The spin-polarized ν=0\nu=0 state of graphene: a spin superconductor

We study the spin-polarized $\nu=0$ Landau-level state of graphene. Due to the electron-hole attractive interaction, electrons and holes can bound into pairs. These pairs can then condense into a spin-triplet superfluid ground state: a spin superconductor state. In this state, a gap opens up in the edge bands as well as in the bulk bands, thus it is a charge insulator, but it can carry the spin current without dissipation. These results can well explain the insulating behavior of the spin-polarized $\nu=0$ state in the recent experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Spin-current diode with a ferromagnetic semiconductor

Diode is a key device in electronics: the charge current can flow through the device under a forward bias, while almost no current flows under a reverse bias. Here we propose a corresponding device in spintronics: the spin-current diode, in which the forward spin current is large but the reversed one is negligible. We show that the lead/ferromagnetic quantum dot/lead system and the lead/ferromagnetic semiconductor/lead junction can work as spin-current diodes. The spin-current diode, a low dissipation device, may have important applications in spintronics, as the conventional charge-current diode does in electronics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Surface plasmon polaritons in topological insulator

We study surface plasmon polaritons on topological insulator-vacuum interface. When the time-reversal symmetry is broken due to ferromagnetic coupling, the surface states exhibit magneto-optical Kerr effect. This effect gives rise to a novel transverse type surface plasmon polariton, besides the longitudinal type. In specific, these two types contain three different channels, corresponding to the pole of determinant of Fresnel reflection matrix. All three channels of surface plasmon polaritons display tight confinement, long lifetime and show strong light-matter coupling with a dipole emitter.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

The scaling feature of the magnetic field induced Kondo-peak splittings

By using the full density matrix approach to spectral functions within the numerical renormalization group method, we present a detailed study of the magnetic field induced splittings in the spin-resolved and the total spectral densities of a Kondo correlated quantum dot described by the single level Anderson impurity model. The universal scaling of the splittings with magnetic field is examined by varying the Kondo scale either by a change of local level position at a fixed tunnel coupling or by a change of the tunnel coupling at a fixed level position. We find that the Kondo-peak splitting $\Delta/T_K$ in the spin-resolved spectral function always scales perfectly for magnetic fields $B<8T_K$ in either of the two $T_K$-adjusted paths. Scaling is destroyed for fields $B>10T_K$. On the other hand, the Kondo peak splitting $\delta/T_K$ in the total spectral function does slightly deviate from the conventional scaling theory in whole magnetic field window along the coupling-varying path. Furthermore, we show the scaling analysis suitable for all field windows within the Kondo regime and two specific fitting scaling curves are given from which certain detailed features at low field are derived. In addition, the scaling dimensionless quantity $\Delta/2B$ and $\delta/2B$ are also studied and they can reach and exceed 1 in the large magnetic field region, in agreement with a recent experiment [T.M. Liu, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 026803 (2009)].Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure