Condensed Matter

In the presence of non-Hermitian skin effect, non-Hermitian lattices generally have complex-valued eigenenergies under periodic boundary condition, but they can have non-Bloch PT symmetry and therefore completely real eigenenergies under open boundary condition. This novel PT symmetry and its breaking have been experimentally observed in one dimension. Here, we find that non-Bloch PT symmetry in two and higher dimensions exhibits drastically different behaviors compared to its one-dimensional counterpart. Whereas Bloch PT breaking and one-dimensional non-Bloch PT breaking generally have nonzero thresholds in the large-size limit, the threshold of two and higher-dimensional non-Bloch PT breaking universally approaches zero as the system size increases. A product measure, namely the product of bare non-Hermiticity and system size, is introduced to quantify the PT breaking tendency. This product being small is required for the perturbation theory to be valid, thus its growth with system size causes the breakdown of perturbation theory, which underlies the universal threshold. That the universal behaviors emerge only in two and higher dimensions indicates an unexpected interplay among PT symmetry, non-Hermitian skin effect, and spatial dimensionality. Our predictions can be confirmed on experimentally accessible platforms.

In this paper, we review our non-Bloch band theory in one-dimensional non-Hermitian tight-binding systems. In our theory, it is shown that in non-Hermitian systems, the Brillouin zone is determined so as to reproduce continuum energy bands in a large open chain. By using simple models, we explain the concept of the non-Bloch band theory and the method to calculate the Brillouin zone. In particular, for the non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, the bulk-edge correspondence can be established between the topological invariant defined from our theory and existence of the topological edge states.

We propose a scheme to realize various non-Hermitian topological phases in a topolectrical (TE) circuit network consisting of resistors, inductors, and capacitors. These phases are characterized by topologically protected exceptional points and lines. The positive and negative resistive couplings Rg in the circuit provide loss and gain factors which break the Hermiticity of the circuit Laplacian. By controlling Rg, the exceptional lines of the circuit can be modulated, e.g., from open curves to closed ellipses in the Brillouin zone. In practice, the topology of the exceptional lines can be detected by the impedance spectra of the circuit. We also considered finite TE systems with open boundary conditions, the admittance spectrum of which exhibits highly tunable zero-admittance states demarcated by boundary points (BPs). The phase diagram of the system shows topological phases which are characterized by the number of their BPs. The transition between different phases can be controlled by varying the circuit parameters and tracked via impedance readout between the terminal nodes. Our TE model offers an accessible and tunable means of realizing different topological phases in a non-Hermitian framework, and characterizing them based on their boundary point and exceptional line configurations.

We have realized quantized charge pumping using non-adiabatic single-electron pumps in dopant-free GaAs two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs). The dopant-free III-V platform allows for ambipolar devices, such as p-i-n junctions, that could be combined with such pumps to form electrically-driven single photon sources. Our pumps operate at up to 0.95 GHz and achieve remarkable performance considering the relaxed experimental conditions: one-gate pumping in zero magnetic field and temperatures up to 5K, driven by a simple RF sine waveform. Fitting to a universal decay cascade model yields values for the figure of merit δ that compare favorably to reported modulation-doped GaAs pumps operating under similar conditions. The devices reported here are already suitable for optoelectronics applications, and with further improvement could offer a route to a current standard that does not require sub-Kelvin temperatures and high magnetic fields.

Measurement and feedback control of stochastic dynamics has been actively studied for not only stabilizing the system but also for generating additional entropy flows originating in the information flow in the feedback controller. In particular, a micromechanical system offers a great platform to investigate such non-equilibrium dynamics under measurement-feedback control owing to its precise controllability of small fluctuations. Although various types of measurement-feedback protocols have been demonstrated with linear observables (e.g., displacement and velocity), extending them to the nonlinear regime, i.e., utilizing nonlinear observables in both measurement and control, retains non-trivial phenomena in its non-equilibrium dynamics. Here, we demonstrate measurement-feedback control of a micromechanical resonator by driving the second-order nonlinearity (i.e., parametric squeezing) and directly measuring quadratic observables, which are given by the Schwinger representation of pseudo angular momentum (referred as Schwinger angular momentum). In contrast to that the parametric divergence occurs when the second-order nonlinearity is blindly driven, our measurement-feedback protocol enables us to avoid such a divergence and to achieve a strong noise reduction at the level of ??.1±0.2 dB. This strong noise reduction originates in the effective cooling included in our measurement-feedback protocol, which is unveiled by investigating entropy production rates in a coarse-grained model. Our results open up the possibility of not only improving noise-limited sensitivity performance but also investigating entropy production in information thermodynamic machines with nonlinear measurement and feedback.

We demonstrate that the general model of a linearly time-dependent crossing of two energy bands is integrable. Namely, the Hamiltonian of this model has a quadratically time-dependent commuting operator. We apply this property to four-state Landau-Zener (LZ) models that have previously been used to describe the Landau-Stückelberg interferometry experiments with an electron shuttling between two semiconductor quantum dots. The integrability then leads to simple but nontrivial exact relations for the transition probabilities. In addition, the integrability leads to a semiclassical theory that provides analytical approximation for the transition probabilities in these models for all parameter values. The results predict a dynamic phase transition, and show that similarly-looking models belong to different topological classes.

Excitons in a semiconductor monolayer form a collective resonance that can reflect resonant light with extraordinarily high efficiency. Here, we investigate the nonlinear optical properties of such atomistically thin mirrors and show that finite-range interactions between excitons can lead to the generation of highly non-classical light. We describe two scenarios, in which optical nonlinearities arise either from direct photon coupling to excitons in excited Rydberg states or from resonant two-photon excitation of Rydberg excitons with finite-range interactions. The latter case yields conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency and thereby provides an efficient mechanism for single-photon switching between high transmission and reflectance of the monolayer, with a tunable dynamical timescale of the emerging photon-photon interactions. Remarkably, it turns out that the resulting high degree of photon correlations remains virtually unaffected by Rydberg-state decoherence, in excess of non-radiative decoherence observed for ground-state excitons in two-dimensional semiconductors. This robustness to imperfections suggests a promising new approach to quantum photonics at the level of individual photons.

The quasicontinuum method was originally introduced to bridge across length scales -- from atomistics to significantly larger continuum scales -- thus overcoming a key limitation of classical atomic-scale simulation techniques while solely relying on atomic-scale input (in the form of interatomic potentials). An associated challenge lies in bridging across time scales to overcome the time scale limitations of atomistics. To address the biggest challenge, bridging across both length and time scales, only a few techniques exist, and most of those are limited to conditions of constant temperature. Here, we present a new strategy for the space-time coarsening of an atomistic ensemble, which introduces thermomechanical coupling. We investigate the quasistatics and dynamics of a crystalline solid described as a lattice of lumped correlated Gaussian phase packets occupying atomic lattice sites. By definition, phase packets account for the dynamics of crystalline lattices at finite temperature through the statistical variances of atomic momenta and positions. We show that momentum-space correlation allows for an exchange between potential and kinetic contributions to the crystal's Hamiltonian. Consequently, local adiabatic heating due to atomic site motion is captured. Moreover, within the quasistatic approximation the governing equations reduce to the minimization of thermodynamic potentials such as Helmholtz free energy (depending on the fixed variables), and they yield the local equation of state. We further discuss opportunities for describing atomic-level thermal transport using the correlated Gaussian phase packet formulation and the importance of interatomic correlations. Such a formulation offers a promising avenue for a finite-temperature non-equilibrium quasicontinuum method that may be combined with thermal transport models.

Quantum Hall states - the progenitors of the growing family of topological insulators -- are rich source of exotic quantum phases. The nature of these states is reflected in the gapless edge modes, which in turn can be classified as integer - carrying electrons, fractional - carrying fractional charges; and neutral - carrying excitations with zero net charge but a well-defined amount of heat. The latter two may obey anyonic statistics, which can be abelian or non-abelian. The most-studied putative non-abelian state is the spin-polarized filling factor {\nu}=5/2, whose charge e/4 quasiparticles are accompanied by neutral modes. This filling, however, permits different possible topological orders, which can be abelian or non-abelian. While numerical calculations favor the non-abelian anti-Pfaffian (A-Pf) order to have the lowest energy, recent thermal conductance measurements suggested the experimentally realized order to be the particle-hole Pfaffian (PH-Pf) order. It has been suggested that lack of thermal equilibration among the different edge modes of the A-Pf order can account for this discrepancy. The identification of the topological order is crucial for the interpretation of braiding (interference) operations, better understanding of the thermal equilibration process, and the reliability of the numerical studies. We developed a new method that helps identifying the topological order of the {\nu}=5/2 state. By creating an interface between the two 2D half-planes, one hosting the {\nu}=5/2 state and the other an integer {\nu}=3 state, the interface supported a fractional {\nu}=1/2 charge mode with 1/2 quantum conductance and a neutral Majorana mode. The presence of the Majorana mode, probed by measuring noise, propagating in the opposite direction to the charge mode, asserted the presence of the PH-Pf order but not that of the A-Pf order.

Harnessing high-frequency spin dynamics in three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures may lead to paradigm-shifting, next generation devices including high density spintronics and neuromorphic systems. Despite remarkable progress in fabrication, the measurement and interpretation of spin dynamics in complex 3D structures remain exceptionally challenging. Here we take a first step and measure coherent spin waves within a 3D artificial spin ice (ASI) structure using Brillouin light scattering. The 3D-ASI was fabricated by using a combination of two-photon lithography and thermal evaporation. Two spin-wave modes were observed in the experiment whose frequencies showed a monotonic variation with the applied field strength. Numerical simulations qualitatively reproduced the observed modes. The simulated mode profiles revealed the collective nature of the modes extending throughout the complex network of nanowires while showing spatial quantization with varying mode quantization numbers. The study shows a well-defined means to explore high-frequency spin dynamics in complex 3D spintronic and magnonic structures.