasiperiodic tilings induce anomalous Landau levels where electrons are localized near the rotational symmetry centers. Interestingly, the localization length of these Landau levels has a universal dependence on n for quasicrystals with n-fold rotational symmetry. Furthermore, macroscopically degenerate zero energy Landau levels are present due to the chiral symmetry of the rhombic tilings. In this case, each Landau level forms an independent island where electrons are trapped at given fields, but with field control, the interference between the islands gives rise to an abrupt change in the local density of states. Our work provide a general scheme to understand the electron localization behavior of the Landau levels in quasicrystals., 8 pages, 5 figures

Universality class of wave chaos emerges in many areas of science, such as molecular dynamics, optics, and network theory. In this work, we generalize the wave chaos theory to cavity lattice systems by discovering the intrinsic coupling of the crystal momentum to the internal cavity dynamics. The cavity-momentum locking substitutes the role of the deformed boundary shape in the ordinary single microcavity problem, providing a new platform for the in situ study of microcavity light dynamics. The transmutation of wave chaos in periodic lattices leads to a phase space reconfiguration that induces a dynamical localization transition. The degenerate scar-mode spinors hybridize and non-trivially localize around regular islands in phase space. In addition, we find that the momentum coupling becomes maximal at the Brillouin zone boundary, so the intercavity chaotic modes coupling and wave confinement are significantly altered. Our work pioneers the study of intertwining wave chaos in periodic systems and provide useful applications in light dynamics control., Comment: 6+16 pages+5 figures

Non-Hermitian skin effect exhibits the collapse of the extended bulk modes into the extensive number of localized boundary states in open boundary conditions. Here we demonstrate the disorder-driven phase transition of the trivial non-Hermitian system to the higher-order non-Hermitian skin effect phase. In contrast to the clean systems, the disorder-induced boundary modes form an arc in the complex energy plane, which is the manifestation of the disorder-driven dynamical phase transition. At the phase transition, the localized corner modes and bulk modes characterized by trivial Hamiltonian coexist within the single-band but are separated in the complex energy plane. This behavior is analogous to the mobility edge phenomena in the disordered Hermitian systems. Using effective medium theory and numerical diagonalizations, we provide a systematic characterization of the disorder-driven phase transitions., 4+7 pages

We propose that non-collinear magnetic order in quantum magnets can harbor a novel higher-order topological magnon phase with non-Hermitian topology and hinge magnon modes. We consider a three-dimensional system of interacting local moments on stacked-layers of honeycomb lattice. It initially favors a collinear magnetic order along an in-plane direction, which turns into a non-collinear order upon applying an external magnetic field perpendicular to the easy axis. We exploit the non-Hermitian nature of the magnon Hamiltonian to show that this field-induced transition corresponds to the transformation from a topological magnon insulator to a higher-order topological magnon state with a one-dimensional hinge mode. As a concrete example, we discuss the recently-discovered monoclinic phase of the thin chromium trihalides, which we propose as the first promising material candidate of the higher-order topological magnon phase., 10 pages + 3 figures

The poor performance of copper interconnects at the nanometer scale calls for new material solutions for continued scaling of integrated circuits. We propose the use of three dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological insulators (TIs), which host backscattering-protected surface states, for this purpose. Using semiclassical methods, we demonstrate that nanoscale TI interconnects have a resistance 1-3 orders of magnitude lower than copper interconnects and graphene nanoribbons at the nanometer scale. We use the nonequilibrium Green function (NEGF) formalism to measure the change in conductance of nanoscale TI and metal interconnects caused by the presence of impurity disorder. We show that metal interconnects suffer a resistance increase, relative to the clean limit, in excess of 500% due to disorder while the TI's surface states increase less than 35% in the same regime., 4 pages, 3 figures

Superconducting Weyl semimetals present a novel and promising system to harbor new forms of unconventional topological superconductivity. Within the context of time-reversal-symmetric Weyl semimetals with $d$-wave superconductivity, we demonstrate that the number of Majorana cones equates to the number of intersections between the $d$-wave nodal lines and the Fermi arcs. We illustrate the importance of nodal line-arc intersections by demonstrating the existence of locally stable surface Majorana cones that the winding number does not predict. The discrepancy between Majorana cones and the winding number necessitates an augmentation of the winding number formulation to account for each intersection. In addition, we show that imposing additional mirror symmetries globally protects the nodal line-arc intersections and the corresponding Majorana cones.

Topological nodal superconductors possess gapless low energy excitations that are characterized by point or line nodal Fermi surfaces. In this work, using a coupled wire construction, we study topological nodal superconductors that have protected Dirac nodal points. In this construction, the low-energy electronic degrees of freedom are confined in a three dimensional array of wires, which emerge as pairing vortices of a microscopic superconducting system. The vortex array harbors an antiferromagnetic time-reversal and a mirror glide symmetry that protect the massless Dirac fermion in the single-body non-interacting limit. Within this model, we demonstrate exact-solvable many-body interactions that preserve the underlying symmetries and introduce a finite excitation energy gap. These gapping interactions support fractionalization and generically lead to non-trivial topological order. We also construct a special case of $N=16$ Dirac fermions where corresponding the gapping interaction leads to a trivial $E_8$ topological order that is closely related to the cancellation of the large gravitational anomaly., 25 pages, 9 figures

Recent demonstrations on manipulating antiferromagnetic (AF) order have triggered a growing interest in antiferromagnetic metal (AFM), and potential high-density spintronic applications demand further improvements in the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR). The antiferromagnetic semimetals (AFS) are newly discovered materials that possess massless Dirac fermions that are protected by the crystalline symmetries. In this material, a reorientation of the AF order may break the underlying symmetries and induce a finite energy gap. As such, the possible phase transition from the semimetallic to insulating phase gives us a choice for a wide range of resistance ensuring a large AMR. To further understand the robustness of the phase transition, we study thermal fluctuations of the AF order in AFS at a finite temperature. For macroscopic samples, we find that the thermal fluctuations effectively decrease the magnitude of the AF order by renormalizing the effective Hamiltonian. Our finding suggests that the insulating phase exhibits a gap narrowing at elevated temperatures, which leads to a substantial decrease in AMR. We also examine spatially correlated thermal fluctuations for microscopic samples by solving the microscopic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation finding a qualitative difference of the gap narrowing in the insulating phase. For both cases, the semimetallic phase shows a minimal change in its transmission spectrum illustrating the robustness of the symmetry protected states in AFS. Our finding may serve as a guideline for estimating and maximizing AMR of the AFS samples at elevated temperatures., 19 pages, 7 figures

A new type of long-range ordering in the absence of translational symmetry gives rise to drastic revolution of our common knowledge in condensed matter physics. Quasicrystal, as such unconventional system, became a plethora to test our insights and to find exotic states of matter. In particular, electronic properties in quasicrystal have gotten lots of attention along with their experimental realization and controllability in twisted bilayer systems. In this work, we study how quasicrystalline order in bilayer systems can induce unique localization of electrons without any extrinsic disorders. We focus on dodecagonal quasicrystal that has been demonstrated in twisted bilayer graphene system in recent experiments. In the presence of small gap, we show the localization generically occurs due to non-periodic nature of quasicrystal, which is evidenced by the inverse participation ratio and the energy level statistics. We understand the origin of such localization by approximating the dodecagonal quasicrystals as an impurity scattering problem., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We study the superconducting properties of the thin film BCS superconductor proximity coupled to a magnetically doped time-reversal invariant topological insulator (TI). Using mean-field theory, we show that Fulde-Ferrell (FF) pairing can be induced in the conventional superconductor through the inverse proximity effect (IPE). This occurs when the IPE of the TI to the superconductor is large enough that the normal bands of the superconductor possess a proximity induced spin-orbit coupling and magnetization. We find that the energetics of the different pairings are dependent on the coupling strength between the TI and the BCS superconductor and the thickness of the superconductor film. As the thickness of the superconductor film is increased, we find a crossover from the FF pairing to the BCS pairing phase. This is a consequence of the increased number of the superconducting bands, which favor the BCS pairing, implying that the FF phase can only be observed in the thin film limit. In addition, we also propose transport experiments that show distinct signatures of the FF phase.

As a promising candidate system to realize topological superconductivity, the system of a 3D topological insulator (TI) grown on top of the $s$-wave superconductor has been extensively studied. To access the topological superconductivity experimentally, the 3D TI sample must be thin enough to allow for Cooper pair tunneling to the exposed surface of TI. The use of magnetically ordered dopants to break time-reversal symmetry may allow the surface of a TI to host Majorana fermion, which are believed to be a signature of topological superconductivity. In this work, we study a magnetically-doped thin film TI-superconductor hybrid system. Considering the proximity induced order parameter in thin film of TI, we analyze the gap closing points of the Hamiltonian and draw the phase diagram as a function of relevant parameters: the hybridization gap, Zeeman energy, and chemical potential of the TI system. Our findings provide a useful guide in choosing relevant parameters to facilitate the observation of topological superconductivity in thin film TI-superconductor hybrid systems. In addition, we further perform numerical analysis on a TI proximity coupled to an $s$-wave superconductor and find that, due to the spin-momentum locked nature of the surface states in TI, the induced $s$-wave order parameter of the surface states persists even at large magnitude of the Zeeman energy.

Unconventional superconductivity has been predicted to arise in the topologically non-trivial Fermi surface of doped inversion symmetric Weyl semimetals (WSM). In particular, Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) and nodal BCS states are theoretically predicted to be possible superconductor pairing states in inversion symmetric doped WSM. In an effort to resolve preferred pairing state, we theoretically study two separate four terminal quantum transport methods that each exhibit a unique electrical signature in the presence of FFLO and nodal BCS states in doped WSMs. We first introduce a Josephson junction that consists of a doped WSM and an s-wave superconductor in which we show that the application of a transverse uniform current in s-wave superconductor effectively cancels the momentum carried by FFLO states in doped WSM. From our numerical analysis, we find a peak in Josephson current amplitude at finite uniform current in s-wave superconductor that serves as an indicator of FFLO states in doped WSMs. Furthermore, we show using a four terminal measurement configuration that the nodal points may be shifted by an application of transverse uniform current in doped WSM. We analyze the topological phase transitions induced by nodal pair annihilation in non-equilibrium by constructing the phase diagram and we find a characteristic decrease in the density of states that serves as a signature of the quantum critical point in the topological phase transition, thereby identifying nodal BCS states in doped WSM., 8 pages, 4 figures (5 pages, 2 figures for supplementary material)

Weyl semimetals (WSM) have quickly gained popularity since their discovery and they are now the subject of intense theoretical and experimental research. In general, the WSM is categorized as being either type I or type II. The type-I WSM is characterized by broken inversion symmetry, while the type II by broken Lorentz symmetry. Due to this characteristic difference in the Fermi surfaces of the two types, it is necessary to extend our understanding of WSMs to include the different physical properties that having a tilted spectrum offers. In this vein, disorder-induced phase transitions have been well established for type-I WSMs, while the converse is not the case for type-II WSMs. In this work, the authors demonstrate that the type-I WSM with a nonzero tilting term undergoes a quantum phase transition to the type-II WSM in the presence of random on-site electric and magnetic impurity disorder. They show that the Fermi velocity decreases with increasing disorder strength and, therefore, a type-I to type-II transition occurs before the insulating transition. The conclusion is that the type-I WSM with nonzero tilt will always undergo a disorder-induced transition to the type-II WSM phase.

We explore non-analytic quantum phase dynamics of dipolar exciton condensates formed in a system of 1D quantum layers subjected to voltage quenches. We map the exciton condensate physics on to the pseudospin ferromagnet model showing an additional oscillatory metastable and paramagnetic phase beyond the well-known ferromagnetic phase by utilizing a time-dependent, non-perturbative theoretical model. We explain the coherent phase of the exciton condensate in quantum Hall bilayers, observed for currents equal to and slightly larger than the critical current, as a stable time-dependent phase characterized by persistent charged meron flow in each of the individual layers with a characteristic AC Josephson frequency. As the magnitude of the voltage quench is further increased, we find that the time-dependent current oscillations associated with the charged meron flow decay, resulting in a transient pseudospin paramagnet phase characterized by partially coherent charge transfer between layers, before the state relaxes to incoherent charge transfer between the layers., Comment: 7 Pages, 7 figures