Light-induced giant enhancement of nonreciprocal transport at KTaO3-based interfaces.

Nonlinear transport is a unique functionality of noncentrosymmetric systems, which reflects profound physics, such as spin-orbit interaction, superconductivity and band geometry. However, it remains highly challenging to enhance the nonreciprocal transport for promising rectification devices. Here, we observe a light-induced giant enhancement of nonreciprocal transport at the superconducting and epitaxial CaZrO3/KTaO3 (111) interfaces. The nonreciprocal transport coefficient undergoes a giant increase with three orders of magnitude up to 105 A-1 T-1. Furthermore, a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling effective field of 14.7 T is achieved with abundant high-mobility photocarriers under ultraviolet illumination, which accounts for the giant enhancement of nonreciprocal transport coefficient. Our first-principles calculations further disclose the stronger Rashba spin-orbit coupling strength and the longer relaxation time in the photocarrier excitation process, bridging the light-property quantitative relationship. Our work provides an alternative pathway to boost nonreciprocal transport in noncentrosymmetric systems and facilitates the promising applications in opto-rectification devices and spin-orbitronic devices.

Tunable optical topological transitions of plasmon polaritons in WTe2 van der Waals films.

Naturally existing in-plane hyperbolic polaritons and the associated optical topological transitions, which avoid the nano-structuring to achieve hyperbolicity, can outperform their counterparts in artificial metasurfaces. Such plasmon polaritons are rare, but experimentally revealed recently in WTe2 van der Waals thin films. Different from phonon polaritons, hyperbolic plasmon polaritons originate from the interplay of free carrier Drude response and interband transitions, which promise good intrinsic tunability. However, tunable in-plane hyperbolic plasmon polariton and its optical topological transition of the isofrequency contours to the elliptic topology in a natural material have not been realized. Here we demonstrate the tuning of the optical topological transition through Mo doping and temperature. The optical topological transition energy is tuned over a wide range, with frequencies ranging from 429 cm-1 (23.3 microns) for pure WTe2 to 270 cm-1 (37.0 microns) at the 50% Mo-doping level at 10 K. Moreover, the temperature-induced blueshift of the optical topological transition energy is also revealed, enabling active and reversible tuning. Surprisingly, the localized surface plasmon resonance in skew ribbons shows unusual polarization dependence, accurately manifesting its topology, which renders a reliable means to track the topology with far-field techniques. Our results open an avenue for reconfigurable photonic devices capable of plasmon polariton steering, such as canaling, focusing, and routing, and pave the way for low-symmetry plasmonic nanophotonics based on anisotropic natural materials.

Enhanced Superconductivity and Upper Critical Field in Ta-Doped Weyl Semimetal Td -MoTe2.

2D transition metal dichalcogenides are promising platforms for next-generation electronics and spintronics. The layered Weyl semimetal (W,Mo)Te2 series features structural phase transition, nonsaturated magnetoresistance, superconductivity, and exotic topological physics. However, the superconducting critical temperature of the bulk (W,Mo)Te2 remains ultralow without applying a high pressure. Here, the significantly enhanced superconductivity is observed with a transition temperature as large as about 7.5 K in bulk Mo1- x Tax Te2 single crystals upon Ta doping (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.22), which is attributed to an enrichment of density of states at the Fermi level. In addition, an enhanced perpendicular upper critical field of 14.5 T exceeding the Pauli limit is also observed in Td -phase Mo1- x Tax Te2 (x = 0.08), indicating the possible emergence of unconventional mixed singlet-triplet superconductivity owing to the inversion symmetry breaking. This work provides a new pathway for exploring the exotic superconductivity and topological physics in transition metal dichalcogenides.

Large Exchange Bias Effect and Coverage-Dependent Interfacial Coupling in CrI3/MnBi2Te4 van der Waals Heterostructures.

Igniting interface magnetic ordering of magnetic topological insulators by building a van der Waals heterostructure can help to reveal novel quantum states and design functional devices. Here, we observe an interesting exchange bias effect, indicating successful interfacial magnetic coupling, in CrI3/MnBi2Te4 ferromagnetic insulator/antiferromagnetic topological insulator (FMI/AFM-TI) heterostructure devices. The devices originally exhibit a negative exchange bias field, which decays with increasing temperature and is unaffected by the back-gate voltage. When we change the device configuration to be half-covered by CrI3, the exchange bias becomes positive with a very large exchange bias field exceeding 300 mT. Such sensitive manipulation is explained by the competition between the FM and AFM coupling at the interface of CrI3 and MnBi2Te4, pointing to coverage-dependent interfacial magnetic interactions. Our work will facilitate the development of topological and antiferromagnetic devices.

Observation of Magnetism-Induced Topological Edge State in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulator MnBi4Te7.

Breaking time reversal symmetry in a topological insulator may lead to quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion insulator phase. MnBi4Te7 is a recently discovered antiferromagnetic topological insulator with TN ∼ 12.5 K, which is composed of an alternatively stacked magnetic layer (MnBi2Te4) and nonmagnetic layer (Bi2Te3). By means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we clearly observe the electronic state present at a step edge of a magnetic MnBi2Te4 layer but absent at nonmagnetic Bi2Te3 layers at 4.5 K. Furthermore, we find that as the temperature rises above TN the edge state vanishes, while the point defect induced state persists upon an increase in temperature. These results confirm the observation of magnetism-induced edge states. Our analysis based on an axion insulator theory reveals that the nontrivial topological nature of the observed edge state.

Colossal Terahertz Photoresponse at Room Temperature: A Signature of Type-II Dirac Fermiology.

The discovery of Dirac semimetal has stimulated bourgeoning interests for exploring exotic quantum-transport phenomena, holding great promise for manipulating the performance of photoelectric devices that are related to nontrivial band topology. Nevertheless, it still remains elusive on both the device implementation and immediate results, with some enhanced or technically applicable electronic properties signified by the Dirac fermiology. By means of Pt doping, a type-II Dirac semimetal Ir1-xPtxTe2 with protected crystal structure and tunable Fermi level has been achieved in this work. It has been envisioned that the metal-semimetal-metal device exhibits an order of magnitude performance improvement at terahertz frequency when the Fermi level is aligned with the Dirac node (i.e., x ∼ 0.3) and a room-temperature photoresponsivity of 0.52 A·W-1 at 0.12 THz and 0.45 A·W-1 at 0.3 THz, which benefited from the excitation of type-II Dirac fermions. Furthermore, van der Waals integration with Dirac semimetals exhibits superb performance with noise equivalent power less than 24 pW·Hz-0.5, rivaling the state-of-the-art detectors. Our work provides a route to explore the nontrivial topology of Dirac semimetal for addressing targeted applications in imaging and biomedical sensing across a terahertz gap.

Reversible engineering of topological insulator surface state conductivity through optical excitation.

Despite the broadband response, limited optical absorption at a particular wavelength hinders the development of optoelectronics based on Dirac fermions. Heterostructures of graphene and various semiconductors have been explored for this purpose, while non-ideal interfaces often limit the performance. The topological insulator (TI) is a natural hybrid system, with the surface states hosting high-mobility Dirac fermions and the small-bandgap semiconducting bulk state strongly absorbing light. In this work, we show a large photocurrent response from a field effect transistor device based on intrinsic TI Sn-Bi1.1Sb0.9Te2S (Sn-BSTS). The photocurrent response is non-volatile and sensitively depends on the initial Fermi energy of the surface state, and it can be erased by controlling the gate voltage. Our observations can be explained with a remote photo-doping mechanism, in which the light excites the defects in the bulk and frees the localized carriers to the surface state. This photodoping modulates the surface state conductivity without compromising the mobility, and it also significantly modify the quantum Hall effect of the surface state. Our work thus illustrates a route to reversibly manipulate the surface states through optical excitation, shedding light into utilizing topological surface states for quantum optoelectronics.

Long-Range Ordered Amorphous Atomic Chains as Building Blocks of a Superconducting Quasi-One-Dimensional Crystal.

Crystalline and amorphous structures are two of the most common solid-state phases. Crystals having orientational and periodic translation symmetries are usually both short-range and long-range ordered, while amorphous materials have no long-range order. Short-range ordered but long-range disordered materials are generally categorized into amorphous phases. In contrast to the extensively studied crystalline and amorphous phases, the combination of short-range disordered and long-range ordered structures at the atomic level is extremely rare and so far has only been reported for solvated fullerenes under compression. Here, a report on the creation and investigation of a superconducting quasi-1D material with long-range ordered amorphous building blocks is presented. Using a diamond anvil cell, monocrystalline (TaSe4 )2 I is compressed and a system is created where the TaSe4 atomic chains are in amorphous state without breaking the orientational and periodic translation symmetries of the chain lattice. Strikingly, along with the amorphization of the atomic chains, the insulating (TaSe4 )2 I becomes a superconductor. The data provide critical insight into a new phase of solid-state materials. The findings demonstrate a first ever case where superconductivity is hosted by a lattice with periodic but amorphous constituent atomic chains.

Experimental Observation of the Gate-Controlled Reversal of the Anomalous Hall Effect in the Intrinsic Magnetic Topological Insulator MnBi2Te4 Device.

Magnetic topological insulator, a platform for realizing quantum anomalous Hall effect, axion state, and other novel quantum transport phenomena, has attracted a lot of interest. Recently, it is proposed that MnBi2Te4 is an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator, which may overcome the disadvantages in the magnetic doped topological insulator, such as disorder. Here we report on the gate-reserved anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in the MnBi2Te4 thin film. By tuning the Fermi level using the top/bottom gate, the AHE loop gradually decreases to zero and the sign is reversed. The positive AHE exhibits distinct coercive fields compared with the negative AHE. It reaches a maximum inside the gap of the Dirac cone, and its amplitude exhibits a linear scaling with the longitudinal conductance. The positive AHE is attributed to the competition of the intrinsic Berry curvature and the extrinsic skew scattering. Its gate-controlled switching contributes a scheme for the topological spin field-effect transistors.

The Material Efforts for Quantized Hall Devices Based on Topological Insulators.

A topological insulator (TI) is a kind of novel material hosting a topological band structure and plenty of exotic topological quantum effects. Achieving quantized electrical transport, including the quantum Hall effect (QHE) and the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), is an important aspect of realizing quantum devices based on TI materials. Intense efforts are made in this field, in which the most essential research is based on the optimization of realistic TI materials. Herein, the TI material development process is reviewed, focusing on the realization of quantized transport. Especially, for QHE, the strategies to increase the surface transport ratio and decrease the threshold magnetic field of QHE are examined. For QAHE, the evolution history of magnetic TIs is introduced, and the recently discovered magnetic TI candidates with intrinsic magnetizations are discussed in detail. Moreover, future research perspectives on these novel topological quantum effects are also evaluated.

Intrinsic magnetic topological insulator phases in the Sb doped MnBi2Te4 bulks and thin flakes.

Magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) offer a combination of topologically nontrivial characteristics and magnetic order and show promise in terms of potentially interesting physical phenomena such as the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect and topological axion insulating states. However, the understanding of their properties and potential applications have been limited due to a lack of suitable candidates for MTIs. Here, we grow two-dimensional single crystals of Mn(SbxBi(1-x))2Te4 bulk and exfoliate them into thin flakes in order to search for intrinsic MTIs. We perform angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, low-temperature transport measurements, and first-principles calculations to investigate the band structure, transport properties, and magnetism of this family of materials, as well as the evolution of their topological properties. We find that there exists an optimized MTI zone in the Mn(SbxBi(1-x))2Te4 phase diagram, which could possibly host a high-temperature QAH phase, offering a promising avenue for new device applications.

Band Structure Perfection and Superconductivity in Type-II Dirac Semimetal Ir1-x Ptx Te2.

The discovery of a new type-II Dirac semimetal in Ir1-x Ptx Te2 with optimized band structure is described. Pt dopants protect the crystal structure holding the Dirac cones and tune the Fermi level close to the Dirac point. The type-II Dirac dispersion in Ir1-x Ptx Te2 is confirmed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. Superconductivity is also observed and persists when the Fermi level aligns with the Dirac points. Ir1-x Ptx Te2 is an ideal platform for further studies on the exotic properties and potential applications of type-II DSMs, and opens up a new route for the investigation of the possible topological superconductivity and Majorana physics.

Tuning the electrical transport of type II Weyl semimetal WTe2 nanodevices by Mo doping.

We fabricated nanodevices from MoxW1-xTe2 (x = 0, 0.07, 0.35), and conducted a systematic comparative study of their electrical transport. Magnetoresistance measurements show that Mo doping can significantly suppress mobility and magnetoresistance. The results for the analysis of the two band model show that doping with Mo does not break the carrier balance. Through analysis of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, we found that Mo doping also has a strong suppressive effect on the quantum oscillation of the sample, and the higher the ratio of Mo, the fewer pockets were observed in our experiments. Furthermore, the effective mass of electron and hole increases gradually with increasing Mo ratio, while the corresponding quantum mobility decreases rapidly.

Anomalous quantization trajectory and parity anomaly in Co cluster decorated BiSbTeSe2 nanodevices.

Dirac Fermions with different helicities exist on the top and bottom surfaces of topological insulators, offering a rare opportunity to break the degeneracy protected by the no-go theorem. Through the application of Co clusters, quantum Hall plateaus were modulated for the topological insulator BiSbTeSe2, allowing an optimized surface transport. Here, using renormalization group flow diagrams, we show the extraction of two sets of converging points in the conductivity tensor space, revealing that the top surface exhibits an anomalous quantization trajectory, while the bottom surface retains the 1/2 quantization. Co clusters are believed to induce a sizeable Zeeman gap ( > 4.8 meV) through antiferromagnetic exchange coupling, which delays the Landau level hybridization on the top surface for a moderate magnetic field. A quasi-half-integer plateau also appears at -7.2 Tesla. This allows us to study the interesting physics of parity anomaly, and paves the way for further studies simulating exotic particles in condensed matter physics.The topological surface states usually appear in pairs in a topological insulator, with one on the top surface and the other on the bottom surface. Here, Zhang et al. utilize Co cluster to induce a Zeeman gap on one surface through antiferromagnetic exchange coupling, and observe a quasi-half-integer plateau, suggesting the parity anomaly of Dirac fermions.

Tuning the electrical transport of type II Weyl semimetal WTe2 nanodevices by Ga+ ion implantation.

Here we introduce lattice defects in WTe2 by Ga+ implantation (GI), and study the effects of defects on the transport properties and electronic structures of the samples. Theoretical calculation shows that Te Frenkel defects is the dominant defect type, and Raman characterization results agree with this. Electrical transport measurements show that, after GI, significant changes are observed in magnetoresistance and Hall resistance. The classical two-band model analysis shows that both electron and hole concentration are significantly reduced. According to the calculated results, ion implantation leads to significant changes in the band structure and the Fermi surface of the WTe2. Our results indicate that defect engineering is an effective route of controlling the electronic properties of WTe2 devices.

Electronic interference transport and its electron-phonon interaction in the Sb-doped Bi2Se3 nanoplates synthesized by a solvothermal method.

Here we synthesized the antimony doped [Formula: see text] nanoplates by the solvothermal method. The angle-dependent magnetoconductance study was carried out and all the [Formula: see text] were found to be normalized to the perpendicular field, indicating a clear 2D electronic state. The features of weak antilocalization and universal conductance fluctuations were clearly identified in the magnetoresistance transport of the 4-probe nanodevices. The dephasing lengths are extracted respectively according to the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka theory. It is attributed to the involvement of the dynamic spin centers. The dephasing lengths are found to increase with the decreasing temperature following a [Formula: see text] law with [Formula: see text]. This reveals the additional dephasing source of electron-phonon interaction, which is often absent for pure 2D electronic systems.

Solvothermal Synthesis of Lateral Heterojunction Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 Nanoplates.

A lateral heterojunction of topological insulator Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 was successfully synthesized using a two-step solvothermal method. The two crystalline components were separated well by a sharp lattice-matched interface when the optimized procedure was used. Inspecting the heterojunction using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy showed that epitaxial growth occurred along the horizontal plane. The semiconducting temperature-resistance curve and crossjunction rectification were observed, which reveal a staggered-gap lateral heterojunction with a small junction voltage. Quantum correction from the weak antilocalization reveals the well-maintained transport of the topological surface state. This is appealing for a platform for spin filters and one-dimensional topological interface states.