We show that when the pseudomagnetic fields created by long wavelength deformations are appropriately coupled with a scalar electric potential, a significant energy gap can emerge due to the formation of a Haldane state. Ramifications of this physical effect are examined through the study of various strain geometries commonly seen in experiments, such as strain superlattices and wrinkled suspended graphene. Of particular technological importance, we consider setup where this gap can be tunable through electrostatic gates, allowing for the design of electronic devices not realizable with other materials.
We report on the epitaxial fabrication and electronic properties of a topological phase in strained α-Sn on InSb. The topological surface state forms in the presence of an unusual band order not based on direct spin-orbit coupling, as shown in density functional and GW slab-layer calculations. Angle-resolved photoemission including spin detection probes experimentally how the topological spin-polarized state emerges from the second bulk valence band. Moreover, we demonstrate the precise control of the Fermi level by dopants.
Recently, signatures of nonlinear Hall effects induced by Berry-curvature dipoles have been found in atomically thin 1T'/Td-WTe$_2$. In this work, we show that in strained polar transition-metal dichalcogenides(TMDs) with 2H-structures, Berry-curvature dipoles created by spin degrees of freedom lead to strong nonlinear Hall effects. Under an easily accessible uniaxial strain of order 0.2%, strong nonlinear Hall signals, characterized by a Berry-curvature dipole on the order of 1Å, arise in electron-doped polar TMDs such as MoSSe, and this is easily detectable experimentally. Moreover, the magn…
We explore the tunability of the phonon polarization in suspended uniaxially strained graphene by magneto-phonon resonances. The uniaxial strain lifts the degeneracy of the LO and TO phonons, yielding two cross-linearly polarized phonon modes and a splitting of the Raman G peak. We utilize the strong electron-phonon coupling in graphene and the off-resonant coupling to a magneto-phonon resonance to induce a gate-tunable circular phonon dichroism. This, together with the strain-induced splitting of the G peak, allows us to controllably tune the two linearly polarized G mode phonons into circula…
Recent experiments have measured local uniaxial strain fields in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). Our calculations found that the finite Berry curvature generated by breaking the sublattice symmetry and the band proximity between narrow bands in these TBG induces a giant Berry dipole of order 10\,nm or larger. The large Berry dipole leads to transverse topological non-linear charge currents which dominates over the linear bulk valley current at experimentally accessible crossover in-plane electric field of $\sim 0.1 {\rm mV} / μ\rm{m}$. This anomalous Hall effect, due to Berry dipole, is strong…
Artificial magnetic fields are revolutionizing our ability to manipulate neutral particles, by enabling the emulation of exotic phenomena once thought to be exclusive to charged particles. In particular, pseudo-magnetic fields generated by nonuniform strain in artificial lattices have attracted considerable interest because of their simple geometrical origin. However, to date, these strain-induced pseudo-magnetic fields have failed to emulate the tunability of real magnetic fields because they are dictated solely by the strain configuration. Here, we overcome this apparent limitation for polar…
Mechanical deformations in $α$-$\mathcal{T}_3$ lattices induce local pseudomagnetic fields of opposite directionality for different valleys. When this strain is equipped with a dynamical drive, it generates a complementary valley-asymmetric pseudoelectric field which is expected to accelerate electrons. We propose that by combining these effects by a time-dependent nonuniform strain, tunable valley filtering devices can be engineered that extend beyond the static capabilities. We demonstrate this by implementing an oscillating Gaussian bump centered in a four-terminal Hall bar $α$-$\mathcal{T}…
We propose and demonstrate a relaxed-SiGe/strained-Si (SiGe/s-Si) enhancement-mode gate stack for quantum dots. The enhancement-mode SiGe/s-Si structure is pursued because it spaces the quantum dot away from charge and spin defect rich dielectric interfaces and minimizes background dopants. A mobility of 1.6\times10^5 cm^2/Vs at 5.8\times10^{11}/cm^2 is measured in Hall bars that witness the same device process flow as the quantum dot. Periodic Coulomb blockade (CB) is measured in a double-top-gated lateral quantum dot nanostructure. The CB terminates with open diamonds up to \pm 10 mV of DC v…
The electrostatics of two-dimensional (2D) lateral pn homojunctions considering the impact of electrostatic doping by means of two split bottom-gates are studied here. Analytical expressions are obtained from the solution of the 2D Poisson equation considering a depletion approximation. Straightforward analytical models for the electrostatic potential and the depletion width within both the dielectric and the 2D semiconductor are obtained for both the symmetrical and asymmetrical cases. In contrast to the case of devices with chemical doping, the obtained depletion width model of devices with …
The valleys in hexagonal two-dimensional systems with broken inversion symmetry carry an intrinsic orbital magnetic moment. Despite this, such systems possess zero net magnetization unless additional symmetries are broken, since the contributions from both valleys cancel. A nonzero net magnetization can be induced through applying both uniaxial strain to break the rotational symmetry of the lattice and an in-plane electric field to break time-reversal symmetry owing to the resulting current. This creates a magnetoelectric effect whose strength is characterized by a magnetoelectric susceptibili…
In 1H monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide, the inversion symmetry is broken, while the reflection symmetry is maintained. On the contrary, in the bilayer, the inversion symmetry is restored, but the reflection symmetry is broken. As a consequence of these contrasting symmetries, here we show that bilayer WS$_2$ exhibits a quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) that is linear with the applied out-of-plane electric field, in contrary to a quadratic one for a monolayer. The interplay between the unique layer degree of freedom in the bilayer and the field driven partial inter-conversion betwee…
The spatial texture of internal degree of freedom of electrons has profound effects on the properties of materials. Such texture in real space can manifest as an emergent magnetic field (or Berry curvature), which is expected to induce interesting valley/spin-related transport phenomena. Moiré pattern, which emerges as a spatial variation at the interface of 2D atomic crystals, provides a natural platform for investigating such real space Berry curvature effects. Here we study moiré structures formed in homobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) due to twisting, various uniform strain…
The interplay of strain engineering and photon-assisted tunneling of electrons in graphene is considered for giving rise to atypical transport phenomena. The combination of uniaxial strain and a time-periodic potential barrier helps to control the particle transmission for a wide range of tunable parameters. With the use of the tight-biding approach, the elasticity theory, and the Floquet scattering, we found an angular shift of the maximum transmission in the sidebands for uniaxial strains breaking the mirror symmetry with respect to the normal incidence, which is called anomalous Floquet tun…
We demonstrate that a lightly-strained germanium channel ($\varepsilon_{//}$ = -0.41%) in an undoped Ge/Si$_{0.1}$Ge$_{0.9}$ heterostructure field effect transistor supports a 2D hole gas with mobility in excess of 1$\times$10$^{6}$ cm$^{2}$/Vs and percolation density less than 5$\times$10$^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$. This low disorder 2D hole system shows tunable fractional quantum Hall effect at low density and low magnetic field. The low-disorder and small effective mass (0.068$m_e$) defines lightly-strained germanium as a basis to tune the strength of the spin-orbit coupling for fast and coherent qua…
We report the observation and gate manipulation of intrinsic dark trions in monolayer WSe$_2$. By using ultraclean WSe$_2$ devices encapsulated by boron nitride, we directly resolve the weak photoluminescence of dark trions. The dark trions can be tuned continuously between negative and positive charged trions with electrostatic gating. We also reveal their spin triplet configuration and distinct valley optical emission by their characteristic Zeeman splitting under magnetic field. The dark trions exhibit large binding energy (14-16 meV). Their lifetime (~1.3 ns) is two orders of magnitude lon…
Asymmetric Veselago lenses (AVLs) can be created from ballistic $p$-$n$ and $n$-$p$-$n$ homojunctions of uniaxially strained graphene. This atypical converging electron flow emerges by applying uniaxial tension out of the device's symmetry axes. A part of electron flow needs to be positively refracted for focusing in an asymmetric spot, whose location is tunable with the strain. In AVLs, Klein tunneling is angularly shifted regards to the normal incidence. This perfect transmission occurs at the straight line that connects the point source and focus, which is unaffected by variation of the Fer…
Tensile strained bulk HgTe is a three-dimensional topological insulator. Because of the energetic position of its surface state Dirac points relative to its small bulk gap, the electronic properties of the relatively thin MBE-grown films used to study this material experimentally are quite sensitive to details of its electrostatic band-bending physics. We have used an 8-band $\mathbf{k} \cdot \mathbf{p}$ model to evaluate the gate voltage dependence of its thin-film two-dimensional subbands and related thermodynamic and transport properties in films with thicknesses between 30 and 70nm, accoun…
Due to Klein tunneling, electrostatic confinement of electrons in graphene is not possible. This hinders the use of graphene for quantum dot applications. Only through quasi-bound states with finite lifetime has one achieved to confine charge carriers. Here we propose that bilayer graphene with a local region of decoupled graphene layers is able to generate bound states under the application of an electrostatic gate. The discrete energy levels in such a quantum blister correspond to localized electron and hole states in the top and bottom layers. We find that this layer localization and the en…
The influence of triaxial in-plane strain on the electronic properties of a hexagonal boron-nitride sheet is investigated using density functional theory. Different from graphene, the triaxial strain localizes the molecular orbitals of the boron-nitride flake in its center depending on the direction of the applied strain. The proposed technique for localizing the molecular orbitals that are close to the Fermi level in the center of boron nitride flakes can be used to actualize engineered nanosensors, for instance, to selectively detect gas molecules. We show that the central part of the strain…
The tensile strain is a promising tool for creation and manipulation of magnetic solitonic textures in the chiral helimagnets via tunable control of magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Here, by using the in-situ resonant small-angle x-ray scattering we demonstrate that the skyrmion and chiral soliton lattices can be achieved as metastable states in FeGe lamella as distinct states or even simultaneously by combining the tensile strain and magnetic fields in various orientations with respect to the deformation. The small-angle scattering data are discussed in the frame of …
We investigate the response of multi-walled carbon nanotubes to mechanical strain applied with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) probe. We find that in some samples, changes in the contact resistance dominate the measured resistance change. In others, strain large enough to fracture the tube can be applied without a significant change in the contact resistance. In this case we observe that enough force is applied to break the tube without any change in resistance until the tube fails. We have also manipulated the ends of the broken tube back in contact with each other, re-establishing a finite …
Clarifying electronic and vibronic properties at individual molecule level provides key insights to future chemistry, nanoelectronics, and quantum information technologies. The single electron tunneling spectroscopy has been used to study the charging/discharging process in single molecules. The obtained information was, however, mainly on static electronic properties, and access to their dynamical properties was very indirect. Here, we report on the terahertz (THz) spectroscopy of single fullerene molecules by using a single molecule transistor (SMT) geometry. From the time-domain THz autocor…
The spin and valley polarizations and plasmonics in Van der Waals heterostructures of strained graphene monolayer on 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (GrTMD) substrate are reported in this communication. The substrate induced interactions (SII) involve sub-lattice-resolved, and enhanced intrinsic spin-orbit couplings, the extrinsic Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC), and the orbital gap related to the transfer of the electronic charge from graphene to the substrate. Furthermore, magnetic impurity atoms are deposited to the graphene surface and the corresponding exchange field is included in t…
Strain engineering has proven to be vital for germanium-based photonics, in particular light emission. However, applying a large permanent biaxial strain to germanium has been a challenge. We present a simple, CMOS-compatible technique to conveniently induce a large, spatially homogenous strain in microdisks patterned within ultrathin germanium nanomembranes. Our technique works by concentrating and amplifying a pre-existing small strain into the microdisk region. Biaxial strains as large as 1.11% are observed by Raman spectroscopy and are further confirmed by photoluminescence measurements, w…
We theoretically study the transmittance for normal incidence of linearly polarized light between two media separated by a strained graphene monolayer. We analytically characterize the degree of dichroism and the transparency of graphene as a function of an arbitrary uniform strain and the incident polarization. We discuss how measurements of dichroism and transparency for two different polarization directions can be used to determine the magnitude and direction of strain. Ours findings result in very useful tools to tune the graphene absorption by mechanical strain, as well as to design nano-…
Anomalous Klein tunnelling with magnetic barriers in strained graphene
Escuela Superior de Física y Matemáticas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional（国立理工学院高等物理与数学学院）；Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California（下加利福尼亚自治大学理学院）；Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学物理研究所）；Facultad de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo（米却肯圣尼古拉斯德伊达尔戈大学电气工程学院）；Centro de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad del Bío-Bío（比奥比奥大学精确科学中心）
Coupled electron-hole states are realized in a system consisting of a combination of an electrostatic potential barrier and ring-shaped potential well, which resembles a circular dipole. A perpendicular magnetic field induces confined states inside the Landau gaps which are mainly located at the barrier or ring. Hybridizations between the barrier and ring states are seen as anticrossings in the energy spectrum. As a consequence, the energy levels show an oscillating dependence on the electrostatic potential strength in combination with an oscillating migration of the wave functions between the…
We report on developing split-gate quantum point contacts (QPCs) that have a tunable length for the transport channel. The QPCs were realized in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure with a two- dimensional electron gas (2DEG) below its surface. The conventional design uses 2 gate fingers on the wafer surface which deplete the 2DEG underneath when a negative gate voltage is applied, and this allows for tuning the width of the QPC channel. Our design has 6 gate fingers and this provides additional control over the form of the electrostatic potential that defines the channel. Our study is based on elect…
Electrostatic doping in materials can lead to various exciting electronic properties, such as metal-insulator transition and superconductivity, by altering the Fermi level position or introducing exotic phases. Cd3As2, a three-dimensional (3D) analog of graphene with extraordinary carrier mobility, was predicted to be a 3D Dirac semimetal, a feature confirmed by recent experiments. However, most research so far has been focused on metallic bulk materials that are known to possess ultra-high mobility and giant magnetoresistance but limited carrier transport tunability. Here, we report on the fi…
The geometric, electronic and magnetic properties of strained graphene nanoribbons were investigated using spin polarized calculations within the framework of density functional theory. Cases of compressive stress along the longer axis of a nanoribbon and tensile stress at the midpoint and perpendicular to the plane of the nanoribbon were considered. Significant structural changes were observed including the formation of nanoripples. The calculated electronic and magnetic properties strongly depend on the size and shape of nanoribbons. The tunable magnetic properties of strained nanoribbons ca…
One of the unique features of graphene is that the Fermi wavelength of its charge carriers can be tuned electrostatically over a wide range. This allows in principle to tune the transparency of a pn-junction electrostatically, as this depends on the ratio between the physical extension of the junction and the electron wavelength, i.e. on the effective width of the junction itself. However, this simple idea - which would allow to switch smoothly between a Veselago lens and a Klein-collimator - has proved to be difficult to demonstrate experimentally because of the limited amount of independentl…
Trilayer graphene in both ABA (Bernal) and ABC (rhombohedral) stacking sequences is shown to exhibit intense infrared absorption from in-plane optical phonons. The feature, lying at ~1580 cm-1, changes strongly with electrostatic gating. For ABC-stacked graphene trilayers, we observed a large enhancement in phonon absorption amplitude, as well as softening of the phonon mode, as the Fermi level is tuned away from charge neutrality. A similar, but substantially weaker effect is seen in samples with the more common ABA stacking order. The strong infrared response of the optical phonons and the p…
Interaction-driven charge textures and unconventional superconductivity in strained monolayer graphene
Posgrado en Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)（墨西哥国立自治大学物理科学研究生院）；Department of Physics, University of Arkansas（阿肯色大学物理系）；Donostia International Physics Center（圣塞巴斯蒂安国际物理中心）；IMDEA Nanoscience（马德里IMDEA纳米科学研究所）；Center for Theoretical Physics, Hainan University（海南大学理论物理中心）；Department of Physics, Colorado State University（科罗拉多州立大学物理系）；Depto. de Sistemas Complejos, Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)（墨西哥国立自治大学物理学院复杂系统系）
Atomically precise tailoring of graphene can enable unusual transport pathways and new nanometer-scale functional devices. Here we describe a recipe for the controlled production of highly regular "5-5-8" line defects in graphene by means of simultaneous electron irradiation and Joule heating by applied electric current. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals individual steps of the growth process. Extending earlier theoretical work suggesting valley-discriminating capabilities of a graphene 5-5-8 line defect, we perform first-principles calculations of transport and find a s…
We study the magnetic properties of graphene edges and graphene/graphane interfaces under the influence of electrostatic gates. For this, an effective low-energy theory for the edge states, which is derived from the Hubbard model of the honeycomb lattice, is used. We first study the edge state model in a mean-field approximation for the Hubbard Hamiltonian and show that it reproduces the results of the extended 2D lattice theory. Quantum fluctuations around the mean-field theory of the effective one-dimensional model are treated by means of the bosonization technique in order to check the stab…
We measure the thermal conductivity ($κ$) of individual InAs nanowires (NWs), and find that it is 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the bulk value in the temperature range of 10 to 50 K. We argue that the low $κ$ arises from the strong localization of phonons in the random superlattice of twin-defects oriented perpendicular to the axis of the NW. We observe significant electronic contribution arising from the surface accumulation layer which gives rise to tunability of $κ$ with the application of electrostatic gate and magnetic field. Our devices and measurements of $κ$ at different carrier c…
The absence of a band-gap in graphene limits the gate modulation of its electron conductivity, both in regular graphene as well as in PN junctions, where electrostatic barriers prove transparent to Klein tunneling. We demonstrate a novel way to directly open a gate-tunable transmission gap across graphene PN junctions (GPNJ) by introducing an additional barrier in the middle that replaces Klein tunneling with regular tunneling, allowing us to electrostatically modulate the current by several orders of magnitude. The gap arises by angularly sorting electrons by their longitudinal energy and fil…
In the search of high-temperature superconductivity one option is to focus on increasing the density of electronic states. Here we study both the normal and $s$-wave superconducting state properties of periodically strained graphene, which exhibits approximate flat bands with a high density of states, with the flatness tunable by the strain profile. We generalize earlier results regarding a one-dimensional harmonic strain to arbitrary periodic strain fields, and further extend the results by calculating the superfluid weight and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature …
Coupled nanomechanical resonators are interesting for both fundamental studies and practical applications as they offer rich and tunable oscillation dynamics. At present, the mechanical coupling in such systems is often mediated by a fixed geometry, such as a joint clamping point of the resonators or a displacement-dependent force. Here we show a graphene-integrated electromechanical system consisting of two physically separated mechanical resonators -- a comb-drive actuator and a suspended silicon beam -- that are tunably coupled by a graphene membrane. The graphene membrane, moreover, provid…
When considering transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures for periodic ab-initio calculations, usually, lattice mismatch is present, and the TMDC needs to be strained. In this study we provide a systematic assessment of biaxial strain effects on the orbital, spin-orbit, and optical properties of the monolayer TMDCs using ab-initio calculations. We complement our analysis with a minimal tight-binding Hamiltonian that captures the low-energy bands of the TMDCs around K and K' valleys. We find characteristic trends of the orbital and spin-orbit parameters a…
We examine a graphene quantum dot formed by combining an electric and a uniform magnetic field. The electric field creates a smooth quantum well potential while the magnetic field induces an exponential tail to the dot states. The states peak in the well and the electrostatic barrier region as a result of the Klein tunneling effect. Coupling between dot states which peak in different regions can be achieved with the electric and magnetic fields. The tunability of this dot with moderate external fields could be used for designing quantum devices in monolayer graphene.
The unique gate-voltage dependent optical properties of graphene make it a promising electrically-tunable plasmonic material. In this work, we proposed in-situ control of the polarization of nanoantennas by combining plasmonic structures with an electrostatically tunable graphene monolayer. The tunable polarizer is designed based on an asymmetric cross nanoantenna comprising two orthogonal metallic dipoles sharing the same feed gap. Graphene monolayer is deposited on a Si/SiO2 substrate, and inserted beneath the nanoantenna. Our modelling demonstrates that as the chemical potential is incremen…
