Triplet pairing due to spin-orbit-assisted electron-phonon coupling

We propose a microscopic mechanism for triplet pairing due to spin-orbit-assisted electron interaction with optical phonons in a crystal with a complex unit cell. Using two examples of electrons with symmetric Fermi surfaces in crystals with either a cubic or a layered square lattice, we show that spin-orbit-assisted electron-phonon coupling can, indeed, generate triplet pairing and that, in each case, it predetermines the tensor structure of a p-wave order parameter

Fermi's golden rule in a mesoscopic metal ring

We examine the time-dependent non-equilibrium current in a mesoscopic metal ring threaded by a static magnetic flux phi that is generated by a time-dependent electric field oscillating with frequency omega. We show that in quadratic order in the field there are three fundamentally different contributions to the current. (a) A time-independent contribution which can be obtained from a thermodynamic derivative. (b) A term increasing linearly in time that can be understood in terms of Fermi's golden rule. The derivation of this term requires a careful treatment of the infinitesimal imaginary parts that are added to the real frequency omega when the electric field is adiabatically switched on. (c) Finally, there is also a time-dependent current oscillating with frequency 2 omega. We suggest an experiment to test our results.Comment: this is an expanded and completely revised version of our withdrawn manuscript cond-mat/971230

Degeneracy breaking and intervalley scattering due to short-ranged impurities in finite single-wall carbon nanotubes

We present a theoretical study of degeneracy breaking due to short-ranged impurities in finite, single-wall, metallic carbon nanotubes. The effective mass model is used to describe the slowly varying spatial envelope wavefunctions of spinless electrons near the Fermi level at two inequivalent valleys (K-points) in terms of the four component Dirac equation for massless fermions, with the role of spin assumed by pseudospin due to the relative amplitude of the wave function on the sublattice atoms (``A'' and ``B''). Using boundary conditions at the ends of the tube that neither break valley degeneracy nor mix pseudospin eigenvectors, we use degenerate perturbation theory to show that the presence of impurities has two effects. Firstly, the position of the impurity with respect to the spatial variation of the envelope standing waves results in a sinusoidal oscillation of energy level shift as a function of energy. Secondly, the position of the impurity within the hexagonal graphite unit cell produces a particular 4 by 4 matrix structure of the corresponding effective Hamiltonian. The symmetry of this Hamiltonian with respect to pseudospin flip is related to degeneracy breaking and, for an armchair tube, the symmetry with respect to mirror reflection in the nanotube axis is related to pseudospin mixing.Comment: 20 pages, 10 eps figure

Integrability in the mesoscopic dynamics

The Mesoscopic Mechanics (MeM), which has been introduced in a previous paper, is relevant to the electron gas confined to two spatial dimensions. It predicts a special way of collective response of correlated electrons to the external magnetic field. The dynamic variable of this theory is a finite-dimensional operator, which is required to satisfy the mesoscopic Schr\"{o}dinger equation (cf. text). In this article, we describe general solutions of the mesoscopic Schr\"{o}dinger equation. Our approach is specific to the problem at hand. It relies on the unique structure of the equation and makes no reference to any other techniques, with the exception of the geometry of unitary groups. In conclusion, a surprising fact comes to light. Namely, the mesoscopic dynamics "filters" through the (microscopic) Schr\"odinger dynamics as the latter turns out to be a clearly separable part, in fact an autonomous factor, of the evolution. This is a desirable result also from the physical standpoint

Canted Magnetization Texture in Ferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions

We study the formation of inhomogeneous magnetization texture in the vicinity of a tunnel junction between two ferromagnetic wires nominally in the antiparallel configuration and its influence on the magnetoresistance of such a device. The texture, dependent on magnetization rigidity and crystalline anisotropy energy in the ferromagnet, appears upon an increase of ferromagnetic inter-wire coupling above a critical value and it varies with an external magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Spectral features due to inter-Landau-level transitions in the Raman spectrum of bilayer graphene

We investigate the contribution of the low-energy electronic excitations towards the Raman spectrum of bilayer graphene for the incoming photon energy Omega >> 1eV. Starting with the four-band tight-binding model, we derive an effective scattering amplitude that can be incorporated into the commonly used two-band approximation. Due to the influence of the high-energy bands, this effective scattering amplitude is different from the contact interaction amplitude obtained within the two-band model alone. We then calculate the spectral density of the inelastic light scattering accompanied by the excitation of electron-hole pairs in bilayer graphene. In the absence of a magnetic field, due to the parabolic dispersion of the low-energy bands in a bilayer crystal, this contribution is constant and in doped structures has a threshold at twice the Fermi energy. In an external magnetic field, the dominant Raman-active modes are the n_{-} to n_{+} inter-Landau-level transitions with crossed polarisation of in/out photons. We estimate the quantum efficiency of a single n_{-} to n_{+} transition in the magnetic field of 10T as I_{n_{-} to n_{+}}~10^{-12}.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, expanded version published in PR

Semiclassical theory of a quantum pump

In a quantum charge pump, the periodic variation of two parameters that affect the phase of the electronic wavefunction causes the flow of a direct current. The operating mechanism of a quantum pump is based on quantum interference, the phases of interfering amplitudes being modulated by the external parameters. In a ballistic quantum dot, there is a minimum time before which quantum interference can not occur: the Ehrenfest time. Here we calculate the current pumped through a ballistic quantum dot when the Ehrenfest time is comparable to the mean dwell time. Remarkably, we find that the pumped current has a component that is not suppressed if the Ehrenfest time is much larger than the mean dwell time.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. Revised version, minor change

Weak localisation magnetoresistance and valley symmetry in graphene.

Due to the chiral nature of electrons in a monolayer of graphite (graphene) one can expect weak antilocalisation and a positive weak-field magnetoresistance in it. However, trigonal warping (which breaks p to −p symmetry of the Fermi line in each valley) suppresses antilocalisation, while inter-valley scattering due to atomically sharp scatterers in a realistic graphene sheet or by edges in a narrow wire tends to restore conventional negative magnetoresistance. We show this by evaluating the dependence of the magnetoresistance of graphene on relaxation rates associated with various possible ways of breaking a ’hidden’ valley symmetry of the system

Universal Conductance and Conductivity at Critical Points in Integer Quantum Hall Systems

The sample averaged longitudinal two-terminal conductance and the respective Kubo-conductivity are calculated at quantum critical points in the integer quantum Hall regime. In the limit of large system size, both transport quantities are found to be the same within numerical uncertainty in the lowest Landau band, $0.60\pm 0.02 e^2/h$ and $0.58\pm 0.03 e^2/h$, respectively. In the 2nd lowest Landau band, a critical conductance $0.61\pm 0.03 e^2/h$ is obtained which indeed supports the notion of universality. However, these numbers are significantly at variance with the hitherto commonly believed value $1/2 e^2/h$. We argue that this difference is due to the multifractal structure of critical wavefunctions, a property that should generically show up in the conductance at quantum critical points.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Selective transmission of Dirac electrons and ballistic magnetoresistance of \textit{n-p} junctions in graphene

We show that an electrostatically created n-p junction separating the electron and hole gas regions in a graphene monolayer transmits only those quasiparticles that approach it almost perpendicularly to the n-p interface. Such a selective transmission of carriers by a single n-p junction would manifest itself in non-local magnetoresistance effect in arrays of such junctions and determines the unusual Fano factor in the current noise universal for the n-p junctions in graphene.Comment: 4 pages, 2 fig