Light control of surface–bulk coupling by terahertz vibrational coherence in a topological insulator
Abstract
The demand for disorder-tolerant quantum logic and spin electronics can be met by generating and controlling dissipationless spin currents protected by topology. Dirac fermions with helical spin-locking surface transport offer a way of achieving such a goal. Yet, surface-bulk coupling can lead to strong Dirac electron scattering with bulk carriers and phonons as well as impurities, assisted by such dissipative channel, which results in “topological breakdown”. Here, we demonstrate that coherent lattice vibrations periodically driven by a single-cycle terahertz (THz) pulse can significantly suppress such dissipative channel in topological insulators. This is achieved by reducing the phase space in the bulk available for Dirac fermion scattering into during coherent lattice oscillations in Bi2Se3. This light-induced suppression manifests as a remarkable transition exclusively in surface transport, absent for bulk, above the THz electric fields for driving coherent phonons, which prolongs the surface transport lifetime. These results, together with simulations, identify the critical role of spin–orbit coupling for the “phase space contraction” mechanism that suppresses the surface-bulk coupling. Imposing vibrational quantum coherence into topological states of matter may become a universal light control principle for reinforcing the symmetry-protected helical transport.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
[1];
[1];
[1]
- Ames Lab., and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
- Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
- Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States); Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1602054
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1971743
- Report Number(s):
- IS-J-10166
Journal ID: ISSN 2397-4648
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11358; SC0019137
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- npj Quantum Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2397-4648
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Yang, Xu, Luo, Liang, Vaswani, Chirag, Zhao, Xin, Yao, Yongxin, Cheng, Di, Liu, Zhaoyu, Kim, Richard H. J., Liu, Xinyu, Dobrowolska-Furdyna, Malgorzata, Furdyna, Jacek K., Perakis, Ilias E., Wang, Caizhuang, Ho, Kaiming, and Wang, Jigang. Light control of surface–bulk coupling by terahertz vibrational coherence in a topological insulator. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41535-020-0215-7.
Yang, Xu, Luo, Liang, Vaswani, Chirag, Zhao, Xin, Yao, Yongxin, Cheng, Di, Liu, Zhaoyu, Kim, Richard H. J., Liu, Xinyu, Dobrowolska-Furdyna, Malgorzata, Furdyna, Jacek K., Perakis, Ilias E., Wang, Caizhuang, Ho, Kaiming, & Wang, Jigang. Light control of surface–bulk coupling by terahertz vibrational coherence in a topological insulator. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-0215-7
Yang, Xu, Luo, Liang, Vaswani, Chirag, Zhao, Xin, Yao, Yongxin, Cheng, Di, Liu, Zhaoyu, Kim, Richard H. J., Liu, Xinyu, Dobrowolska-Furdyna, Malgorzata, Furdyna, Jacek K., Perakis, Ilias E., Wang, Caizhuang, Ho, Kaiming, and Wang, Jigang. Tue .
"Light control of surface–bulk coupling by terahertz vibrational coherence in a topological insulator". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-0215-7. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1602054.
@article{osti_1602054,
title = {Light control of surface–bulk coupling by terahertz vibrational coherence in a topological insulator},
author = {Yang, Xu and Luo, Liang and Vaswani, Chirag and Zhao, Xin and Yao, Yongxin and Cheng, Di and Liu, Zhaoyu and Kim, Richard H. J. and Liu, Xinyu and Dobrowolska-Furdyna, Malgorzata and Furdyna, Jacek K. and Perakis, Ilias E. and Wang, Caizhuang and Ho, Kaiming and Wang, Jigang},
abstractNote = {The demand for disorder-tolerant quantum logic and spin electronics can be met by generating and controlling dissipationless spin currents protected by topology. Dirac fermions with helical spin-locking surface transport offer a way of achieving such a goal. Yet, surface-bulk coupling can lead to strong Dirac electron scattering with bulk carriers and phonons as well as impurities, assisted by such dissipative channel, which results in “topological breakdown”. Here, we demonstrate that coherent lattice vibrations periodically driven by a single-cycle terahertz (THz) pulse can significantly suppress such dissipative channel in topological insulators. This is achieved by reducing the phase space in the bulk available for Dirac fermion scattering into during coherent lattice oscillations in Bi2Se3. This light-induced suppression manifests as a remarkable transition exclusively in surface transport, absent for bulk, above the THz electric fields for driving coherent phonons, which prolongs the surface transport lifetime. These results, together with simulations, identify the critical role of spin–orbit coupling for the “phase space contraction” mechanism that suppresses the surface-bulk coupling. Imposing vibrational quantum coherence into topological states of matter may become a universal light control principle for reinforcing the symmetry-protected helical transport.},
doi = {10.1038/s41535-020-0215-7},
journal = {npj Quantum Materials},
number = 1,
volume = 5,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Feb 18 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Tue Feb 18 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}
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