Polar and phase domain walls with conducting interfacial states in a Weyl semimetal MoTe2
Fei-Ting Huang, Seong Joon Lim, Sobhit Singh, Jinwoong Kim, Lunyong Zhang, Jae-Wook Kim, Ming-Wen Chu, Karin M. Rabe, David Vanderbilt, Sang-Wook Cheong
Much of the dramatic growth in research on topological materials has focused on topologically protected surface states. While the domain walls of topological materials such as Weyl semimetals with broken inversion or time-reversal symmetry can provide a hunting ground for exploring topological interfacial states, such investigations have received little attention to date. Here, utilizing in-situ cryogenic transmission electron microscopy combined with first-principles calculations, we discover intriguing domain-wall structures in MoTe2, both between polar variants of the low-temperature(T) Weyl phase, and between this and the high-T high-order topological phase. We demonstrate how polar domain walls can be manipulated with electron beams and show that phase domain walls tend to form superlattice-like structures along the c axis. Scanning tunneling microscopy indicates a possible signature of a conducting hinge state at phase domain walls. Our results open avenues for investigating topological interfacial states and unveiling multifunctional aspects of domain walls in topological materials.
Electric field modulation analysis of thermopower (S) - carrier concentration (n) relation of a bilayer laminate structure composed of a 1.5-nm thick conducting layer, probably TinO2n-1 (n=2, 3,...) Magnéli phase, and rutile TiO2 was performed. The results clearly showed that both the rutile TiO2 and the thin interfacial layer contribute to carrier transport: the rutile TiO2 bulk region (mobility mu~0.03 cm2V-1s-1) and the 1.5-nm thick interfacial layer (mu~0.3 cm2V-1s-1). The effective thickness of the interfacial layer, which was obtained from the S-n relation, was below ~ 3 nm, which agrees…
Interfaces between materials with different electronic ground states have become powerful platforms for creating and controlling novel quantum states of matter, in which inversion symmetry breaking and other effects at the interface may introduce additional electronic states. Among the emergent phenomena, superconductivity is of particular interest. In this work, by depositing metal films on a newly identified topological semimetal tungsten carbide (WC) single crystal, we have obtained interfacial topological superconductivity evidenced from soft point contact spectroscopy. This very robust ph…
The interfacial phase-change memory (iPCM) GeTe/Sb2Te3, promising candidates for the next generation non-volatile random-access memories, exhibits fascinating topological properties. Depending on the atomic-layer-stacking sequence of the GeTe block, the iPCM can be either in the SET (Ge-Te-Ge-Te) or RESET (Te-Ge-Ge-Te) states, where the former exhibits ferroelectric polarization and electrical conductivity two orders of magnitude larger than that of the RESET state. But, its origin remains elusive. Here, we predict the emergence of a Weyl semimetal phase in the SET state induced by the ferroel…
Interfacial Oxidation Enables Charge-Transfer Contacts and Degenerate n-Doping in Monolayer MoS$_2$
Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A（的里雅斯特电子同步加速器股份有限公司）；University of Udine（乌迪内大学）；University of Trieste（的里雅斯特大学）；Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM - CSIC)（马德里材料科学研究所（CSIC））；CNR - Istituto Officina dei Materiali (IOM)（国家研究委员会材料工坊研究所）；ArtemisProgram,U.K.Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory（英国中央激光设施，STFC鲁瑟福阿普尔顿实验室）；School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews（圣安德鲁斯大学物理与天文学学院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University（奥胡斯大学物理与天文学系）
By means of ab initio calculations the possibilities of switchable spin-polarized two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface of antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric perovskites, i.e., LaMnO3/BaTiO3 superlattice, were investigated. We demonstrate that at the heterostructure with TiO2/LaO interfacial layers the two-dimensional conducting state arises mainly localized within the interfacial MnO layer. The density of states at the Fermi-level can be tuned by ferroelectric polarization reversal. The conducting state coexists with magnetic one mainly arose from Mn atoms.
We report on the fabrication of conducting interfaces between LaAlO$_3$ and SrTiO$_3$ by 90$^o$ off-axis sputtering in an Ar atmosphere. At a growth pressure of 0.04 mbar the interface is metallic, with a carrier density of the order of $10^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$ at 3 K. By increasing the growth pressure, we observe an increase of the out-of-plane lattice constants of the LaAlO$_3$ films while the in-plane lattice constants do not change. Also, the low-temperature sheet resistance increases with increasing growth pressure, leading to an insulating interface when the growth pressure reaches 0.10 mbar.…
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : poly(styrene sulfonic acid (PEDOT:PSS), an optically transparent organic semi-conductor, constitutes a suspension of conducting PEDOT:PSS grains, shelled by an insulating layer of PSS. While a percolation network enhances dc conductivity, structural and electrical inhomogenity hinters electric charge flow giving rise to capacitance effects. In the present work, two distinct relaxation mechanisms are detected by Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS). Double polarization mechamisms are predicted by bi-phase suspension dielectric theory. Within the frame of in…
Thickness-Dependent Spintronic Terahertz Emission in MBE-Grown PtTe$_2$: From Semiconductor to Type-II Dirac Semimetal
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, IRIG-SPINTEC（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学、法国原子能和替代能源委员会、法国国家科学研究中心、IRIG自旋技术中心）；Centre for Nanodiagnostics of Materials, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology, Slovak University of Technology（材料纳米诊断中心、材料与科技学院、斯洛伐克科技大学）
A quantum spin hall insulator(QSHI) is manifested by its conducting edge channels that originate from the nontrivial topology of the insulating bulk states. Monolayer 1T'-WTe2 exhibits this quantized edge conductance in transport measurements, but because of its semimetallic nature, the coherence length is restricted to around 100 nm. To overcome this restriction, we propose a strain engineering technique to tune the electronic structure, where either a compressive strain along a axis or a tensile strain along b axis can drive 1T'-WTe2 into an full gap insulating phase. A combined study of mol…
Variety of conducting heterointerfaces have been made between SrTiO3 substrates and thin capping layers of distinctly different oxide materials that can be classified into polar band insulators (e.g. LaAlO3), polar Mott insulators (e.g. LaTiO3), apparently non-polar band insulators (e.g. γ-Al2O3), and amorphous oxides (e.g. amorphous SrTiO3). A fundamental question to ask is if there is a common mechanism that governs interfacial conductivity in all these heterointerfaces. Here, we examined the conductivity of different kinds of heterointerfaces by annealing in oxygen and surface treatment wit…
Interface and Strain Control of Emergent Weyl Semimetallic Phase in SrNbO$_{3}$/LaFeO$_{3}$ Heterostructures
Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar（布巴内斯瓦尔物理研究所）；Homi Bhabha National Institute（霍米·巴巴国立研究所）；Center for Atomistic Modelling and Materials Design, Indian Institute of Technology Madras（马德拉斯印度理工学院原子建模与材料设计中心）；Condensed Matter Theory and Computational Lab, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras（马德拉斯印度理工学院物理系凝聚态理论与计算实验室）；Laboratoire Albert Fert, CNRS, Thales, Université Paris-Saclay（阿尔伯特·费特实验室，法国国家科学研究中心，泰雷兹，巴黎萨克雷大学）；School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar（布巴内斯瓦尔印度理工学院基础科学学院）；School of Physical Sciences, National Institute of Science Education and Research（国立科学教育与研究学院物理科学学院）；Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich（于利希研究中心彼得·格林伯格研究所）；Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore（班加罗尔印度理工学院物理系）
α-Sn with a diamond-type crystal structure provides an ideal avenue to investigate novel topological properties owing to its rich diagram of topological phases and simple elemental material structure. Thus far, however, realisation of high-quality α-Sn remains a challenge, which limits our understanding of its quantum transport properties and device applications. Here, we present epitaxial growth of α-Sn on InSb (001) with the highest quality thus far and reveal that it is a topological Dirac semimetal (TDS) by quantum transport investigations together with first-principles calculations. We re…
It is highly desirable to combine recent advances in the topological quantum phases with technologically relevant materials. Chromium dioxide (CrO2) is a half-metallic material, widely used in high-end data storage applications. Using first principles calculations, we show via interfacial orbital design that a novel class of half semi-metallic Dirac electronic phase emerges at the interface CrO2 with TiO2 in both thin film and superlattice configurations, with four spin-polarized Dirac points in momentum-space (k-space) band structure. When the spin and orbital degrees of freedom are allowed t…
Topological materials have drawn increasing attention owing to their rich quantum properties, as highlighted by a large intrinsic anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in Weyl and nodal-line semimetals. However, the practical applications for topological electronics have been hampered by the difficulty in the external control of the band topology. Here we demonstrate a magnetic-field-induced switching of band topology in $α{\mathrm{-EuP}}_3$, a magnetic semimetal with a layered crystal structure derived from black phosphorus. When the magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the single mirror plane of…
The successful application of titanium oxide-graphene hybrids in the fields of photocatalysis, photovoltaics and photodetection strongly depends on the interfacial contact between both materials. The need to provide a good coupling between the enabling conductor and the photoactive phase prompted us to directly grow conducting graphenic structures on TiO2 crystals. We here report on the direct synthesis of tailored graphenic structures by using Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition that present a clean junction with the prototypical titanium oxide (110) surface. Chemical analysis of the i…
Topological semimetal is a topic of general interest in material science. Recently, a new kind of topological semimetal called type-II Dirac semimetal with tilted Dirac cones is discovered in PtSe2 family. However, the further investigation is hindered due to the huge energy difference from Dirac points to Fermi level and the irrelevant conducting pockets at Fermi surface. Here we characterize the optimized type-II Dirac dispersions in a metastable 1T phase of IrTe2. Our strategy of Pt doping protects the metastable 1T phase in low temperature and tunes the Fermi level to the Dirac point. As d…
Persistent Interfacial Topological Hall Effect Demonstrating Electrical Readout of Topological Spin Structures in Insulators
University of Nebraska, Lincoln（内布拉斯加大学林肯分校）；Fudan University（复旦大学）；North Carolina State University（北卡罗来纳州立大学）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；Bryn Mawr College（布林茅尔学院）；Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室）
Recently, much interest has emerged in fluid-like electric charge transport in various solid-state systems. The hydrodynamic behavior of the electronic fluid reveals itself as a decrease of the electrical resistance with increasing temperature (the Gurzhi effect) in narrow conducting channels, polynomial scaling of the resistance as a function of the channel width, substantial violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law supported by the emergence of the Poiseuille flow. Similarly to whirlpools in flowing water, the viscous electronic flow generates vortices, resulting in abnormal sign-changing electr…
The nonlinear optical responses from topological semimetals are crucial in both understanding the fundamental properties of quantum materials and designing next-generation light-sensors or solar-cells. However, previous work was focusing on the optical effects from bulk states only, disregarding topological surface responses. Here we propose a new (hitherto unknown) surface-only topological photocurrent response from chiral Fermi arcs. Using the ideal topological chiral semimetal RhSi as a representative, we quantitatively compute the topologically robust photocurrents from Fermi arcs on diffe…
The conductive domain wall (CDW) is extensively investigated in ferroelectrics, which can be considered as a quasi-two-dimensional reconfigurable conducting channel embedded into an insulating material. Therefore, it is highly important for the application of ferroelectric nanoelectronics. Hitherto, most CDW investigations are restricted in oxides, and limited work has been reported in non-oxides to the contrary. Here, by successfully synthesizing the non-oxide ferroelectric Sn2P2S6 single crystal, we observed and confirmed the domain wall conductivity by using different scanning probe techniq…
Two-dimensional (2D) surface of the topological materials is an attractive channel for the electrical conduction reflecting the linearly-dispersive electronic bands. By applying a reliable systematic thickness t dependent measurement of sheet conductance, here we elucidate the dimensionality of the electrical conduction paths of a Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2. Under the ferromagnetic phase, the 2D conduction path clearly emerges in Co3Sn2S2 thin films, indicating a formation of the Fermi arcs projected from Weyl nodes. Comparison between 3D conductivity and 2D conductance provides the effective thi…
Peierls Transition and Magnetism in a Dirac Semimetal: CaMnBi$_2$
Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室）；Ames National Laboratory（埃姆斯国家实验室）；Iowa State University（爱荷华州立大学）；Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；Ruhr-University Bochum（波鸿鲁尔大学）
The discovery that the interface between two band gap insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 is highly conducting has raised an enormous interest in the field of oxide electronics. The LAlO3/SrTiO3 interface can be tuned using an electric field and switched from a superconducting to an insulating state. Conducting paths in an insulating background can be written applying a voltage with the tip of an atomic force microscope, creating great promise for the development of a new generation of nanoscale electronic devices. However, the mechanism for interface conductivity in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 has remained elusiv…
In the last few decades, the study of topological materials has been carried out on an extensive scale. Half-Heusler alloys are well known for their topological behaviours. In this work, we present a detailed study of topological properties of a ternary Half-Heusler alloy, YAuPb, using the tight-binding approach. We have calculated some important topological properties which includes$-$ finding nodes and their chiralities, Berry curvature ($\boldsymbolΩ$) and the surface-states. Based on the study of these properties, we categorise the material as non-trivial topological semimetal. Besides the…
The classification of materials into insulators and conductors has been shaken up by the discovery of topological insulators that conduct robustly at the edge but not in the bulk. In mechanics, designating a material as insulating or conducting amounts to asking if it is rigid or floppy. Although mechanical structures that display topological floppy modes have been proposed, they are all vulnerable to global collapse. Here, we design and build mechanical metamaterials that are stable and yet capable of harboring protected edge and bulk modes, analogous to those in electronic topological insula…
Electron doping in single crystalline BaBiO$_3$: BaBiO$_{3-x}$F$_{x}$
Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad（印度理工学院帕拉卡德分校）；Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology（拉贾·拉曼纳先进技术中心）；Homi Bhabha National Institute（霍米·巴巴国立研究所）
