Yago Ferreiros

Elastic Gauge Fields in Weyl Semimetals.

We show that, as happens in graphene, elastic deformations couple to the electronic degrees of freedom as pseudogauge fields in Weyl semimetals. We derive the form of the elastic gauge fields in a tight-binding model hosting Weyl nodes and see that this vector electron-phonon coupling is chiral, providing an example of axial gauge fields in three dimensions. As an example of the new response functions that arise associated with these elastic gauge fields, we derive a nonzero phonon Hall viscosity for the neutral system at zero temperature. The axial nature of the fields provides a test of the chiral anomaly in high energy with three axial vector couplings.

Anomalous Nernst and Thermal Hall Effects in Tilted Weyl Semimetals

We study the anomalous Nernst and thermal Hall effects in a linearized low-energy model of a tilted Weyl semimetal, with two Weyl nodes separated in momentum space. For inversion symmetric tilt, we ...

Chirality-Dependent Transmission of Spin Waves through Domain Walls

Spin-wave technology (magnonics) has the potential to further reduce the size and energy consumption of information-processing devices. In the submicrometer regime (exchange spin waves), topological defects such as domain walls may constitute active elements to manipulate spin waves and perform logic operations. We predict that spin waves that pass through a domain wall in an ultrathin perpendicular-anisotropy film experience a phase shift that depends on the orientation of the domain wall (chirality). The effect, which is absent in bulk materials, originates from the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and can be interpreted as a geometric phase. We demonstrate analytically and by means of micromagnetic simulations that the phase shift is strong enough to switch between constructive and destructive interference. The two chirality states of the domain wall may serve as a memory bit or spin-wave switch in magnonic devices.

Visco elasticity in 2D materials

The combination of Dirac physics and elasticity has been explored at length in graphene where the so–called ”elastic gauge fields” have given rise to an entire new field of research and applications: Straintronics. The fact that these elastic fields couple to fermions as the electromagnetic field, implies that many electromagnetic responses will have elastic counterparts not explored before. In this work we will first show that the presence of elastic gauge fields will be the rule rather than the exception in most of the topologically non–trivial materials in two and three dimensions. In particular we will extract the elastic gauge fields associated to the recently observed Weyl semimetals, the ”three dimensional graphene”. As it is known, quantum electrodynamics suffers from the chiral anomaly whose consequences have been recently explored in matter systems. We will show that, associated to the physics of the anomalies, and as a counterpart of the Hall conductivity, elastic materials will have a Hall viscosity in two and three dimensions with a coefficient orders of magnitude bigger than the previously studied response. The magnitude and generality of the new effect will greatly improve the chances for the experimental observation of this topological, non dissipative response.

Domain wall motion in junctions of thin-film magnets and topological insulators

We derive the equations of motion of a domain wall in a thin-film magnet coupled to the surface states of a topological insulator, in the presence of both an electric field along the domain wall and a magnetic field perpendicular to the junction. We show how the electric field acts as a chirality stabilizer holding off the appearance of Walker breakdown and enhancing the terminal velocity of the wall. We also propose a mechanism to reverse the domain wall chirality in a controllable manner, by tuning the chiral current flowing through the wall. An input from a weak perpendicular magnetic field is required in order to break the reflection symmetry that protects the degeneracy of the chirality vacuum.

Large conduction band and Fermi velocity spin splitting due to Coulomb interactions in single-layerMoS2

Presentation given at the Workshop on Correlations, Criticality, and Coherence in Quantum Systems held in Evora (Portugal) on October 6-10th, 2014.

Unconventional electromagnetic mode in neutral Weyl semimetals

We study light propagation in a neutral Weyl semimetal with the Fermi level lying at the Weyl nodes in the weak self-interacting regime. The nontrivial topology induces a screening effect in one of the two transverse gauge fields, for which we find two branches of attenuated collective excitations. In addition to the known topologically gaped photon mode, a novel massless and slightly damped excitation appears. Strikingly, at low energies this new excitation has a linear dispersion and it propagates with the same velocity than the electrons, while at energies well above the electron-hole continuum threshold it behaves as a massive attenuated photon with velocity similar to the speed of light in the material. There is a crossover at certain momentum in the direction perpendicular to the separation of the Weyl nodes above which the novel gapless mode enters into an overdamped regime. Regarding the unscreened gauge field we show that it is also attenuated, which is a non-topological property shared by Dirac semimetals as well.

Quantum corrections to vortex masses and energies

We acknowledge financial support from the MCINN/MINECO Grants No. FPA2009-08785, FPA2009-09017, No. FPA2012-31686, and No. FPA2012-31880, the Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid under the program HEPHACOS S2009/ESP-1473, and the European Union under Grant Agreement No. PITN-GA-2009-238353 (ITN STRONGnet). A. G.-A participates in the project Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CPAN (CSD2007-00042). We also benefit from the Centro de excelencia Severo Ochoa Program under Grant No. SEV-2012-0249. Y. F. acknowledges financial support from Spanish MECD Grant No. FIS2011-23713.