Two-dimensional Dirac Systems Research Articles

Interaction-controlled transport in a two-dimensional massless-massive Dirac system: Transition from degenerate to nondegenerate regimes

The resistivity of two-dimensional (2D) metals generally exhibits insensitivity to electron-electron scattering. However, it is worth noting that Galilean invariance may not hold true in systems characterized by a spectrum containing multiple electronic branches or in scenarios involving electron-hole plasma. In the context of this paper, we focus on 2D electrons confined within a triple quantum well (TQW) based on HgTe. This system displays a coexistence of energy bands featuring both linear and paraboliclike spectra at low energy and, therefore, lacks the Galilean invariance. This paper employs a combined theoretical and experimental approach to investigate the transport properties of this two-component system across various regimes. By manipulating carrier density and temperature, we tune our system from a fully degenerate regime, where resistance follows a temperature-dependent behavior proportional to T2 to a regime where both types of electrons adhere to Boltzmann statistics. In the nondegenerate regime, electron interactions lead to resistance that is weakly dependent on temperature. Notably, our experimental observations closely align with the theoretical predictions derived in this paper. In this paper, we establish the HgTe-based TQW as a promising platform for exploring different interaction-dominant scenarios for the massless-massive Dirac system. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Polarization charge around impurities in two-dimensional anisotropic Dirac systems

Polarization charge around impurities in two-dimensional anisotropic Dirac systems

Waveguiding in massive two-dimensional Dirac systems

The study of waveguide propagating modes is essential for achieving directional electronic transport in two-dimensional materials. Simultaneously, exploring potential gaps in these systems is crucial for developing devices akin to those employed in conventional electronics. Building upon the theoretical groundwork laid by Hartmann and Portnoi [Phys. Rev. A 89, 012101 (2014)], which focused on implementing waveguides in pristine graphene monolayers, this work delves into the impact of a waveguide on two-dimensional gapped Dirac systems. We derive exact solutions encompassing wave functions and energy-bound states for secant-hyperbolic attractive potential in gapped graphene, with a gap generated by sublattice asymmetry or Kekulé-distortion. These solutions leverage the inherent properties and boundary conditions of the Heun polynomials. Our findings demonstrate that the manipulation of the number of accessible energy-bound states, i.e., transverse propagating modes, relies on factors, such as the width and depth of the potential as well as the gap value of the two-dimensional material.

Probing Enhanced Electron-Phonon Coupling in Graphene by Infrared Resonance Raman Spectroscopy.

We report on resonance Raman spectroscopy measurements with excitation photon energy down to 1.16eV on graphene, to study how low-energy carriers interact with lattice vibrations. Thanks to the excitation energy close to the Dirac point at K, we unveil a giant increase of the intensity ratio between the double-resonant 2D and 2D^{'} peaks with respect to that measured in graphite. Comparing with fully abinitio theoretical calculations, we conclude that the observation is explained by an enhanced, momentum-dependent coupling between electrons and Brillouin zone-boundary optical phonons. This finding applies to two-dimensional Dirac systems and has important consequences for the modeling of transport in graphene devices operating at room temperature.

Third-order nonlinear Hall effect in two-dimensional Dirac systems

We theoretically investigate the third-order nonlinear Hall effect by employing the quantum kinetic equation and present an analytic formula for the third-order harmonic conductivity, where the intraband and the mixed inter-band contributions caused by the external electric field as well as the multiphoton process dressed Berry curvature are unveiled. These results are applied in a two-dimensional Dirac system. We find that the third-order harmonic conductivity exhibits a crossover from the negative to positive value due to the intraband transition of the electrons in the low-frequency region, whereas a kink or dip structure due to the multiphoton process between the conduction and valence bands in the high-frequency region. In experiment, these features can be identified by detecting the transverse current. Our work deepens the understanding of the multiphoton process in the nonlinear transport of topological materials and enlightens a possible way to its characterization in experiments.

Thermoelectric response in two-dimensional Dirac systems: Role of particle-hole pairs

Clean two-dimensional Dirac systems have received a great deal of attention for being a prime candidate to observe hydrodynamical transport behavior in interacting electronic systems. This is mostly due to recent advances in the preparation of ultrapure samples with sufficiently strong interactions. In this paper we investigate the role of collective modes in the thermoelectric transport properties of those systems. We find that dynamical particle-hole pairs, plasmons, make a sizable contribution to the thermal conductivity. While the increase at the Dirac point is moderate, it becomes large towards larger doping. We suspect that this is a generic feature of ultraclean two-dimensional electronic systems, also applicable to degenerate systems.

Hydrodynamics of charged two-dimensional Dirac systems. I. Thermoelectric transport

In this paper we study thermoelectric transport in interacting two-dimensional Dirac-type systems using a phenomenological Boltzmann approach. We consider a setup that can accommodate electrons, holes, and collective modes. In the first part of the paper we consider the electron-hole hydrodynamics, a model that is popular in the context of graphene, and its transport properties. In a second part, we propose a unique type of hydrodynamics. In that setup, the ``fluid'' consists of electrons, holes, and plasmons. We study its transport properties, especially the thermoelectric behavior. The results of this part can also be adapted to the study of a fluid consisting of electrons and phonons. This paper is accompanied by a technical paper [K. Pongsangangan et al., Phys. Rev. B 106, 205127 (2022)], in which we give a detailed derivation of the Boltzmann equations and the encoded conservation laws.

Predicted Novel Type of Photoinduced Topological Phase Transition Accompanied by Collision and Collapse of Dirac-cone Pair in Organic Salt α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3

Photoinduced topological phase transitions in the Dirac-electron systems have attracted intensive research interest since its theoretical prediction in graphene, where the application of circularly polarized light opens a gap at the Dirac points and renders the system a topologically nontrivial Chern insulator phase through breaking the time-reversal symmetry. However, most of the previously studied phenomena in two-dimensional Dirac systems are basically based on the same physicical mechanism, i.e., the gap opening in the Dirac electron bands with circularly polarized light, and it is lacking in variety of the physics. In this paper, we theoretically predict a novel type of photoinduced topological phase transition accompanied by collision and collapse of gapped Dirac points in the organic salt $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$. By constructing the Floquet theory for this compound, we demonstrate that the irradiation of elliptically polarized light causes collision of the Dirac points through the photoinduced band deformation and their collapse, which eventually results in the topological phase transition from a topological semimetal with gapped Dirac cones to a normal insulator when the elliptical axis is oriented at a specfic angle with respect to the crystallographic axes. We argue that this novel photoinduced phase transition can be experimentally detected by the measurement of Hall conductivity. The present work enriches the fundamental physics of photoinduced topological phase transitions and thus contribute to development of this rapidly growing research field.

Landau level collapse in graphene in the presence of in-plane radial electric and perpendicular magnetic fields

It is known that in two-dimensional relativistic Dirac systems placed in orthogonal uniform magnetic and electric fields, the Landau levels collapse as the applied in-plane electric field reaches a critical value $\pm E_c$. We study this phenomenon for a distinct field configuration with in-plane constant radial electric field. The Dirac equation for this configuration does not allow analytical solutions in terms of known special functions. The results are obtained by using both the WKB approximation and the exact diagonalization and shooting methods. It is shown that the collapse occurs for positive values of the total angular momentum quantum number, the hole (electron)-like Landau levels collapse as the electric field reaches the value $ +(-) E_c/2$. The investigation of the Landau level collapse in the case of gapped graphene shows a number of distinctive features in comparison with the gapless case.

Nonlinear anomalous Nernst effect in strained graphene induced by trigonal warping

It has recently been reported that a nonlinear anomalous Nernst current (NANC), induced by Berry curvature near the Fermi surface, can be generated as a second-order response to a longitudinal temperature gradient in a wide variety of time-reversal invariant and noncentrosymmetric materials. So far, NANC in two-dimensional Dirac systems has been reported to be finite only in materials with substantial spin-orbit coupling and titled Dirac cones formed from low-energy Dirac quasiparticles. Here, we prove that NANC can also emerge in two-dimensional Dirac materials even in the complete absence of titled Dirac cones and spin-orbit coupling. It's found that the NANC has a quantum origin from the trigonal warping of the Fermi surface. NANC in both trigonal-warping monolayer and bilayer graphene in the presence of uniaxial strain is theoretically investigated. The magnitude of NANC in trigonal-warping bilayer graphene is comparable to those reported which originated from tilted mechanisms in strained ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$ and bilayer ${\mathrm{WTe}}_{2}$.

Higher-order Darboux transformations for two-dimensional Dirac systems with diagonal matrix potential

We construct the explicit form of higher-order Darboux transformations for the two-dimensional Dirac equation with diagonal matrix potential. The matrix potential entries can depend arbitrarily on the two variables. Our construction is based on results for coupled Korteweg-de Vries equations [27].

Dirac systems with magnetic field and position-dependent mass: Darboux transformations and equivalence with generalized Dirac oscillators

We construct a Darboux transformation for a class of two-dimensional Dirac systems at zero energy. Our starting equation features a position-dependent mass, a matrix potential, and an additional degree of freedom that can be interpreted either as a magnetic field perpendicular to the plane or a generalized Dirac oscillator interaction. We obtain a number of Darboux-transformed Dirac equations for which the zero energy solutions are exactly known.

Nonlinear transport without spin-orbit coupling or warping in two-dimensional Dirac semimetals

It has recently been realized that the first-order moment of the Berry curvature, namely, the Berry curvature dipole (BCD), can give rise to nonlinear current in a wide variety of time-reversal invariant and non-centrosymmetric materials. While the BCD in two-dimensional Dirac systems is known to be finite only in the presence of either substantial spin-orbit coupling where low-energy Dirac quasiparticles form tilted cones or higher order warping of the Fermi surface, we argue that the low-energy Dirac quasiparticles arising from the merging of a pair of Dirac points without any tilt or warping of the Fermi surface can lead to a nonzero BCD. Remarkably, in such systems, the BCD is found to be independent of Dirac velocity as opposed to the Dirac dispersion with a tilt or warping effects. We further show that the proposed systems can naturally host helicity-dependent photocurrent due to their linear momentum-dependent Berry curvatures. Finally, we discuss an important byproduct of this work, i.e., nonlinear anomalous Nernst effect as a second-order thermal response.

Dominant role of two-photon vertex in nonlinear response in two-dimensional Dirac systems

We show that the standard concepts of nonlinear response to electromagnetic fields break down in two-dimensional Dirac systems, like graphene, in the quantum regime close to the Dirac point. We present a compelling many-body theory for nonlinear transport focusing on disorder scattering as a benchmark example. We show that, although the diamagnetic two-photon vertex is absent at the non-interacting level, disorder effects give rise to a self-generation of such two-photon vertex surviving even in the clean limit. We predict that the two-photon vertex self-generation is present only in two dimensions. The impact of such a striking scenario on the nonlinear quantum transport is discussed, predicting a huge enhancement of third-order dc conductivity comparing to the common models.

Two-dimensional parabolic Dirac system in the presence of nonmagnetic and magnetic impurities

We theoretically investigate the effect of the nonmagnetic and magnetic impurities to the 2D parabolic Dirac system. The induced charge density by the charged impurity is obtained by the linear response theory within the random phase approximation. We also calculate in-detail, the Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida (RKKY) interaction between two magnetic impurities placed within the 2D sheet of the Dirac materials with isotropic and anisotropic dispersion. For the anisotropic dispersion, the RKKY interaction is also anisotropic and related to the lattice parameters which can be obtained through the DFT calculation or the experiments. The features of the RKKY interaction also can be treated as a signature of the topological phase transition as well as the change of Berry curvature. Our results are also illuminating to the study of the static screening and the RKKY interaction of the isotropic or anisotropic 3D Dirac/Weyl semimetals or the 2D transition metal dichalcogenide family.

Plasmons in anisotropic Dirac systems

We consider the plasmon excitations in anisotropic two-dimensional Dirac systems, be it either anisotropic graphene or surfaces of topological insulators. Generalizing the exact density-density response function one finds a plasmon dispersion that is anisotropic already at the lowest frequencies. Asymptotic expressions are obtained for the dispersion in this regime. We show that the plasmon properties of the complete material class of anisotropic Dirac systems are characterized by just two dimensionless material parameters. The strong anisotropy can be used to guide the plasmon modes, introducing new functionalities to the field of Dirac plasmonics.

Exciton oscillator strength in two-dimensional Dirac materials

Exciton problem is solved in the two-dimensional Dirac model with allowance for strong electron-hole attraction. The exciton binding energy is assumed smaller than but comparable to the band gap. The exciton wavefunction is found in the momentum space as a superposition of all four two-particle states including electron and hole states with both positive and negative energies. The matrix element of exciton generation is shown to depend on the additional components of the exciton wavefunction. Both the Coulomb and the Rytova-Keldysh potentials are considered. The dependence of the binding energy on the coupling constant is analyzed for the ground and first excited exciton states. The binding energy and the oscillator strength are studied as functions of the environmental-dependent dielectric constant for real transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. We demonstrate that the multicomponent nature of the exciton wavefunction is crucial for description of resonant optical properties of two-dimensional Dirac systems.

Disorder-induced phase transition in Dirac systems beyond the linear approximation

By using the self-consistent Born approximation, we investigate disorder effect induced by the short-range impurities on the band-gap in two-dimensional Dirac systems with the higher order terms in momentum. Starting from the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang (BHZ) model, we calculate the density-of-states as a function of the disorder strength. We show that due to quadratic corrections to the Dirac Hamiltonian, the band-gap is always affected by the disorder even if the system is gapless in the clean limit. Finally, we explore the disorder effects by using an advanced effective Hamiltonian describing the side maxima of the valence subband in HgTe~quantum wells. We show that the band-gap and disorder-induced topological phase transition in the real structures may differ significantly from those predicted within the BHZ model.

Exactly-Solvable Quantum Systems in Terms of Lambert-W Functions

We construct a variety of new exactly-solvable quantum systems, the potentials of which are given in terms of Lambert-W functions. In particular, we generate Schr\"odinger models with energy-dependent potentials, conventional Schr\"odinger models using the supersymmetry formalism, and two-dimensional Dirac systems. In addition, we derive Wronskian integral formulas for Lambert-W functions.

Photon-mediated electronic correlation effects in irradiated two-dimensional Dirac systems

Periodically driven systems can host many interesting phenomena. Two-dimensional Dirac systems irradiated by circularly polarized light are especially attractive thanks to the special absorption and emission of photons near Dirac cones. Here, letting the light travel in the two-dimensional plane, we treat the light-driven Dirac systems by using a unitary transformation, instead of usual Floquet theory, to capture the photon-mediated electronic correlation effects. In this approach, the direct electron–photon interaction terms can be removed and the resulting effective electron–electron interactions can produce important effects. The effective interactions can produce topological band structure in the case of irradiated 2D Dirac fermion system, and can lift the energy degeneracy of the Dirac cones for irradiated graphene. This method can be applied to other light-driven Dirac systems to investigate their photon-mediated electronic effects. These phenomena would be observed with ultraviolet light in some effective two-dimensional Dirac systems of honeycomb long-period superstructures.