A spatially non-uniform superconducting phase is proposed as the electronic variational ground state for the attractive interactions between nearest neighbors on graphene's honeycomb lattice, close to and right at the filling one half. The state spontaneously breaks the translational invariance of the lattice into the Kekule pattern of bond order parameters, and it is gapped, spin triplet, and odd under the sublattice exchange. With the increase of attractive interactions we first find the transition from the semimetallic phase into the p-Kekule superconductor, defined as being odd under the exchange of Dirac points, with the additional discontinuous superconductor-superconductor transition into the even s-Kekule state, deep within the superconducting phase. Topological excitations of the Kekule superconductor and its competition with other superconducting states on the honeycomb lattice are discussed.
Higher-order topological insulators have attracted considerable interests as a novel topological phase of matter, where topologically non-trivial nature of bulk protects boundary states whose co-dimension is larger than one. It has been revealed that the alternating pattern of hopping amplitudes in two-dimensional lattices provides a promising route to realization of the higher-order topological insulators. In this paper, we propose that a honeycomb-lattice model with anti-Kekulé distortion hosts a higher-order topological phase. Here, the term anti-Kekulé distortion means that the pattern of …
We examine the combined effects of a Kekule coupling texture (KC) and a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in a two-dimensional ferromagnetic honeycomb lattice. By analyzing the gap closing conditions and the inversions of the bulk bands, we identify the parameter range in which the system behaves as a trivial or a nontrivial topological magnon insulator. We find four topological phases in terms of the KC parameter and the DMI strength. We present the bulk-edge correspondence for the magnons in a honeycomb lattice with an armchair or a zigzag boundary. Furthermore, we find Tamm-like edge …
We analyze the possibility of emergent quantum multicritical points (MCPs) with enlarged chiral symmetry, when strongly interacting gapless Dirac fermions acquire comparable propensity toward the nucleation of Kekulé valence-bond solid (KVBS) and charge-density-wave ($N_b=1$) or $s$-wave pairing ($N_b=2$) or anti-ferromagnet ($N_b=3$) in honeycomb lattice, where $N_b$ counts the number of bosonic order parameter components. Besides the cubic terms present in the order parameter description of KVBS due to the breaking of a discrete $Z_3$ symmetry, quantum fluctuations generate new cubic vertice…
The effects of second-neighbor interactions in Kekule patterned graphene electronic properties are studied starting from a tight-binding Hamiltonian. Thereafter, a low-energy effective Hamiltonian is obtained by projecting the high energy bands at the Gamma point into the subspace defined by the Kekule wave vector. The spectrum of the low energy Hamiltonian is in excellent agreement with the one obtained from a numerical diagonalization of the full tight-binding Hamiltonian. The main effect of the second-neighbour interaction is that a set of bands gains an effective mass and a shift in energy…
We investigate both first-order topology, as realized through Haldane's model, and second-order topology, implemented through an additional Kekulé-distortion, on the honeycomb lattice. The interplay and competition of both terms result in a phase diagram at half-filling which contains twelve distinct phases. All phases can be characterized by the first Chern number or by a quantized $\mathbb{Z}_Q$ Berry phase. Highlights include phases with high Chern numbers, a novel $\mathbb{Z}_6$ topological phase, but also coupled kagome-lattice Chern insulators. Furthermore, we explore the insulating phas…
Artificial lattices have served as a platform to study the physics of unconventional superconductivity. We study semiconductor artificial graphene -- a honeycomb superlattice imposed on a semiconductor heterostructure -- which hosts the Dirac physics of graphene but with a tunable periodic potential strength and lattice spacing, allowing control of the strength of the electron-electron interactions. We demonstrate a new mechanism for superconductivity due to repulsive interactions which requires a strong lattice potential and a minimum doping away from the Dirac points. The mechanism relies on…
Topological states of matter are robust quantum phases, characterised by propagating or localised edge states in an insulating bulk. Topological boundary states can be triggered by various mechanisms, for example by strong spin-orbit coupling. In this case, the existence of topological states does not depend on the termination of the material. On the other hand, topological phases can also occur in systems without spin-orbit coupling, such as topological crystalline insulators. In these systems, the protection mechanism originates from the crystal symmetry. Here, we show that for topological c…
We study characteristic electronic structures in an extended martini lattice model and propose its materialization in $π$-electron networks constructed by designated chemisorption on graphene and silicene. By investigating the minimal tight-binding model, we reveal rich electronic structures tuned by the ratio of hopping parameters, ranging from the band insulator to the unconventional gapless semiconductor. Remarkably, the unconventional gapless semiconductor is characterized by a flat band at the Fermi level. Further, the density functional theory calculations for candidate materials reveal …
We present theoretically the thermal Hall effect of magnons in a ferromagnetic lattice with a Kekulé-O coupling (KOC) modulation and a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Through a strain-based mechanism for inducing the KOC modulation, we identify four topological phases in terms of the KOC parameter and DMI strength. We calculate the thermal magnon Hall conductivity ${κ^{xy}}$ at low temperature in each of these phases. We predict an unconventional conductivity due to a non-zero Berry curvature emerging from band proximity effects in the topologically trivial phase. We find sign changes…
Double-dome Unconventional Superconductivity in Twisted Trilayer Graphene
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne（洛桑联邦理工学院）；University of Basel（巴塞尔大学）；University of Zurich（苏黎世大学）；National Institute for Material Science（国立材料研究所）；Swiss Nanoscience Institute（瑞士纳米科学研究所）；Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）
Dirac points and Weyl phase in a honeycomb altermagnet
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Magnetoelectric Physics and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Center for Neutron Science and Technology, School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University（中山大学物理学院）
The observation of magnetic diode behavior with ultra-low forward voltage of 5 mV renders new venue for energetically efficient spintronic device research in the unconventional system of two-dimensional permalloy honeycomb lattice. Detailed understanding of temperature and magnetic field tuning of diode behavior is imperative to any practical application. Here, we report a comprehensive study in this regard by performing electrical measurements on magnetic diode sample as functions of temperature and magnetic field. Magnetic diode is found to persist across the broad temperature range. Magneti…
We consider a Bogolibov-de Geenes (BdG) Hamiltonian, which is a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian with pseudo-Hermiticity, for a system of (pseudo) spin-$1/2$ bosons in a honeycomb lattice under the condition that the population difference between the two spin components, i.e., magnetization, is a constant. Such a system is capable of acting as a topological amplifier, under time-reversal symmetry, with stable bulk bands but unstable edge modes which can be populated at an exponentially fast rate. We quantitatively study the topological properties of this model within the framework of the 38-fold way …
We show that unconventional boundary phenomena occur in the $3Q$ charge bond orders on the hexagonal lattices. At the Van Hove singularity with three nesting momenta, $3Q$ orders can trigger a $\text{C}_6$-symmetric insulator under bond modulations. On the kagome lattice, in-gap corner states appear in the energy spectrum and carry fractional corner charge $-2e/3$. Such corner phenomena originate from the corner filling anomaly and indicate a higher-order topological insulator. The in-gap corner states are also observed on the triangular lattice. The honeycomb lattice does not support fraction…
