Graphene in periodically alternating magnetic field: unusual quantization of the anomalous Hall effect

We study the energy spectrum and electronic properties of graphene in a periodic magnetic field of zero average with a symmetry of triangular lattice. The periodic field leads to formation of a set of minibands separated by gaps, which can be manipulated by external field. The Berry phase, related to the motion of electrons in $k$ space, and the corresponding Chern numbers characterizing topology of the energy bands are calculated analytically and numerically. In this connection, we discuss the anomalous Hall effect in the insulating state, when the Fermi level is located in the minigap. The results of calculations show that in the model of gapless Dirac spectrum of graphene the anomalous Hall effect can be treated as a sum of fractional quantum numbers, related to the nonequivalent Dirac points.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Anomalous Hall Effect due to the spin chirality in the Kagom\'{e} lattice

We consider a model for a two dimensional electron gas moving on a kagom\'{e} lattice and locally coupled to a chiral magnetic texture. We show that the transverse conductivity $\sigma\_{xy}$ does not vanish even if spin-orbit coupling is not present and it may exhibit unusual behavior. Model parameters are the chirality, the number of conduction electrons and the amplitude of the local coupling. Upon varying these parameters, a topological transition characterized by change of the band Chern numbers occur. As a consequence, $\sigma\_{xy}$ can be quantized, proportional to the chirality or have a non monotonic behavior upon varying these parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Asymptotically exact trial wave functions for yrast states of rotating Bose gases

We revisit the composite fermion (CF) construction of the lowest angular momentum yrast states of rotating Bose gases with weak short range interaction. For angular momenta at and below the single vortex, $L \leq N$, the overlaps between these trial wave functions and the corresponding exact solutions {\it increase} with increasing system size and appear to approach unity in the thermodynamic limit. In the special case $L=N$, this remarkable behaviour was previously observed numerically. Here we present methods to address this point analytically, and find strongly suggestive evidence in favour of similar behaviour for all $L \leq N$. While not constituting a fully conclusive proof of the converging overlaps, our results do demonstrate a striking similarity between the analytic structure of the exact ground state wave functions at $L \leq N$, and that of their CF counterparts. Results are given for two different projection methods commonly used in the CF approach

Topological Hall effect and Berry phase in magnetic nanostructures

We discuss the anomalous Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas subject to a spatially varying magnetization. This topological Hall effect (THE) does not require any spin-orbit coupling, and arises solely from Berry phase acquired by an electron moving in a smoothly varying magnetization. We propose an experiment with a structure containing 2D electrons or holes of diluted magnetic semiconductor subject to the stray field of a lattice of magnetic nanocylinders. The striking behavior predicted for such a system (of which all relevant parameters are well known) allows to observe unambiguously the THE and to distinguish it from other mechanisms.Comment: 5 pages with 4 figure

Chiral two-dimensional electron gas in a periodic magnetic field

We study the energy spectrum and electronic properties of two-dimensional electron gas in a periodic magnetic field of zero average with a symmetry of triangular lattice. We demonstrate how the structure of electron energy bands can be changed with the variation of the field strength, so that we can start from nearly free electron gas and then transform it continuously to a system of essentially localized chiral electron states. We find that the electrons near some minima of the effective potential are responsible for occurrence of dissipationless persistent currents creating a lattice of current contours. The topological properties of the electron energy bands are also varied with the intensity of periodic field. We calculated the topological Chern numbers of several lower energy bands as a function of the field. The corresponding Hall conductivity is nonzero and, when the Fermi level lies in the gap, it is quantized.Comment: 10 pages;9 figures;42 reference

Anomalous Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction

We discuss the mechanism of anomalous Hall effect related to the contribution of electron states below the Fermi surface (induced by the Berry phase in momentum space). Our main calculations are made within a model of two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction of the Rashba type, taking into account the scattering from impurities. We demonstrate that such an "intrinsic" mechanism can dominate but there is a competition with the impurity-scattering mechanism, related to the contribution of states in the vicinity of Fermi surface. We also show that the contribution to the Hall conductivity from electron states close to the Fermi surface has the intrinsic properties as well.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Density functional theory calculations of the carbon ELNES of small diameter armchair and zigzag nanotubes: core-hole, curvature and momentum transfer orientation effects

We perform density functional theory calculations on a series of armchair and zigzag nanotubes of diameters less than 1nm using the all-electron Full-Potential(-Linearised)-Augmented-Plane-Wave (FPLAPW) method. Emphasis is laid on the effects of curvature, the electron beam orientation and the inclusion of the core-hole on the carbon electron energy loss K-edge. The electron energy loss near-edge spectra of all the studied tubes show strong curvature effects compared to that of flat graphene. The curvature induced $\pi-\sigma$ hybridisation is shown to have a more drastic effect on the electronic properties of zigzag tubes than on those of armchair tubes. We show that the core-hole effect must be accounted for in order to correctly reproduce electron energy loss measurements. We also find that, the energy loss near edge spectra of these carbon systems are dominantly dipole selected and that they can be expressed simply as a proportionality with the local momentum projected density of states, thus portraying the weak energy dependence of the transition matrix elements. Compared to graphite, the ELNES of carbon nanotubes show a reduced anisotropy.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, revtex4 submitted for publication to Phys. Rev.

X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure calculations with pseudopotentials. Application to K-edge in diamond and alpha-quartz

We present a reciprocal-space pseudopotential scheme for calculating X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra. The scheme incorporates a recursive method to compute absorption cross section as a continued fraction. The continued fraction formulation of absorption is advantageous in that it permits the treatment of core-hole interaction through large supercells (hundreds of atoms). The method is compared with recently developed Bethe-Salpeter approach. The method is applied to the carbon K-edge in diamond and to the silicon and oxygen K-edges in alpha-quartz for which polarized XANES spectra were measured. Core-hole effects are investigated by varying the size of the supercell, thus leading to information similar to that obtained from cluster size analysis usually performed within multiple scattering calculations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Orientation and stability of a bi-functional aromatic organic molecular adsorbate on silicon

In this work we combine scanning tunneling microscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory to resolve a long-standing confusion regarding the adsorption behaviour of benzonitrile on Si(001) at room temperature. We find that a trough-bridging structure is sufficient to explain adsorption at low coverages. At higher coverages when steric hindrance prevents the phenyl ring lying flat on the surface, the 2+2 cycloaddition structure dominates

The electronic structure of iridium oxide electrodes active in water splitting

Iridium oxide based electrodes are among the most promising candidates for electrocatalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction, making it imperative to understand their chemical/electronic structure. However, the complexity of iridium oxide's electronic structure makes it particularly difficult to experimentally determine the chemical state of the active surface species. To achieve an accurate understanding of the electronic structure of iridium oxide surfaces, we have combined synchrotron-based X-ray photoemission and absorption spectroscopies with ab initio calculations. Our investigation reveals a pre-edge feature in the O K-edge of highly catalytically active X-ray amorphous iridium oxides that we have identified as O 2p hole states forming in conjunction with IrIII. These electronic defects in the near-surface region of the anionic and cationic framework are likely critical for the enhanced activity of amorphous iridium oxides relative to their crystalline counterparts