Ken-Ichiro Imura

Density of States Scaling at the Semimetal to Metal Transition in Three Dimensional Topological Insulators

The quantum phase transition between the three dimensional Dirac semimetal and the diffusive metal can be induced by increasing disorder. Taking the system of a disordered Z2 topological insulator as an important example, we compute the single particle density of states by the kernel polynomial method. We focus on three regions: the Dirac semimetal at the phase boundary between two topologically distinct phases, the tricritical point of the two topological insulator phases and the diffusive metal, and the diffusive metal lying at strong disorder. The density of states obeys a novel single parameter scaling, collapsing onto two branches of a universal scaling function, which correspond to the Dirac semimetal and the diffusive metal. The diverging length scale critical exponent ν and the dynamical critical exponent z are estimated, and found to differ significantly from those for the conventional Anderson transition. Critical behavior of experimentally observable quantities near and at the tricritical point is also discussed.

Spin-orbit effects in a graphene bipolar pn junction

A graphene pn junction is studied theoretically in the presence of both intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings. We show that a crossover from perfect reflection to perfect transmission is achieved at normal incidence by tuning the perpendicular electric field. By further studying angular-dependent transmission, we demonstrate that perfect reflection at normal incidence can be clearly distinguished from trivial band gap effects. We also investigate how spin-orbit effects modify the conductance and the Fano factor associated with a potential step in both nn and np cases.

Weak localization properties of the doped Z 2 topological insulator

Localization properties of the doped Z2-topological insulator are studied by weak localization theory. The disordered Kane-Mele model for graphene is taken as a prototype, and analyzed with attention to effects of the topological mass term, inter-valley scattering, and the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The known tendency of graphene to anti-localize in the absence of inter-valley scattering between K and K′ points is naturally placed as the massless limit of Kane-Mele model. The latter is shown to have a unitary behavior even in the absence of magnetic field due to the topological mass term. When inter-valley scattering is introduced, the topological mass term leaves the system in the unitary class, whereas the ordinary mass term, which appears if A and B sublattices are inequivalent, turns the system to weak localization. The Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the presence of K-K′ scattering drive the system to weak anti-localization in sharp contrast to the ideal graphene case.

Spherical topological insulator

The electronic spectrum on the spherical surface of a topological insulator reflects an active property of the helical surface state that stems from a constraint on its spin on a curved surface. The induced effective vector potential (spin connection) can be interpreted as an effective vector potential associated with a fictitious magnetic monopole induced at the center of the sphere. The strength of the induced magnetic monopole is found to be g=2pi, -2pi, being the smallest finite (absolute) value compatible with the Dirac quantization condition. We have established an explicit correspondence between the bulk Hamiltonian and the effective Dirac operator on the curved spherical surface. An explicit construction of the surface spinor wave functions implies a rich spin texture possibly realized on the surface of topological insulator nanoparticles. The electronic spectrum inferred by the obtained effective surface Dirac theory, confirmed also by the bulk tight-binding calculation, suggests a specific photo absorption/emission spectrum of such nanoparticles.

Spin Berry phase in anisotropic topological insulators

Three-dimensional topological insulators are characterized by the presence of protected gapless spin helical surface states. In realistic samples these surface states are extended from one surface to another, covering the entire sample. Generally, on a curved surface of a topological insulator an electron in a surface state acquires a spin Berry phase as an expression of the constraint that the effective surface spin must follow the tangential surface of real space geometry. Such a Berry phase adds up to pi when the electron encircles, e.g., once around a cylinder. Realistic topological insulators compounds are also often layered, i.e., are anisotropic. We demonstrate explicitly the existence of such a pi Berry phase in the presence and absence (due to crystal anisotropy) of cylindrical symmetry, that is, regardless of fulfilling the spin-to-surface locking condition. The robustness of the spin Berry phase pi against cylindrical symmetry breaking is confirmed numerically using a tight-binding model implementation of a topological insulator nanowire penetrated by a pi-flux tube.

Weak topological insulator with protected gapless helical states

A workable model for describing dislocation lines introduced into a three-dimensional topological insulator is proposed. We show how fragile surface Dirac cones of a weak topological insulator evolve into protected gapless helical modes confined to the vicinity of a dislocation line. It is demonstrated that surface Dirac cones of a topological insulator (either strong or weak) acquire a finite-size energy gap when the surface is deformed into a cylinder penetrating the otherwise surfaceless system. We show that, when a dislocation with a nontrivial Burgers vector is introduced, the finite-size energy gap plays the role of stabilizing the one-dimensional gapless states.

Noncommutative geometry and non-Abelian Berry phase in the wave-packet dynamics of Bloch electrons

Abstract Motivated by a recent proposal on the possibility of observing a monopole in the band structure, and by an increasing interest in the role of Berry phase in spintronics, we studied the adiabatic motion of a wave packet of Bloch functions, under a perturbation varying slowly and incommensurately to the lattice structure. We show, using only the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, that the effective wave-packet dynamics is conveniently described by a set of equations of motion (EOM) for a semiclassical particle coupled to a non-Abelian gauge field associated with a geometric Berry phase. Our EOM can be viewed as a generalization of the standard Ehrenfests theorem, and their derivation was asymptotically exact in the framework of linear response theory. Our analysis is entirely based on the concept of local Bloch bands, a good starting point for describing the adiabatic motion of a wave packet. One of the advantages of our approach is that the various types of gauge fields were classified into two categories by their different physical origin: (i) projection onto specific bands, (ii) time-dependent local Bloch basis. Using those gauge fields, we write our EOM in a covariant form, whereas the gauge-invariant field strength stems from the noncommutativity of covariant derivatives along different axes of the reciprocal parameter space. On the other hand, the degeneracy of Bloch bands makes the gauge fields non-Abelian. For the purpose of applying our wave-packet dynamics to the analyses on transport phenomena in the context of Berry phase engineering, we focused on the Hall-type and polarization currents. Our formulation turned out to be useful for investigating and classifying various types of topological current on the same footing. We highlighted their symmetries, in particular, their behavior under time reversal (T) and space inversion (I). The result of these analyses was summarized as a set of cancellation rules. We also introduced the concept of parity polarization current, which may embody the physics of orbital current. Together with charge/spin Hall/polarization currents, this type of orbital current is expected to be a potential probe for detecting and controlling Berry phase.

Finite-size energy gap in weak and strong topological insulators

The non-trivialness of a topological insulator (TI) is characterized either by a bulk topological invariant or by the existence of a protected metallic surface state. Yet, in realistic samples of finite size this non-trivialness does not necessarily guarantee the gaplessness of the surface state. Depending on the geometry and on the topological indices, a finite-size energy gap of different nature can appear, and correspondingly, exhibits various scaling behaviors of the gap. The spin-to-surface locking provides one of such gap-opening mechanisms, resulting in a power-law scaling of the energy gap. Weak and strong TIs show different degrees of sensitivity to the geometry of the sample. As a noteworthy example, a strong TI nanowire of a rectangular prism shape is shown to be more gapped than that of a weak TI of precisely the same geometry.

Full counting statistics for transport through a molecular quantum dot magnet: Incoherent tunneling regime

Full counting statistics FCS of transport through a molecular quantum dot magnet is studied. Our analysis is theoretical, and its range of validity is restricted here to the incoherent tunneling regime. One of the original points is our Hamiltonian describing a single-level quantum dot, magnetically coupled to an additional local spin, the latter representing the total molecular spin s. We assume that the system is in the strong Coulomb blockade regime, i.e., double occupancy on the dot is forbidden. The master-equation approach to FCS is applied to derive a generating function yielding the FCS of charge and current. In the application of the master-equation approach to our system, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients appear in the transition probabilities, whereas the derivation of generating function reduces to solving the eigenvalue problem of a modified master equation with counting fields. The latter needs de facto only the eigenstate which collapses smoothly to the zero-eigenvalue stationary state in the limit of vanishing counting fields. Our main discovery is that in our problem with arbitrary spin s, some quartic relations among Clebsch-Gordan coefficients allow us to identify the desired eigenspace without solving the whole problem. Thus, the FCS generating function is derived analytically and exactly in the framework of the master-equation approach for an arbitrary value of spin s .B y considering more specific cases, some contour plots of the joint charge-current probability distribution function are obtained numerically. The obtained FCS generating function is spin independent in the large bias regime, whereas for a small bias voltage, it suggests transport through our molecular quantum dot magnet looks exactly like that of a spinless fermion in the limit of large s. This rather counterintuitive consequence is subject to a direct experimental check.

Interfacial charge and spin transport in Z2 topological insulators

Ai Yamakage, Ken-Ichiro Imura, Jérôme Cayssol and Yoshio Kuramoto Department of Physics, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan, Department of Quantum Matter, AdSM, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8530, Japan, CPMOH(UMR-5798), CNRS and Université Bordeaux 1, Talence F-33045, France, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA, and Max-Planck-Institut für Physik Komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany (Dated: September 16, 2010)