Andreev spectroscopy of doped HgTe quantum wells

We investigate the Andreev reflection process in high-mobility HgTe/CdTe quantum wells. We find that Andreev conductance probes the dynamics of massive 2+1 Dirac fermions, and that both specular Andreev reflection and retroreflection can be realized even in presence of a large mismatch between the Fermi wavelengths at the two sides of the normal/superconducting junction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Majoranas with and without a 'character': hybridization, braiding and Majorana number

In this paper we demonstrate under what conditions a pseudo-spin degree of freedom or character can be ascribed to the Majorana bound states (MBS) which can be created at the end of one dimensional non-interacting systems, corresponding to D, DIII and BDI in the usual classification scheme. We have found that such a character is directly related to the class of the topological superconductor and its description by a $\mathbb{Z}$, rather than a $\mathbb{Z}_2$, invariant which corresponds to the BDI class. We have also found that the DIII case with mirror symmetry, which supports multiple MBS, is in fact equivalent to the BDI class with an additional time-reversal symmetry. In all cases where a character can be given to the Majorana states we show how to construct the appropriate operator explicitly in various examples. We also examine the consequences of the Majorana character by considering possible hybridization of MBS brought into proximity and find that two MBS with the same character do not hybridize. Finally, we show that having this character or not has no consequence on the braiding properties of MBS.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Majorana Fermions in Honeycomb Lattices

We study the formation of Majorana fermions in honeycomb-lattice structures in the presence of a Zeeman field, Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and in the proximity of an s-wave superconductor. We show that an exact mapping exists between an anisotropic hexagonal-lattice nanoribbon at k = 0 and a one-dimensional chain, for which the existence of Majorana fermions has been extensively discussed. Consequently we can predict the conditions for the emergence of Majorana fermions at the edges of such ribbon, and relate the existence of Majoranas to a band inversion in the bulk band structure. Moreover we find that similar situations arise in isotropic lattices and we give some examples which show the formation of Majorana fermions in these structures.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Spin Hall effect at interfaces between HgTe/CdTe quantum wells and metals

We study the spin-dependent transmission through interfaces between a HgTe/CdTe quantum well (QW) and a metal - both for the normal metal and the superconducting case. Interestingly, we discover a new type of spin Hall effect at these interfaces that happens to exist even in the absence of structure and bulk inversion asymmetry within each subsystem (i.e. the QW and the metal). Thus, this is a pure boundary spin Hall effect which can be directly related to the existence of exponentially localized edge states at the interface. We demonstrate how this effect can be measured and functionalized for an all-electric spin injection into normal metal leads.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Photo-assisted shot noise in Coulomb interacting systems

We consider the fluctuations of the electrical current (shot noise) in the presence of a voltage time-modulation. For a non-interacting metal, it is known that the derivative of the photo-assisted noise has a staircase behavior. In the presence of Coulomb interactions, we show that the photo-assisted noise presents a more complex profile, in particular for the two following systems: 1) a two-dimensional electron gas in the fractional quantum Hall regime for which we have obtained evenly spaced singularities in the noise derivative, with a spacing related to the filling factor and, 2) a carbon nanotube for which a smoothed staircase in the noise derivative is obtained.Comment: Proceedings of the 6th Rencontres du Vietnam, Hanoi (2006

Superconductor spintronics: Modeling spin and charge accumulation in out-of-equilibrium NS junctions subjected to Zeeman magnetic fields

We study the spin and charge accumulation in junctions between a superconductor and a ferromagnet or a normal metal in the presence of a Zeeman magnetic field, when the junction is taken out of equilibrium by applying a voltage bias. We write down the most general form for the spin and charge current in such junctions, taking into account all spin-resolved possible tunneling processes. We make use of these forms to calculate the spin accumulation in NS junctions subjected to a DC bias, and to an AC bias, sinusoidal or rectangular. We observe that in the limit of negligeable changes on the superconducting gap, the NS dynamical conductance is insensitive to spin imbalance. Therefore to probe the spin accumulation in the superconductor, one needs to separate the injection and detection point, i. e. the electrical spin detection must be non-local. We address also the effect of the spin accumulation induced in the normal leads by driving a spin current and its effects on the detection of the spin accumulation in the superconductor. Finally, we investigate the out-of-equilibrium spin susceptibility of the SC, and we show that it deviates drastically from it's equilibrium value

The equivalent translational stiffness of steel studs

The effect of the resilience of the steel studs on the sound insulation of steel stud cavity walls can be modelled as an equivalent translational stiffness in simple models for predicting the sound insulation of walls. Numerical calculations (Poblet-Puig et al., 2009) have shown that this equivalent translational stiffness varies with frequency. Vigran (2010a) has derived a best-fit third order polynomial approximation to the logarithm of these numerical values as a function of the logarithm of the frequency for the most common type of steel stud. This paper uses an inverse experimental technique. It determines the values of the equivalent translational stiffness of steel studs which make Davy’s (2010) sound insulation theory agree best with experimental sound insulation data from the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) (Halliwell et al., 1998) for 126 steel stud cavity walls with gypsum plasterboard on each side of the steel studs and sound absorbing material in the wall cavity. These values are approximately constant as a function of frequency up to 400 Hz. Above 400 Hz they increase approximately as a non-integer power of the frequency. The equivalent translational stiffness also depends on the mass per unit surface area of the cladding on each side of the steel studs and on the width of the steel studs. Above 400 Hz, this stiffness also depends on the stud spacing. The equivalent translational stiffness of steel studs determined in this paper and the best-fit approximation to that data are compared with that determined numerically by Poblet-Puig et al. (2009) and with Vigran’s (2010a) best-fit approximation as a function of frequency. The best-fit approximation to the inversely experimentally determined values of equivalent translational stiffness are used with Davy’s (2010) sound insulation prediction model to predict the sound insulation of steel stud cavity walls whose sound insulation has been determined experimentally by NRCC (Halliwell et al., 1998) or CSTB (Guigou-Carter and Villot, 2006)

An empirical model for the equivalent translational compliance of steel studs

The effect of the resilience of the steel studs on the sound insulation of steel stud cavity walls can be modeled as an equivalent translational compliance in simple models for predicting the sound insulation of walls. Recent numerical calculations have shown that this equivalent translational compliance varies with frequency

Density of states of interacting quantum wires with impurities: A Dyson equation approach

International audienceWe calculate the density of states for an interacting quantum wire in the presence of two impurities of arbitrary potential strength. To perform this calculation, we describe the Coulomb interactions in the wire within the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory. After establishing and solving the Dyson equation for the fermionic retarded Green's functions, we study how the profile of the local density of states is affected by the interactions in the entire range of impurity potentials. Same as in the non-interacting case, when increasing the impurity strength, the central part of the wire becomes more and more disconnected from the semi-infinite leads, and discrete localized states begin to form; the width and the periodicity of the corresponding peaks in the spectrum depends on the interaction strength. As expected from the Luttinger liquid theory, impurities also induce a reduction of the local density of states at small energies. Two other important aspects are highlighted: the appearance of an extra modulation in the density of states at nonzero Fermi momentum when interactions are present, and the fact that forward scattering must be taken into account in order to recover the Coulomb-blockade regime for strong impurities