Showing papers on "Spin-½ published in 2015"

Spin Hall effects

Abstract: In solid-state materials with strong relativistic spin-orbit coupling, charge currents generate transverse spin currents. The associated spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effects distinguish between charge and spin current where electron charge is a conserved quantity but its spin direction is not. This review provides a theoretical and experimental treatment of this subfield of spintronics, beginning with distinct microscopic mechanisms seen in ferromagnets and concluding with a discussion of optical-, transport-, and magnetization-dynamics-based experiments closely linked to the microscopic and phenomenological theories presented.

Antiferromagnetic order and spin dynamics in iron-based superconductors

Abstract: High-transition temperature (high-$T_c$) superconductivity in the iron pnictides/chalcogenides emerges from the suppression of the static antiferromagnetic order in their parent compounds, similar to copper oxides superconductors. This raises a fundamental question concerning the role of magnetism in the superconductivity of these materials. Neutron scattering, a powerful probe to study the magnetic order and spin dynamics, plays an essential role in determining the relationship between magnetism and superconductivity in high-$T_c$ superconductors. The rapid development of modern neutron time-of-flight spectrometers allows a direct determination of the spin dynamical properties of iron-based superconductors throughout the entire Brillouin zone. In this review, we present an overview of the neutron scattering results on iron-based superconductors, focusing on the evolution of spin excitation spectra as a function of electron/hole-doping and isoelectronic substitution. We compare spin dynamical properties of iron-based superconductors with those of copper oxide and heavy fermion superconductors, and discuss the common features of spin excitations in these three families of unconventional superconductors and their relationship with superconductivity.

Degenerate quantum gases with spin?orbit coupling: a review

Abstract: This review focuses on recent developments in synthetic spin-orbit (SO) coupling in ultracold atomic gases. Two types of SO coupling are discussed. One is Raman process induced coupling between spin and motion along one of the spatial directions and the other is Rashba SO coupling. We emphasize their common features in both single-particle and two-body physics and the consequences of both in many-body physics. For instance, single particle ground state degeneracy leads to novel features of superfluidity and a richer phase diagram; increased low-energy density-of-state enhances interaction effects; the absence of Galilean invariance and spin-momentum locking gives rise to intriguing behaviours of superfluid critical velocity and novel quantum dynamics; and the mixing of two-body singlet and triplet states yields a novel fermion pairing structure and topological superfluids. With these examples, we show that investigating SO coupling in cold atom systems can, enrich our understanding of basic phenomena such as superfluidity, provide a good platform for simulating condensed matter states such as topological superfluids and more importantly, result in novel quantum systems such as SO coupled unitary Fermi gas and high spin quantum gases. Finally we also point out major challenges and some possible future directions.

Role of transparency of platinum–ferromagnet interfaces in determining the intrinsic magnitude of the spin Hall effect

Abstract: The spin Hall effect induces spin currents in nonmagnetic layers, which can control the magnetization of neighbouring ferromagnets. The transparency of the interface is shown to strongly influence the efficiency of such manipulation.

A highly-tunable quantum simulator of spin systems using two-dimensional arrays of single Rydberg atoms

Abstract: Quantum simulation of spin Hamiltonians is currently a very active field of research, using different implementations such as trapped ions, superconducting qubits, or ultracold atoms in optical lattices. All of these approaches have their own assets and limitations. Here, we report on a novel platform for quantum simulation of spin systems, using individual atoms trapped in highly-tunable two-dimensional arrays of optical microtraps, that interact via strong, anisotropic interactions when excited to Rydberg $D$-states. We illustrate the versatility of our system by studying the dynamics of an Ising-like spin-$1/2$ system in a transverse field with up to thirty spins, for a variety of geometries in one and two dimensions, and for a wide range of interaction strengths. Our data agree well with numerical simulations of the spin-$1/2$ model except at long times, where we observe deviations that we attribute to the multilevel structure of Rydberg $D$-states.

Two Dimensional Ising Superconductivity in Gated MoS$_{2}$

Abstract: The Zeeman effect, which is usually considered to be detrimental to superconductivity, can surprisingly protect the superconducting states created by gating a layered transition metal dichalcogenide. This effective Zeeman field, which is originated from intrinsic spin orbit coupling induced by breaking in-plane inversion symmetry, can reach nearly a hundred Tesla in magnitude. It strongly pins the spin orientation of the electrons to the out-of-plane directions and protects the superconductivity from being destroyed by an in-plane external magnetic field. In magnetotransport experiments of ionic-gate MoS$_{2}$ transistors, where gating prepares individual superconducting state with different carrier doping, we indeed observe a spin- protected superconductivity by measuring an in-plane critical field $\textit{B}$$_{c2}$ far beyond the Pauli paramagnetic limit. The gating-enhanced $\textit{B}$$_{c2}$ is more than an order of magnitude larger compared to the bulk superconducting phases where the effective Zeeman field is weakened by interlayer coupling. Our study gives the first experimental evidence of an Ising superconductor, in which spins of the pairing electrons are strongly pinned by an effective Zeeman field.

Linear spin wave theory for single-Q incommensurate magnetic structures

Abstract: Linear spin wave theory provides the leading term in the calculation of the excitation spectra of long-range ordered magnetic systems as a function of 1/root S. This term is acquired using the Holstein-Primakoff approximation of the spin operator and valid for small dS fluctuations of the ordered moment. We propose an algorithm that allows magnetic ground states with general moment directions and single-Q incommensurate ordering wave vector using a local coordinate transformation for every spin and a rotating coordinate transformation for the incommensurability. Finally we show, how our model can determine the spin wave spectrum of the magnetic C-site langasites with incommensurate order.

Cosmological Collider Physics

Abstract: We study the imprint of new particles on the primordial cosmological fluctuations. New particles with masses comparable to the Hubble scale produce a distinctive signature on the non-gaussianities. This feature arises in the squeezed limit of the correlation functions of primordial fluctuations. It consists of particular power law, or oscillatory, behavior that contains information about the masses of new particles. There is an angular dependence that gives information about the spin. We also have a relative phase that crucially depends on the quantum mechanical nature of the fluctuations and can be viewed as arising from the interference between two processes. While some of these features were noted before in the context of specific inflationary scenarios, here we give a general description emphasizing the role of symmetries in determining the final result.

Quantum transport in carbon nanotubes

Abstract: Carbon nanotubes are a versatile material in which many aspects of condensed matter physics come together. Recent discoveries have uncovered new phenomena that completely change our understanding of transport in these devices, especially the role of the spin and valley degrees of freedom. This review describes the modern understanding of transport through nanotube devices. Unlike in conventional semiconductors, electrons in nanotubes have two angular momentum quantum numbers, arising from spin and valley freedom. The interplay between the two is the focus of this review. The energy levels associated with each degree of freedom, and the spin-orbit coupling between them, are explained, together with their consequences for transport measurements through nanotube quantum dots. In double quantum dots, the combination of quantum numbers modifies the selection rules of Pauli blockade. This can be exploited to read out spin and valley qubits and to measure the decay of these states through coupling to nuclear spins and phonons. A second unique property of carbon nanotubes is that the combination of valley freedom and electron-electron interactions in one dimension strongly modifies their transport behavior. Interaction between electrons inside and outside a quantum dot is manifested in SU(4) Kondo behavior and level renormalization. Interaction within a dot leads to Wigner molecules and more complex correlated states. This review takes an experimental perspective informed by recent advances in theory. As well as the well-understood overall picture, open questions for the field are also clearly stated. These advances position nanotubes as a leading system for the study of spin and valley physics in one dimension where electronic disorder and hyperfine interaction can both be reduced to a low level.

Crystallization in Ising quantum magnets

Abstract: Dominating finite-range interactions in many-body systems can lead to intriguing self-ordered phases of matter. For quantum magnets, Ising models with power-law interactions are among the most elementary systems that support such phases. These models can be implemented by laser coupling ensembles of ultracold atoms to Rydberg states. Here, we report on the experimental preparation of crystalline ground states of such spin systems. We observe a magnetization staircase as a function of the system size and show directly the emergence of crystalline states with vanishing susceptibility. Our results demonstrate the precise control of Rydberg many-body systems and may enable future studies of phase transitions and quantum correlations in interacting quantum magnets.

All-electric all-semiconductor spin field-effect transistors

Abstract: Two quantum point contacts are used to respectively inject and detect spins by purely electrical means in an all-semiconductor spin transistor. The spin field-effect transistor envisioned by Datta and Das1 opens a gateway to spin information processing2,3. Although the coherent manipulation of electron spins in semiconductors is now possible4,5,6,7,8, the realization of a functional spin field-effect transistor for information processing has yet to be achieved, owing to several fundamental challenges such as the low spin-injection efficiency due to resistance mismatch9, spin relaxation and the spread of spin precession angles. Alternative spin transistor designs have therefore been proposed10,11, but these differ from the field-effect transistor concept and require the use of optical or magnetic elements, which pose difficulties for incorporation into integrated circuits. Here, we present an all-electric and all-semiconductor spin field-effect transistor in which these obstacles are overcome by using two quantum point contacts as spin injectors and detectors. Distinct engineering architectures of spin–orbit coupling are exploited for the quantum point contacts and the central semiconductor channel to achieve complete control of the electron spins (spin injection, manipulation and detection) in a purely electrical manner. Such a device is compatible with large-scale integration and holds promise for future spintronic devices for information processing.

Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots

Abstract: We review recent theoretical work on thermoelectric energy harvesting in multi-terminal quantum-dot setups We first discuss several examples of nanoscale heat engines based on Coulomb-coupled conductors In particular, we focus on quantum dots in the Coulomb-blockade regime, chaotic cavities and resonant tunneling through quantum dots and wells We then turn toward quantum-dot heat engines that are driven by bosonic degrees of freedom such as phonons, magnons and microwave photons These systems provide interesting connections to spin caloritronics and circuit quantum electrodynamics

Strong mechanical driving of a single electron spin

Abstract: The efficient and robust manipulation of single spins is an essential requirement for successful quantum devices. The manipulation of a single nitrogen–vacancy spin centre is now demonstrated by means of a mechanical resonator approach.

Temperature dependence of spin diffusion length and spin Hall angle in Au and Pt

Abstract: We have studied the spin transport and the spin Hall effect as a function of temperature for platinum (Pt) and gold (Au) in lateral spin valve structures. First, by using the spin absorption technique, we extract the spin diffusion length of Pt and Au. Secondly, using the same devices, we have measured the spin Hall conductivity and analyzed its evolution with temperature to identify the dominant scattering mechanisms behind the spin Hall effect. This analysis confirms that the intrinsic mechanism dominates in Pt whereas extrinsic effects are more relevant in Au. Moreover, we identify and quantify the phonon-induced skew scattering. We show that this contribution to skew scattering becomes relevant in metals such as Au, with a low residual resistivity.

Efficient readout of a single spin state in diamond via spin-to-charge conversion.

Abstract: Efficient readout of individual electronic spins associated with atomlike impurities in the solid state is essential for applications in quantum information processing and quantum metrology. We demonstrate a new method for efficient spin readout of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. The method is based on conversion of the electronic spin state of the NV to a charge-state distribution, followed by single-shot readout of the charge state. Conversion is achieved through a spin-dependent photoionization process in diamond at room temperature. Using NVs in nanofabricated diamond beams, we demonstrate that the resulting spin readout noise is within a factor of 3 of the spin projection noise level. Applications of this technique for nanoscale magnetic sensing are discussed.

Tensor product methods and entanglement optimization for ab initio quantum chemistry

Abstract: The treatment of high-dimensional problems such as the Schrodinger equation can be approached by concepts of tensor product approximation. We present general techniques that can be used for the treatment of high-dimensional optimization tasks and time-dependent equations, and connect them to concepts already used in many-body quantum physics. Based on achievements from the past decade, entanglement-based methods—developed from different perspectives for different purposes in distinct communities already matured to provide a variety of tools—can be combined to attack highly challenging problems in quantum chemistry. The aim of the present paper is to give a pedagogical introduction to the theoretical background of this novel field and demonstrate the underlying benefits through numerical applications on a text book example. Among the various optimization tasks, we will discuss only those which are connected to a controlled manipulation of the entanglement which is in fact the key ingredient of the methods considered in the paper. The selected topics will be covered according to a series of lectures given on the topic “New wavefunction methods and entanglement optimizations in quantum chemistry” at the Workshop on Theoretical Chemistry, February 18–21, 2014, Mariapfarr, Austria. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Spin transfer torques generated by the anomalous Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance

Abstract: Spin-orbit coupling is a well-studied means to change the orientation of a spin, and thus flip a logic bit in a spintronic device. The authors offer an advance by showing how the anomalous Hall effect and the anisotropic magnetoresistance, both discovered in the 19th century, can be used like the spin Hall effect to generate spin-orbit torques. This approach provides greater control over the angular dependence of torque than existing methods, and can switch perpendicularly magnetized samples, or move domain walls efficiently.

Weyl Node and Spin Texture in Trigonal Tellurium and Selenium.

Abstract: We study Weyl nodes in materials with broken inversion symmetry. We find based on first-principles calculations that trigonal Te and Se have multiple Weyl nodes near the Fermi level. The conduction bands have a spin splitting similar to the Rashba splitting around the $H$ points, but unlike the Rashba splitting the spin directions are radial, forming a hedgehog spin texture around the $H$ points, with a nonzero Pontryagin index for each spin-split conduction band. The Weyl semimetal phase, which has never been observed in real materials without inversion symmetry, is realized under pressure. The evolution of the spin texture by varying the pressure can be explained by the evolution of the Weyl nodes in $\mathbit{k}$ space.

Unusual ordered phases of highly frustrated magnets: a review

Abstract: We review ground states and excitations of a quantum antiferromagnet on triangular and other frustrated lattices. We pay special attention to the combined effects of magnetic field h, spatial anisotropy R and spin magnitude S. The focus of the review is on the novel collinear spin density wave and spin nematic states, which are characterized by fully gapped transverse spin excitations with Sz = ± 1. We discuss extensively the R − h phase diagram of the antiferromagnet, both in the large-S semiclassical limit and the quantum S = 1/2 limit. When possible, we point out connections with experimental findings.

Thermally Driven Ratchet Motion of Skyrmion Microcrystal and Topological Magnon Hall Effect

Abstract: Spontaneously emergent chirality is an issue of fundamental importance across the natural sciences. It has been argued that a unidirectional (chiral) rotation of a mechanical ratchet is forbidden in thermal equilibrium, but becomes possible in systems out of equilibrium. Here we report our finding that a topologically nontrivial spin texture known as a skyrmion - a particle-like object in which spins point in all directions to wrap a sphere - constitutes such a ratchet. By means of Lorentz transmission electron microscopy we show that micron-sized crystals of skyrmions in thin films of Cu2OSeO3 and MnSi display a unidirectional rotation motion. Our numerical simulations based on a stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation suggest that this rotation is driven solely by thermal fluctuations in the presence of a temperature gradient, whereas in thermal equilibrium it is forbidden by the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem. We show that the rotational flow of magnons driven by the effective magnetic field of skyrmions gives rise to the skyrmion rotation, therefore suggesting that magnons can be used to control the motion of these spin textures.

Chemical Basis of Trotter-Suzuki Errors in Quantum Chemistry Simulation

Abstract: Although the simulation of quantum chemistry is one of the most anticipated applications of quantum computing, the scaling of known upper bounds on the complexity of these algorithms is daunting. Prior work has bounded errors due to discretization of the time evolution (known as ``Trotterization'') in terms of the norm of the error operator and analyzed scaling with respect to the number of spin orbitals. However, we find that these error bounds can be loose by up to 16 orders of magnitude for some molecules. Furthermore, numerical results for small systems fail to reveal any clear correlation between ground-state error and number of spin orbitals. We instead argue that chemical properties, such as the maximum nuclear charge in a molecule and the filling fraction of orbitals, can be decisive for determining the cost of a quantum simulation. Our analysis motivates several strategies to use classical processing to further reduce the required Trotter step size and estimate the necessary number of steps, without requiring additional quantum resources. Finally, we demonstrate improved methods for state preparation techniques which are asymptotically superior to proposals in the simulation literature.

Temperature induced spin switching in SmFeO3 single crystal.

Abstract: The prospect of controlling the magnetization (M) of a material is of great importance from the viewpoints of fundamental physics and future applications of emerging spintronics. A class of rare-earth orthoferrites RFeO3 (R is rare-earth element) materials exhibit striking physical properties of spin switching and magnetization reversal induced by temperature and/or applied magnetic field. Furthermore, due to the novel magnetic, magneto-optic and multiferroic properties etc., RFeO3 materials are attracting more and more interests in recent years. We have prepared and investigated a prototype of RFeO3 materials, namely SmFeO3 single-crystal. And we report magnetic measurements upon both field cooling (FC) and zero-field cooling (ZFC) of the sample, as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field. The central findings of this study include that the magnetization of single-crystal SmFeO3 can be switched by temperature and tuning the magnitude of applied magnetic field allows us to realize such spin switching even at room temperature.

Length Scale of the Spin Seebeck Effect.

Abstract: We investigate the origin of the spin Seebeck effect in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) samples for film thicknesses from 20 nm to 50 μm at room temperature and 50 K. Our results reveal a characteristic increase of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect amplitude with the thickness of the insulating ferrimagnetic YIG, which levels off at a critical thickness that increases with decreasing temperature. The observed behavior cannot be explained as an interface effect or by variations of the material parameters. Comparison to numerical simulations of thermal magnonic spin currents yields qualitative agreement for the thickness dependence resulting from the finite magnon propagation length. This allows us to trace the origin of the observed signals to genuine bulk magnonic spin currents due to the spin Seebeck effect ruling out an interface origin and allowing us to gauge the reach of thermally excited magnons in this system for different temperatures. At low temperature, even quantitative agreement with the simulations is found.

Controlling neutron orbital angular momentum

Abstract: The quantized orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons offers an additional degree of freedom and topological protection from noise. Photonic OAM states have therefore been exploited in various applications ranging from studies of quantum entanglement and quantum information science to imaging. The OAM states of electron beams have been shown to be similarly useful, for example in rotating nanoparticles and determining the chirality of crystals. However, although neutrons--as massive, penetrating and neutral particles--are important in materials characterization, quantum information and studies of the foundations of quantum mechanics, OAM control of neutrons has yet to be achieved. Here, we demonstrate OAM control of neutrons using macroscopic spiral phase plates that apply a 'twist' to an input neutron beam. The twisted neutron beams are analysed with neutron interferometry. Our techniques, applied to spatially incoherent beams, demonstrate both the addition of quantum angular momenta along the direction of propagation, effected by multiple spiral phase plates, and the conservation of topological charge with respect to uniform phase fluctuations. Neutron-based studies of quantum information science, the foundations of quantum mechanics, and scattering and imaging of magnetic, superconducting and chiral materials have until now been limited to three degrees of freedom: spin, path and energy. The optimization of OAM control, leading to well defined values of OAM, would provide an additional quantized degree of freedom for such studies.

Magnetoinfrared Spectroscopy of Landau Levels and Zeeman Splitting of Three-Dimensional Massless Dirac Fermions in ZrTe(5).

Abstract: We present a magnetoinfrared spectroscopy study on a newly identified three-dimensional (3D) Dirac semimetal ZrTe(5). We observe clear transitions between Landau levels and their further splitting under a magnetic field. Both the sequence of transitions and their field dependence follow quantitatively the relation expected for 3D massless Dirac fermions. The measurement also reveals an exceptionally low magnetic field needed to drive the compound into its quantum limit, demonstrating that ZrTe(5) is an extremely clean system and ideal platform for studying 3D Dirac fermions. The splitting of the Landau levels provides direct, bulk spectroscopic evidence that a relatively weak magnetic field can produce a sizable Zeeman effect on the 3D Dirac fermions, which lifts the spin degeneracy of Landau levels. Our analysis indicates that the compound evolves from a Dirac semimetal into a topological line-node semimetal under the current magnetic field configuration.

Critical suppression of spin Seebeck effect by magnetic fields

Abstract: The longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) in $\mathrm{Pt}/{\mathrm{Y}}_{3}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{5}{\mathrm{O}}_{12}\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}(\mathrm{YIG})$ junction systems has been investigated at various magnetic fields and temperatures. We found that the LSSE voltage in a Pt/YIG-slab system is suppressed by applying high magnetic fields and this suppression is critically enhanced at low temperatures. The field-induced suppression of the LSSE in the Pt/YIG-slab system is too large at around room temperature to be explained simply by considering the effect of the Zeeman gap in magnon excitation. This result requires us to introduce a magnon-frequency-dependent mechanism into the scenario of LSSE; low-frequency magnons dominantly contribute to the LSSE. The magnetic field dependence of the LSSE voltage was observed to change by changing the thickness of YIG, suggesting that the thermospin conversion by the low-frequency magnons is suppressed in thin YIG films due to the long characteristic lengths of such magnons.

Adiabatic Quantum Simulation of Quantum Chemistry

Abstract: We show how to apply the quantum adiabatic algorithm directly to the quantum computation of molecular properties. We describe a procedure to map electronic structure Hamiltonians to 2-body qubit Hamiltonians with a small set of physically realizable couplings. By combining the Bravyi-Kitaev construction to map fermions to qubits with perturbative gadgets to reduce the Hamiltonian to 2-body, we obtain precision requirements on the coupling strengths and a number of ancilla qubits that scale polynomially in the problem size. Hence our mapping is efficient. The required set of controllable interactions includes only two types of interaction beyond the Ising interactions required to apply the quantum adiabatic algorithm to combinatorial optimization problems. Our mapping may also be of interest to chemists directly as it defines a dictionary from electronic structure to spin Hamiltonians with physical interactions.

Emergent SO(5) Symmetry at the Néel to Valence-Bond-Solid Transition.

Abstract: We show numerically that the "deconfined" quantum critical point between the Neel antiferromagnet and the columnar valence-bond solid, for a square lattice of spin 1/2, has an emergent SO(5) symmetry. This symmetry allows the Neel vector and the valence-bond solid order parameter to be rotated into each other. It is a remarkable (2+1)-dimensional analogue of the SO(4)=[SU(2)×SU(2)]/Z(2) symmetry that appears in the scaling limit for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. The emergent SO(5) symmetry is strong evidence that the phase transition in the (2+1)-dimensional system is truly continuous, despite the violations of finite-size scaling observed previously in this problem. It also implies surprising relations between correlation functions at the transition. The symmetry enhancement is expected to apply generally to the critical two-component Abelian Higgs model (noncompact CP(1) model). The result indicates that in three dimensions there is an SO(5)-symmetric conformal field theory that has no relevant singlet operators, so is radically different from conventional Wilson-Fisher-type conformal field theories.