Physical Review B - January 2023

Physical Review B covering condensed matter and materials physics View Email Online   Volume 107, Issues 1 - 4 January 2023   View Recent   Advertisement PRX Life opens for submissions March 20 APS is delighted to announce that submissions for PRX Life, the new, highly selective Open Access journal dedicated to all aspects of biological organization, will begin accepting submissions March 20, 2023. Stay up to date with the journal by signing up for alerts.     Advertisement The Physical Review Journals seek an Associate Editor, Quantum Information Science and Technology The Associate Editor will decide on publication of the most exciting and consequential results in the field, conducting a thorough and high-quality review process. A successful candidate will work together with the editorial teams of two top-notch journals, PRX Quantum and Physical Review Applied, in addition to interacting with their Lead Editors and Editorial Boards. The Associate Editor will also be responsible for engaging and building connections with researchers from this highly regarded multidisciplinary research community. Apply today!     Advertisement Attend March Meeting 2023 Witness groundbreaking physics research, network with potential employers, and prepare for future success at March Meeting 2023. Regular registration rates for one of the largest and most exciting conferences in physics is open through February 28. Register today »     Not an APS member? Join today to start connecting with a community of more than 50,000 physicists.   Highlights Editors' Suggestion Ramp compression of tantalum to multiterapascal pressures: Constraints of the thermal equation of state to 2.3 TPa and 5000 K M. G. Gorman, C. J. Wu, R. F. Smith, L. X. Benedict, C. J. Prisbrey, W. Schill, S. A. Bonev, Z. C. Long, P. Söderlind, D. Braun, D. C. Swift, R. Briggs, T. J. Volz, E. F. O'Bannon, P. M. Celliers, D. E. Fratanduono, J. H. Eggert, S. J. Ali, and J. M. McNaney Phys. Rev. B 107, 014109 (2023) – Published 27 January 2023 The authors use intense laser pulses to compress solid tantalum to pressures in excess of 20 million atmospheres. By combing their experimental measurements with existing high-pressure, high-temperature data on Ta, they can create an experimentally bounded high-temperature equation of state that is valid up to multiterapascal pressures and thousands of degrees kelvin. The equation of state may serve as a useful pressure standard at the extreme compressions and elevated temperatures now achievable in state-of-the-art static compression experiments. This work also provides a clear road map for building an accurate high-temperature equation of state catalogue of materials at extreme conditions.     Editors' Suggestion Influence of local symmetry on lattice dynamics coupled to topological surface states Jonathan A. Sobota, Samuel W. Teitelbaum, Yijing Huang, José D. Querales-Flores, Robert Power, Meabh Allen, Costel R. Rotundu, Trevor P. Bailey, Ctirad Uher, Tom Henighan, Mason Jiang, Diling Zhu, Matthieu Chollet, Takahiro Sato, Mariano Trigo, Éamonn D. Murray, Ivana Savić, Patrick S. Kirchmann, Stephen Fahy, David A. Reis, and Zhi-Xun Shen Phys. Rev. B 107, 014305 (2023) – Published 12 January 2023 An ongoing challenge is to manipulate topological states using ultrafast pulses of light. One strategy is lattice engineering, whereby the surface state wavefunctions are modified through light-induced structural distortions. Here, the authors perform time-resolved photoemission, time-resolved diffraction, and theoretical calculations to reveal how topological surface states couple to photoinduced lattice vibrations. They show how the surface vibrational spectrum is qualitatively different from that of the bulk due to the translational and inversion symmetries broken at the surface.     Editors' Suggestion Valence and magnetism in EuPd3S4 and (Y,La)xEu1−xPd3S4 D. H. Ryan, Sergey L. Bud'ko, Brinda Kuthanazhi, and Paul C. Canfield Phys. Rev. B 107, 014402 (2023) – Published 5 January 2023 The double Dirac candidate EuPd3S4 appears to exhibit a roughly 50:50 mixture of Eu2+ and Eu3+. Substituting yttrium rapidly drives the remaining europium divalent, whereas lanthanum has the opposite effect. Analysis shows that average site volumes play a dominant role in the valence distribution suggesting that local strains matter more than electron count. Remarkably, lanthanum substitution also promotes valence instability leading to the appearance of intermediate valence "Eu2.5+", the fraction of which increases with both lanthanum content and temperature. Extrapolation of the onset temperature to zero lanthanum predicts Tonset ∼ 340 K matching recent reports of a structural transition attributed to a loss of valence order.     Editors' Suggestion Strain-coupled domains in BaTiO3(111)−CoFeB heterostructures R. G. Hunt, K. J. A. Franke, P. M. Shepley, and T. A. Moore Phys. Rev. B 107, 014409 (2023) – Published 12 January 2023 The coupling of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic order holds promise for the realization of low-energy voltage-controlled multiferroic devices. Here, the authors show that using a (111)-oriented BaTiO3 substrate it is possible to create two distinct strain-coupled regions in a deposited CoFeB film, in which the in-plane magnetic easy axis rotates by either 60 or 120 degrees. These regions, which exist side by side in a sample heterostructure, contain different magnetic domain wall structures that exhibit different dependences on magnetic field.     Editors' Suggestion Stability of the Pb divalent state in insulating and metallic PbCrO3 Jianfa Zhao, Shu-Chih Haw, Xiao Wang, Lipeng Cao, Hong-Ji Lin, Chien-Te Chen, Christoph J. Sahle, Arata Tanaka, Jin-Ming Chen, Changqing Jin, Zhiwei Hu, and Liu Hao Tjeng Phys. Rev. B 107, 024107 (2023) – Published 26 January 2023 PbCrO3 is a perovskite that undergoes a large volume collapse and concurrently an insulator-metal transition with pressure. While one may think that the volume collapse can be associated with conversion of Pb2+ ions to the smaller Pb4+, the spectroscopic measurements in this experiment reveal that the Pb ions remain divalent. Instead, the Cr ions undergo a transition from a charge-disproportionated 2Cr3+/Cr6+ configuration to a homogenous Cr4+ with pressure. Thus, the authors can explain the insulating/metallic nature of PbCrO3 at low/high pressures, respectively.     Editors' Suggestion Migration of Ga vacancies and interstitials in β−Ga2O3 Ymir K. Frodason, Joel B. Varley, Klaus Magnus H. Johansen, Lasse Vines, and Chris G. Van de Walle Phys. Rev. B 107, 024109 (2023) – Published 31 January 2023 The authors present a systematic and comprehensive theoretical study of Ga vacancy and interstitial migration in monoclinic gallium sesquioxide, based on hybrid functional calculations and the nudged elastic band technique. Notably, it is shown that the Ga vacancy can form a favorable three-split configuration, consisting of three Ga vacancies and two Ga interstitials, which enables migration with a dramatically lower migration barrier than previously calculated, further demonstrating the important role of split vacancies in this material.     Editors' Suggestion Ab initio study of metastable occupation of tetrahedral sites in palladium hydrides and its impact on superconductivity Antonella Meninno and Ion Errea Phys. Rev. B 107, 024504 (2023) – Published 11 January 2023 Palladium hydride is one of the rare examples of superconducting hydrides at ambient pressure, exhibiting a critical temperature of 10 K in its equilibrium structure, with hydrogen atoms occupying octahedral interstitial sites of the palladium fcc lattice. Making use of ab initio calculations considering quantum anharmonic lattice effects, the authors show here that full or partial occupation of tetrahedral sites is possible in metastable structures, but that their superconducting critical temperature is lower than the equilibrium case with full octahedral occupation.     Editors' Suggestion Critical magnetic fields and electron pairing in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene Wei Qin, Bo Zou, and Allan H. MacDonald Phys. Rev. B 107, 024509 (2023) – Published 26 January 2023 The microscopic mechanism of superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) is currently under active debate. The authors propose here that valuable constraints are implied by the band-filling dependences of the critical temperature and the critical magnetic field, which together define an average Fermi velocity. They show that a robust inverse correlation between the critical temperature and the average Fermi velocity holds in models with band-filling independent pairing interactions. The absence of such an association in experiments suggests that the pairing glue in MATBG is strongly band-filling dependent.     Editors' Suggestion Pressure-induced metallization and superconductivity in the layered van der Waals semiconductor GaTe Jin Jiang, Xuliang Chen (陈绪亮), Shuyang Wang, Chao An, Ying Zhou, Min Zhang, Yonghui Zhou, and Zhaorong Yang Phys. Rev. B 107, 024512 (2023) – Published 31 January 2023 Investigations show that the physical properties of the layered van der Waals semiconductor GaTe are strongly layer dependent. Here, the authors systematically study its properties by using external pressure as a tuning knob. They first find pressure-induced metallization and superconductivity simultaneously occurring at ~3 GPa, presumably owing to a quasi-two-dimensional to three-dimensional structural crossover and to an electronic phase transition due to a change of the bonding nature between layers from weak van der Waals interaction to strong Coulomb coupling. A second distinct superconducting phase is then observed at ~10 GPa due to a structural transition.     Editors' Suggestion Cavity-mediated superconductor–ferromagnetic-insulator coupling Andreas T. G. Janssønn, Henning G. Hugdal, Arne Brataas, and Sol H. Jacobsen Phys. Rev. B 107, 035147 (2023) – Published 26 January 2023 Here, the authors develop a versatile effective theory of distant, cavity-mediated interactions between a ferromagnetic insulator and a superconductor. This remote sensing scheme enables their subjection to different drives and temperatures, and yields a numerically appreciable effective anisotropy field across the ferromagnetic insulator. It enables the study of their interactions across longer distances and without the same disruption of system orders as in conventional proximity structures.     Editors' Suggestion Spin-orbit enhancement in Si/SiGe heterostructures with oscillating Ge concentration Benjamin D. Woods, M. A. Eriksson, Robert Joynt, and Mark Friesen Phys. Rev. B 107, 035418 (2023) – Published 19 January 2023 Electrons in Si/SiGe quantum dots are a promising platform for quantum computation. Many leading designs, however, rely on synthetic spin-orbit coupling arising from micromagnets, leading to challenges in scaling. Here, it is shown that the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of the conduction-band valleys can be enhanced by over an order of magnitude by including Ge concentration oscillations of an appropriate wavelength within the quantum-well region. This enables fast spin manipulation using electric dipole spin resonance in the absence of micromagnets.     Editors' Suggestion Optical properties and carrier localization in the layered phosphide EuCd2P2 C. C. Homes, Z.-C. Wang, K. Fruhling, and F. Tafti Phys. Rev. B 107, 045106 (2023) – Published 5 January 2023 The layered phosphide EuCd2P2 is a poor metal that is distinguished by an anomalous increase in the resistivity at ≃18 K, well above the Napos{e}el transition at TN≃11.5 K, by nearly two orders of magnitude, before reverting back to a metallic state below TN. The addition and removal of free carriers has a small effect on the optical conductivity. However, it has a dramatic effect on the electronic screening of the infrared-active lattice modes, yielding dramatically different line shapes in the reflectivity (see image), providing clues to the mechanism driving this unusual behavior.     Editors' Suggestion Universal topological marker Wei Chen Phys. Rev. B 107, 045111 (2023) – Published 10 January 2023 The topological order of Dirac models in any dimension and symmetry class can be mapped to lattice sites by a universal topological marker. From the topological operator that extracts this marker, one can further define a nonlocal marker that detects topological phase transitions. Several prototype models such as the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, Majorana chain, Chern insulator, Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model, chiral and helical p-wave superconductors, three-dimensional time-reversal symmetric topological insulators, among many others, are employed to demonstrate the ubiquity of these markers.     Editors' Suggestion Nature of visons in the perturbed ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Kitaev honeycomb models Chuan Chen and Inti Sodemann Villadiego Phys. Rev. B 107, 045114 (2023) – Published 10 January 2023 The Kitaev honeycomb model features emergent anyons in the form of a Majorana fermion and a non-Abelian excitation known as the vison. While visons are static in the ideal model, certain perturbations can induce their motion. Here, it is demonstrated that the vison dynamics induced by Zeeman perturbations are sharply distinct in the ferromagnetic versus the antiferromagnetic model. Namely, in the ferromagnetic model the vison has a trivial translational symmetry and zero Berry curvature, whereas in the antiferromagnetic model it experiences a π flux per unit cell and has two bands with opposite Chern numbers, leading to an intrinsic contribution to the thermal Hall effect.     Editors' Suggestion Bismuth antiphase domain wall: A three-dimensional manifestation of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model Jinwoong Kim, Cheng-Yi Huang, Hsin Lin, David Vanderbilt, and Nicholas Kioussis Phys. Rev. B 107, 045135 (2023) – Published 24 January 2023 The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model describes the soliton excitations in polyacetylene due to the formation of antiphase domain walls from the alternating bond pattern. The topology of the two domains is characterized by trivial (0) and nontrivial (π) Zak phases, indicating a dimerization-dependent Zak phase. Here, it is demonstrated that pristine Bi also exhibits 0 and π Zak phases depending on the dimerization and develops topological states at antiphase domain walls as a three-dimensional analog of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model.     Editors' Suggestion Erbium and thulium on MgO(100)/Ag(100) as candidates for single atom qubits S. Reale, A. Singha, S. L. Ahmed, D. Krylov, L. Colazzo, C. Wolf, C. S. Casari, A. Barla, E. Fernandes, F. Patthey, M. Pivetta, S. Rusponi, H. Brune, and F. Donati Phys. Rev. B 107, 045427 (2023) – Published 27 January 2023 Lanthanide atoms on surfaces are prospective platforms for realizing atomic-scale quantum logic units. Here, the authors combine scanning tunneling microscopy, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, density functional theory, and atomic multiplet calculations to identify the quantum level structure of erbium and thulium atoms on MgO(100)/Ag(100), and to estimate their performance as spin qubits. Their analysis reveals that both atoms have a ground state that is suitable to perform efficient quantum coherent operations.     Editors' Suggestion Letter Characterizing random-singlet state in two-dimensional frustrated quantum magnets and implications for the double perovskite Sr2CuTe1−xWxO6 Huan-Da Ren, Tian-Yu Xiong, Han-Qing Wu, D. N. Sheng, and Shou-Shu Gong Phys. Rev. B 107, L020407 (2023) – Published 19 January 2023 Understanding disorder-induced exotic states in two-dimensional magnets is one of the central topics in the study of frustrated magnetism. Here, the authors focus on the randomness-induced disordered phase in the spin-½ J1−J2 square-lattice Heisenberg model with a strong bond randomness, by using large-scale density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations. The results not only reveal the absent spin-glass order, but also identify the power-law decay of the average spin correlation and the exponential decay of the typical spin correlation. These all agree with the corresponding behavior in the one-dimensional random-singlet state and characterize the random-singlet nature of this disordered phase. This shows that DMRG simulations provide opportunities for exploring the disorder effect in two-dimensional magnets.     Editors' Suggestion Letter Andreev reflection spectroscopy in strongly paired superconductors Cyprian Lewandowski, Étienne Lantagne-Hurtubise, Alex Thomson, Stevan Nadj-Perge, and Jason Alicea Phys. Rev. B 107, L020502 (2023) – Published 6 January 2023 One of the challenges in the pursuit of solid state BEC superconductors is the need for unambiguous experimental signatures. Here, the authors propose a new signature, relying on Andreev reflection, which distinguishes BEC from BCS superconductors. They demonstrate that, in a standard tunneling spectroscopy setup, a BEC superconductor exhibits suppressed Andreev reflection; however, if the tunneling barrier becomes a potential well, then appreciable Andreev reflection can be revived. Their predictions can be probed in various architectures that are also discussed.     Editors' Suggestion Letter Charge order with unusual star-of-David lattice in monolayer NbTe2 Taiki Taguchi, Katsuaki Sugawara, Hirofumi Oka, Tappei Kawakami, Yasuaki Saruta, Takemi Kato, Kosuke Nakayama, Seigo Souma, Takashi Takahashi, Tomoteru Fukumura, and Takafumi Sato Phys. Rev. B 107, L041105 (2023) – Published 17 January 2023 The authors fabricated a new two-dimensional material, monolayer NbTe2, and investigated its electronic states. They discovered a charge-density wave with a √19×√19 periodicity, accompanied by partially occupied metallic star-of-David clusters of Nb atoms, which is in sharp contrast to the fully occupied Mott-insulating monolayer NbSe2. Such an intriguing difference is found to originate from the underlying fermiology and hidden-Fermi-surface nesting. The present result lays the foundation for manipulating the two-dimensional Mott-insulator phase.     Editors' Suggestion Letter Temperature dependence of the energy band gap in ZrTe5: Implications for the topological phase I. Mohelsky, J. Wyzula, B. A. Piot, G. D. Gu, Q. Li, A. Akrap, and M. Orlita Phys. Rev. B 107, L041202 (2023) – Published 25 January 2023 Recently, zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe5) has received a lot of attention, both theoretical and experimental. In spite of this, no consensus has been established so far about the basic nature of the electronic states in ZrTe5 with regard to whether this material is a strong or weak topological insulator. Here, the authors use Landau-level spectroscopy to deduce the temperature dependence of the energy band gap in ZrTe5. The observed behavior – a monotonic increase with T – implies, when confronted with theoretical expectations, that ZrTe5 is a weak topological insulator.     Editors' Suggestion Letter Tunable hole spin-photon interaction based on g-matrix modulation V. P. Michal, J. C. Abadillo-Uriel, S. Zihlmann, R. Maurand, Y.-M. Niquet, and M. Filippone Phys. Rev. B 107, L041303 (2023) – Published 25 January 2023 The large spin-orbit interaction of holes in semiconductors is key to achieving strong spin-photon coupling in spin circuit-QED experiments. Here, the authors show that for a single hole this coupling is "reciprocally sweet", meaning that the coupling can be tuned from fully transverse (allowing coherent spin rotations) to fully longitudinal (modulating the spin resonance frequency). Based on the longitudinal coupling, the authors highlight how distant spin-spin coupling and parametrically driven spin readout can be achieved.       American Physical Society: 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 ©2023 American Physical Society | All rights reserved   You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to Table of Content alerts. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please update your preferences.