Zhuo Bin Siu

Effective Hamiltonian for surface states of topological insulator thin films with hexagonal warping

The effective Hamiltonian of the surface states on semi-infinite slabs of the topological insulators (TI) Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 require the addition of a cubic momentum hexagonal warping term on top of the usual Dirac fermion Hamiltonian in order to reproduce the experimentally measured constant energy contours at intermediate values of Fermi energy. In this work, we derive the effective Hamiltonian for the surface states of a Bi2Se3 thin film incorporating the corresponding hexagonal warping terms. We then calculate the dispersion relation of the effective Hamiltonian and show that the hexagonal warping leads distorts the equal energy contours from the circular cross sections of the Dirac cones.

Anomalous magnetoresistance in magnetized topological insulator cylinders

The close coupling between the spin and momentum degrees of freedom in topological insulators (TIs) presents the opportunity for the control of one to manipulate the other. The momentum can, for example, be confined on a curved surface and the spin influenced by applying a magnetic field. In this work, we study the surface states of a cylindrical TI magnetized in the x direction perpendicular to the cylindrical axis lying along the z direction. We show that a large magnetization leads to an upwards bending of the energy bands at small |kz|. The bending leads to an anomalous magnetoresistance where the transmission between two cylinders magnetized in opposite directions is higher than when the cylinders are magnetized at intermediate angles with respect to each other.

Semicircular Rashba arc spin polarizer

In this work, we study the generation of spin polarized currents using curved arcs of finite widths, in which the Rashba spin orbit interaction (RSOI) is present. Compared to the 1-dimensional RSOI arcs with zero widths studied previously, the finite width presents charge carriers with another degree of freedom along the transverse width of the arc, in addition to the longitudinal degree of freedom along the circumference of the arc. The asymmetry in the transverse direction due to the difference in the inner and outer radii of the arc breaks the antisymmetry of the longitudinal spin z current in a straight RSOI segment. This property can be exploited to generate spin z polarized current output from the RSOI arc by a spin unpolarized current input. The sign of the spin current can be manipulated by varying the arc dimensions.

Influence of Fermi arc states and double Weyl node on tunneling in a Dirac semimetal

Most theoretical studies of tunneling in Dirac and the closely related Weyl semimetals have modeled these materials as single Weyl nodes described by the three-dimensional Dirac equation

Anomalous tunneling characteristic of Weyl semimetals with tilted energy dispersion

{\boldsymbol{H}}{\boldsymbol{=}}{{\boldsymbol{v}}}_{{\boldsymbol{f}}}\overrightarrow{{\boldsymbol{p}}}\cdot \overrightarrow{{\boldsymbol{\sigma }}}

Effective Hamiltonian for surface states of Bi2Te3 nanocylinders with hexagonal warping

H=vfp→⋅σ→. The influence of scattering between the different valleys centered around different Weyl nodes, and the Fermi arc states which connect these nodes are hence not evident from these studies. In this work we study the tunneling in a thin film system of the Dirac semimetal Na3Bi consisting of a central segment with a gate potential, sandwiched between identical semi-infinite source and drain segments. The model Hamiltonian we use for Na3Bi gives, for each spin, two Weyl nodes separated in k-space symmetrically about kz = 0. The presence of a top and bottom surface in the thin film geometry results in the appearance of Fermi arc states and energy subbands. We show that (for each spin) the presence of two Weyl nodes and the Fermi arc states results in enhanced transmission oscillations, and finite transmission even when the energy falls within the bulk band gap in the central segment respectively. These features are not captured in single Weyl node models.

Persistent Spin Helix Spin Polarizer

We investigate the tunneling conductance of Weyl semimetal with tilted energy dispersion by considering electron transmission through a p-n-p junction with one-dimensional electric and magnetic barriers. In the presence of both electric and magnetic barriers, we found that a large conductance gap can be produced with the aid of tilted energy dispersion without a band gap. The origin of this effect is the shift of the electron wave-vector at barrier boundaries caused by (i) the pseudo-magnetic field induced by electrical potential, i.e., a newly discovered feature that is only possible in the materials possessing tilted energy dispersion, (ii) the real magnetic field induced by a ferromagnetic layer deposited on the top of the system. We use a realistic barrier structure applicable in current nanotechnology and analyze the temperature dependence of the tunneling conductance. The new approach presented here may resolve a major problem of possible transistor applications in topological semimetals, i.e., the ...

Quantum Dots Formed in Three-dimensional Dirac Semimetal Cd3As2 Nanowires

Weyl semimetals are recently discovered states of quantum matter, which generally possess tilted energy dispersion. Here, we investigate the electron tunneling through a Weyl semimetal p-n-p junction. The angular dependence of electron tunneling exhibits an anomalous profile such that perfect transmission angles are shifted along the direction of the tilt. Coupling of the tilted dispersion and electrical potential within the barrier region gives rise to a transverse momentum shift, which is analogous to the transverse Lorentz displacement induced by magnetic barriers.