Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is a tunable material with remarkably flat energy bands near the Fermi level, leading to fascinating transport properties and correlated states at low temperatures. However, grown pristine samples of this material tend to break up into landscapes of twist-angle domains, strongly influencing the physical properties of each individual sample. This poses a significant problem to the interpretation and comparison between measurements obtained from different samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemiconducting nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling in the presence of induced superconductivity and ferromagnetism can support Majorana zero modes. We study the pumping due to the precession of the magnetization in single-subband nanowires and show that spin pumping is robustly quantized when the hybrid nanowire is in the topologically nontrivial phase, whereas charge pumping is not quantized. Moreover, there exists one-to-one correspondence between the quantized conductance, entropy change and spin pumping in long topologically nontrivial nanowires but these observables are uncorrelated in the case of accidental zero-energy Andreev bound states in the trivial phase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParametric generation of oscillations and waves is a paradigm, which is known to be realized in various physical systems. Unique properties of quantum semiconductor superlattices allow us to investigate high-frequency phenomena induced by the Bragg reflections and negative differential velocity of the miniband electrons. Effects of parametric gain in the superlattices at different strengths of dissipation have been earlier discussed in a number of theoretical works, but their experimental demonstrations are so far absent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBy tuning the angle between graphene layers to specific "magic angles" the lowest energy bands of twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG) can be made flat. The flat nature of the bands favors the formation of collective ground states and, in particular, TBLG has been shown to support superconductivity. When the energy bands participating in the superconductivity are well isolated, the superfluid weight scales inversely with the effective mass of such bands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObservations of macroscopic quantum coherence in driven systems, e.g. polariton condensates, have strongly stimulated experimental as well as theoretical efforts during the last decade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe quantum Hall state at total filling factor ν(T)=1 in bilayer systems realizes an exciton condensate and exhibits a zero-bias tunneling anomaly, similar to the Josephson effect in the presence of fluctuations. In contrast to conventional Josephson junctions, no Fraunhofer diffraction pattern has been observed, due to disorder induced topological defects, so-called merons. We consider interlayer tunneling in the presence of microwave radiation, and predict Shapiro steps in the tunneling current-voltage characteristic despite the presence of merons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe theoretically analyze the influence of magnetic field on small-signal absorption and gain in a superlattice. We predict a very large and tunable THz gain due to nonlinear cyclotron oscillations in crossed electric and magnetic fields. In contrast to Bloch gain, here the superlattice is in an electrically stable state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrons performing Bloch oscillations in an energy band of a dc-biased superlattice in the presence of weak dissipation can potentially generate THz fields at room temperature. The realization of such a Bloch oscillator is a long-standing problem due to the instability of a homogeneous electric field in conditions of negative differential conductivity. We establish the theoretical feasibility of stable THz gain in a long superlattice device in which the bias is quasistatically modulated by microwave fields.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe consider a high-frequency response of electrons in a single miniband of superlattice subject to dc and ac electric fields. We show that Bragg reflections in miniband result in a parametric resonance which is detectable using ac probe field. We establish theoretical feasibility of phase-sensitive THz amplification at the resonance.
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