Spin pumping from antiferromagnetic insulator spin-orbit-proximitized by adjacent heavy metal: A first-principles Floquet-nonequilibrium Green's function study
Kapildeb Dolui, Abhin Suresh, Branislav K. Nikolic
备注:
10 pages, 4 figures. J. Phys. Mater
发表信息:
J. Phys. Mater https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7639/ac6ae6 (2022)
Motivated by recent experiments [P. Vaidya {\em et al.}, Science {\bf 368}, 160 (2020)] on spin pumping from sub-THz radiation-driven uniaxial antiferromagnetic insulator (AFI) MnF$_2$ into heavy metal (HM) Pt hosting strong spin-orbit (SO) coupling, we compute and compare pumped spin currents in Cu/MnF$_2$/Cu and Pt/MnF$_2$/Cu heterostructures. Recent theories of spin pumping by AFI have relied on simplistic Hamiltonians (such as tight-binding) and the scattering approach to quantum transport yielding the so-called interfacial spin mixing conductance (SMC), but the concept of SMC ceases to be applicable when SO coupling is present directly at the interface. In contrast, we use more general first-principles quantum transport approach which combines noncollinear density functional theory with Floquet-nonequilibrium Green's functions in order to take into account: {\em SO-proximitized AFI} as a new type of quantum material, different from isolated AFI and brought about by AFI hybridization with adjacent HM layer; SO coupling at interfaces; and evanescent wavefunctions penetrating from Pt or Cu into AFI layer to make its interfacial region {\em conducting} rather than insulating as in the original AFI. The DC component of pumped spin current $I_\mathrm{DC}^{S_z}$ vs. precession cone angle $θ_{\vb*{l}}$ of the Néel vector $\vb*{l}$ of AFI {\em does not} follow putative $I^{S_z}_\mathrm{DC} \propto \sin^2 θ_{\vb*{l}}$, except for very small angles $θ_{\vb*{l}} \lesssim 10^\circ$ for which we can define an {\em effective} SMC from the prefactor and find that it doubles from MnF$_2$/Cu to MnF$_2$/Pt interface. In addition, the angular dependence $I^{S_z}_\mathrm{DC}(θ_{\vb*{l}})$ differs for opposite directions of precession of the Néel vector, leading to twice as large SMC for the right-handed than for the left-handed chirality of the precession mode.
In this work we derive a general formula for the charge pumped in a superconducting nanocircuit. Our expression generalizes previous results in several ways, it is applicable both in the adiabatic and in the non-adiabatic regimes and it takes into account also the effect of an external environment. More specifically, by applying Floquet theory to Cooper pair pumping, we show that under a cyclic evolution the total charge transferred through the circuit is proportional to the derivative of the associated Floquet quasi-energy with respect to the superconducting phase difference. In the presence …
Based on the Floquet scattering theory, we analytically investigate the topological spin pumping for an exactly solvable model. Floquet spin Chern numbers are introduced to characterize the periodically time-dependent system. The topological spin pumping remains robust both in the presence and in the absence of the time-reversal symmetry, as long as the pumping frequency is smaller than the band gap, where the electron transport involves only the Floquet evanescent modes in the pump. For the pumping frequency greater than the band gap, where the propagating modes in the pump participate in the…
We develop the Floquet scattering theory for quantum mechanical pumping in mesoscopic conductors. The nonequilibrium distribution function, the dc charge and heat currents are investigated at arbitrary pumping amplitude and frequency. For mesoscopic samples with discrete spectrum we predict a sign reversal of the pumped current when the pump frequency is equal to the level spacing in the sample. This effect allows to measure the phase of the transmission coefficient through the mesoscopic sample. We discuss the necessary symmetry conditions (both spatial and temporal) for pumping.
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Tsinghua University(清华大学);State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Tsinghua University(清华大学低维量子物理国家重点实验室);Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information(量子信息前沿科学中心)
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The quest to realize novel phases of matter with topological order is an important pursuit with implications for strongly correlated physics and quantum information. Utilizing ideas from state-of-the-art coherent control of artificial quantum systems such as superconducting circuits, we present a proposal to realize bosonic fractional quantum Hall physics on small lattices by creating nearly flat topological bands using staggered flux patterns. Fingerprints of fractionalization through charge pumping can be observed with nearly perfect quantization using as few as 24 lattice sites (two photons…
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Floquet topological insulators describe independent electrons on a lattice driven out of equilibrium by a time-periodic Hamiltonian, beyond the usual adiabatic approximation. In dimension two such systems are characterized by integer-valued topological indices associated to the unitary propagator, alternatively in the bulk or at the edge of a sample. In this paper we give new definitions of the two indices, relying neither on translation invariance nor on averaging, and show that they are equal. In particular weak disorder and defects are intrinsically taken into account. Finally indices can b…
Autonomous Stabilization of Floquet States Using Static Dissipation
Department of Physics, Stanford University(斯坦福大学物理系);Department of Physics, Boston University(波士顿大学物理系);Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme(马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所)
The striking nonlinear effects exhibited by cavity QED systems make them a powerful tool in modern condensed matter and atomic physics. A recently discovered example is the quantized pumping of energy into a cavity by a strongly-coupled, periodically-driven spin. We uncover a remarkable feature of these energy pumps: they coherently translate, or boost, a quantum state of the cavity in the Fock basis. Current optical cavity and circuit QED experiments can realize the required Hamiltonian in a rotating frame. Boosting thus enables the preparation of highly-excited non-classical cavity states in…
We study electron pumping in the strong coupling and non-Markovian regime. Our model is a single quantum dot with periodically modulated energy and tunnelling amplitudes. We identify four parameters to control the direction of the current: the driving phase, the coupling strength, the driving frequency and the location of the maxima of the spectral density. In the high-frequency regime, we use a Markovian embedding strategy to map our model to three serial quantum dots weakly coupled to the reservoirs allowing us to use a Floquet master equation. We observe a rectification effect of the pumped…
Periodically driven quantum systems provide a novel and versatile platform for realizing topological phenomena. Among these are analogs of topological insulators and superconductors, attainable in static systems; however, some of these phenomena are unique to the periodically driven case. Here, we show that disordered, periodically driven systems admit an "anomalous" two dimensional phase, whose quasi-energy spectrum consists of chiral edge modes that coexist with a fully localized bulk - an impossibility for static Hamiltonians. This unique situation serves as the basis for a new topologicall…
Two-dimensional periodically driven systems can host an unconventional topological phase unattainable for equilibrium systems, termed the Anomalous Floquet-Anderson insulator (AFAI). The AFAI features a quasi-energy spectrum with chiral edge modes and a fully localized bulk, leading to non-adiabatic but quantized charge pumping. Here, we show how such a Floquet phase can be realized in a driven, disordered Quantum Anomalous Hall insulator, which is assumed to have two critical energies where the localization length diverges, carrying states with opposite Chern numbers. Driving the system at a …
We develop a time-dependent nonequilibrium Green function (NEGF) approach to the problem of spin pumping by precessing magnetization in one of the ferromagnetic layers within F/I/F magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) or F/I/N semi-MTJs in the presence of intrinsic Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) at the F/I interface or the extrinsic SOC in the bulk of F layers of finite thickness (F-ferromagnet; N-normal metal; I-insulating barrier). To express the time-averaged pumped charge current, or the corresponding dc voltage signal in open circuits that was measured in recent experiments on semi-MTJs [T.…
The spin mixing conductance (SMC) is a key quantity determining efficiency of spin transport across interfaces. Thus, knowledge of its precise value is required for accurate measurement of parameters quantifying numerous effects in spintronics, such as spin-orbit torque, spin Hall magnetoresistance, spin Hall effect and spin pumping. However, the standard expression for SMC, provided by the scattering theory in terms of the reflection probability amplitudes, is inapplicable when strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is present directly at the interface. This is the precisely the case of topological…
Topological properties of physical systems can lead to robust behaviors that are insensitive to microscopic details. Such topologically robust phenomena are not limited to static systems but can also appear in driven quantum systems. In this paper, we show that the Floquet operators of periodically driven systems can be divided into topologically distinct (homotopy) classes, and give a simple physical interpretation of this classification in terms of the spectra of Floquet operators. Using this picture, we provide an intuitive understanding of the well-known phenomenon of quantized adiabatic p…
Topological energy pumping in a quasi-periodically driven four-level system
SISSA(的里雅斯特国际高等研究学校);Harish-Chandra Research Institute, a CI of Homi Bhabha National Institute(哈里什-昌德拉研究所,霍米·巴哈国家研究所下属中心);Department of Physics, BITS Pilani-Hyderabad Campus(比拉理工学院海得拉巴校区物理系)
Time-periodic perturbations can be used to engineer topological properties of matter by altering the Floquet band structure. This is demonstrated for a spin Hall insulator in the presence of monochromatic circularly polarized light. The inherent spin structure of the edge state is influenced by the Zeeman coupling and not by the orbital effect. The photocurrent (and the magnetization along the edge) develops a finite, helicity dependent expectation value and turns from dissipationless to dissipative with increasing radiation frequency, signalling a change in the topological properties. The con…
Few level quantum systems driven by $n_\mathrm{f}$ incommensurate fundamental frequencies exhibit temporal analogues of non-interacting phenomena in $n_\mathrm{f}$ spatial dimensions, a consequence of the generalisation of Floquet theory in frequency space. We organise the fundamental solutions of the frequency lattice model for $n_\mathrm{f}=2$ into a quasi-energy band structure and show that every band is classified by an integer Chern number. In the trivial class, all bands have zero Chern number and the quasi-periodic dynamics is qualitatively similar to Floquet dynamics. The topological c…
We demonstrate a spin pump to generate pure spin current of tunable intensity and polarization in the absence of charge current. The pumping functionality is achieved by means of an ac gate voltage that modulates the Rashba constant dynamically in a local region of a quantum channel with both static Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions. Spin-resolved Floquet scattering matrix is calculated to analyze the whole scattering process. Pumped spin current can be divided into spin-preserved transmission and spin-flip reflection parts. These two terms have opposite polarization of spin curre…