Counter-propagating Edge Modes Research Articles

Emerging topological bound states in Haldane model zigzag nanoribbons

Zigzag nanoribbons hosting the Haldane Chern insulator model are considered. In this context, a reentrant topological phase, characterized by the emergence of quasi zero dimensional in-gap states, is discussed. The bound states, which reside in the gap opened by the hybridization of the counter-propagating edge modes of the Haldane phase, are localized at the ends of the strip and are found to be robust against on-site disorder. These findings are supported by the behavior of the Zak phase over the parameter space, which exhibits jumps of π in correspondence to the phase transitions between the trivial and the non-trivial phases. The effective mass inversion leading to the jumps in the Zak phase is interpreted in a low energy framework. Setups with non-uniform parameters also show topological bound states via the Jackiw-Rebbi mechanism. All the properties reported are shown to be extremely sensitive to the strip width.

Electrostatic Tuning of Bilayer Graphene Edge Modes.

We study the effect of a local potential shift induced by a side electrode on the edge modes at the boundary between gapped and ungapped bilayer graphene. A potential shift close to the gapped-ungapped boundary causes the emergence of unprotected edge modes, propagating in both directions along the boundary. These counterpropagating edge modes allow edge backscattering, as opposed to the case of valley-momentum-locked edge modes. We then calculate the conductance of a bilayer graphene wire in presence of finger-gate electrodes, finding strong asymmetries with energy inversion and deviations from conductance quantization that can be understood with the gate-induced unprotected edge modes.

Rotational symmetry protected edge and corner states in Abelian topological phases

Spatial symmetries can enrich the topological classification of interacting quantum matter and endow systems with non-trivial strong topological invariants (protected by internal symmetries) with additional "weak" topological indices. In this paper, we study the edge physics of systems with a non-trivial shift invariant, which is protected by either a continuous $\text{U}(1)_r$ or discrete $\text{C}_n$ rotation symmetry, along with internal $\text{U}(1)_c$ charge conservation. Specifically, we construct an interface between two systems which have the same Chern number but are distinguished by their Wen-Zee shift and, through analytic arguments supported by numerics, show that the interface hosts counter-propagating gapless edge modes which cannot be gapped by arbitrary local symmetry-preserving perturbations. Using the Chern-Simons field theory description of two-dimensional Abelian topological orders, we then prove sufficient conditions for continuous rotation symmetry protected gapless edge states using two complementary approaches. One relies on the algebraic Lagrangian sub-algebra framework for gapped boundaries while the other uses a more physical flux insertion argument. For the case of discrete rotation symmetries, we extend the field theory approach to show the presence of fractional corner charges for Abelian topological orders with gappable edges, and compute them in the case where the Abelian topological order is placed on the two-dimensional surface of a Platonic solid. Our work paves the way for studying the edge physics associated with spatial symmetries in symmetry enriched topological phases.

Asymmetric chiral coupling in a topological resonator

Chiral light-matter interactions supported by topological edge modes at the interface of valley photonic crystals provide a robust method to implement the unidirectional spin transfer. The valley topological photonic crystals possess a pair of counterpropagating edge modes. The edge modes are robust against the sharp bend of 60° and 120°, which can form a resonator with whispering gallery modes. Here, we demonstrate the asymmetric emission of chiral coupling from single quantum dots in a topological resonator by tuning the coupling between a quantum emitter and a resonator mode. Under a magnetic field in Faraday configuration, the exciton state from a single quantum dot splits into two exciton spin states with opposite circularly polarized emissions due to the Zeeman effect. Two branches of the quantum dot emissions couple to a resonator mode in different degrees, resulting in an asymmetric chiral emission. Without the demanding of site-control of quantum emitters for chiral quantum optics, an extra degree of freedom to tune the chiral contrast with a topological resonator could be useful for the development of on-chip integrated photonic circuits.

Spontaneous fractional Josephson current in parafermion junctions

We study a parafermion Josephson junction comprising a pair of counterpropagating edge modes of two quantum Hall systems, proximitized by an $s$-wave superconductor. We show that the difference between the lengths (which can be controlled by external gates) of the two counterpropagating chiral edges at the Josephson junction, can act as a source of spontaneous phase bias. For the Laughlin filling fractions, $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/m, m\ensuremath{\in}2\mathbb{Z}+1$, this leads to an electrical control of either Majorana ($m=1$) or parafermion ($m\ensuremath{\ne}1$) zero modes.

Direct determination of the topological thermal conductance via local power measurement

Thermal conductance measurements are sensitive to both charge and chargeless energy flow and are an essential measurement technique in condensed-matter physics. For two-dimensional topological insulators, the determination of thermal Hall (transverse) conductance and thermal longitudinal conductance is crucial for the understanding of topological order in the underlying state. Such measurements have not been accomplished, even in the extensively studied quantum Hall effect regime. Here we report a local power measurement technique that we use to reveal the topological thermal Hall conductance, going beyond the ubiquitous two-terminal conductance. For example, we show that the thermal Hall conductance is approximately zero in the v = 2/3 particle–hole conjugated state. This is in contrast to the two-terminal thermal conductance that gives a non-universal value that depends on the extent of thermal equilibration between the counter-propagating edge modes. Moreover, we demonstrate the utility of this technique in studying the power carried by the current fluctuations of a partitioned edge mode with an out-of-equilibrium distribution. Careful thermal transport measurements identify the topological nature of transverse thermal conductance in the fractional quantum Hall regime.

Topological invariants of Floquet topological phases under periodical driving

Owing to the replication of Floquet bands and the presence of additional gaps in the quasienergy dimension, the topological phases in a periodically driven system cannot be fully characterized by the conventional topological invariants used in static systems. In particular, an anomalous strong topological phase can be a host in driven systems, featured by nontrivial counterpropagating edge modes which cannot be characterized by the bulk band structure. In this paper, we propose a scheme to obtain a complete characterization of Floquet topological phases using only information about bulk dispersions under the condition that both the location and chirality of Floquet band-touching points are not changed by the periodical driving. A set of topological invariants associated with the band-touching points are formulated to establish a one-to-one correspondence to the number of edge modes. Finally, we discuss the experimental realization and detection scheme using cold atomic gases.

Emergence of Neutral Modes in Laughlin-like Fractional Quantum Hall Phases.

Chiral gapless boundary modes are characteristic of quantum Hall (QH) states. For hole-conjugate fractional QH phases counterpropagating edge modes (upstream and downstream) are expected. In the presence of electrostatic interactions and disorder these modes may renormalize into charge and upstream neutral modes. Orthodox models of Laughlin phases anticipate only a downstream charge mode. Here we show that in the latter case, in the presence of a smooth confining potential, edge reconstruction leads to the emergence of pairs of counterpropagating modes, which, by way of mode renormalization, may give rise to nontopological upstream neutral modes, possessing nontrivial statistics. This may explain the experimental observation of ubiquitous neutral modes, and the overwhelming suppression of anyonic interference in Mach-Zehnder interferometry platforms. We also point out other signatures of such edge reconstruction.

Topological phases of a semi-Dirac Chern insulator in the presence of extended range hopping

We study topological properties and the topological phase transitions therein for a semi-Dirac Haldane model on a honeycomb lattice in presence of an extended range (third neighbour) hopping. While in the absence of a third neighbour hopping, $t_3$, the system exhibits gapless electronic spectrum, its presence creates an energy gap in the dispersion. However, the nature of the spectral gap, that is, whether it is trivial or topological needs to be ascertained. We find that the answer depends on the value of $t_3$, and its interplay with the value of the onsite potential that breaks the sublattice symmetry, namely, Semenoff mass ($\Delta$). To elucidate our findings on the topological phases, we demonstrate two kinds of phase diagrams using the available parameter space, one in which the phases are shown in the $\Delta$-$t_3$ plane, and the other one in a more familiar $\Delta$-$\phi$ plane ($\phi$ being the Haldane flux). The phase diagrams depict the presence of Chern insulating lobes comprising of Chern numbers $\pm2$ and $\pm1$ for certain values of $t_3$, along with trivial insulating regions (zero Chern number). Thus there are phase transitions from one topological regime to another which are characterized by abrupt changes in the values of the Chern number. To support the existence of the topological phases, we compute the counter-propagating chiral edge modes in a ribbon geometry. Finally, the anomalous Hall conductivity shows plateaus either at $e^2/h$ or $2e^2/h$ corresponding to these topological phases.

Absent thermal equilibration on fractional quantum Hall edges over macroscopic scale

Two-dimensional topological insulators, and in particular quantum Hall states, are characterized by an insulating bulk and a conducting edge. Fractional states may host both downstream (dictated by the magnetic field) and upstream propagating edge modes, which leads to complex transport behavior. Here, we combine two measurement techniques, local noise thermometry and thermal conductance, to study thermal properties of states with counter-propagating edge modes. We find that, while charge equilibration between counter-propagating edge modes is very fast, the equilibration of heat is extremely inefficient, leading to an almost ballistic heat transport over macroscopic distances. Moreover, we observe an emergent quantization of the heat conductance associated with a strong interaction fixed point of the edge modes. Such understanding of the thermal equilibration on edges with counter-propagating modes is a natural route towards extracting the topological order of the exotic 5/2 state.

Robust transport of the edge modes along the photonic topological interfaces of different configurations

Two-dimensional photonic crystals made of six air holes on a core-shell dielectric material has been proposed to study the newly emerged photonic quantum spin Hall insulator. Specifically, radii modification of the air holes and core-shell without breaking time-reversal (TR) symmetry are supported by the C6 point group symmetry upon a proposed scheme. It is shown that multiple topological transitions from an ordinary insulator with zero spin Chern number (Cs) to a topological insulator with a non-zero Cs can be achieved by modifying the geometry of the photonic structure. Studying the two counter-propagating helical edge modes which have the opposite group velocities are of individual importance for various optical purposes like scattering-free waveguides protected to various defects, disorders and strong light-matter interactions. We show that topological edge states demonstrate slow light characteristics. The findings emphasize the fact that exploring topological phase transition can be applied as a unique approach for realizing light transport, robust energy transportation and slow light in integrated photonic circuits and devices.

Shot noise distinguishes Majorana fermions from vortices injected in the edge mode of a chiral p-wave superconductor

The chiral edge modes of a topological superconductor support two types of excitations: fermionic quasiparticles known as Majorana fermions and \bm\pi𝛑-phase domain walls known as edge vortices. Edge vortices are injected pairwise into counter-propagating edge modes by a flux bias or voltage bias applied to a Josephson junction. An unpaired edge mode carries zero electrical current on average, but there are time-dependent current fluctuations. We calculate the shot noise power produced by a sequence of edge vortices and find that it increases logarithmically with their spacing — even if the spacing is much larger than the core size so the vortices do not overlap. This nonlocality produces an anomalous \bm{V\ln V}𝐕ln𝐕 increase of the shot noise in a voltage-biased geometry, which serves as a distinguishing feature in comparison with the linear-in-\bm V𝐕 Majorana fermion shot noise.

Parafermions, induced edge states, and domain walls in fractional quantum Hall effect spin transitions

Search for parafermions and Fibonacci anyons, which are excitations obeying non-Abelian statistics, is driven both by the quest for deeper understanding of nature and prospects for universal topological quantum computation. However, physical systems that can host these exotic excitations are rare and hard to realize in experiments. Here we study the domain walls and the edge states formed in spin transitions in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Effective theory approach and exact diagonalization in a disk and torus geometries proves the existence of the counter-propagating edge modes with opposite spin polarizations at the boundary between the two neighboring regions of the two-dimensional electron liquid in spin-polarized and spin-unpolarized phases. By analytical and numerical analysis, we argue that these systems can host parafermions when coupled to an s-wave superconductor and are experimentally feasible. We investigate settings based on $\nu=\frac{2}{3}$, $\nu=\frac{4}{3}$ and $\nu=\frac{5}{3}$ spin transitions and analyze spin-flipping interactions that hybridize counter-propagating modes. Finally, we discuss spin-orbit interactions of composite fermions.

Topological proximity effects in a Haldane graphene bilayer system

We reveal a proximity effect between a topological band (Chern) insulator described by a Haldane model and spin-polarized Dirac particles of a graphene layer. Coupling weakly the two systems through a tunneling term in the bulk, the topological Chern insulator induces a gap and an opposite Chern number on the Dirac particles at half-filling resulting in a sign flip of the Berry curvature at one Dirac point. We study different aspects of the bulk-edge correspondence and present protocols to observe the evolution of the Berry curvature as well as two counter-propagating (protected) edge modes with different velocities. In the strong-coupling limit, the energy spectrum shows flat bands. Therefore we build a perturbation theory and address further the bulk-edge correspondence. We also show the occurrence of a topological insulating phase with Chern number one when only the lowest band is filled. We generalize the effect to Haldane bilayer systems with asymmetric Semenoff masses. We propose an alternative definition of the topological invariant on the Bloch sphere.

Bosonic integer quantum Hall state without Landau levels on a square lattice

We study an interacting two-component hard-core bosons on square lattice for which, in the presence of staggered magnetic flux, the ground state is a bosonic integer quantum Hall (BIQH) state. Using a coupled-wire bosonization approach, we analytically show this model exhibits a BIQH state at total charge half filling associated with a symmetry-protected topological phase under $U(1)$ charge conservation. These theoretical expectations are verified, using the infinite density matrix renormalization group method, by providing numerical evidences for: (i) a quantized Hall conductance $\sigma_{xy}=\pm2$, and (ii) two counter-propagating gapless edge modes. Our model is a bosonic cousin of the fermionic Haldane model and serves as an additional case of analogy between bosonic and fermionic quantum Hall states.

Anyonic tight-binding models of parafermions and of fractionalized fermions

Parafermions are emergent quasi-particles which generalize Majorana fermions and possess intriguing anyonic properties. The theoretical investigation of effective models hosting them is gaining considerable importance in view of present-day condensed-matter realizations where they have been predicted to appear. Here we study the simplest number-conserving model of particle-like Fock parafermions, namely a one-dimensional tight-binding model. By means of numerical simulations based on exact diagonalization and on the density-matrix renormalization group, we prove that this quadratic model is nonintegrable and displays bound states in the spectrum, due to its peculiar anyonic properties. Moreover, we discuss its many-body physics, characterizing anyonic correlation functions and discussing the underlying Luttinger-liquid theory at low energies. In the case when Fock parafermions behave as fractionalized fermions, we are able to unveil interesting similarities with two counter-propagating edge modes of two neighboring Laughlin states at filling 1/3.

Interaction between counter-propagating quantum Hall edge channels in the 3D topological insulator BiSbTeSe2

The quantum Hall effect is studied in the topological insulator BiSbTeSe$_2$. By employing top- and back-gate electric fields at high magnetic field, the Landau levels of the Dirac cones in the top and bottom topological surface states can be tuned independently. When one surface is tuned to the electron-doped side of the Dirac cone and the other surface to the hole-doped side, the quantum Hall edge channels are counter-propagating. The opposite edge mode direction, combined with the opposite helicities of top and bottom surfaces, allows for scattering between these counter-propagating edge modes. The total Hall conductance is integer valued only when the scattering is strong. For weaker interaction, a non-integer quantum Hall effect is expected and measured.

Computational study of the two-terminal transport of Floquet quantum Hall insulators

Periodic driving fields can induce topological phase transitions, resulting in Floquet topological phases with intriguing properties such as very large Chern numbers and unusual edge states. Whether such Floquet topological phases could generate robust edge state conductance much larger than their static counterparts is an interesting question. In this paper, working under the Keldysh formalism, we study two-lead transport via the edge states of irradiated quantum Hall insulators using the method of recursive Floquet-Green's functions. Focusing on a harmonically-driven Hofstadter model, we show that quantized Hall conductance as large as $8e^2/h$ can be realized, but only after applying the so-called Floquet sum rule. To assess the robustness of edge state transport, we analyze the DC conductance, time-averaged current profile and local density of states. It is found that co-propagating chiral edge modes are more robust against disorder and defects as compared with the remarkable counter-propagating edge modes, as well as certain symmetry-restricted Floquet edge modes. Furthermore, we go beyond the wide-band limit, which is often assumed for the leads, to study how the conductance quantization (after applying the Floquet sum rule) of Floquet edge states can be affected if the leads have finite bandwidths. These results may be useful for the design of transport devices based on Floquet topological matter.

Quantum hydrodynamic modeling of edge modes in chiral Berry plasmons

A quantum hydrodynamic model is used to study the edge modes of chiral Berry plasmons. The transcendental equation of the dispersion relation is solved nonlinearly and semi-analytically. We predict a new one-way chiral edge state with the quantum effect compared to that without the quantum effect, at the both side of $q=0$. Indeed, the plasmon frequencies for positive and negative $q$, exhibit different limits for $q\rightarrow 0^{-}$ and $q\rightarrow 0^{+}$. As a result, the quantum effect enhances the chirality in the vicinity of $q=0$. Both counterpropagating edge modes exhibit greater confinement to the edge with the quantum effect. In addition, new localized edge modes are found with increased Berry flux in both cases, i.e., without and with the quantum effect.

Valley-filtered edge states and quantum valley Hall effect in gated bilayer graphene

Electron edge states in gated bilayer graphene in the quantum valley Hall (QVH) effect regime can carry both charge and valley currents. We show that an interlayer potential splits the zero-energy level and opens a bulk gap, yielding counter-propagating edge modes with different valleys. A rich variety of valley current states can be obtained by tuning the applied boundary potential and lead to the QVH effect, as well as to the unbalanced QVH effect. A method to individually manipulate the edge states by the boundary potentials is proposed.