Even-odd chain dependent spin valve effect on a zigzag biphenylene nanoribbon junction.

The even-odd chain dependent spin valve effect was forecasted in some honeycomb graphene-like materials with zigzag edges. In this study, we confirm that the even-odd chain related spin valve phenomenon also exists in a zigzag biphenylene nanoribbon (ZBN) junction. By modeling the ZBN junction with different even and odd chains subjected to a local Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and a homogeneous magnetic field, we calculate the spin dependent conductance spectra between the source and the drain electrodes and find that the spin up (down) electron can be inhibited (allowed) to flow through the even (odd)-chain ZBN junction, which can be explained by the combined effect between the pseudo-parity conservation and magnetic field-tunable energy gap in the energy band theory. The switch on and off states of spin valve can be modulated by the most system parameters such as the Fermi energy, magnetic flux, and Rashba SOC. Furthermore, the ZBN can act as a gate-tunable spin generator and spin filter, in which we can get 100% polarized spin up (down) electrons with (no) spin-flipping from the even-chain ZBN junction, and only produce 27% polarized spin-converting electrons from the odd-chain ZBN junction. Our findings might be useful in designing future multi-parameter controllable spin valves by using the new carbon allotropes.

Exploring the effects of phase modulation on the dynamics of the kicked rotor systems.

Inspired by the recent experimental progress in the time-driven phase transition in quantum chaos, we investigate comprehensively the energy diffusion of a kicked rotor in the presence of phase modulation. In the classical case, we found that there always exists anomalous diffusion as long as the phase is modulated periodically and changes by 0 or π from kick to kick. On the contrary, for quasiperiodic and random phase modulation, anomalous diffusion is suppressed. On the other hand, in the quantum case, there exist only ballistic energy diffusion and dynamical localization in the standard and periodically shifted cases, while random phase modulation destroys the quantum coherence and totally suppresses the dynamical localization. Furthermore, the quasiperiodic phase modulation is an intermediate phase between the standard case and the random one. In both the classical and quantum cases, quasiperiodic phase modulation is inequivalent to random phase modulation at large kicking times (>10^{3}), thus caution has to be taken when dealing with these two kinds of phase modulation in experiments.

Spatial spin flipping and spin switching phenomena on a Y-shaped graphene nanoribbon ferromagnetic junction with Rashba spin orbit coupling and strain.

We theoretically study a controllable spatial spin converter and spin valve by using a Y-shaped even-chain zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGR) junction with Rashba spin orbit coupling (SOC) and strain. By calculating the spin-dependent conductance spectra of different tunneling terminals through the multi-terminal Landauer formula, we find that the spin up electron can flip its spin orientation, and convert to spin down one on the left electrode, the same spin converting phenomena can be inhibited on the right terminal. The above spin flipping and its valve phenomena are derived from the interactions of the Rashba SOC, strain and magnetization layout. When the strain's orientation is along (perpendicular) to the zigzag chain's direction, the valley valve effect of the even-chain ZGR is remained, the Rashba SOC takes little effect on the spatial spin switching, one can get 100% polarized spin up (down) electrons at different terminals of the Y-shaped ZGR due to the valley valve effect. When the strain is changed to other direction, the valley valve effect is partly destroyed, Rashba SOC can enhance the spin flipping conductance and break the ON/OFF transport states of spin valve. Our investigations might be useful in designing a multi-parameter controllable spin valve and spin detector based on a multi-terminal graphene nanoribbon junction.

Directed momentum current induced by the PT-symmetric driving.

We investigate the directed momentum current in the quantum kicked rotor model with PT-symmetric deriving potential. For the quantum nonresonance case, the values of quasienergy become complex when the strength of the imaginary part of the kicking potential exceeds a threshold value, which demonstrates the appearance of the spontaneous PT symmetry breaking. In the vicinity of the transition point, the momentum current exhibits a staircase growth with time. Each platform of the momentum current corresponds to the mean momentum of some eigenstates of the Floquet operator whose imaginary parts of the quasienergy are significantly large. Above the transition point, the momentum current increases linearly with time. Interestingly, its acceleration rate exhibits a kind of "quantized" increment with the kicking strength. We propose a modified classical acceleration mode of the kicked rotor model to explain such an intriguing phenomenon. Our theoretical prediction is in good agreement with numerical results.

Staggered potential and magnetic field tunable electronic switch in a kagome nanoribbon junction.

We propose a possible electronic switch on a two dimensional (2D) kagome lattice by applying a perpendicular inhomogeneous magnetic field and a staggered sublattice potential. By means of the tight-binding lattice model and the non-equilibrium Green's function method, we calculate the quantum Hall conductance of the device at zero temperature limit. The numerical results demonstrate that when a staggered lattice potential is considered, the conventional integer Hall effect is changed into discrete fractional conductance peaks, and a finite energy gap can be opened in the system, which may induce a metal-insulator transition and can be designed as a 2D electronic valve. The conductance valve phenomena mainly come from the interplay between the asymmetry energy band induced by the magnetic field and a band gap opened by the staggered potential. The ON(OFF) state of the electron transport is efficiently controlled by the device parameters such as the magnetic field, the staggered lattice potential and the Fermi level. Our findings might be useful for designing efficient current valves in 2D nano-electronic devices.

Electrical controllable spin pump based on a zigzag silicene nanoribbon junction.

We propose a possible electrical controllable spin pump based on a zigzag silicene nanoribbon ferromagnetic junction by applying two time-dependent perpendicular electric fields. By using the Keldysh Green's function method, we derive the analytic expression of the spin-resolved current at the adiabatic approximation and demonstrate that two asymmetric spin up and spin down currents can be pumped out in the device without an external bias. The pumped currents mainly come from the interplay between the photon-assisted spin pump effect and the electrically-modulated energy band structure of the tunneling junction. The spin valve phenomena are not only related to the energy gap opened by two perpendicular staggered potentials, but also dependent on the system parameters such as the pumping frequency, the pumping phase difference, the spin-orbit coupling and the Fermi level, which can be tuned by the electrical methods. The proposed device can also be used to produce a pure spin current and a 100% polarized spin current through the photon-assisted pumping process. Our investigations may provide an electrical manipulation of spin-polarized electrons in graphene-like pumping devices.

The effects of dissipation on topological mechanical systems.

We theoretically study the effects of isotropic dissipation in a topological mechanical system which is an analogue of Chern insulator in mechanical vibrational lattice. The global gauge invariance is still conserved in this system albeit it is destroyed by the dissipation in the quantum counterpart. The chiral edge states in this system are therefore robust against strong dissipation. The dissipation also causes a dispersion of damping for the eigenstates. It will modify the equation of motion of a wave packet by an extra effective force. After taking into account the Berry curvature in the wave vector space, the trace of a free wave packet in the real space should be curved, feinting to break the Newton's first law.

Glassy dynamics of model colloidal polymers: The effect of "monomer" size.

In recent years, attempts have been made to assemble colloidal particles into chains, which are termed "colloidal polymers." An apparent difference between molecular and colloidal polymers is the "monomer" size. Here, we propose a model to represent the variation from molecular polymer to colloidal polymer and study the quantitative differences in their glassy dynamics. For chains, two incompatible local length scales, i.e., monomer size and bond length, are manifested in the radial distribution function and intramolecular correlation function. The mean square displacement of monomers exhibits Rouse-like sub-diffusion at intermediate time/length scale and the corresponding exponent depends on the volume fraction and the monomer size. We find that the threshold volume fraction at which the caging regime emerges can be used as a rescaling unit so that the data of localization length versus volume fraction for different monomer sizes can gather close to an exponential curve. The increase of monomer size effectively increases the hardness of monomers and thus makes the colloidal polymers vitrify at lower volume fraction. Static and dynamic equivalences between colloidal polymers of different monomer sizes have been discussed. In the case of having the same peak time of the non-Gaussian parameter, the motion of monomers of larger size is much less non-Gaussian. The mode-coupling critical exponents for colloidal polymers are in agreement with that of flexible bead-spring chains.

Dynamical thermalization of Frenkel-Kontorova model in the thermodynamic limit.

We study numerically the process of dynamical thermalization in the Frenkel-Kontorova (FK) model with weak nonlinearity. The total energy has initially equidistributed among some of the lowest frequency linear modes. It is found that the energy transfers continuously to the high-frequency modes and finally evolves towards energy equipartition in the FK model. However, the metastable state, which was found in Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) model and φ(4) model in a relatively short time scale, is not found in the FK model. We further perform a very accurate systematic study of the equipartition time T(eq) as functions of the particle number N, the nonlinear parameter ß, and the energy density ɛ. In the thermodynamic limit, the dependence of T(eq) on ß and ɛ is found to display a power law behavior: T(eq)∝ß(a)ɛ(b). The exponents a and b are numerically found to be approximately -2.0 and 1.43. This scaling law is also quite different from those of the FPU-ß model and φ(4) model.

Work done and irreversible entropy production in a suddenly quenched quantum spin chain with asymmetrical excitation spectra.

In this paper, we extend the studies on the emergent thermodynamics in a quenched quantum Ising chain (QIC) [R. Dorner, J. Goold, C. Cormick, M. Paternostro, and V. Vedral, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 160601 (2012)] to a more general quantum spin chain with asymmetrical excitation spectra. We verify that the Jarzynski and Tasaki-Crooks relations are still tenable in this system. As an example, we discuss the behaviors of the work done and irreversible entropy production induced by a sudden quenching in the anisotropic XY chain in a transverse field with the XZY-YZX type of three-site interactions. Different from the QIC, this system has the phase transitions not only between two gapped phases, but also between gapped (or gapless) and gapless phases at zero temperature. We discuss the effects of quantum phase transitions on the work done and irreversible entropy production at low temperature.

Structural, elastic, magnetic and electronic properties of 4d perovskite CaTcO3: a DFT+U investigation.

The structural, elastic, magnetic and electronic properties of 4d high Neél temperature perovskite (Pv) CaTcO(3) have been studied using density functional theory plus the Hubbard U (DFT+U) method. The degree of correlations of CaTcO(3) is determined with a reasonable value of U. The compound is found to be an indirect band gap semiconductor with G-type antiferromagnetic ordering and large superexchange interactions. Large anisotropic compression behavior is found that is much alike the case of Pv CaIrO(3) reported by recent high pressure experiment. The b and c axes decrease linearly with pressure whereas the a axis nearly keeps constant and even slightly expands after ~23 GPa. Finally, we predict the single crystal elastic constants and investigate the polycrystalline elastic properties.

Quantum hyperdiffusion in one-dimensional tight-binding lattices.

Transient quantum hyperdiffusion, namely, faster-than-ballistic wave packet spreading for a certain time scale, is found to be a typical feature in tight-binding lattices if a sublattice with on-site potential is embedded in a uniform lattice without on-site potential. The strength of the sublattice on-site potential, which can be periodic, disordered, or quasiperiodic, must be below certain threshold values for quantum hyperdiffusion to occur. This is explained by an energy band mismatch between the sublattice and the rest uniform lattice and by the structure of the underlying eigenstates. Cases with a quasiperiodic sublattice can yield remarkable hyperdiffusion exponents that are beyond three. A phenomenological explanation of hyperdiffusion exponents is also discussed.

Wave packet dynamics in one-dimensional linear and nonlinear generalized Fibonacci lattices.

The spreading of an initially localized wave packet in one-dimensional linear and nonlinear generalized Fibonacci (GF) lattices is studied numerically. The GF lattices can be classified into two classes depending on whether or not the lattice possesses the Pisot-Vijayaraghavan property. For linear GF lattices of the first class, both the second moment and the participation number grow with time. For linear GF lattices of the second class, in the regime of a weak on-site potential, wave packet spreading is close to ballistic diffusion, whereas in the regime of a strong on-site potential, it displays stairlike growth in both the second moment and the participation number. Nonlinear GF lattices are then investigated in parallel. For the first class of nonlinear GF lattices, the second moment of the wave packet still grows with time, but the corresponding participation number does not grow simultaneously. For the second class of nonlinear GF lattices, an analogous phenomenon is observed for the weak on-site potential only. For a strong on-site potential that leads to an enhanced nonlinear self-trapping effect, neither the second moment nor the participation number grows with time. The results can be useful in guiding experiments on the expansion of noninteracting or interacting cold atoms in quasiperiodic optical lattices.

Heat conduction in one-dimensional aperiodic quantum Ising chains.

The heat conductivity of nonperiodic quantum Ising chains whose ends are connected with heat baths at different temperatures are studied numerically by solving the Lindblad master equation. The chains are subjected to a uniform transverse field h, while the exchange coupling J{m} between the nearest-neighbor spins takes the two values J{A} and J{B} arranged in Fibonacci, generalized Fibonacci, Thue-Morse, and period-doubling sequences. We calculate the energy-density profile and energy current of the resulting nonequilibrium steady states to study the heat-conducting behavior of finite but large systems. Although these nonperiodic quantum Ising chains are integrable, it is clearly found that energy gradients exist in all chains and the energy currents appear to scale as the system size ~N{α}. By increasing the ratio of couplings, the exponent α can be modulated from α > -1 to α < -1 corresponding to the nontrivial transition from the abnormal heat transport to the heat insulator. The influences of the temperature gradient and the magnetic field to heat conduction have also been discussed.

Lee-Yang zeros of periodic and quasiperiodic anisotropic XY chains in a transverse field.

The partition function zeros of the anisotropic XY chain in a complex transverse field are studied analytically and numerically. It is found that the partition function zeros of the periodic and quasiperiodic quantum Ising chain lie on the circle at zero temperature and the radius equal to the values of the critical field. For the periodic and quasiperiodic anisotropic XY chains, the closed curves are split to two or three closed curves as the anisotropic parameter gamma decreases at a given ratio of two kinds of exchange interactions. For the isotropic XX case, the partition function zeros lie on the straight segments which are parallel to the real axis and the segments move towards the real axis as the temperature goes to zero.

von Neumann entropy and localization-delocalization transition of electron states in quantum small-world networks.

The von Neumann entropy for an electron in periodic, disorder, and quasiperiodic quantum small-world networks (QSWN's) is studied numerically. For the disorder QSWN's, the derivative of the spectrum-averaged von Neumann entropy is maximal at a certain density of shortcut links p*, which can be as a signature of the localization-delocalization transition of electron states. The transition point p* is agreement with that obtained by the level statistics method. For the quasiperiodic QSWN's, it is found that there are two regions of the potential parameter. The behaviors of electron states in different regions are similar to that of periodic and disorder QSWN's, respectively.

Zero-temperature criticality in the two-dimensional gauge glass model.

The zero-temperature critical state of the two-dimensional gauge glass model is investigated. It is found that low-energy vortex configurations afford a simple description in terms of gapless, weakly interacting vortex-antivortex pair excitations. A linear dielectric screening calculation is presented in a renormalization group setting that yields a power law decay of spin-wave stiffness with distance. These properties are in agreement with low-temperature specific heat and spin-glass susceptibility data obtained in large-scale multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations.

Electronic properties of the 1D Frenkel-Kontorova model.

The energy spectra and quantum diffusion of an electron in a 1D incommensurate Frenkel-Kontorova model are studied numerically. We found that the spectral and dynamical properties of an electron display quite different behaviors in the invariance circle regime and in the Cantorus regime. In the former case, it is similar to that of the Harper model, whereas in the latter case, it is similar to that of the Fibonacci model. The relationship between spectral and transport properties is discussed.