Shi-Zeng Lin

Topological defects as relics of emergent continuous symmetry and Higgs condensation of disorder in ferroelectrics

An imaging study of vortex proliferation near a continuous phase transition in a ferroelectric reveals frozen-in vortices that follow the predictions of the Kibble–Zurek model for cosmological strings formed in the early Universe.

ac Current Generation in Chiral Magnetic Insulators and Skyrmion Motion induced by the Spin Seebeck Effect

We show that a temperature gradient induces an ac electric current in multiferroic insulators when the sample is embedded in a circuit. We also show that a thermal gradient can be used to move magnetic Skyrmions in insulating chiral magnets: the induced magnon flow from the hot to the cold region drives the Skyrmions in the opposite direction via a magnonic spin transfer torque. Both results are combined to compute the effect of Skyrmion motion on the ac current generation and demonstrate that Skyrmions in insulators are a promising route for spin caloritronics applications.

Bubble and Skyrmion Crystals in Frustrated Magnets with Easy-Axis Anisotropy

We clarify the conditions for the emergence of multiple-Q structures out of lattice and easy-axis spin anisotropy in frustrated magnets. By considering magnets whose exchange interaction has multiple global minima in momentum space, we find that both types of anisotropy stabilize triple-Q orderings. Moderate anisotropy leads to a magnetic field-induced skyrmion crystal, which evolves into a bubble crystal for increasing spatial and spin anisotropy. Finally, the bubble crystal exhibits a quasi-continuous (devil’s staircase) temperature dependent ordering wave-vector, characteristic of the competition between frustrated exchange and strong easy-axis anisotropy.

Frustration and chiral orderings in correlated electron systems.

The term frustration refers to lattice systems whose ground state cannot simultaneously satisfy all the interactions. Frustration is an important property of correlated electron systems, which stems from the sign of loop products (similar to Wilson products) of interactions on a lattice. It was early recognized that geometric frustration can produce rather exotic physical behaviors, such as macroscopic ground state degeneracy and helimagnetism. The interest in frustrated systems was renewed two decades later in the context of spin glasses and the emergence of magnetic superstructures. In particular, Phil Andersons proposal of a quantum spin liquid ground state for a two-dimensional lattice S  =  1/2 Heisenberg magnet generated a very active line of research that still continues. As a result of these early discoveries and conjectures, the study of frustrated models and materials exploded over the last two decades. Besides the large efforts triggered by the search of quantum spin liquids, it was also recognized that frustration plays a crucial role in a vast spectrum of physical phenomena arising from correlated electron materials. Here we review some of these phenomena with particular emphasis on the stabilization of chiral liquids and non-coplanar magnetic orderings. In particular, we focus on the ubiquitous interplay between magnetic and charge degrees of freedom in frustrated correlated electron systems and on the role of anisotropy. We demonstrate that these basic ingredients lead to exotic phenomena, such as, charge effects in Mott insulators, the stabilization of single magnetic vortices, as well as vortex and skyrmion crystals, and the emergence of different types of chiral liquids. In particular, these orderings appear more naturally in itinerant magnets with the potential of inducing a very large anomalous Hall effect.

Stiffness from disorder in triangular-lattice Ising thin films.

We study the triangular lattice Ising model with a finite number of vertically stacked layers and demonstrate a low temperature reentrance of two Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions, which results in an extended disordered regime down to T=0. Numerical results are complemented with the derivation of an effective low-temperature dimer theory. Contrary to order by disorder, we present a new scenario for fluctuation-induced ordering in frustrated spin systems. While short-range spin-spin correlations are enhanced by fluctuations, quasi-long-range ordering is precluded at low enough temperatures by proliferation of topological defects.

Magnetic Vortex Induced by Nonmagnetic Impurity in Frustrated Magnets.

We study the effect of a nonmagnetic impurity inserted in a two-dimensional frustrated ferromagnet above its saturation magnetic field H_{sat} for arbitrary spin S. We demonstrate that the ground state includes a magnetic vortex that is nucleated around the impurity over a finite range of magnetic field H_{sat}≤H≤H_{sat}^{I}. Upon approaching the quantum critical point at H=H_{sat}, the radius of the magnetic vortex diverges as the magnetic correlation length: ξ∝1/sqrt[H-H_{sat}]. These results are derived both for the lattice and in the continuum limit.

Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal

At the interface between two distinct materials, desirable properties, such as superconductivity, can be greatly enhanced1, or entirely new functionalities may emerge2. Similar to in artificially engineered heterostructures, clean functional interfaces alternatively exist in electronically textured bulk materials. Electronic textures emerge spontaneously due to competing atomic-scale interactions3, the control of which would enable a top-down approach for designing tunable intrinsic heterostructures. This is particularly attractive for correlated electron materials, where spontaneous heterostructures strongly affect the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom4. Here we report high-resolution neutron spectroscopy on the prototypical strongly correlated metal CeRhIn5, revealing competition between magnetic frustration and easy-axis anisotropy—a well-established mechanism for generating spontaneous superstructures5. Because the observed easy-axis anisotropy is field-induced and anomalously large, it can be controlled efficiently with small magnetic fields. The resulting field-controlled magnetic superstructure is closely tied to the formation of superconducting6 and electronic nematic textures7 in CeRhIn5, suggesting that in situ tunable heterostructures can be realized in correlated electron materials.By means of a sensitive neutron spectroscopy approach the magnetic excitations in the heavy fermion superconductor CeRhIn5 are probed, revealing a uniaxial anisotropy that can be tuned with an external magnetic field.

Skyrmions in Functional Materials

Skyrmions are topological spin defects which have been observed in chiral magnets and other materials including some multiferroics in recent years. The typical size of a skyrmion varies in the range 5–100 nm with thousands of spins in it and a characteristic energy scale of 1 meV per layer. They can also be viewed as emergent mesoscopic particles which can be moved or manipulated by electrical current, temperature gradient, electric and magnetic field, thus rendering them useful for a variety of applications including information storage. In particular, the current needed to move a skyrmion is five to six orders of magnitude smaller than that needed for moving magnetic domain walls and vortices, therefore making them promising candidates for spintronics.